Cross-Examination

• An infuriating murder leads to legislation: Last week, after the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley by one of Joe Biden’s illegal aliens — a murder that grew in profile when Biden brushed off her death and butchered her name in his fumbled State of the Union remarks — the House responded by passing the Laken Riley Act in overwhelming fashion, 251-170, with 37 Democrats joining all Republicans in support. Then, Tuesday evening, two Senate Republicans, Alabama’s Katie Britt and North Carolina’s Ted Budd, introduced the upper chamber’s own version of the bill. As Fox News reports: “The measure would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants who commit theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting offenses and mandate that those who commit such crimes are detained until they are removed from the United States, so they cannot break the same law or commit further crimes.” As Georgia Republican Mike Collins, who authored the House version of the bill and represents the district where Riley was killed, said, “While we can’t bring Laken back, we must now turn our focus to doing everything we can to prevent this from happening to another American. … Let’s continue to pray for her family and friends as they grieve her loss and resolve to continue to fight for the American people against the lawlessness created by this administration.” For the opposition, we give you Georgia Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock, who dismissed the Laken Riley Act as “smoke and mirrors” from lawmakers “who are not serious.” We hope Georgia voters will remember those remarks not only this November but also when Warnock’s term is up in 2028.

• Did another “racist cop” just kill another “kid”? The short answer is, not surprisingly, “No,” but that isn’t stopping the cop-hating Left and its media lickspittles from trying to gin up the base and make some political hay. Indeed, if we pay attention to the mainstream media, it sure sounds bad. Lucky for us, though, Not the Bee has collected a few tendentious headlines. For example, here’s NBC News: “Bodycam video shows fatal shooting of autistic California teen who charged deputy with garden tool.” Closer to the scene of the “crime,” here’s how the L.A. Times headline spun it: “Fatal shooting of autistic teen raises concerns about police response to people with mental health issues.” And if that weren’t enough to drive home the injustice, the Times’s lead sentence reads: “Ryan Gainer, a teen with autism, was a cross-country runner who worked out his frustrations with six-mile runs and dreamed of becoming an engineer.” So it sounds like an overzealous cop offed a kid who waved a hand trowel at him, right? Wrong, dead wrong. In fact, as you can see for yourself, an out-of-control teenager burst out of the house and charged at the officer with a long-handled, sharp-bladed garden implement — an implement sometimes referred to as a scythe and often brandished by the Grim Reaper. The officer retreated while shouting a warning, but to no avail, before ultimately responding with deadly force. The death of this young man is thus tragic but not outrageous.

• “Trans” kid died by suicide, not beating: A medical examiner report concludes that 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a girl who identified as a “transgender” boy, died of suicide and not of a beating at school as had been widely reported. Benedict’s untimely death had been blamed on anti-trans violence by the Leftmedia to push the false narrative that failure to accept and embrace the Rainbow Mafia’s gender-bending ideology results in harm. “Transgender” activists have used her death and name as a rallying cry to push against states that have passed or are considering laws to protect female spaces against the intrusion of males. While the significant detail of how Benedict actually died has now been reported, the Leftmedia’s narrative around her death continues unabated. Due to the high suicide rate of individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, the Leftmedia continues to push the false assertion that these suicides are primarily due to a lack of full cultural acceptance of their declared gender identity. The truth may be just the opposite.

• Kansas City shooting charges: Three more individuals have been charged in connection to the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting last month that killed one person and injured nearly two dozen others. The three have been charged with illegally purchasing firearms. These federal charges come after two other individuals were charged by the state with second-degree murder. Two juveniles were also arrested in connection to the shooting, which authorities said arose following a dispute between two groups of people. At least 12 individuals brandished firearms during the event, with at least six people firing. This event has all the markings of gang-related violence, but the Biden administration has avoided delving into that primary causal issue and has instead used it as an opportunity to call for more legal infringements on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. As U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore stated, “Stopping straw buyers and preventing illegal firearms trafficking is our first line of defense against gun violence.”

• UK ends gender-bending puberty blockers for kids: In a win for science and a blow to the gender-bending cult, the United Kingdom’s National Health Services announced on Tuesday that gender clinics would no longer be allowed to prescribe puberty-blocking hormones for minors. The decision comes following an NHS-sanctioned investigation into the impact of puberty blockers on children. Unsurprisingly, the research found that the claim that puberty blockers were “considered to be fully reversible” was bogus as the review concluded that putting a “pause” on a child’s puberty leaves their body permanently altered. Therefore, the UK’s Health Minister Maria Caulfield stated, “Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and is in the best interests of the child.” Hopefully, the UK’s wise and scientifically sound rejection of puberty blockers will inspire the U.S. to follow suit. The trouble is, here in the States, there is a whole cottage industry that profits handsomely from “transing” the kids.

• Don Lemon “fired” by Elon Musk: We’ll say this about Elon Musk: He knows how to grab a headline. And we’ll say this about sexist former CNN personality Don Lemon: He knows how to lose a job. Apparently, Lemon’s ostensible partnership with Musk’s X social-media platform ended abruptly, as Lemon announced yesterday in, of all things, an X video he posted to the platform. As Lemon told his handful of followers: “Elon Musk is mad at me, and I just put out a statement about what happened between him, me, and the interview that he apparently is so upset about.” We’re not sure what transpired between Lemon and Musk, and a statement from Musk sheds little light: “Like any enterprise, we reserve the right to make decisions about our business partnerships, and after careful consideration, X decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.” Still, we’re inclined to think Lemon had it coming. Remember, this is a guy who’s well known for — shall we say? — bad behavior. Here, you can revisit what we reported about Lemon’s alleged deviancy back in 2021. These days, Lemon claims to be all about free speech. Unfortunately for him, so are we.

• San Antonio’s wasteful gun buyback program: If guns caused crime, as the anti-gun lobby claims, then a gun buyback program should have an impact. The trouble is that gun buyback programs tend to primarily garner legally owned firearms from law-abiding citizens, and in the latest case, it even ends up netting a few toy guns. In its first-ever gun buyback scheme, the city of San Antonio, Texas, spent $127,000 to collect 906 guns, including three toy guns and 16 pellet guns. Individuals who exchanged a gun received up to $300 in grocery store credit. Why pay for the toy guns? Well, as San Antonio Councilman and mayoral candidate John Courage explained, “Anything that even looks like a gun can be a danger to people in the public.” A danger to their feelings of safety that is. As Courage admitted, this taxpayer-funded program was not “intended to lower crime” but rather to “help people feel safe, and to reduce the number of weapons that could get into circulation that could be used for crime.” The problem is that feeling safe does not equate to being safe. Indeed, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that higher gun ownership actually leads to a decrease in crime.

• Who’s up for a White House potato roll? It’s been said by Dennis Prager that the Left ruins everything it touches, and to that ever-growing list, we can now add the iconic event hosted for decades by presidential administrations, both Democrat and Republican: the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Enter for evidence a letter to First Lady Herr Doktor Jill Biden, Ed.D., Esq., from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA, you see, has an issue with eggs, which come from chickens. As Hot Air’s Karen Townsend muses: “Last year PETA was asking Jill to substitute chicken eggs for wooden eggs or painted stones. Jill didn’t accommodate PETA, though, and the event went as planned. How about using potatoes instead of eggs this year? That is PETA’s suggestion now. The animal rights group busted out many puns to make its point. PETA suggests a name change from the White House Easter Egg Roll to the White House Potato Roll. It refers to eggs as ‘cholesterol bombs’ and notes that in starch [ahem] contrast, potatoes are cheaper and healthier than eggs.” As a mirthless PETA President Ingrid Newkirk asked, “Instead of promoting the deleterious factory farming and slaughter industries … will you please initiate the annual White House Potato Roll?” Your move, first lady.

Headlines

• Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is putting together an investor group to buy TikTok (CNBC)

• Biden has only deported 0.25% of illegal Venezuelans who have entered the U.S. (Townhall)

• New York City spends $387 per migrant per day to provide shelter and food (Washington Examiner)

• Hunter Biden rebuffs Republicans’ invitation to appear for a public hearing (Associated Press)

• Judge sets June 3 trial date for Hunter Biden’s federal gun case (National Review)

• Schumer to call for “new election” in Israel in scathing speech on Netanyahu (Washington Post)

• Bernie Sanders unveils 32-hour workweek bill (The Hill)

• CIA played key Jan. 6 roles, texts reveal (Washington Examiner)

• Biden administration renews Iran sanctions waiver that unlocks upwards of $10 billion for regime (Washington Free Beacon)

• Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies (New York Times)

• Progressives fear that without TikTok, they won’t be able to convince kids to join their weird sex cult (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.