Cross-Examination

• SCOTUS takes another Big Tech case: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in Murthy v. Missouri, a case that deals specifically with federal government agencies pressuring social media platforms like Facebook and X into censoring speech that did not comport with the government’s narrative on COVID vaccines and masking. This case deals directly with the Biden administration’s infringing on Americans’ First Amendment rights. Back in 2022, attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana raised lawsuits alleging that the Biden administration colluded with Big Tech companies to censor users’ speech. In 2023, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty ruled that the Biden administration has indeed engaged in a “massive effort” to “suppress speech based on its content.” The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Terry’s decision, though the Biden administration appealed. Freedom Forum First Amendment specialist Kevin Goldberg notes that this is a “really important case at this moment because we’re trying to balance the level of input government can have in the content moderation policies and practices of privately owned companies.” This marks the fifth case the Court has taken up this term that touches on social media and the First Amendment.

• Willis stays on Trump RICO case: As predicted, special prosecutor Nathan Wade is off the Donald Trump election interference case. Following Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s indefensible split decision, in which he effectively gave District Attorney Fani Willis little other than a slap on the wrist for lying to the court, Wade resigned so Willis could continue her politically motivated prosecution against Trump. What transpired in Fulton County last week was a classic instance of black privilege at work, as Willis’s cries of “racism” after getting caught with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar successfully scared McAfee away from administering impartial justice. However, the question moving forward is this: How does Willis’s remaining presence not damage the case beyond any reasonable chance of a conviction? McAfee admitted as much when he noted that Willis and Wade’s scandal left “an odor of mendacity” with “reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship.” In other words, McAfee may have tanked the case without tanking Willis.

• Unpacking Trump’s “bloodbath” remark: Another day, another phony Trump-deranged hoax. At a Saturday rally in Vandalia, Ohio, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returned to one of the issues that got him elected in 2016: the Communist Chinese and their predatory trade practices. Said Trump: “If you’re listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal. Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now … you’re going to not hire Americans, and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no. We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.” Trump’s remarks, taken in context, refer to the auto industry. But taken out of context, as the Leftmedia readily did, they’re a naked threat of post-election violence by Trump’s MAGA legions. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who was actually at the rally, had this to say: “It shows how low the media will go in order to cover for Joe Biden.”

• Joe Biden’s Jeb Bush moment: If no one has ever said it, someone certainly should have: When you’ve lost the Irish, you’ve lost America. Now imagine losing the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. In the White House. When you’re Irish. And you’re hosting the Irish prime minister. Things began benignly enough: “We celebrate the bonds of our friendship today, connecting millions of Irish Americans and American people,” Biden said. “We celebrate the friendship between the two nations — one that has shaped our past, strengthened our present, and inspires our future.” But trouble began, as it almost invariably does with Biden, when he began to talk about matters of substance. “Ireland now is one of the top 10 investors in the United States economy,” Biden said. “And our countries stand, stand proudly for liberty and against tyranny. We stand together and oppose Russia’s brutal war of aggression in Ukraine. You can clap for that, please.” And clap they did, which goes to show that Democrats don’t care about the well over $100 billion we’ve so far spent to prolong Ukraine’s war against their Russian aggressors, but that at least Biden’s handlers know how to pack an audience with friendlies. This, then, is at least the second of Team Biden’s “Jeb Bush” moments — moments in which they’re reduced to begging for applause. Recall that last May, First Lady Jill Biden had a similar experience when she tried to tell a DC audience that their differences paled in comparison to their similarities: “I’ve visited red states and blue states,” she said, “and I’ve found that the common values that unite us are deeper than our divisions. And, um, I thought you might clap for that.” Okay, folks, all together now: Clap. Clap. Clap.

• A good-news bad-news subway shooting: First, the bad news: This weekend, a thug was able to walk onto the New York City subway with a handgun and terrorize his fellow passengers. But what are we to expect from a one-party town that voted 9-to-1 for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, then proceeded to defund and demoralize its cops, and has now resorted to deploying the National Guard? Now the good news: The assailant was disarmed by another passenger who then shot him with his own gun. And still more good news, which comes better late than never: That passenger has been spared prosecution. As the New York Post reports: “The Brooklyn straphanger who shot a berserk man attacking him on a rush-hour train will not be charged, prosecutors said Friday — as new video surfaced of the gunman’s bust on the stairs of the station. ‘Yesterday’s shooting inside a crowded subway car was shocking and deeply upsetting,’ said Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.” We imagine it was “shocking and deeply upsetting,” but at least the DA got it right — which is more than we can say for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who last year decided to prosecute a Marine Corps veteran for protecting himself and his fellow passengers. As our Jordan Candler rightly quipped, Now do Daniel Penny. Indeed, the subway Good Samaritan’s lawyer had this to say: “I applaud the Brooklyn district attorney for exercising the prosecutorial discretion to realize that somebody who was forced to defend himself and others shouldn’t be subjected to a criminal indictment — I think that’s how it should play out.”

• Deportation target rate of just 6%? Joe Biden is so committed to securing the southern border that his administration will lower its projected deportation total for fiscal year 2025. With some 10 million illegal immigrants entering the U.S. since Biden took office and the number of illegal crossings rising each year, one would think that increasing rather than decreasing the targeted number of deportations would be key. But that’s not how Open Borders Biden does things. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has set a target of just 125,000 deportations for FY2025, down from 142,000 in FY2023 and less than half of FY2019, when 267,258 individuals were deported. Given that more than 2.4 million migrants illegally entered in FY2023, the 125,000 deportations target represents just 6% of individuals illegally entering the U.S. If maintaining even a semblance of border security matters to the Biden administration, that percentage should be much higher — as close to 100% as possible. But when your agenda is to increase the population of illegal aliens living in the U.S., then you deport as few individuals as possible and then vilify any who object to the willful lawlessness as “racists.”

• Three years of Bidenomics — the hard numbers: Facts are stubborn things, and Joe Biden’s economic message keeps bumping into them. You name the metric, and the numbers tell a markedly different story than the one being spun by the White House. As MRCTV reports, “Liberal media are declaring Bidenomics a success — but, after three years, hard numbers tell a much different story, regardless of whether the measure is how much Americans are paying, earning or saving.” Take gas prices, for example: While they held steady under Donald Trump, they’ve surged 38% in the first 37 months of Joe Biden’s one-and-only term. Or take real wages: They rose under Trump, and they’ve fallen under Biden. Or mortgage rates: They’re more than twice the rate folks paid when Trump left office. Or take savings: Since the American people have to spend more for the same goods under Bidenflation and its attendant shrinkflation, Americans are spending more and saving less. Average personal savings increased 129% — from 5.6% to 12.8% — under Trump but had plunged to 3.8% by January 1, 2024. Thanks, Biden!

• Putin wins reelection: In an election result that was in the bag before any ballots were filled out, strongman Vladimir Putin won the Russian presidential election with a record 88% of the vote, securing another six-year term and the continuation of his 25-year reign. Assuming he finishes that term, Putin will become the longest-serving leader of Russia in over 200 years, surpassing Josef Stalin. Of course, few real political threats have lasted very long against Putin, the latest being Alexei Navalny, who died “suddenly” last month in a Siberian prison. Following his election victory, Putin, who has denied any role in Navalny’s death, claimed that he had actually agreed to a prisoner swap involving Navalny before he died. Sure, and pigs can fly. Sadly, like Stalin, Russians may not be free of Putin’s menacing grip on power until he dies.

Headlines

• Pot calling the kettle black: Biden slams Trump as “too old and mentally unfit” at Gridiron dinner (Washington Examiner) | Behind the scenes, Biden has grown angry and anxious about reelection effort (NBC News)

• Bernie Sanders unveils 32-hour workweek bill (The Hill) | GOP senator blasts Sanders’ push for 32-hour workweek: It will “never work” (Fox Business)

• Netanyahu slams Schumer for meddling in Israel’s elections (Daily Wire) | Pelosi defends Schumer interfering in Israeli elections (Daily Wire)

• Israel launches another raid on Gaza’s main hospital, charging that Hamas has regrouped there (New York Post)

• Biden DHS withholding info on illegal alien charged with Laken Riley’s murder (Townhall)

• Self-identified Hezbollah terrorist who wanted to “make a bomb” caught by Border Patrol in Texas (National Review)

• A “Maryland teacher” has been arrested for sexual assault of multiple minors. And, by the way, he’s from El Salvador and has already been deported twice. (Not the Bee)

• End of realtor commission model poses biggest “jolt” in housing in 100 years (Just the News)

• Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr resigns after EV push goes bust (Fox Business)

• Humor: Media reports Trump threatened nuclear war after he says, “This guacamole is the bomb!” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.