Cross-Examination

• Student loan handout 2.0: In a move aimed at buying votes from younger Americans, Joe Biden and company are preparing to trot out another massive student loan cancellation scheme today in Madison, Wisconsin. Using the 1965 Higher Education Act, the Biden administration plans to introduce regulations that will outline new ways student loan borrowers can gain debt relief. The U.S. Supreme Court previously slapped down Biden’s first attempt at engaging in a massive debt transfer gambit, moving student loan debt from the borrowers who freely took out the loans onto the backs of taxpayers. Nevertheless, he is doubling down on his unethical move. Indeed, following the Court’s ruling, Biden vowed to “stop at nothing to find other ways to deliver relief to hard-working middle-class families.” While Biden has done little to help hardworking middle-class families, he has effectively flouted the Court by canceling roughly $146 billion in student loan debt for four million borrowers. Knowing that he couldn’t get this debt transfer legislation passed in Congress, Biden has circumvented the legislative body, and all for political gain. The Biden administration estimates that more than 30 million borrowers could see their debt lowered or eliminated, which it believes will result in more votes come November.

• Trump fundraiser hauls in a record $50 million: A week ago, the Leftmedia was all a-twitter about the record-setting Biden-Obama-Clinton gala in Manhattan, which raised $26 million for the decrepit 81-year-old president’s reelection. Not to be outdone, Donald Trump’s Saturday night fundraiser in Palm Beach made quick work of that total. The Trump event was hosted by billionaire investor John Paulson, who was joined by “special guests” and former GOP presidential primary rivals Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. “Tonight, we raised an historic $50.5 million for the re-election of President Trump,” said Paulson in a statement. “This sold-out event has raised the most in a single political fundraiser in history. This overwhelming support demonstrates the enthusiasm for President Trump and his policies.” Trump, when he’s not in court battling the Democrats’ anti-democratic lawfare attacks, appears committed to closing the fundraising gap. He’ll be at fundraisers in both Orlando and Atlanta on Wednesday, then Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. As new RNC Chair Michael Whatley emphatically told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, “We are going to spend every single dollar that we raise on two key critical core missions for the RNC, which are getting out the vote and protecting the ballot.” Good for Whatley and his organization, because those are the two realms within which this election is likely to be won or lost — not with cleverly designed, consultant-driven ad campaigns. Still, Trump and the Republicans are trailing the Party of Money, the Democrat Party, as last month the GOP brought in almost $66 million compared to Biden’s $90 million.

• The Jewish star rating: On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany, and he didn’t waste any time targeting Germany’s Jews, who represented less than 1% of the country’s population but who, according to the Nazis, represented nearly all of what ailed the German state. Hitler’s Nuremberg Laws defined and segregated Jews as second-class citizens, and even more oppressive laws kept them from public schools, theaters, cinemas, vacation resorts, and even certain sections of German cities. And now, it seems, the Biden administration is intent on revisiting this dark chapter in human history. It’s no secret that Joe Biden is trying desperately to appease the pro-Hamas wing of his Arab-American voting bloc, calling for Israel to cease and desist in its existential war against the same barbarians who murdered some 1,200 Jews in an unprovoked attack on October 7. As Townhall’s Matt Vespa reports, via the UK’s Financial Times: “The Biden administration is drawing up plans to require goods produced in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank to be clearly labelled as coming from there, according to US officials, another sign of White House unhappiness with the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. The final go-ahead for the move, and its timing, have not been decided but it is intended to increase pressure on Israel over rising settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and comes amid US frustration with the Jewish state’s conduct of the war in Gaza.” What might be the reason for such a labeling mandate except to exacerbate the world’s oldest hatred — the hatred of Jews?

• Earthquake caused by climate change? No matter the type of natural cataclysmic event, as sure as thunder follows lightning, there will be some leftists eagerly stepping up to blame it on climate change. On Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit New Jersey. It was strong enough to give New York City, some 50 miles east of the epicenter, a bit of a shake. In the spirit of never letting a crisis — or, in this case, a non-crisis — go to waste, the unusual event was used by New Jersey Senate candidate Christina Amira Khalil to blame climate change. In a now-deleted post on X, Khalil wrote: “I experienced my first earthquake in NJ. We never get earthquakes. The climate crisis is real.” Khalil’s laughable claim was quickly corrected with a community note that simply read: “NJ sits on a fault line. Has nothing to do with climate change.” But even more appropriately, Khalil’s post invited a litany of sarcastic responses such as: “The earthquakes seem to happen in the states with the most aggressive EPA restrictions. Climate intervention must be causing earthquakes.” Another post read: “I hit a pothole today. The climate crisis is real.” Maybe the best response came from Kyle Mann of The Babylon Bee, who wrote, “Gonna have a call with my Babylon Bee writers to figure out how we failed to come up with ‘the earthquake was caused by climate change’ before the libs did.”

• Newsom’s restaurant hypocrisy: A high-end restaurant owned by a company California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom founded in 1992 recently posted a job opening for a busser. The restaurant, named PlumbJack Cafe, is located near Lake Tahoe and advertises $16 per hour for the part-time position. Meanwhile, just over a week ago, California’s $20 per hour minimum wage for fast-food establishments went into effect, which Newsom touted as “a big deal” when he signed it into law last September. While Newsom has no role in the day-to-day operations of the PlumbJack Group, the hypocrisy of his supporting a $20 minimum wage for certain fast-food eateries while not for high-end restaurants is glaring. Republican Assembly Member Joe Patterson weighed in by posting on X: “I wonder why [Newsom’s] food businesses don’t pay $20/hour? Live job posting at $16/hr in Olympic Valley. It’s very, very expensive to live there… but he doesn’t do as he tells others and doesn’t pay a living wage.”

• Still no trial for Kavanaugh’s would-be assassin: Nearly two years ago, we wondered where the outrage was in the wake of the arrest of a 26-year-old California man just outside the suburban DC home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his wife, and their two young daughters. As it turns out, the disturbed man had taken a cab to Kavanaugh’s home with a suitcase and backpack containing a black tactical chest rig and tactical knife, a Glock 17 with two magazines and ammunition, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, screwdriver, nail punch, crowbar, pistol light, duct tape, hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles, and other items. As constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley said at the time: “The arrest of an armed man outside Justice Kavanaugh’s home shouldn’t surprise any of us. But it should be a sobering moment for all of us. A jurist should not have to wonder whether he can both serve and survive on our Supreme Court.” Clearly, this was meant to be an attempt on the life of a Supreme Court justice, but the would-be assailant, Nicholas Roske, ultimately called the cops on himself. Fine. But he’s yet to stand trial. How on earth is that possible? Here’s how: As The Washington Free Beacon reports, Roske is a biological male who identified in some online posts as a transgender woman, and he hasn’t even been in a courtroom since November of 2022. We wonder: Might the foot-dragging and the accused’s gender dysphoria be related?

• DEI isn’t as profitable as advertised: So much for the oft-repeated trope that diversity is good for business. As it turns out, this claim might be nothing more than junk (social) science. As the Washington Examiner reports: “From 2015–23, McKinsey & Company, a multinational strategy and management consulting firm, released four separate studies showing that DEI initiatives boost corporate earnings. Unfortunately for DEI advocates, the research appears to be bunk. A new study published in Econ Journal Watch, a semiannual peer-reviewed academic journal, shows that researchers were unable to replicate the results of all four McKinsey studies.” In addition, a study published in Harvard Business Review reaches much the same conclusion — that “the rallying cries for more diversity in companies” are not supported “by robust research findings.” Thus, we have one of the world’s most powerful and influential business consulting firms appearing to have been snookered, or perhaps even cooking the books on behalf of “diversity.” Color us shocked — SHOCKED.

• From swing state to deep red: Thanks to the leadership of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida, which had long been viewed as a swing state ever since the 2000 presidential election and the infamous hanging chads, has now moved solidly into red territory. In November 2021, for the first time in the Sunshine State’s history, the number of registered Republicans surpassed the number of registered Democrats. Three years later, that trend has continued, as registered GOP voters now outnumber Democrats by almost 900,000. To put things in perspective, DeSantis observed, “You’re talking about a million-plus voter registration shift” since 2018. What accounts for this massive and rapid political shift? DeSantis points to two things. First, “People are more likely to switch from Democrat to Republican in Florida, nonparty to Republican, than vice versa.” Second, “I do think that migration has skewed amongst people who come to Florida, not because they want to change the policies to reflect in Illinois or California or New York, but because they appreciate how Florida has done it differently from where they’re coming from." Now in Florida, Republicans hold the biggest voter advantage of either party in the state in nearly four decades. In looking to the coming presidential election, DeSantis bluntly stated: "Florida is off the board. It is a Republican state.” He added: “We used to be a one-point state every election hung on: ‘How would Florida go?’ That is not true anymore, and I think that’s a good thing for the party.”

Headlines

• Trump promises abortion rights will be decided by states if reelected, sidestepping national ban (NY Post)

• NYC homeowners told they will be arrested if they turn off electricity, water as squatters take over (Townhall)

• Dearborn’s “Al-Quds Day” rally features anti-Israel, “death to America” chants (RedState)

• FBI examines allegations of complimentary airline upgrades for Mayor Eric Adams (Daily Caller)

• Southwest Boeing engine cover rips apart during takeoff (Washington Examiner)

• South Carolina women’s basketball coach says trans athletes “should be able to play” (National Review)

• The book White Rural Rage gets the research wrong (Hot Air)

• Vatican says gender theory, surrogacy violate human dignity in ethics document (Fox News)

• Israeli military withdraws most troops from southern Gaza (National Review)

• Policy: A conservative defense budget for Fiscal Year 2025 (Heritage Foundation)

• Humor: Dorks of nation helpfully identify themselves by wearing solar eclipse glasses (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.