Cross-Examination

• How about we pause on four more years? We know, we know. Documenting Joe Biden’s embarrassing gaffes is like hippie-punching; like shooting fish in a barrel. But sometimes we just cain’t help ourselves. Such was the case yesterday when Biden, speaking to a trade union conference in DC, read his teleprompter word for word — literally, he might say — right down to its micromanaged stage instruction. “Imagine,” he read hesitatingly, “what we could do next. Four more years. Pause.” To which Fox News contributor Guy Benson bemusedly asked, “I’m Ron Burgundy?” (For the uninitiated, Benson was referring to Will Farrell’s character in the movie “Anchorman,” who had a penchant for reading everything exactly as it was written on his teleprompter.) But as OutKick’s Ian Miller observed, “The best part about this isn’t that Biden pulled a Ron Burgundy and read ‘pause’ from the teleprompter, it’s that it took him a solid 6-7 seconds of confused silence to even understand what was happening.” Biden did make a great point, though: Just imagine the damage that he and his handlers could do with another four years in the White House. Or just imagine the damage he could do to Donald Trump if he hit him with “a straight left,” as Biden fantasized, perhaps unaware that his shuffling self could be blown over by a stiff wind. He also poked fun at Trump’s hair. Imagine that. Plugs Biden. Making fun. Of another man’s hair.

• Biden promises middle-class tax hike: Didn’t Joe Biden once famously promise us that he wouldn’t raise anyone’s taxes if they earned less than $400,000 a year? We thought so. But his handlers must think that promise has outlived its usefulness, as the president on Tuesday night posted this brand-new promise to his campaign’s X account: “Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and biggest corporations and exploded the federal debt. That tax cut is going to expire. If I’m reelected, it’s going to stay expired.” That sounds like a tax increase to us, and a middle-class one at that, given that every bracket was cut. As The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman warns: “You can bet that’s a promise Mr. Biden will keep if voters give him another term. But voters should also understand that failing to extend the expiring provisions of Donald Trump’s signature reform would raise taxes on most Americans, not just the wealthy.” To your friends who are still inclined to vote for Joe Biden this November: Don’t let them say we didn’t warn them.

• Kamala’s infighting security detail: A Secret Service agent assigned to Kamala Harris’s detail reportedly got into a physical altercation with another agent prior to Harris’s scheduled arrival at Andrews Air Force Base yesterday. According to the Secret Service, the agent in question experienced a medical incident. “At approximately 9 a.m. [on] April 22, a U.S. Secret Service special agent supporting the Vice President’s departure from Joint Base Andrews began displaying behavior their colleagues found distressing,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi explained, albeit with the confusing pronoun “they” for an agent we don’t think is gender-confused. “The agent was removed from their assignment while medical personnel were summoned. The Vice President was at the Naval Observatory when this incident occurred and there was no impact on her departure from Joint Base Andrews. The U.S. Secret Service takes the safety and health of our employees very seriously. As this was a medical matter, we will not disclose any further details.”

• More lawfare against Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, others: As Donald Trump is tied up in a Manhattan courtroom and the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Trump’s presidential immunity case, the Trump-deranged Left’s use of lawfare to annihilate its political enemies continues apace. Yesterday, in Arizona, a grand jury indicted some of the former president’s closest advisers for their alleged attempt to overturn the results of the rigged 2020 election. Among them: former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor and Trump legal adviser Rudy Giuliani. As the New York Post reports: “Eleven Arizona Republicans, including former state GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward and state Sens. Jacob Hoffman and Anthony Kern, were hit with felony charges related to the so-called ‘fake electors’ plot, state Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday. Seven other names were redacted in the indictment because they hadn’t been served yet.” The charges include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy, and they’ll no doubt keep the defendants buried in legal matters and piling up debt — which is precisely what lawfare is meant to do.

• Weapons to Ukraine: Following the Senate’s passage of a $95 billion foreign aid package for U.S. allies, Joe Biden signed it on Wednesday, declaring, “It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe, and it’s a good day for world peace, for real, it’s consequential.” Of course, being “President Unity,” Biden also took the opportunity to blame “MAGA Republicans” for not getting this aid package to his desk sooner. He then promised that Ukraine, “in the next few hours,” would be receiving military weapons to continue its fight against Russia. Of the $95 billion, roughly $60 billion will be going to Ukraine, $23 billion will be used to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles, and $11 billion will go to U.S. military operations. Meanwhile, Israel will receive $26 billion for its war against Hamas and to shore up its Iron Dome missile defense system. Roughly $9 billion of the aid to Israel is slated for humanitarian relief.

• Disinformation lady is back: We thought we’d seen the last of Scary Poppins, but we were wrong. Nina Jankowicz, the Diva of Disinformation and the pink-slipped appointee of an erstwhile new agency meant to ferret out “disinformation,” has returned. As The Daily Wire reports, Jankowicz “has launched a new nonprofit that declares criticism of ‘disinformation researchers’ such as herself as a chief threat to the United States of America.” Recall that it was two years ago when Team Biden tried to create its own Ministry of Truth, a deep state organization called the “Disinformation Governance Board” to be led by Jankowicz. Luckily, though, the uproar caused by this nakedly Orwellian attempt to censor was enough to cause Biden to pull the plug and give Scary Mary the gate. But now, Janky is back, and she’s sounding the false alarm: “The campaign against counter-disinformation work,” she insists, “is the greatest threat to freedom of expression and academic integrity since the McCarthy era.”

• Kemp throws peaches at squatters: Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp said that he will sign into law a bill passed by the state legislature that criminalizes squatting. The law comes in response to the growing problem of people squatting in people’s homes, with Atlanta recently in the news for some 1,200 homes being taken over by squatters. The law not only gives homeowners the ability to have law enforcement remove squatters, but it also gives homeowners the right to go after squatters for property damage. “Unfortunately,” Kemp explained, “bad actors have figured out ways to take advantage of this, exploit, really the process that goes through the local government. So we’re passing legislation that I’m going to sign right after this interview to stiffen the penalties, to go after these folks, to also speed up the eviction process. But, also, allow the property owner to go after these squatters for damages.” He added: “This is insanity, that people just think they can come in and take over somebody’s home. I mean, it’s just outrageous. It really points to, as we’ve seen around the country, the lawlessness that’s gone on under the Biden administration.” The Peach State now follows Florida and New York in establishing legislation to protect homeowners. Meanwhile, bipartisan legislation to protect homeowners from squatters in Arizona was vetoed by Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs. She claimed the reason is that it failed to use “existing legal mechanisms” and “respect the due process rights of lawful tenants.”

• Tennessee against de-banking: In Tennessee, the First Amendment matters. Republican Governor Bill Lee recently signed into law legislation aimed at preventing a growing politically motivated trend — de-banking. The law is “a win for everyone,” said Matt Sharp, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). “No one should be denied access to basic financial services because of their political or religious beliefs. Banks that are too big to fail are too big for bias.” State Representative Jason Zachary stated, “Every Tennessean should feel secure in expressing their religious and political views without fear of their financial services being denied or canceled by their bank for non-financial factors.” This is good news and a needed law, given the Left’s efforts to use banking institutions to censor those expressing conservative political views. Democrats have increasingly embraced China’s social credit score ideology, which uses currency controls as one of its primary means of exerting thought control over its citizens. The list of those who have been victims of de-banking includes former Trump attorney John Eastman, Mike Lindell, Mike Flynn, the ADF, and the Canadian truckers who protested lockdowns. Hopefully, more states follow Tennessee’s lead and ban de-banking.

Headlines

• Harvey Weinstein’s felony sex crime conviction overturned by NY’s highest court (NY Post)

• GDP growth slowed to a 1.6% rate in the first quarter, well below expectations (CNBC)

• Tesla notifies thousands in Texas and California of impending layoffs (Fox Business)

• Female Supreme Court justices push back most strongly on Idaho abortion ban (The Hill)

• Arizona House votes to repeal near-total 1864 abortion ban, sending bill to state Senate (National Review)

• Speaker Johnson calls for Columbia president to resign in campus address as protesters try to shout him down (National Review)

• Palestinian terrorists declare support for Columbia encampment, call for “escalation” (Washington Free Beacon)

• Rep. Donald Payne Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, has died at 65 after a heart attack (AP)

• Scientific American claims it is “misinformation” that there are just two sexes (Modernity)

• U.S. fertility rate hits record low (National Review)

• Humor: “Trump will receive a fair and impartial trial,” says judge as construction crew builds gallows outside courtroom (Babylon Bee)

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