Cross-Examination

• Slumming for votes, Biden now plans to take border action: There’s an election to win, and so Joe Biden now needs to address the number one issue on the minds of the voters: illegal immigration. The New York Post reports: “Biden is planning executive action that would allow him to shut down the US-Mexico border once the number of migrant crossings reaches 4,000 per day. … The order would match a provision in the bipartisan border bill that failed to pass the Senate in February, which gave the president authority to expel migrants when border crossings reached the same daily average.” Strange. All this time, Biden has been prattling on about how “Congress needs to act.” On a related note of administrative malfeasance, new Border Patrol data indicates that the number of “gotaways” in the past two years (nearly 1.3 million) is approaching the cumulative total of the previous decade (1.4 million).

• Biden’s inflation lie: You know it’s bad when the Leftmedia calls out a Democrat for lying. Joe Biden’s repeated false claim that inflation was 9% when he took office is a pants-on-fire lie that even The Washington Post is unwilling to tolerate. “Fact-checker” Glenn Kessler gave him the full four Pinocchios. In April, Biden said, “We have dramatically reduced inflation from 9% down to close to 3%.” Then, last week, Biden again made the false claim: “It was 9% when I came to office.” And on Tuesday, Biden used the false talking point once more, claiming inflation “was at 9% when I came in, and it’s now down around 3%.” The truth is that when Biden took office, inflation sat at 1.4%. Since then, cumulative inflation is fast approaching a whopping 20%. The average annual inflation rate during Trump’s four years was 1.9%. Under Biden, it has been 5.7%.

• Dems are losing blacks: One of the reasons Biden has been peddling the blatant lie about inflation is because it’s costing him support among a demographic he can ill afford to lose. According to a new survey from Cygnal, Democrats are struggling with “two traditionally reliable Democrat voting blocks” — blacks and women. There are two reasons: the aforementioned high inflation, and the party’s leftist extremism. Cygnal Vice President of Polling Brock McCleary observed: “Democrats are in trouble with black voters, as the number of those saying the Democrat Party is more extreme than the Republican Party has increased by 20% since March. Biden is similarly in trouble, with over a third having an unfavorable view of the president, and it’s largely because they’re most concerned with the cost of living and not ideological issues like climate change and election integrity that his administration has chosen to prioritize.” McCleary further noted, “Among key voter groups like college-educated women, married women, and black voters, Trump’s approval has also jumped 5%.” Even more worrisome for Biden, “Nostalgia for Trump’s first term continues to gain steam,” McCleary states. “Battleground voters now give Trump positive job approval for his four years in the White House while disapproval of Biden remains high.”

• Attacks on cops increase, and Dem reps side with illegals: Over 100,000 police officers have been attacked on the job over the last few years. From 2021-2023, 194 officers were killed in the line of duty, according to the FBI, and last year alone saw 79,091 instances of officers assaulted, the highest in a decade. Retired Lt. Randy Sutton, founder of Wounded Blue, blamed the increasing assault rate on the national anti-police narrative, such as the Left’s defund-the-police movement that dehumanizes law enforcement. “What this means is that law enforcement officers are afraid to defend themselves,” Sutton charged. “Many of these attacks wind up in disabling injuries or serious injuries, which can have dramatic effects on the life [and] on the mental and physical well-being of these law enforcement officers.” Meanwhile, true to form, 148 House Democrats voted against a bill that would require the deportation of any illegal alien who assaults an officer. “There is no reason that an illegal alien who attacks our law enforcement should remain in our country,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), who introduced the bill, stated back in February. “That shows zero respect for our rule of law or our institutions, and they will not be positive contributors to society.” Thankfully, despite the anti-cop contingent of the Democrats, the bill passed the House 265-148.

• Biden calls “executive privilege” on Hur interview: On the day Joe Biden took office, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “His objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government.” This claim didn’t age well. Just this morning, we got yet another example of this when, as The Wall Street Journal reports, Biden’s “Justice” Department said that the president has “asserted executive privilege over the audio of his two-day interview with the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents.” Frankly, we can’t blame Biden’s handlers for wanting to keep this material from the American people. After all, it indicates that Biden is “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” which is hardly a winning campaign slogan. The DOJ’s disclosure comes as House Republicans threaten to hold AG Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to cough up the recordings. “We have gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the committees get responses to their legitimate requests, but this is not one,” Garland huffed. So much for “transparency.”

• The UN is being played by Hamas: The headline at Legal Insurrection is both chilling and infuriating: “IDF Footage Shows Hamas Terrorists Using UN Vehicles in Rafah, Shooting Civilians Seeking Aid From UNRWA Compound.” If true — and we have no reason to believe that it isn’t — this would be in violation of the Geneva Convention, not to mention the fundamental tenets of honor and decency among warriors. The Israel Defense Forces released drone footage yesterday “showing Hamas terrorists using UN marked vehicles, which enjoy protection in a combat zone,” Legal Insurrection reports. “The clip also shows Hamas gunmen apparently shooting at unarmed civilians in and around the UNRWA humanitarian aid depot in Rafah.” According to Israeli TV, the footage shows “a Hamas terrorist firing at Palestinian civilians trying to get aid at a UNRWA compound east of Rafah.” Meanwhile, on college campuses across the U.S., filthy Jew-haters continue to side with the butchers of Hamas.

• Populist Slovak prime minister shot in assassination attempt: Eight years ago, at the beginning of his third term in office, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico expressed what he thought was an existential threat to his nation: “Islam has no place in Slovakia,” he said, and immigrants are “changing the face of the country.” Fico is clearly a popular politician. He served as prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and from 2012 to 2018, and he founded the Direction — Social Democracy party in 1999, a party he’s led since its inception. As a populist, though, Fico has no doubt enraged Slovakia’s Angry Left, and it appears that one such leftist shot him five times yesterday in an assassination attempt. The shooter is apparently a poet and a supporter of the Progressive Slovakia party. He was — get this — a founder of the so-called “Movement against violence,” whose manifesto declared its goal was to “unite people, preserve peace and restore democracy.”

• Public schools’ abysmal math proficiency: Many bemoan the condition of America’s public schools, and there is good reason for it. Not only have schools increasingly been exposed for pushing leftist ideology, but they are also doing a poor job teaching the basics. New York serves as a perfect example. In FY 2022, the Empire State spent $29,284 per student in its public schools, the highest of any state in the union. That’s a lot of taxpayer money, yet the results are abysmal. In math, only 28% of eighth graders scored proficient or better. In reading, just 32% scored proficient or better. In Washington, DC, which spends $28,128 per student, just 16% of eighth graders were proficient or better in math, and only 22% achieved that mark in reading. On the flip side, Utah spent $9,496 per student, the lowest of any state, but saw better results, though still not impressive — proficiency in math and reading for eighth graders were 35% and 36%, respectively. Funding is not the problem.

Headlines

• Here are all the restrictions Biden’s team demanded in their Trump debate offer (Fox News)

• Congress passes FAA bill with airline safety and traveler upgrades (Washington Post)

• Congress launches second investigation into Fani Willis’s alleged misuse of federal funds (Washington Free Beacon)

• Cocaine found at U.S. Capitol Police HQ (Townhall)

• Drug overdose deaths fell in 2023, first decrease in five years (ABC News)

• Grocery prices fall for first time in a year (The Hill)

• NFL says it does not agree with Harrison Butker after he voices Christian values (Breitbart)

• HHS halts grants for nonprofit EcoHealth that funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan (NY Post)

• Peru classifies transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people as “mentally ill” (NY Post)

• Humor: Here are Biden’s 10 conditions for debating Trump (Babylon Bee)

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