Government & Politics

• Gaetz out, Bondi in for attorney general: Democrats who think they dodged a bullet when the disruptive Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general might soon be disabused of that notion. Donald Trump acted quickly by nominating Pam Bondi to the top job instead. Bondi, Florida’s first female AG, served two terms in that post, and she too sounds committed to rooting out the weaponization of government. Back in June, Bondi said, “We talk about the weaponization of the FBI, the CIA, the ATF, and the IRS. It all starts at the top with Merrick Garland.” Said Trump after nominating Bondi: “For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans — Not anymore. Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again. I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” Gaetz, too, was gracious toward his replacement, calling her “a stellar selection” as well as “a proven litigator, an inspiring leader, and a champion for all Americans.”

• Disgraceful Bob Casey finally concedes: Better late than never, we suppose, but incumbent Pennsylvania Democrat Senator Bob Casey has finally, begrudgingly, kickingandscreamingly done the right thing. As the AP, which called the race two weeks ago, tells it, “A statewide recount showed no signs of closing the gap and [Casey’s] campaign suffered blows in court in its effort to get favorable ballots counted.” (By “favorable,” the AP means “illegal,” at least according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.) “I just called Dave McCormick to congratulate him on his election to represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate,” said Casey in a statement. “As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last.” Indeed, their voices were heard, but Casey’s reputation for decency suffered irreparable harm when he chose to drag out the inevitable in the (vain) hope that his fellow Democrats could cheat him across the finish line. Senate Republicans will now take a 53-47 lead into the 119th Congress — which, importantly, is a margin just big enough to withstand the occasional RINO-ism of “moderate” Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.

• Wray and Mayorkas give the middle finger to the American people: Two witnesses, two hearings, two days, two cowardly cancellations. That will be at least part of the legacy of simpering soon-to-be-former FBI Director Chris Wray and sniveling soon-to-be-former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who both decided that they had better things to do than testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee about a range of threats, from presidential assassination attempts by Iran to terrorist penetration of our southern border. But they didn’t just stiff Congress. They also stiffed the American people — especially the families of murder victims Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Rachel Morin, and all the other families who’ve been victimized by illegal immigrant predation. And the opprobrium was bipartisan. In addition to Republican denunciations of the duo, Democrat Chairman Gary Peters called it “a shocking departure from the custom of transparency,” adding, “Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray’s refusal to speak publicly about their department’s work will only increase the concerns that many Americans have about our nation’s security at a challenging time … and will deal a serious blow to trust in our government.” He’s telling us. But good on the chairman for calling these bums out.

• Biden admin spent hundreds of millions to combat “misinformation”: According to a new report from fiscal watchdog OpenTheBooks, the Biden administration has spent $267 million since 2021 to combat so-called “misinformation.” That’s far more than the $7 million spent under Donald Trump. OpenTheBooks called the government’s effort to combat “misinformation” a waste of taxpayer money. “Learning to think critically and discern truth from lies is an important life skill, but the federal government has proven it is not capable of addressing that need responsibly,” the report stated. “It’s the worst possible arbiter of truth … because it makes the state a gatekeeper of speech.” Furthermore, the report said the government gave money to outfits that often used it to push ideological agendas: “Americans simply cannot trust that continued grant and contract spending and various bureaucratic programmatic activities involved in ‘misinformation’ will not be ideologically motivated to silence critics.” OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart advised, “The best way to counter ‘misinformation’ isn’t with more mandates but with more transparency, more information and more speech. Our founders understood that the best way to purge falsehood from the public square was through more speech, not less.”

Two-Tiered Justice

• No justice for vile racial arsonist Jussie Smollett: Once again, a leftist has managed to slither out of a much-deserved prison sentence. Whether it’s antifa anarchists or Black Lives Matter thugs or Trump inauguration rioters, leftists always seem to avoid justice. In this case, as Fox News reports, “The Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday that the special prosecutor’s decision to retry Smollett on charges violated his rights.” For this injustice, we have Chicago’s top prosecutor, Kim Foxx, to thank, as Smollett’s lawyers successfully contended that she’d refused to live up to a sweetheart non-prosecution deal she’d made with Smollett. As National Review’s Andy McCarthy writes, “Foxx is responsible for the Illinois supreme court’s stunning reversal of Jussie Smollett’s conviction for staging an ostensibly racist and homophobic attack on himself (designed to defame Trump supporters) and then filing a false report about it — causing Chicago police to waste valuable time and resources.” Smollett is a bad actor and a slam-dunk hate-hoaxer, and our criminal “justice” system’s failure to hold him accountable is precisely the sort of two-tiered justice that the incoming Trump Justice Department will be expected to root out and correct.

Immigration

• Trafficking migrant children: Some 448,000 unaccompanied migrant children (UCs) were interdicted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2019 and 2023. The Department of Health and Human Services transferred these UCs to sponsors as they were supposedly awaiting appearances in immigration court. However, Donald Trump’s incoming border czar and former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan observed that HHS has subsequently lost contact with over 300,000 of these UCs. Even more disturbing are reports that some of these kids are being sex-trafficked by their sponsors. When HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra was questioned by Congress on Wednesday about reports of UCs being pimped out, he effectively played dumb, saying either that he was unaware of the reports or that he questioned their validity in some instances. Apparently, the Biden administration only cares about keeping the U.S. border open so illegals can flood in, but it doesn’t care what happens to those migrants once they are in.

• Biden’s parting immigration gift: Speaking of illegal immigration, the Biden administration aims to allow as many illegal aliens into the country as possible before Donald Trump takes office. The administration will be launching a new ICE Portal app next month that will allow as many as 100,000 illegal migrants to skip in-person check-ins with ICE officials. Making matters worse, the app, unlike ICE’s in-person meeting, does not run any criminal background checks on these individuals. They could be hardened gangsters like the one who was just found guilty of murdering Laken Riley. Evidently, the Biden administration couldn’t care less either about the welfare of the American public or about the welfare of migrants being trafficked by criminal cartels; all it cares about is giving the American public a big middle finger on its way out the door.

Bearing Arms

• PA 2A win: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court shot down a challenge to the state’s prohibition on local firearm ordinances. “The General Assembly’s authority over municipalities is supreme,” Justice Kevin Brobson wrote. “Municipalities may do only those things which the legislature has expressly or by necessary implication permitted.” The court further observed that the state constitution “does not provide that the right to bear arms shall not be questioned in some parts of the Commonwealth but abridged at will in others” and that “regulation of firearms is a matter of statewide concern.” The challenge to the law had been brought back in 2020 by then-Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kennedy and other city leaders, who argued that local municipalities should be free to impose their own gun regulations based on safety concerns. The court rejected the notion that statewide gun laws make it more difficult for local municipalities to address violent crime, saying, “Preemption laws do not mandate or encourage gun violence.” The court concluded, “The need for uniformity in gun regulation outweighs the local interests in enacting laws specific to their communities.” This is a big Second Amendment win for residents of the Keystone State.

Headlines

• Police report gives details, timeline of the sexual assault claim against Pete Hegseth (NPR)

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy call for defunding Planned Parenthood via DOGE (LifeNews.com)

• Californians need $1,000 more to pay 2025 gas prices (Newsweek)

• U.S. delivers military planes to Vietnam in rare sale since Cold War (Newsweek)

• Russia tested a new intermediate-range ballistic missile on Ukraine (NPR)

• Russia threatens to attack new U.S. base in Poland with “advanced weapons” (NY Post)

• Brazilian police indict former President Bolsonaro and aides over alleged 2022 coup attempt (AP)

• Humor: Cheer up, libs: Here are 10 things you can still be thankful for this year (Babylon Bee)

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