Government & Politics

• Did West Point try to smear Hegseth? The United States Military Academy at West Point is chalking up a false claim that Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Defense Department, was never accepted into West Point as simply an “administrative error.” This controversy arose after Hegseth’s team learned of a hit piece being prepared by Leftmedia outlet ProPublica alleging that he had lied about being accepted into the USMA. ProPublica said it was told by two different representatives from West Point’s public affairs office that Hegseth had neither applied for nor been accepted to the USMA. Hegseth responded on X by posting an image of his 1999 USMA acceptance letter, signed by West Point Superintendent Lieutenant General Daniel Christman. Only then did West Point reverse its false claim, stating, “An incorrect statement involving Mr. Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024. Upon further review of an [archived] database, employees realized this statement was in error.” No word on whether anyone at West Point will face any discipline over this “error.”

• GOP must reform UOCAVA ASAP: Complacency often comes with electoral success, so it’ll be interesting to see whether congressional Republicans prioritize voting integrity in the next two years. Democrats have their eye on exploiting the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and if Republicans don’t do something about it, some of them will likely be voted out of a job. “UOCAVA … has numerous problems,” The Federalist reports, “including a poor track record for verifying the identity and eligibility of the voters it admits to the system. This observation might help to explain in part why the Democrat Party has recently taken a particular interest in UOCAVA voting. In August, the DNC announced that it would begin attempting to register up to 9 million voters through the system, despite the federal government’s own acknowledgment that only 2.8 million eligible voters are actually overseas.” The UOCAVA was originally meant for active-duty military and federal employees stationed overseas, though it now serves mostly non-military Americans living abroad. To fight potential fraud, reform of this system should include strict voter ID measures and ballot verification, a ban on overseas electronic voting, and elimination of automatic registration for future elections.

• Donald Trump’s favorability rating is positive for first time (Newsweek)

• Xi Jinping rejects Trump’s inauguration invitation (Newsweek)

Culture

• UHC CEO murder suspect was never a UHC customer: Suspected assassin Luigi Mangione was never a client of UnitedHealthcare, and yet in his “manifesto,” he specifically targeted the company’s CEO, Brian Thompson. As NBC reports, “New York Police Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Mangione’s social media and writings indicate he suffered … a life-altering back injury” and “may have targeted Thompson because of the size of UnitedHealthcare.” Added Kenny: “We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth-largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest health care organization in America.” As to whether Mangione’s bad back figured into his anger and radicalization, there are conflicting reports. CBS News reports that Mangione’s Reddit posts indicate his back pain “had been persistent for several years,” while Fox News reported this morning that those who knew him in Hawaii, his last known address before disappearing months ago, say he had multiple gym memberships and worked out regularly. Mangione’s mother filed a missing persons report with the San Francisco Police Department on November 18, telling investigators that she hadn’t heard from him since July.

• Satire: Mangione takes lead in 2028 Democrat primary polls (Babylon Bee)

• AOC doesn’t know what the word “violence” actually means: Leftists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez evidently believe that words can be twisted to mean whatever they want them to mean. The New York Democrat recently claimed that “people interpret and feel and experience denied claims as an act of violence against them.” Her comments come in the wake of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder. A number of leftists — including prominent Democrats — have sympathized with the murderer’s assumed motive as an act of vengeance against the greedy health insurance industry. While claiming to object to the actual violence perpetrated against Thompson, AOC muddied the water with false equivalency. No matter how unjust the denial of health insurance coverage to an individual may be, that denial can never be classified as “violence.” As The American Heritage Dictionary defines it, violence is “behavior or treatment in which physical force is exerted for the purpose of causing damage or injury.” Falsely equating the denial of health insurance claims to violence is a tacit justification for violent behavior.

• Duke lacrosse rape accuser finally confesses: It’s 18 years too late, but Crystal Mangum, the black stripper who wrecked the lives of a group of white Duke lacrosse players by filing a false rape allegation, has finally admitted it was all a rotten lie. “I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t, and that was wrong,” said Mangum yesterday on the “Let’s Talk with Kat” podcast. Mangum is now 46 and in prison for having murdered her boyfriend, and her story reminds us of the danger of blindly believing such allegations. She doesn’t seem to have come fully to grips with all the damage she did. Three innocent young men were suspended from school, the Duke lacrosse season was canceled, and the school’s lacrosse coach resigned. A measure of justice came a year later when the students were exonerated, and the dirty Durham district attorney, Mike Nifong, was disbarred for having withheld exculpatory evidence. “I don’t have any regrets,” said Mangum.

• DEI backlash reaches Nasdaq as court strikes down diversity rules (Yahoo)

• UCLA student sues medical providers, alleging they rushed her into transgender surgery (Washington Examiner)

Security

• Biden sabotages the border wall: On a day when we’re reminded of the awful human costs of an open border, we learn that Joe Biden’s handlers still don’t get it. Either that or they simply don’t care. Or worse, they’re actively trying to undermine the agenda of the incoming administration. As The Daily Wire reports, “The Biden administration is using its final weeks to haul a massive amount of border wall materials away from the southern border to be sold off in a government auction.” The Wire adds that videos “show unused sections of the wall being hauled away on the back of flatbed trucks from a section of the border just south of Tucson, a hotspot for illegal crossings during the Biden administration.” We first reported on the Biden administration’s diabolical fire sale some 16 months ago, but although border security was a driving issue in last month’s presidential election, they still don’t seem to get it. A whistleblowing agent estimates that “up to half a mile per day of unused border wall is being moved” and that the Biden administration’s goal “is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.”

• DA to seek death penalty against illegal immigrants accused in Nungaray murder case (Fox News)

• Churches will no longer provide sanctuary for migrants under Trump (Newsweek)

• About those “drones” over NJ: Public concern and consternation over unidentified drones in the night sky over New Jersey has grown due in large part to no one apparently knowing who was operating them. Well, the drone mystery may have been resolved. Both Homeland Security and the FBI stated on Thursday, “We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus.” The agencies added, “Upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully. There are no reported or confirmed drone sightings in any restricted air space.” In other words, people have purportedly been mistaking airplanes flying in the night sky for drones. Meanwhile, in California, a Chinese citizen has been arrested after he was caught illegally flying a drone and taking pictures near Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.

Good News

• A historic first Nativity scene: For the first time in the history of our nation, on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, a Nativity scene was on display. It happened this past Tuesday, and the event included the singing of Christmas carols, prayer, and the reading of Scripture’s account of the birth of Jesus. This event came as a result of a court ruling this past May in which Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, successfully won a 13-year fight against the federal government for the right to engage his First Amendment freedoms to freely and peacefully express his religious views in front of the Capitol, or the “People’s House.” Many falsely assume that separation of church and state means any religious displays on or near the halls of government are prohibited.

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