The Patriot Post® · Friday Short Cuts

The BIG Lies

“The only reason that [House Speaker Mike Johnson] has shut down Congress is because he does not want a vote on the Epstein files.” —Rep. Ro Khanna

“There’s no chaos in Portland. None. There is no chaos in Chicago. There was no chaos in Los Angeles. They’re pretending there’s chaos as a pretense for a military takeover.” —Jimmy Kimmel

Fearmongering

“The broader goal, I believe, is the militarization of major American cities before the 2026 elections. … Next year, I fear that what they’re going to do is deploy these folks eventually to polling places and say they’re protecting the vote. … If [Trump] loses, he’s going to immediately, in the aftermath of the election, do what he said he might do in 2020, which is use the military to confiscate the ballot boxes and count the votes, claiming that there’s fraud.” —Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker

Dumb & Dumber

“I don’t really have opinions about the future of Hamas.” —New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani

“One of the key reasons why we have to make buses free is because it reduces the assaults on bus drivers. It creates a safer work environment.” —Zohran Mamdani

“[JD Vance] is married to a woman of Indian descent. He has mixed-race children. So to all of the MAGA voters out there, if this man will not defend his wife and will not defend his kids, do you think he gives a crap about you?” —podcast host Jennifer Welch

“I’m a white woman that has lived in a red state my entire life, and I can tell you when I’m around white people, they test the racist water. They test it on people … all the time.” —Jennifer Welch

Missing the Forest for the Trees

“Why is the United States, the richest country in the history in the world, the only major nation not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right?” —Sen. Bernie Sanders (Maybe we’re rich because we’re not socialist.)

Gaslighting

“President Trump was an obstacle to peace previously.” —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Trump’s historic Gaza ceasefire deal

Defending the Indefensible

“The Jay Jones texts were abhorrent and they are indefensible, but I also have known Jay Jones for 25 years.” —Sen. Tim Kaine

Credit Where It’s Due

“There are no Democratic officials in Virginia who have called for [Jay] Jones to drop out of the race.” —CNN’s Jake Tapper

“Shutting the government is really what the Democratic Party wants to do, and I follow country, then Party, and it’s the wrong thing for the country in a period of chaos. I refuse to vote to shut our government down. … I would remind everybody, too: [The COVID-era ObamaCare subsidy] was designed by the Democratic Party to expire at the end of the year.” —Sen. John Fetterman

“I know and I love people that voted for President Trump. But they are not fascists. They’re not Nazis. They’re not trying to destroy the Constitution.” —Sen. John Fetterman

For the Record

“Chuck Schumer was quick to throw around words like ‘sickening’ and ‘vile’ about the Republican operatives but hasn’t mustered a single syllable about Jones’s violent rhetoric. Just silence.” —Matt Margolis

“In 1940, 87% of blacks lived below the poverty line. In 2023 it was less than 18%, and the poverty rate for black married couples was 6.5%. This suggests that black impoverishment has more to do with family formation than with racism.” —Jason Riley

“Ignore the hyperventilating establishment media. If the Supreme Court strikes down Section 2 [of the Voting Rights Act], no one’s right to vote will be taken away or restricted in any way. They would be striking down the race-based predetermined outcome of a vote that clearly violates the Constitution.” —Gary Bauer

Observations

“When it comes to Trump, detractors look at his swing: the insults, the bragging, the swagger, the ego, his tweets, his cockiness, his demeanor, his flippancy and his various opinions on all manner of things that really don’t much matter. … Supporters look where the ball lands: the economy; borders; eliminating DEI; SCOTUS judges; pro-life; foreign policy; school choice; combating urban crime; focused deportations; opposing biological men competing against biological women in sports, etc.” —Larry Elder

“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore, we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.” —Thomas Sowell

And Last…

“The people of Chicago are walking around with MAGA hats. You have women, beautiful black women, walking around with MAGA hats.” —Donald Trump (“Jussie Smollett was ahead of his time.” —Michael Knowles)