Cross-Examination

• House GOP unveils “Commitment to America”: Based on the spirit of Newt Gingrich’s famously successful “Contract With America,” GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy released a new agenda for Republicans to follow should they retake the House in November. Titled the “Commitment to America,” the Republican plan will, as our Douglas Andrews recently outlined, focus on four major policy themes: An Economy That’s Strong, a Nation That’s Safe, a Future That’s Built on Freedom, and a Government That’s Accountable. Under each of these broad themes, McCarthy’s plan further delineates specific legislative goals such as fighting inflation and lowering the cost of living, making America energy independent, reducing supply chain dependence on China, securing the border and combating illegal immigration, reducing crime, advancing a parent’s bill of rights, protecting women’s sports, confronting Big Tech censorship, upholding free speech, protecting the lives of the preborn, holding Washington accountable by increasing rigorous oversight of government agencies, ending the House’s proxy voting, and much more. This further establishes the Republicans’ roadmap for affecting positive change in the country and countering the Democrats’ increasingly radical leftist policy agenda.

• USAFA restricts “cisgender” men from fellowship application: In the latest example of how the Left’s woke “equity” agenda serves as a direct affront to that fundamental American value of equality for all, the U.S. Air Force Academy recently notified cadets interested in applying for the Brooke Owens Fellowship that only “gender minorities” will be considered. “If you are a cisgender man,” the application on the fellowship website states, “this program isn’t for you.” The fellowship in question is a “nine-week paid internship at a leading aerospace company,” and it invites any undergraduate “woman or gender minority” to apply. In an apparent effort to deflect criticism for excluding “cisgender” or straight men from the fellowship opportunity, the application encourages “cisgender” men “to check out our spinoff programs, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship and the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.” The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship is available only to black cadets. Discrimination in the name of “equity.” This is sadly just more evidence that the U.S. military’s adoption of the Diversity and Inclusion agenda is in fact embracing the Marxist-based woke ideology that is inherently divisive and anti-American. Rather than building greater cohesion among the (now-diminishing) ranks, this will do the opposite.

• DOJ back into Trump business: On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling that temporarily stopped the Justice Department from reviewing the documents seized in the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Conceding to Trump’s request, Cannon had ordered that an independent arbiter she appointed review the documents in question to ensure that none of them fell under any attorney-client privilege or other special status. The DOJ appealed this decision and the 11th Circuit agreed with the DOJ. “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President,” the court said. “But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified. In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.” This may be a setback for Trump, assuming the DOJ actually raises charges against him. However, that question is still very much up in the air. What this does do is allow the DOJ to immediately continue its investigation.

Headlines

• Stacey Abrams: “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks” (Not the Bee) | Glenn Kessler rushes to rescue Abrams on fetal heartbeats, immediately regrets it (RedState)

• Republicans block bill requiring dark money groups to reveal donors (The Hill) | Biden-backed DISCLOSE Act would dox donors to groups that run political ads (Reason)

• House passes four policing bills despite Democrat division (The Hill)

• Voters back GOP governors in migrant busing showdown (Washington Times)

• Postal Service surveilled protesters with pro-gun, anti-Biden agendas (Washington Times)

• FBI special agent paying the price for exposing unjust persecution of conservative Americans (NY Post)

• Letter reveals Obama Foundation is keeping classified docs in abandoned furniture warehouse (PJ Media)

• U.S. watchdog estimates $45.6 billion in pandemic unemployment fraud (WaPo)

• “Dilbert” gets canceled as the comic’s creator Scott Adams takes on woke ESG business ratings (Not the Bee)

• Gays Against Groomers gets deplatformed by PayPal while pro-pedophile group remains (Daily Wire)

• Yes, New York’s bail reform has increased crime (City Journal)

• Policy: Conservative policies have driven child poverty declines (AEI)

• Satire: Stacey Abrams bursts through wall like Kool-Aid man to tell overjoyed mother that the heartbeat sound she’s hearing is fake (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.