Cross-Examination

• Pelosi attacker is an illegal alien: Yet another inconvenient fact has come to light regarding the strange attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul. Not only was the 42-year-old suspect who attacked Mr. Pelosi with a hammer an apparently crazed leftist with a penchant for nudism, it also turns out that he is not an American. He is a Canadian who has been living in the U.S. illegally since overstaying his visa. So, not only is Pelosi’s attacker anything but a “MAGA Republican,” but, ironically, he’s been free to live in San Fransisco without fear of deportation thanks to California’s “sanctuary” policy. Talk about a classic example of Democrats’ leftist policies coming back to haunt them. We all hope that Mr. Pelosi makes a full recovery from his injuries, but the notion that Republican rhetoric has played any role in this attack is pure partisan fiction. If California wasn’t a sanctuary state, then this individual may not have been allowed to reside in the state, and this attack never would have occurred. Meanwhile, regarding questions about why the Pelosi house was not more secure, Mark Alexander, who has background experience in security and dignitary protection, observed: “This is not the district residence of just any member of Congress. This is the residence of the speaker of the House. I presume that the Capitol Police command center in DC has security camera footage covering every aspect of this break-in and assault — both outside and inside the residence — and that it was immediately aware of an illegal entry by an intruder. The Capitol Police should issue a detailed report on exactly what happened right away, but I suspect that report will not be released until after the midterm election.”

• SCOTUS leans toward ending affirmative action: On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in two similar cases that essentially challenge the affirmative action polices within American universities. The two universities in question are the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. Plaintiffs in the cases claim that the schools’ use of race in determining admissions serves to discriminate against students who would otherwise be fully eligible. In each case, the schools defend their use of racial criteria as a component of admissions polices by arguing that doing so is necessary to ensure racial diversity within the student body. Harvard in particular has been infamously exposed for its admissions policies that have limited the number of Asian American students accepted into the school. Throughout the justices’ questioning, it became apparent that the Court’s conservative majority is not buying the argument. Justice Clarence Thomas raised the question as to what was even meant by the term “diversity,” and Justice Neil Gorsuch observed that including a racial component would lead to a racial quota system, which is against the law. If the Court overturns affirmative action, a system that when it was first implemented was never intended to continue indefinitely, it will go a long way in helping to stymie those who continue to foster race-based grievance politics.

• Biden won’t be impeached for an imperfect call: Democrats infamously spun up President Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as grounds for impeachment. The Democrats ridiculously claimed that Trump was engaged in a politically motivated quid pro quo, and they ran with the charge as the House impeached him. Well, Republicans don’t tend to be purely partisan-motivated power mongers, so Joe Biden will not likely be facing any tit-for-tat regarding a bad phone call he had with Zelensky this past June. During that phone call, Biden informed Zelensky that he had just green-lighted another $1 billion in military aid, and Zelensky responded by asking for more help. Biden grew angry and yelled at Zelensky, noting how generous America had been already. Apparently, since that tense phone call, and as the war has increasingly turned in Ukraine’s favor, the relationship between Biden and Zelensky has improved. However, Republican lawmakers have continued to raise issues with the amount of money Biden is spending in Ukraine. “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” observed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “They just won’t do it.” While McCarthy clarified that he was not opposed to the U.S. helping Ukraine, he contended: “There should be no blank check on anything. We are $31 trillion in debt.”

Headlines

• Biden threatens higher taxes on oil companies if they do not work to lower gas prices (CNBC)

• Supreme Court temporarily blocks Trump tax records from being given to Congress (CNBC)

• Leaked documents show DHS, the FBI, and social media platforms worked together to stop debate on COVID, Hunter’s laptop, and election integrity (RedState) | Feds keep Facebook censorship portal despite DHS Disinformation Board demise (NY Post)

• Elon Musk disbands Twitter board, appoints himself “sole director” (National Review)

• Libertarian candidate endorses Blake Masters in late shakeup of Arizona Senate race (Daily Wire)

• Left-wing Minnesota AG Keith Ellison in serious danger of losing to Republican challenger (Daily Caller)

• Is Stacey Abrams dragging down Raphael Warnock in Georgia? (National Review)

• Abortions drop 6% in two months after Dobbs, over 10,000 babies saved from abortions (LifeNews.com)

• British government report: “Simply being a Christian is enough to get you arrested” in Iran (Fox News)

• Even Greenpeace now admits the obvious: recycling doesn’t work (City Journal)

• Policy: Biden is lying to Americans about Medicare and Social Security’s insolvency (The Federalist)

• Humor: Elon Musk shatters world record after going 12 hours without killing himself after publicly insulting Hillary Clinton (Genesius Times)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.