Cross-Examination

• More Biden stolen valor: Does Joe Biden even know when he’s lying? Biden’s well-documented history of spinning up stories wherein he plays a central character in fictitious memories of the past is so common that it gives rise to questions regarding the man’s mental state. While speaking to a group of veterans in Delaware last Friday, Biden relayed yet another fabricated tale. He erroneously claimed that while he was vice president, at the behest of his father, he was responsible for securing a Purple Heart for his Uncle Frank, who had been awarded the medal but never received it for actions in World War II. Biden claimed he got the Purple Heart and said: “‘Uncle Frank, you won this. And I want to…’ He said, ‘I don’t want the damn thing. No, I’m serious.’ He said, ‘I don’t want it.’ I said, ‘What’s the matter, Uncle Frank? You earned it.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but the others died. The others died. I lived. I don’t want it.’” The problem with that story is that Biden’s uncle died in 1999, years before Biden ever became VP. Not only that, but Biden’s own father died in 2002. To complicate the story even further, there is no record of Biden’s uncle having ever received the Purple Heart, and his name is not included on the list of the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor recipients, although that list is not exhaustive. Indeed, Biden’s story is such a doozy that even the leftist “fact-checking” outfit Snopes marked the claim as false. For Biden, lying is just what he does to ingratiate himself to an audience. He’s that guy who always has a story that relates to how he’s personally experienced everything.

• Supreme Court holds the border: Just as the Biden administration was set to end Title 42 border enforcement, a policy that allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to expel illegal immigrants who have crossed illegally into the U.S. without having to go through the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in. The policy has been in place since the COVID pandemic. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the stay of a lower court’s order to pause the expiration of Title 42 after Arizona filed an emergency appeal to SCOTUS for the policy to remain in place. Arizona’s filing, joined by 18 other states, contends that ending Title 42 would result in a massive increase in the number of illegal border crossings. The filing states: “No one reasonably disputes that the failure to grant a stay will cause a crisis of unprecedented proportions at the border. DHS estimates that daily illegal crossings may more than double from around 7,000/day to 15,000/day once Title 42 is terminated.” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich argued, “Getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border.” Thankfully, SCOTUS has been wise enough to at least pump the brakes on the Biden administration’s increasing border malfeasance.

• Leftist sex fiends go nuts: Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee proposed a bill aimed at limiting children’s access to pornography online. The bill would require online porn sites to include age verification technology in order for users to access material. That this bill even needed to be proposed shows just how problematic the porn industry is, but even the mere suggestion that children should be prevented from easily accessing porn drew objections under the guise of free speech violations. Mike Stabile, director of the Free Speech Coalition, asserted that the real aim of the bill was not the protection of children but rather “a threat to their [porn] business, to their livelihood.” It is telling that a bill explicitly aimed at limiting the ability of children to access porn online would be seen as delivering a devastating blow to the “adult entertainment industry.” So, is the sexualization of children a key component to ensuring that the porn industry maintains its bottom line? That appears to be the only logical rationale for the objection to the bill. More broadly speaking, this warped mindset is what has infected the hard Left as it pushes radical gender ideology in America’s schools. When everything deviant is considered sacrosanct, that’s a pretty good indicator that a culturally destructive pathogen is dangerously spreading across society.

Headlines

• Trump referred to DOJ for criminal prosecution by January 6 Committee (Fox News)

• Congress releases major spending bill with election reforms to prevent another January 6 (NBC News)

• Status of Trump tax returns to be focus of Tuesday congressional hearing (NBC News)

• FBI paid Twitter back more than $3 million for doing its dirty work on users, email shows (NY Post)

• Nunes accuses DOJ of seeking blackmail material during Russia probe after bombshell revelation (Just the News)

• SCOTUS will hear challenges to Biden student loan forgiveness in February (Washington Examiner)

• Judge rules Kari Lake’s election challenge can go to trial (Just the News)

• Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape, sexual assault in Los Angeles trial (NBC News)

• Biden Energy Department clamps down on fluorescent light bulbs with new proposal (Washington Examiner)

• Stanford releases guide to eliminate “harmful language,” cautions against calling U.S. citizens “American” (Fox News)

• One-third of Americans are considering skipping gift giving altogether this holiday season (Not the Bee)

• Growing obesity crisis in U.S. prompts CDC to expand body mass index charts for severely overweight kids (CNBC)

• Policy: It pays not to work in Biden’s America — here’s the proof (NY Post)

• Humor: Elon to stay as Twitter CEO after counting mail-in votes (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.