Cross-Examination

• Biden visits Ukraine: There’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine is indefensible, but Americans are increasingly raising objections over how much funding and armaments the U.S. is giving Ukraine — reservations our own Douglas Andrews explores at length today. With that backdrop, on Monday morning, Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv, Ukraine, just before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion later this week. Biden met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced that the U.S. will give the war-torn nation another half-billion dollars in military assistance. Biden noted that his surprise visit was meant to “reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity." He touted "another delivery of critical equipment, including artillery ammunition, anti-armor systems, and air surveillance radars to help protect the Ukrainian people from aerial bombardments,” and he promised “additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine." Back in the U.S., Republican lawmakers want more oversight and accountability. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has argued against giving Ukraine a "blank check.”

• Musk calls out WaPo for another lie: The folks over at the billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post clearly don’t like billionaire Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk. Evidently, his commitment to freedom of speech and capitalism makes him a dangerous man, and thus the leftist propaganda outfit recently targeted him with a hit piece claiming he ordered Twitter to boost his footprint on the social media platform. Relying on the accounts of several former Twitter employees, the article ridiculously laments how Musk’s takeover has changed Twitter by significantly limiting things like bot accounts. The article goes on to assert that an apparently self-obsessed Musk, frustrated that some of his posts weren’t getting the reach he wanted, ordered an algorithm change to ensure that his tweets were the first ones anyone saw. The problem is the Post’s claim is entirely false, and Musk clearly took delight in correcting the record. He said: “Your article is false and obviously so. Do you really do no research at all? I mean, like reading a few tweets, for example.” He included site data to prove his point. We award the “fact-checkers” over at the WaPo “four Pinocchios” for lying and fake news.

• Buttigieg causes airline problems: The job of the transportation secretary should be to ensure that the transportation industry is working in a way that benefits the American consumer. However, recent events have demonstrated that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s diversity hire, sees his job as primarily protecting an industry he’s been tasked to regulate. Despite Biden’s State of the Union rhetoric about cracking down on excessive “junk fees” in his demand that “airlines show you the full ticket price upfront and refund your money if your flight is canceled or delayed,” Buttigieg has effectively ignored Southwest Airlines’ debacle over the holiday season when the company dubiously blamed weather for the cancellation of 17,000 flights. This is one example from the airline industry that has effectively gotten away with abusing customers with little repercussion, as the industry has paid back only a fraction of the $10 billion owed to customers for flight cancellations over the last three years. In Southwest’s case, Buttigieg could have and should have punished the airline via fines, but he chose to do nothing. The Department of Transportation loves issuing statements defending Buttigieg’s record, though what becomes glaringly evident is his selective enforcement. While smaller airline companies that have not personally curried Buttigieg’s favor have been hit with fines over customer abuse, the bigger airlines, which also happen to be the biggest offenders, have been spared any punishment. Noticeably, these airlines have also had special access to Buttigieg. Rather than holding the biggest players in the airline industry to account, Buttigieg has effectively done the opposite, ingratiating himself to the Washington airline lobby.

Headlines

• Blinken says China gave “no apology” for spy balloon (Daily Wire)

• Don Lemon removed from CNN morning show to start the week; discussions about anchor’s future “ongoing” (PM)

• Supersized IRS will spread out more audits for white people, incoming commissioner promises (The Federalist)

• Biden picks Obama enforcer Susan Rice to implement critical race theory throughout the federal bureaucracy (RedState)

• The rewriting of Roald Dahl is a 1619 Project on literature (PJ Media)

• Jimmy Carter enters hospice care at 98 (National Review)

• Fetterman to remain hospitalized for depression for “a few weeks,” aide says (Washington Examiner)

• After ranked-choice voting rigged their elections, Alaska conservatives fight to reclaim democracy (The Federalist)

• White Ohio elementary students reportedly herded, dragged, then violently forced by black peers to pledge fealty to BLM (Blaze Media)

• “Trans” teacher with Z-size prosthetic breasts dresses as man outside of school, neighbor says (NY Post)

• This just in: Immunity acquired from a COVID infection is as protective as vaccination against severe illness and death, study finds (NBC News)

• Greg Gutfeld destroys rivals CNN, MSNBC ratings — twice in one day (Washington Examiner)

• Policy: Shocking cost of the illegal immigration crisis to Americans (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Meteorologists struggling to report the weather as all the weather balloons have been shot down (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.