The Patriot Post® · Thursday: Below the Fold

Cross-Examination

• Mitchell lies about DeSantis, offers non-apology: Leftmedia talkinghead Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC peddled a blatant lie regarding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s rejection of an AP “black history” course during an interview with Kamala Harris last Friday. In a question Mitchell addressed to Harris, she claimed that DeSantis said that “slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren.” Following the interview, DeSantis’s press secretary Bryan Griffen blasted Mitchell and corporate media: “They’re not accidentally terrible at their jobs — they’re maliciously intent on deceiving people. [DeSantis] never said this, and FL has extensive black history requirements.” Initially refusing to correct the record, Mitchell on Wednesday finally offered a “correction” after a cascade of criticism. She was “imprecise in summarizing Governor DeSantis’s position,” she grudgingly admitted, but she then doubled down on her misinformation by claiming that “he has opposed the teaching of an African-American studies curriculum as well as the use of some authors and source materials that historians and teachers say makes it all but impossible for students to understand the broader historic and political context behind slavery and its aftermath in the years since.” Once again, DeSantis’s team weighed in to set the record straight, with his deputy press secretary Jeremy Redfern saying: “[Mitchell] is ‘imprecise’ in her description because she relies on unnamed ‘historians and teachers.’ Florida statute requires the teaching of slavery and its aftermath. We just know that ‘queer studies’ has nothing to do with Jim Crow.” Redfern included a link to the Florida Department of Education’s history education requirements proving Mitchell’s claim to be entirely false. DeSantis’s office has now issued an ultimatum to NBC and MSNBC that no interviews will be granted until a genuine apology from Mitchell is given and their reporting improves.

• COVID funds for reparations: Reparations have increasingly become a policy platform issue for leftist Democrats, as 10 Democrat-run cities thus far have begun seeking ways to give black residents money under the “social justice” rationale of narrowing the wealth gap. Of course, the question over where this “reparations” money would come from has officials from two cities — Providence, Rhode Island, and Memphis, Tennessee — wanting to allocate COVID relief funds to pay for it. Providence has already begun doing this by dedicating $10 million in American Rescue Plan money for the creation of the Providence Municipal Reparations Commission for the express purpose of addressing “racial equity.” Officials in Memphis will be voting on whether to use $5 million in COVID relief money to study a reparations plan. It is indeed interesting that these politicians don’t actually ever want to simply cut a check to black residents, but we digress. Republican Representative Byron Donalds (FL) blasted the notion of spending COVID money on reparations “that Congress did not vote for and approve” as being “outrageous” and something that “should not occur.”

• Science and medicine hit by woke virus: A disturbing trend has begun to rear its ugly head in some of America’s leading medical schools. The neo-Marxist woke ideology of critical race theory has taken root to the point of threatening the ability to practice sound, scientifically driven medicine. At Columbia University in August 2021, incoming medical students recited a “new Hippocratic oath” that has been “wokified” to adhere to the tenets of CRT. The new oath includes the following statement: “We also recognize the acts and systems of oppression effected in the name of medicine. We take this oath of service to begin building a future grounded in truth, restoration, and equity to fulfill medicine’s capacity to liberate.” There is a concerted effort underway to transform America’s institutions of higher learning into factories for pumping out professionals who are ideologically committed to the dogma of CRT’s “anti-racism.” This means that medicine and science are viewed through a CRT lens, which aims to identify “racism” everywhere and then to promote the very “equity” that ironically equates to engaging in overt racism against whites. How this actually leads to better healthcare outcomes is conveniently ignored.

Headlines

• Deranged-sounding Georgia grand jury foreman throws election case against Trump into legal jeopardy (Daily Wire)

• U.S. sending up to 200 more troops to Taiwan as China tensions grow (Fox News)

• Pete Buttigieg asks to photograph young female reporter asking him about Ohio chemical disaster (OutKick)

• Seattle to pay $3.6 million in damages to businesses over 2020 BLM riots (Free Beacon)

• DOJ charges eight pro-life activists with blocking access to abortion clinic (National Review)

• Lori Lightfoot claims she “misspoke” when telling voters who don’t support her not to vote (Fox News)

• Missouri AG gives ultimatum to Dem attorney Kim Gardner following public outcry: resign or be removed (Fox News)

• New York City auctions $224 million in COVID supplies for $500K (Free Beacon)

• 7.2% of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ, Gallup Poll finds — more than double what it was a decade ago (NBC News)

• Vimeo deplatforms another documentary critical of “gender-affirming care” (Daily Wire)

• Penguin Random House publishes book called She Persisted featuring “Rachel” Levine (Not the Bee)

• Policy: How a Texas lawsuit over proxy voting could nuke Biden’s entire $1.7 trillion spending spree (The Federalist)

• Satire: Aides brief Buttigieg on Ohio disaster using wooden toy train set (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.