Cross-Examination

• Biden jokes about Christians: Joe Biden still can’t seem to take seriously the horrific attack against Covenant School that left three children and three adults dead. Directly after it happened, he ridiculously joked about ice cream before addressing the atrocity. Yesterday, he was asked whether he believed “that Christians were targeted in the Nashville school shooting.” Biden first answered, “I have no idea.” The reporter pressed, adding: “[Senator] Josh Hawley believes they were. What do you say to that?” Biden quipped, “Well, I probably don’t then.” He chuckled and added: “No, I’m joking. No, I have no idea.” Evidently, when one’s primary concern is exploiting events for one’s own political agenda, empathy for others is lost.

• School choice gains: On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1, a new law that creates a $2.2 billion voucher system that will allow parents the freedom to choose which schools to send their K-12 children to. DeSantis celebrated the signing, stating, “Florida is number one when it comes to education freedom and education choice, and today’s bill signing represents the largest expansion of education choice in the history of these United States.” But Florida isn’t the only state embracing school choice, as Arkansas recently passed similar legislation, and Georgia’s Republican-controlled House now has Governor Brian Kemp’s backing for school choice legislation that targets low-income households.

• Border crisis comeuppance: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas sought to maintain the fiction that the U.S. southern border is secure as he sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Republicans were clearly having none of it, repeatedly calling for his resignation. Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) noted the growing number of deaths due to fentanyl from Mexico: “You took all the policies that were working, and you changed them, and it’s blown up in our face.” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) demanded Mayorkas take responsibility for his failed policy decisions: “Your behavior is disgraceful, and the deaths, the children assaulted, the children raped are at your feet. And if you had integrity, you’d resign.” Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) grew exacerbated when Mayorkas was unable to answer how many Chinese Communist Party members were among the growing number of Chinese caught crossing the border. “You don’t know any of the details,” Hawley said in rebuke. “You have exhausted me, you have exhausted this panel, you have exhausted the patience of the American people. You should resign.”

• California penalizes oil profits: California’s Democrat leadership appears hell-bent on chasing the oil industry out of the state. Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Tuesday giving the government the power to penalize the industry if the state deems companies are making too much money. It’s just the latest installment in the Golden State’s war against the fossil fuel industry as California seeks to be “carbon neutral” by 2045. Eschewing practical reality, Newsom sought to blame the lobbying power of the oil industry as the “real” reason for the difficulty in moving the state toward the environmentalist pipe dream. He asserted that the oil industry is “the biggest impediment to a just transition.” We hope Californians enjoy those brownouts and rolling blackouts because they’re going to get a lot more of them.

• Debt ceiling showdown: Joe Biden refuses to set up a meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to address the ballooning national debt and the fast approaching debt limit. McCarthy wants to set a date to meet, but Biden demands that House Republicans first release their own budget proposal. Clearly, Biden and the Democrats want to leverage the debt limit against Republicans in order to enact as much of Biden’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal as possible. McCarthy, for his part, is seeking to separate the two issues, observing that Biden is refusing to address the nation’s $31 trillion debt problem and by doing so is “putting an already fragile economy in jeopardy by insisting upon your extreme position of refusing to negotiate any meaningful changes to out-of-control government spending alongside an increase of the debt limit.”

• Congressional lockdown hearings: The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held hearings on Tuesday specifically focusing on the impact of COVID school lockdowns. There were several important takeaways from the hearings, including the embracing of junk science narratives over and against actual scientific evidence when it came to social distancing and masking in schools. There was also the reality that billions in COVID relief funding went to political causes decidedly not related to the pandemic — like the Left’s DEI agenda and woke “anti-racism” training. It was a classic example of Rahm Emanuel’s maxim to “never let a crisis go to waste.” Mental health, increasing rates of depression, and a rejection of Europe’s more scientifically sound approach to the pandemic regarding school children were also noted.

Headlines

• Nashville shooter’s gun purchases could have been blocked, and weren’t (National Review)

• Twitter bans Federalist CEO Sean Davis for reporting on “Trans Day of Vengeance” following Nashville shooting (The Federalist)

• Michael Knowles suspended from Twitter after posting Bible verse in response to Nashville school shooting (Daily Wire)

• Top official for Ariz. Gov. Katie Hobbs slammed over “vile tweet" about shooting "transphobes” — just hours after school killing spree (NY Post)

• Trans group issues controversial statement after trans killer targets Christian school (Daily Wire)

• Manhattan grand jury not convening over possible Trump indictment again this week (Townhall)

• FBI uses DNA from partially eaten food to arrest suspect in pro-life pregnancy center firebombing (National Review)

• British magazine New Scientist argues for “Giant Leap” to achieve equity that calls for 25% reduction in global population (Not the Bee)

• The “population explosion” myth blows up (PJ Media)

• Mexico is moving to power California and Arizona. But who will pay for it? (The Hill)

• Policy: America must opt out of the World Health Organization’s global medical tyranny (The Federalist)

• Satire: California passes $5 million in reparations for black people whose GIFs have ever been used by a white person (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.