Semantic Gymnastics

“I will say that the Department of Energy is not banning any gas stoves, that we are doing our duty to make sure that appliances are more energy efficient as we are required to do under the Energy Policy Conservation Act of 1975. Nobody’s taking my gas stove, nobody will take your gas stove. But in the future, gas stoves that are high-end, which is all that we looked at, can be more efficient.” —Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

The BIG Lies

“President Biden … has an incredible record of actually delivering on the things that former President Trump talked about.” —Senator Chris Coons (D-DE)

“I’m thankful that President Biden has set us on path toward resolving this [debt ceiling] issue.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)

“As is often the case with my extreme MAGA Republican colleagues, they create a fictional argument around what’s happening at the border and then actually do nothing to solve the real problem.” —Hakeem Jeffries

“I don’t want to understate the degree of the challenge that we’re going to meet when Title 42 comes to an end, but the plan that we have in place will yield results.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

Dispatches From an Alternate Universe

“Dwindling immigration puts squeeze on home building.” —NBC News

For the Record I

“Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has been asked, repeatedly — including by members of Congress — whether the border is ‘secure.’ He continues to insist that it is. That’s the wrong question. If I prop a door open, and you ask me whether it’s ‘secure,’ of course I can say ‘yes.’” —Laura Hollis

“The only part of the government that’s ever shrunk is ICE.” —Jesse Kelly

For the Record II

“If foreign companies transferred over $10 million to a web of shell companies linked to the children, grandchildren, siblings & in-laws of virtually any Republican political leader it would be the dominant news story in America for weeks.” —Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL)

“The truth is that from the moment Hunter Biden’s laptop was discovered and reported by the New York Post — and the Leftmedia and Big Tech immediately suppressed it to influence the 2020 election — this all has been about Joe Biden’s corruption. Indeed, we already know he was lying when he claimed he had ‘never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings’ or that ‘my son has not made money’ in China.” —Nate Jackson

Observations

“In elementary school civics (no longer taught in most schools), we learned that our government has three INDEPENDENT branches. The notion that one branch would dictate the ethical standards for the other is bizarre. And even if not, I for one would be much more comfortable with SCOTUS setting standards for Congress than vice versa.” —Jack DeVine

“Death is traumatic enough, without searching for ways to gain political traction from it. It is eerie how each tragedy prompts a desperate effort to spin narratives of a racist America, where only right-wing killers and vigilantes prey on marginalized people of color and those who are transgender. Once these fables become ‘facts,’ then the media runs with their fables.” —Victor Davis Hanson

“Elon Musk invites all comers to Twitter. Which is fine. Because in the marketplace of ideas, the best ideas win out. And the worst ideas get adopted by the Democrat Party.” —Douglas Andrews