Cross-Examination

• Christie launches: Former two-term New Jersey governor, U.S. attorney, and failed 2016 presidential contender Chris Christie embarked upon his second bid for president yesterday. He’s made clear that one of his biggest motivations is taking out Donald Trump, though one wonders how much that will actually help Trump. Especially by insulting the former president with a comparison to a villain in adolescent literature. “I don’t want to say his name,” Christie said of Trump. “He is, for those of you who read the Harry Potter books, like Voldemort. He is ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named.’” Christie did name Trump, of course, saying he is the one “who is obsessed with a mirror, who never admits a mistake, who never admits fault, who always finds someone else and something else to blame for whatever goes wrong but finds every reason to take credit for anything that goes right.” Christie the former Trump fan can’t stand the guy now. We get it. But besides what many are calling a kamikaze campaign, why is he running? He left the governorship with record-low popularity, fizzled in 2016, and missed what might have been his only real shot at the White House in 2012. Maybe he just wants to be attorney general for the next Republican president not named Trump.

• Tucker’s back: Episode One of Tucker Carlson’s new show dropped on his Twitter account last night, as the popular host begins a new era of commentary. Summarily fired by Fox News with virtually no reason in April, Carlson announced last month that he’d be coming to Elon Musk’s platform. He began his 10-minute monologue with sharply sarcastic comments regarding the destroyed damn in Ukraine and the media’s defense of Ukraine and condemnation of Russia before moving on to sharply sarcastic comments about a government cover-up of UFOs. As we go to press, his first episode hasn’t even been up for 24 hours and it’s already dwarfed his Fox News audience with more than 71 million views. Clearly, he resonates.

• The Rainbow Empire Strikes Back: Retail giant Target appeared to pull back a bit from its promotion of “Pride” merchandise — even for children and infants — after blowback from people who are tired of tasting the rainbow as it’s shoved down their throats. The mild retreat isn’t going over well with the Rainbow Mafia. More than 200 of its mob groups are demanding that Target bow the knee, put back the merchandise, and furthermore “denounce extremists,” by which they mean normal people who object. “When it comes to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, there is no such thing as neutrality,” the mafia declared. “Fear will not win,” they insisted — as they demand submission or else.

• Florida man favors grooming children: Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida claimed that “gender identity is real” and that “the overwhelming weight of medical authority supports treatment of transgender patients with GnRH agonists and cross-sex hormones in appropriate circumstances.” As we’ve said before, “medical authority” makes an awful lot of money creating lifelong “transgender” patients, and there are an increasing number of studies citing the long-term medical difficulties caused by screwing around with God’s design. Moreover, “medical authority” lost a lot of trust during COVID, so there’s that. Nevertheless, Hinkle, an appointee of sexual deviant Bill Clinton, issued a preliminary injunction against Florida’s law banning puberty blockers and hormones for minors. The battle isn’t over, but that’s an unfortunate loss that will harm children.

Headlines

• Mike Pence calls for “different leadership” in 2024 launch video (The Hill)

• North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announces a truly long-shot presidential bid (Politico)

• RFK Jr.‘s rising profile sparks Democrat jitters (The Hill)

• Chris Licht out as CNN CEO as staffers rebel against efforts to revamp network’s image (National Review)

• The profoundly dishonest James Comey forgets the FBI’s corruption is now established fact (Washington Examiner)

• Lia Thomas’s UPenn teammate speaks out, says university “wanted us to be quiet” (Fox Sports)

• “Smells fishy”: Elliot Page being compared to Jussie Smollett over alleged “transphobic attack” (Daily Wire)

• Trans-identifying man to compete in Miss California pageant (Daily Wire)

• Associated Press forbids even discussing transgenderism cult as an ideology (Daily Signal)

• Bud Light dethroned as top-selling beer brand in U.S. after boycott (Newsweek)

• Disgraced SLPC adds parental rights group to “hate map” (Daily Signal)

• Biden admin is preparing to target Americans’ gas furnaces amid stove crackdown (Fox News)

• Two million immigrants released into U.S. under Biden are “here indefinitely” (Washington Examiner)

• He covered up Cuomo’s nursing home deaths; now he’s a CDC deputy director (FrontPage Mag)

• New York City Democrats unveil crack pipe vending machine (Free Beacon)

• Disney reverses course and agrees to meet with Uyghur genocide victims (Free Beacon)

• U.S. had intelligence of detailed Ukrainian plan to attack Nord Stream pipeline (WaPo)

• PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-funded rival LIV Golf (Not the Bee)

• Satire: “The View” hosts wear Klan hoods to prove Tim Scott wrong about America’s racial progress (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.