Cross-Examination

• Boebert and McCarthy strike a deal on Biden impeachment: A contingent of House Republicans have been increasingly champing at the bit to impeach Joe Biden over his willful failure to secure the southern border. On Tuesday, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert unexpectedly filed a privileged resolution calling for a floor vote to impeach Biden. The move reportedly caught Speaker Kevin McCarthy off guard, and he called it “flippant.” However, he was able to reach an agreement with Boebert to send the question of impeachment to the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, which the House voted in favor of doing. Meanwhile, Democrat lawmakers were quick to lament the move and charged Republicans with “political grandstanding.” Well, as Republicans warned Democrats when they went on their impeachment warpath against Donald Trump, what goes around comes around. However, unlike Trump, who was first impeached thanks in part to a Hillary Clinton-created hoax, Biden deserves to be impeached. The trouble is the majority of Americans aren’t interested in what appears to many to be the settling of political scores.

• School lockdown advocate gets a promotion: Students’ math and reading scores slid to two-decade lows thanks almost entirely to needless school lockdowns, social distancing, and masking mandates. One of the biggest promoters of maintaining these draconian measures under the guise of protecting the kids was American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten. Not only did she seek to defend these measures contrary to growing scientific evidence, but she blasted states that sought to reopen schools as “reckless, callous, cruel.” At nearly every turn Weingarten sided with a woke political narrative that opposes parental rights, children’s education, and sound scientific evidence. Yet despite — or rather because of — her record, the Biden administration appointed Weingarten to the Department of Homeland Security’s Academic Partnership Council, which is tasked with providing advice on “safety and security … and emergency management and preparedness measures.”

• Dr. Untruth decries disinformation: Speaking of promoting pandemic-related misinformation, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, appeared at a summit on healthcare where he expressed concern over America’s future due to the “normalization of untruths.” Fauci, who infamously called himself “the science” while being repeatedly caught spreading untruths, lamented, “There are so many misrepresentations and distortions of reality and conspiracy theory that it almost becomes normalized.” He then argued, “We should not accept that as the new normal because when facts are no longer accepted as facts, when distortions occur and when reality is distorted, that will undermine the foundations of the social order and of our democracy.” The gall of this man. Fauci actively sought to suppress inconvenient facts and legitimate inquiry regarding the origin of COVID, probably because of his hand in it. Indeed, he peddled distortions of facts about NIH funding of gain-of-function research in order to protect and promote a certain narrow political narrative. Democracy is not what Fauci is worried about losing; rather, he cares about protecting the elite establishment class from the democratic process.

• TikTok data in Communist China: Popular social media platform TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, finally admitted what lawmakers have been repeatedly charging — that it does indeed store data on American users in China. In a letter sent to Congress in response to an inquiry from Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) requesting information on its data collecting, TikTok claimed it was not contradicting prior testimony when the company claimed it did not store user data in China. Effectively playing a game of semantics, TikTok acknowledged in the letter that the company does collect and store “creator data” in China, but that it stands by congressional testimony: “We were asked about, and our testimony focused on, the protected user data collected in the app — not creator data.” TikTok’s admission comes as Congress is looking to advance legislation that could result in a ban on the social media company. Following TikTok’s admission, Blackburn and Blumenthal were clearly unimpressed. They issued a joint statement noting, “TikTok’s response makes it crystal clear that Americans’ data is still exposed to Beijing’s draconian and pervasive spying regimes — despite the claims of TikTok’s misleading public relations campaign.”

• Good News: NHL abandons pride jerseys: With the backlash that Bud Light, Target, and the LA Dodgers have experienced for promoting gross displays of “Pride,” the National Hockey League is looking to avoid any further “distraction.” On Thursday, the NHL Board of Governors decided to nix the controversial practice of teams donning LGBTQ-themed warmup jerseys to celebrate “Pride Nights.” While “Pride Nights” will continue, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that for the players, “we’re keeping the focus on the game.” In other words, just play hockey. What a novel idea.

• Will Hurd announces: Another candidate has entered the Republican presidential primary field. His name is Will Hurd, and in this case the joke writes itself: Who has heard of Hurd? There is likely a good reason few know of Hurd, as he is a former CIA spy. However, to be fair, he did garner publicity last year with his book American Reboot: An Idealist’s Guide to Getting Big Things Done. His contention is that the Republican Party needs to “be the party that talks about the future, not the past.” His primary campaign issues are China, inflation, education, and artificial intelligence. He also believes that “the GOP will continue to lose to Democrats if Donald Trump is the nominee.”

Headlines

• Biden bombshell: Whistleblowers say IRS recommended felony tax charges against Hunter Biden. The DOJ balked. (Free Beacon)

• Hunter Biden deducted payments to hooker and sex club from his taxes, whistleblower says (Free Beacon)

• FBI knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was authentic a year before pressuring Big Tech to censor it (The Federalist)

• Whistleblowers show Merrick Garland and IRS commissioner lied to Congress about Hunter Biden, GOP reps say (Daily Caller)

• Biden signed off on declassifying COVID origins by June 18. He didn’t do it. (Daily Wire)

• Ford gets $9.2 billion loan from Biden admin for EV battery factories (Daily Wire)

• Ford to announce new layoffs in coming weeks (Daily Wire)

• Chest binders and sleeping bags: Summer camps for “transgender” kids as young as four the new craze (Daily Wire)

• Judge strikes down Florida rules restricting irreversible transgender treatment (Townhall)

• Elon Musk says Twitter officially considers the terms “cis” and “cisgender” slurs, and harassment using the terms will result in “at minimum, temporary suspension” (Not the Bee)

• Humor: Matt Walsh claims he was assaulted with “cis” slur at subway by drag queen attackers shouting, “This is Pride country!” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.