Cross-Examination

• Business as usual at 1600 Pennsylvania Drug House: In what amounts to little other than a shoulder shrug, the Secret Service informed members of Congress in a classified briefing yesterday that it had not discovered the person responsible for leaving the cocaine in the White House and likely would not find them, which effectively ends the investigation. The Secret Service also informed lawmakers that on two prior occasions last year small amounts of marijuana were found in the White House, but similar to this cocaine incident, no one was held accountable. In those cases, the rationale given for not seeking to arrest anyone was the small amount of the illicit drug and the fact that marijuana has been decriminalized in DC. That said, marijuana is still classified as an illicit drug on federal property.

• Biden’s mobilization and cringeworthy NATO performance: On Thursday, Joe Biden signed an order allowing the Pentagon to call up to 3,000 reserve troops for Operation Atlantic Resolve. Part of America’s response back in 2014 to Russia’s annexation of Crimea was to create Operation Atlantic Resolve, which “provides rotational deployments of combat-credible forces to Europe to show our commitment to NATO while building readiness, increasing interoperability, and enhancing the bonds between ally and partner militaries.” Why the DOD needs these reserve troops now has not been explained. Meanwhile, the day before, Biden was at the NATO summit in Lithuania looking every bit his age. He doddered around on a gaffe-parade, including at one point referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “Vladimir,” which of course is Russian President Putin’s first name.

• Student loan forgiveness 2.0: Apparently, Joe Biden couldn’t care less about being slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court for his clearly unconstitutional student loan cancellation gambit, as his administration is at it again. This time Biden seeks to put taxpayers on the hook for $39 billion in student loan debt for upwards of 804,000 “low income” borrowers. This latest plan for student debt cancellation sets a repayment threshold of 20 or 25 years that a borrower must make income-adjusted payments. Based on an individual’s income level, these payments could be as low as $0. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona defended the plan by claiming, “This Administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education.” Making those who did not take out the loans in the first place now responsible for paying off the debt for those who did may “level the playing field,” but it is anything but fair or just.

• Biden admin falsely claims stimulus not “real cause” of inflation: In an effort to deflect responsibility for the record-high inflation Americans have endured under Joe Biden, his administration has been claiming that the $1.9 trillion stimulus spending is not the “real cause” of inflation. To do this, the Biden administration engaged in a game of smoke and mirrors by pointing to other countries that saw inflation rise during the pandemic. What the Biden administration is attempting to do, however, is deny basic monetary reality. Printing more money so the government can spend more money devalues the currency. The result is that the price of goods goes up. Meanwhile, people’s savings and paychecks didn’t match the rate of monetary devaluation, therefore Americans became poorer in the last two years. Biden’s spending policy did this, but of course he doesn’t want to own it, so out come the lies. On top of this, the cost of servicing the U.S. debt has risen by 25% this year, which bodes ill for the future.

• Hollywood on strike: For the first time since 1960, Hollywood is experiencing two of its biggest unions striking together. As of midnight, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has joined the screenwriters in their months-long strike against the studios. The primary issue has to do with royalty payments and concerns with how studios may soon be using AI to generate an actor’s likeness without compensating the actor. A number of A-list actors sent a letter to the studios warning that they were “prepared to walk” if a deal was not worked out. A strike is “going to be tough for our actors, for 160,000 actors; nobody wants a work stoppage,” said Matt Damon. “But if our leadership is saying our deal isn’t fair, then we got to hold strong until we get a deal that’s fair for working actors.” If this goes on long enough, Americans may have to embrace reading again.

• It’s “people of color,” not “colored people”: Evidently it matters a great deal whether the adjective comes before or after the noun. On Thursday, Republican Representative Eli Crane (AZ) was blasted after he referred to black Americans as “colored people” during his promotion of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. This amendment “has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or black people or anybody can serve,” Crane explained. “It has nothing to do with color of your skin.” Congressional Black Caucus member Joyce Beatty (OH) took offense and hammered Crane for “setting us back.” She added, “On this floor on both sides of the aisle we have people of color, we have people who have served.” A debate then erupted on the House floor, with cries of racism dubiously launched. The great irony here is the very existence of the NAACP, which the Congressional Black Caucus has long held in high esteem. That acronym, of course, stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Such silliness.

Headlines

• “Democrats’ standard of hypocrisy”: John Kerry scorched for misleading on private jet use (Fox News)

• DOJ spied on Devin Nunes staff during Russia hoax, subpoenas show (The Federalist)

• Democrats unveil new effort to rescue the Equal Rights Amendment (ABC News)

• California advances child-trafficking bill after Newsom urges Democrats to revive legislation (Washington Examiner)

• Government officials were stunned by “startling” spike in Chinese donations to UPenn after Biden think tank opened (Free Beacon)

• FTC opens probe into ChatGPT maker OpenAI (Axios)

• Top senator assails Biden for letting heroin users off easy while turning smokers into criminals (Fox News)

• Federal agencies using just 25% of their office space, watchdog reveals (Free Beacon)

• Maybelline trashed after using bearded man to sell lipstick (Daily Wire)

• One hundred female track athletes have been displaced by one trans-identifying male, West Virginia says (Daily Wire)

• Appeals court orders new congressional lines in New York, a potential boon for Democrats (AP)

• Good news: “Sound of Freedom” passes $50 million at the box office (Fox Business)

• Policy: What’s at stake if FBI isn’t fixed (Daily Signal)

• Humor: AI czar Harris announces she has figured out what AI stands for (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.