Cross-Examination

• Trump Georgia trial on Super Tuesday Eve? March 4, 2024, is the requested date for the trial of Donald Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. That date just happens to be the day before Super Tuesday, when the largest number of states hold their presidential primaries. While some contend that this move is designed to force Trump off the campaign trail at a pivotal moment, strategically this actually plays in his favor, making him front and center news as voters go to the polls. Meanwhile, the question of whether Trump will show up to the first GOP primary debate is still up in the air. If he does decide to forego it, he can steal the limelight by scheduling his Georgia jailhouse booking to coincide with the debate.

• Blue on blue: Apparently, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is none too keen on New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s handling of the increasing number of illegal aliens moving into the Big Apple. In a 12-page letter sent from the Democrat governor’s lawyer to the Democrat mayor’s office, Hochul indirectly chastised Adams’s leadership, arguing, “The city can and should do more to act in a proactive and collaborative manner with the state.” The letter further noted that the state has committed $1.5 billion to help with the migrant crisis. “The City did not prioritize this critical effort,” the letter says. “Had the City done so, it is likely that thousands more migrants would be able to work today.” When questioned about the letter’s criticism, Hochul claimed that she and Adams weren’t at odds, but she did admit, “It is true they didn’t accept some of the help we offered.” NYC Deputy Mayor Fabien Levy acknowledged the letter, saying, “We’re encouraged to see our partners in Albany want to deeply engage on this crisis and take a more proactive role in their response … because this is such a significant crisis, we need more.”

• “Transing” kids in the states: North Carolina Democrat Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill banning gender-bending “treatments” on children and minors has been overridden by the Republican-led legislature. The law bars medical professionals in the Tar Heel State from providing puberty-blocking hormones and drugs, as well as bans gender mutilation surgeries on minors. Meanwhile, on the other end of the country, America First Legal brought a lawsuit against Washington Democrat Governor Jay Inslee to stop the enforcement of a law he signed in May — SB 5599 — that allows children to undergo gender-bending treatments, including gender mutilation surgeries, without needing parental consent. Under the new law, not only do children not need parental consent, but there is no requirement that parents be notified of their child undergoing gender “treatment.”

• Former FBI Russiagate agent pleads guilty to money laundering for a Russian: Former FBI special agent Charles McGonigal, who was a key individual in the “Russiagate” investigation, has pleaded guilty to his involvement in money laundering for a Russian oligarch. According to Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, “Charles McGonigal, by his own admission, betrayed his oath and actively concealed his illicit work at the bidding of a sanctioned Russian oligarch.” Given the lie that the Russia hoax was, it comes as little surprise that McGonigal would be involved in other lies.

• Good news: free speech on some campuses: Presidents from 13 colleges and universities have announced their partnership to promote free expression at their schools. Calling it the “Campus Call for Free Expression,” the presidents are from high-profile schools like the University of Notre Dame, Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The partnership was arranged by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, whose president, Rajiv Vinnakota, explained, “This diverse coalition of college presidents — from institutions large and small, private and public — is united in its commitment to ensuring students are civically well-informed, productively engaged, and committed to democracy.” Each of the participating schools will promote programs such as James Madison University’s partnership with the Bipartisan Policy Center to hold “free expression training for every incoming first year and transfer student.”

• Court sides with pro-life activists: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that the 2020 arrest of pro-life protesters for writing a chalk message on the street during George Floyd protests was a violation of their First Amendment rights to free speech. At the time of the incident in question, a number of BLM protesters who wrote chalk messages on the road and sidewalk were not arrested, but two students who wrote “Black Pre-Born Lives Matter” on the sidewalk were singled out for arrest. They were charged with violating a defacement ordinance. “The government may not play favorites in a public forum — permitting some messages and prohibiting others,” the court ruled. “We conclude the [plaintiffs have] plausibly alleged the District’s selective enforcement of the defacement ordinance constituted viewpoint discrimination in a public forum in violation of the First Amendment.”

Headlines

• Hilary rapidly intensifies into hurricane with significant impacts to Southern California, Southwest (Fox Weather)

• Biden shouts during speech, challenges anyone to name “one thing” the U.S. set out to accomplish and failed (Fox News)

• Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck says Apple removed his podcast from iTunes without warning (Daily Wire)

• AOC owed up to $50,000 in student loans while leading calls for debt cancellation (Washington Examiner)

• Social Security checks on track to be slashed in less than a decade (Free Beacon)

• Biden administration tells 9/11 families that attack mastermind, four others could be spared death penalty (NY Post)

• Biden administration investigates Vanderbilt University over release of transgender clinic patient records (Daily Wire)

• Pro-abortion attacks on pro-lifers face little to no consequences from DC authorities (Daily Signal)

• Blind Side author Michael Lewis breaks silence on Michael Oher petition against Tuohy family (Fox News)

• Humor: Target attempts to win back customers with new “Straight White Male Pride Collection” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.