Ever since Kevin McCarthy was voted out as speaker of the House of Representatives, we’ve been working behind the scenes to ensure that a strong conservative replaced him.

We made it clear that we did not want anyone with a history of selling out conservative values. We warned members against Tom Emmer. He had to drop out Tuesday after Donald Trump said he would be a terrible choice.

So, House Republicans went back to the drawing board. They held a series of votes that lasted well into the night, and they finally settled on Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a solid pro-life, pro-family conservative. After Johnson secured the nomination, he led the House GOP caucus in prayer for our country.

In fact, in the last 24 hours, a top political reporter for the New York Times and Politico, trying to explain to his readers who Johnson is, wrote that the new House speaker is “More Gary Bauer than W,” meaning George W. Bush, who I ran against in the 2000 GOP presidential primary.

Here’s something else that you won’t hear in all the media analysis. Since the year began, there have been 19 votes for speaker. Every one of those votes was a contest between a Republican and a Democrat.

The Democrat nominee, Hakeem Jeffries, ran 19 times and failed 19 times. He’s 0-19. For all the media hyperventilating about the Republicans not having a speaker for three weeks, Jeffries was never acceptable to the majority of the House. The pundits and talking heads in the media will never tell you that.

Mike Johnson ran once. He won the election for speaker yesterday on a vote of 220 to 209 for Jeffries. Johnson is 1-0. And I hope he continues to run up the score!

Congratulations, Speaker Johnson! We look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead.

Good vs. Evil

There is a terrible war raging between Israel and Hamas right now. Sadly, there’s a lot of moral equivalence going on here in America that must be confronted head on. For Christians who may be confused or squeamish about what is happening, this report is for you.

There is ZERO moral equivalence between the nation of Israel and Hamas. Hamas is a designated terrorist organization. The jihadists of Hamas are no different than the butchers of ISIS, the terrorists of Al Qaeda or the murderous thugs of Hezbollah.

All the talk about “war crimes against Palestinian civilians” is Hamas propaganda. That may sound harsh, but it is the truth. Here’s why.

Israel fires missiles in self-defense at its enemies to protect Israel’s civilians from terrorists like Hamas. But Hamas fires its missiles while hiding behind its own civilians, making it impossible for Israel to respond without killing civilians in the process.

It is not Israel’s fault that Hamas uses human shields. The use of human shields is the war crime, not Israel’s actions in self-defense.

It also must be noted that the reports about “Palestinian civilian casualties” are coming from the same source — the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry — that lied to us when it claimed that Israel bombed a hospital.

Israel did not bomb the hospital, and 500 people were not killed.

The Gaza Health Ministry cannot be trusted. But don’t take my word for it. Luke Baker, a former Middle East Bureau Chief for Reuters, which is well-known for its anti-Israel bias, said:

“Hamas has now been in charge of Gaza for 16 years. It has squeezed the life out of honesty and probity… Hamas has a clear propaganda incentive to inflate civilian casualties as much as possible.”

This “propaganda incentive” is what Alan Dershowitz meant when he wrote that Hamas has a “CNN strategy” — a media strategy to turn Western morality and sensibilities against Israel.

The great irony and tragedy, however, is that Israel is the tip of the spear and the first line of defense in Western Civilization’s war against the barbaric evil of radical Islamic supremacy. (See next item.)

The Call Of Jihad

There is a deep sickness in the heart of Islam around the world. There are hundreds of millions of Muslims who want to lead peaceful lives. But there are also millions of jihadists who want to kill for Allah.

This week, the Israeli military released details of the slaughter that took place on October 7th. Among other things, they found notes from Hamas commanders urging the jihadists to behead their victims and to “extract their hearts and livers.”

The Israeli government also released a phone call it captured in the middle of that massacre from a Hamas jihadist to his father. Here’s what he said:

“I’m speaking to you from Kibbutz Mefalsim. Open my WhatsApp now and see all the dead people. Look how many I killed with my own hands. Your son killed Jews! …

"Dad, I’m speaking to you from the telephone of a Jewish woman. I killed her and I killed her husband. With my own hands. I killed ten! Dad, ten with my own hands! … Their blood is on my hands, give the phone to mom.”

This was said with the joy and happiness that a normal young man would have when calling his parents to tell them they’re going to be grandparents.

But this man knew there was nothing he could tell his parents that would bring more joy to their hearts than, “Your son killed Jews!”

Notice that he didn’t say, “Your son killed Israelis.” He killed “Jews.”

This is not a dispute about Israel’s government, Israeli policy or Israel’s borders. This is Jew-hatred. This is jihad — a call for genocide.

In his column Tuesday, my friend Dennis Prager reminded his readers that anti-Semitism is “the longest ongoing hatred in history… And it is the one exterminationist hatred: Those who hate the Jews want them destroyed.”

Prager noted that there is a line “recited during the Passover Seder service: ‘In every generation, they arise to annihilate us.’”

Hamas and its sponsors in Tehran are plotting to annihilate the Jews today.

Pray that our leaders muster the courage to stand with Israel so that “Never Again” means “Never Again.” And pray that the murderous ideology of jihad would be wiped from the earth.

White House Meltdown

Ever since Joe Biden came down on the side of Israel, the radicals in his administration have become completely unhinged. (More than usual.) One senior State Department official even resigned in protest.

There are also serious problems inside the Biden White House. Apparently, the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian employees are really struggling right now. So, the White House has been holding therapy sessions or “wellness sessions” in order to “cool simmering anger” because many Biden aides strongly disagree with his actions.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan addressed one such session with more than 100 White House staffers.

Seriously? How many anti-Semites and Hamas sympathizers are working inside the Biden Administration?

I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised since we know they allowed an Iranian influence operation to take root at the highest levels of the government.

Can you imagine Donald Trump holding “wellness sessions” at the White House after he ordered the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to be moved to Jerusalem and ended the fiction that the capital of Israel was some city other than Jerusalem?

If a top official went to Trump and said, “We’ve got a lot of people upset that we’re standing with Israel,” I guarantee he would have said, “They’re fired! Get them out of here by the end of the day!”

I have a suggestion for the next Biden “wellness session.”

Everybody at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and every elected official in Congress should be required to listen to that phone call of the Hamas jihadist to his father. They should be required to listen to that call regularly.

Personnel is policy, folks. Anyone who voted for Joe Biden because they just couldn’t stand Trump’s tweets really needs to do some serious soul searching right now.