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Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Hunter Biden’s Former Friend, Devon Archer, to Testify How Joe Met with Son’s Ukrainian Business Partners Via Phone

Daily Wire: In a direct challenge to the Biden family narrative, Hunter Biden’s former best friend, who served as a director of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma along with him, will reportedly say that Hunter Biden put his father on the phone roughly two dozen times as Hunter spoke to his foreign business partners or business investors. Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed he did not speak with his son about Hunter’s foreign business dealings. Devon Archer, 48, will testify before the House Oversight Committee, and is expected to say the calls happened in his presence (Daily Wire). RNC Research: “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.” LIAR (Twitter). Collin Rugg: Despite all of the growing evidence Biden is still lying to the American people and claiming that he never spoke to his son about these business dealing. Archer will also confirm how Joe Biden was used as leverage during a meeting between Pozharskyi and Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov. If this were Trump, the impeachment process would have begun a long time ago (Twitter).

Robert Kennedy Jr. Believes President Biden Must be Investigated for Bribery Allegations

New York Post: Democratic primary rival Robert Kennedy Jr. says he backs a probe of the $10 million bribery claim leveled against President Biden and his son by an Ukrainian oligarch who headed the “notoriously corrupt” Burisma energy company. “The issues that are now coming up are worrying enough that we really need a real investigation of what happened,” Kennedy told Fox News Sunday Morning Futures show host Maria Bartiromo (New York Post). Sunday Morning Futures: Robert Kennedy Jr. tells Maria Bartiromo he believes allegations on Burisma should be investigated (Twitter).

Biden Sends Team to Mexico to Discuss Drug Trafficking, Immigration

CBS: Top officials with the Biden administration are traveling to Mexico on a two-day swing for meetings with Mexican and Canadian officials on the opioid crisis and migration, the White House said early Monday. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, President Biden’s homeland security adviser, is leading the delegation, and she is joined by senior officials from the Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security, and the White House Office of National Drug Control. The group will be in Mexico City on Monday and Tuesday for bilateral and trilateral meetings with officials from Mexico and Canada to discuss efforts to combat the opioid crisis and “cooperation to address our regional migration challenge,” a White House official said (CBS). Washington Times: The White House said officials will also talk about the steady flow of migrants across the southern border. They want to build on previous steps to crack down on human smugglers, increase legal pathways into the U.S. and “further modernize and secure” the southern border (Washington Times).

Biden Mulling Over Removing Chinese Sanctions for Human Rights Violations of the Uyghurs for China’s Cooperation with Fentanyl Crisis

Wall Street Journal: Secretary of State Antony Blinken during meetings in Beijing last month proposed setting up a new working group with China to try to resuscitate stalled talks on combating fentanyl. Chinese officials, however, stuck to their long-held position that the U.S. must first remove the sanctions on the police institute as a precondition for restarting joint counternarcotics work, the people familiar said. Stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. is a Biden administration priority, with the opioid scourge unleashing a wave of deaths across America. U.S. officials see China as having a critical role in that effort. Chinese companies produce chemicals, known as precursors, that are shipped to cartels in Mexico, which use them to produce fentanyl and smuggle it into the US (Wall Street Journal). National Review: Sanctions punishing Chinese Communist Party figures and entities implicated in the atrocities against Uyghurs have become a major flashpoint in the Biden administration’s efforts to seek a détente with Beijing (National Review).

IRS Announces Agents Will Suspend Policy of Visiting Taxpayers’ Homes

Washington Post: Internal Revenue Service agents will no longer make unannounced visits to taxpayers’ homes, the agency said Monday, in a policy shift meant to protect employees’ safety due to the fear of potentially irate taxpayers answering the door. Since at least the 1950s, revenue agents have knocked on tens of thousands of taxpayers’ doors each year, according to agency staff. The new policy will reduce these visits to no more than a few hundred per year, and only under unusual circumstances. Instead of making house calls to taxpayers who have ignored overdue tax notices in the mail, the agency will send letters that instruct taxpayers to schedule a visit with a revenue officer (Washington Post). Matt Taibbi: Wow. Thanks to Jim Jordan and his staff for pushing this issue. The IRS shouldn’t be making surprise visits, and they should get credit for making the change (Twitter).

President Biden’s Team is Wrestling with His Age by Giving Him Shorter Staircases, Note Cards with Talking Points During Meetings

NBC: The president of the United States tripping and falling is never a good moment in the throes of a re-election campaign. But when the president is 80 years old and already faces concerns that he’s too old for another term, it’s something of a crisis. Biden’s answer to voters who question whether he’s up to the rigors of a second term is simple: “Watch me.” The trouble is, voters are watching, and what they’re seeing is hardening impressions that it’s time for him to step aside, polling shows. Apart from being the most taxing job on the world stage, the presidency is also the most public, and signs of advancing age are tough to miss. An iconic image of the modern presidency is the chief executive walking up the stairs to a majestic Air Force One, then turning at the doorway and waving. More and more, Biden is forgoing the long staircase for the shorter stairway that takes him up through the plane’s belly. Biden’s use of the shorter staircase, which, of course, reduces the risk of a televised fall that goes viral, has more than doubled since Biden’s tumble at the commencement ceremony. Other age-compensating measures are logistical, and probably familiar to many who’ve reached a certain stage in life: extra-large font on his teleprompter and note cards to remind him of the points he wants to make in meetings (NBC).

Israeli Lawmakers Limit Court’s Power Returning Authority to Elected Officials

Just the News: Israeli lawmakers voted Monday in favor of limiting the court’s power to block some government decisions despite six months of major protests in the country and pressure from the United States to slow down action on the legislation. The Knesset, or 120-member Israeli legislature, voted 64-0 Monday on the first part of the judicial reform plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition. The opposition members boycotted the vote, allowing the legislation to pass in its original form (Just the News). Breitbart: Last-ditch efforts by the country’s largest labor union, and by ceremonial president Isaac Herzog, to propose compromises failed on Monday, and Netanyahu held his coalition together in a party-line vote on the bill. CNN inaccurately described the new reform as blocking the courts from reviewing all government policy (Breitbart). Katie Pavlich: Left’s latest “end of democracy” freak out in Israel is ridiculous & dishonest. Reform limits power of an unelected Supreme Court to overturn votes cast by elected representatives (no matter who is in power) based on “reasonableness” since Israel doesn’t have a constitution. It returns power to elected officials, actually expanding power of democracy (Twitter).

Ousted San Francisco DA, Chesa Boudin, Lands Cushy Job with UC Berkley

Free Beacon: Chesa Boudin, the disgraced former district attorney of San Francisco who was ousted in a June 2022 recall election, is earning $210,000 a year at his new job leading a research and advocacy center at UC Berkeley’s law school. UC Berkeley announced in May that Boudin would head a new center, the Criminal Law and Justice Center, at the public university. Boudin said the center would give him a better opportunity to create “lasting progress” than through public service (Free Beacon). Washington Examiner: Boudin, who was one of many liberal prosecutors across the country who received support from billionaire megadonor George Soros, was recalled from office last year amid an increase in crime in San Francisco that was partly blamed on his office’s decision to avoid prosecuting certain crimes and seek lighter sentences that did not involve jail time (Washington Examiner).

Republicans Dominate Top 10 in Most Popular Governor Poll, Glenn Youngkin Reaches All-Time High Approval

Washington Examiner: Republican governors dominate a new survey of the most popular top 25 in the United States, including a handful considering a 2024 GOP presidential bid or in the vice presidential rumor mill. The Morning Consult list shows 16 Republicans in the top 25 governors with the highest approval ratings, including seven of the top 10 (Washington Examiner). Interactive Polls: Morning Consult: Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s approval rating hits all-time high. Approve/Disapprove: JULY 23: 57/32 (net +25) (Twitter).

10.

Belief in God, Angels Reaches All-Time Low Among Americans

Christian Headlines: The percentage of Americans who believe in God, heaven and angels hit a record low in a new Gallup survey that also found belief in hell and the devil reaching a record low, too. The new survey, released Thursday, found that 74 percent of Americans say they believe in God, a decline from 79 percent in 2016 and 90 percent in 2004 who answered that way. Similarly, 69 percent of Americans say they believe in angels and 67 percent in heaven – both significant declines from earlier polls (Christian Headlines). Gallup: At the same time, nearly three in 10 U.S. adults do not believe in the devil or hell, while almost two in 10 do not believe in angels and heaven, and 12% say they do not believe in God. Frequent churchgoers, Protestants and Republicans are the most likely subgroups to say they believe in the five spiritual entities (Gallup).