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Thursday, June 27, 2024

On the Eve of Debate: Questions Americans Need the Moderators to Ask

Hugh Hewitt: There are subjects which ought to be asked and some that ought not to be asked, by CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper and by this election cycle’s future debate moderators. The best debate would be built on very short questions that mirror the concerns of Americans: inflation; immigration; Israel’s war in Gaza and the possible expansion of that war to Lebanon; the war in Ukraine; the threats China poses to the U.S. and our allies; the perceived infirmity of President Biden and the prosecutions of former President Trump; and the future of our Republic. Those eight topics cover the broad issue sets facing the country as it chooses between Biden and Trump. If the moderators tailor their (hopefully very) short questions to those eight areas, then Bash and Tapper will have done the job most Americans want them to do: Set the table and let the two candidates talk. Stay out of the way (Fox News).

Gavin Newsom Compares Trump to Hitler, Claims California Takes Crime Very Seriously

Washington Examiner: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) said former President Donald Trump’s Republican Party is reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s murderous regime, offering the incendiary comparison during his State of the State address to Californians. Widely regarded as one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars, Newsom weighed the resemblance between Trump’s GOP and Hitler’s fascist party during a speech Tuesday. “When they speak of immigrants poisoning American blood, and of mass deportations and detention camps, this is the language of destruction, of 1939, when Governor Olson issued his warning,” Newsom said (Washington Examiner). Washington Times: The political tone of Newsom’s speech was not surprising given his role as one of the Biden campaign’s top surrogates, which has made him a target of Republicans who have repeatedly held up California as an example of Democrats’ mismanagement. They have pointed to the state’s $46.8 billion budget deficit, high tax rates, large homeless population and the proliferation of property crimes in its largest cities – acts which have been captured in viral social media clips. Much of Newsom’s speech was devoted to pushing back against that narrative, referring to “delusional California bashers” whose “success depends on our failure.” He noted California’s violent crime rate is about half of what it was at its peak in 1992. He said property crime in San Francisco has fallen as has the overall crime rate across the bay in Oakland – where Newsom recently deployed 120 California Highway Patrol officers. “That’s because in California, we take public safety seriously – a problem to solve, not just to flog on cable news,” he said (Washington Times).

Supreme Court Dismisses GOP Case Alleging Government Drove Social Media Companies to Remove Controversial Content

Associated Press: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security. By a 6-3 vote, the justices threw out lower-court rulings that favored Louisiana, Missouri and other parties in their claims that officials in the Democratic administration leaned on the social media platforms to unconstitutionally squelch conservative points of view. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the court that the states and other parties did not have the legal right, or standing, to sue (Associated Press). NBC: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre welcomed the ruling, saying it will help the administration “continue our important work with technology companies to protect the safety and security of the American people, after years of Republican attacks on public officials who engaged in critical work to keep Americans safe” (NBC). Ed Morrissey: This isn’t a case of private actors moderating those spaces, but active government intervention to quash debate and dissent on government policies, most notably on pandemic policies and the origin of COVID-19. The precious approach to standing ignores a real danger to democracy and self-governance, not just the hyperbolic hysteria over ‘misinformation,’ and ignores the fact that while the platforms do moderation, it’s the government setting those standards and in some cases backed up in the record by threats of penalties for non-compliance (HotAir).

Supreme Court Mistakenly Posts Decision on Emergency Abortions in Idaho

Fox News: The U.S. Supreme Court mistakenly posted a draft of an opinion on a key abortion case to its website Wednesday before quickly taking it down. The opinion relates to whether Idaho hospitals are required to perform abortions in emergency situations despite a state law banning the act. Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe confirmed to Fox News that the opinion has not formally been posted (Fox News). Bloomberg: The copy indicates the court is voting 6-3 to lift a stay it previously placed on a federal district court order, with conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissenting. The district court order is designed to stay in place while the litigation goes forward. The Supreme Court decision would mean a San Francisco-based federal appeals court can consider the case. Idaho is one of a handful of states that now outlaw abortion except when the mother’s life is in danger. Doctors and hospital administrators say the state’s law has kept them from treating women with serious health risks even if they have no chance to deliver a healthy baby (Bloomberg).

Nancy Pelosi Claims to Have Lost Confidence in “Rogue” Supreme Court

Fox News: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, has lost confidence in the “rogue” Supreme Court amid swirling discussions over ethics controversies and a push among Democrats to make the conservative majority a campaign issue ahead of November’s presidential election (Fox News). Steve Guest: CNN’s Anderson Cooper: “Do you have confidence in the Supreme Court?” Nancy Pelosi: “No. I think they’ve gone rogue…. Did (Chief Justice John Roberts) go weak or did he go rogue” (X).

Jamaal Bowman Could Just Be the First “Squad” Member to Be Voted Out of Office

HotAir: The dust is settling from yesterday’s primary races and if you were following our live updates of the races in New York, you already know that Jamaal “Fire Alarm” Bowman lost by a significant margin to Westchester County Executive George Latimer. At the end of this term, he will become the first “Squad” member to be evicted from Congress. Unfortunately, he may be the only one to face that fate because AOC handily fended off her own challenger in her district. So Bowman is out while AOC will remain. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of the Squad is entirely safe. Don’t forget that the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th District is coming up in roughly six weeks on August 13. Ilhan Omar is locked in a very tight primary battle with the far more moderate Don Samuels. She barely squeaked past him in the primary two years ago and he has been seeing a big boost in fundraising, including from AIPAC, though Omar is still outraising him by a healthy margin (HotAir). Townhall: Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) is also facing an intraparty competitor, one who is giving Bush a serious run for her money in a tightening race. As Politico reported Wednesday morning, the First Congressional District primary has Bush facing “a dire threat from a fellow Democrat” as evidenced in a new poll showing “St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell is in a statistical dead heat ahead of the Aug. 6 primary” in which he seeks to defeat the incumbent. The poll’s result: Bush 42, Bell 43 (Townhall).

Biden Administration Officials Urged International Medical Officials to Remove Age Restriction for Gender Surgery

New York Times: Health officials in the Biden administration pressed an international group of medical experts to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries from guidelines for care of transgender minors, according to newly unsealed court documents. Age minimums, officials feared, could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments. Email excerpts from members of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health recount how staff for Adm. Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services and herself a transgender woman, urged them to drop the proposed limits from the group’s guidelines and apparently succeeded (New York Times). Townhall: More and more states and local governments in the U.S. have passed legislation protecting children from these so-called “gender-affirming” treatments, and more transitions are speaking out about the harm these services caused their lives. And, researchers at the Netherlands’ University of Groningen released a 15-year study, Development of Gender Non-Contentedness During Adolescence and Early Adulthood. The study found that most children who feel “transgender” at a young age end up outgrowing it (Townhall).

Department of Interior Publishes Guide to Woke Language

Daily Wire: The Department of the Interior published a guide to “inclusive language,” that tells bureaucrats to avoid gendered terms like “husband,” “son,” and “daughter,” and even instructs them to use the “they/them” pronouns for individuals rather than assume someone’s gender. The 24-page document, called the U.S. Department of the Interior Inclusive Language Guide and published this month “for official use only,” was published this month and details what terms bureaucrats should use or avoid when discussing gender and sexuality. The guide includes a list of 104 different terms that the Interior recommends bureaucrats replace with alternate, approved words. “Husband” and “wife,” for example, should be replaced with “spouse, partner, significant other,” the federal agency says. “Daughter” and “son” should also be replaced with “child” or “kid” according to the guide (Daily Wire).

Biden Threatens to Veto Defense Bill Because of DEI Exclusions

Newsmax: The Biden administration has said it will veto House appropriations bills for the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department. The White House said the bills will harm access to reproductive healthcare, endanger marriage equality, hinder climate change initiatives and threaten the health and safety of the LGBTQI community. Despite the veto threats, the appropriations bills have almost no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate and is unlikely to reach President Joe Biden’s desk (Newsmax).

10.

Journalist Evan Gershkovich’s Trial Begins in Russia

Washington Post: The closed-door trial of American journalist Evan Gershkovich began in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Wednesday, 15 months after he was arrested and charged with espionage while on a reporting trip. The case marks the first time since the Cold War that an American journalist has been put on trial on accusations of espionage in Russia. Gershkovich appeared calm in court Wednesday, smiling and nodding at colleagues who had traveled to Yekaterinburg — almost 900 miles east of Moscow — to report on the opening moments of the trial. Gershkovich’s head had been shaved, as is typical for prisoners in the Russian penitentiary system. Russian prosecutors announced earlier this month that they had finalized an indictment and had “established and documented” that Gershkovich had “collected secret information” about the Uralvagonzavod military factory in the Yekaterinburg region in Russia while “on assignment from the CIA” (Washington Post). NBC: Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison if the court finds him guilty, which is almost certain. Russian courts convict more than 99% of the defendants who come before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences that they regard as too lenient, and they even can appeal acquittals (NBC).