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Tuesday, December 10, 2024

White House Urges Team to Spend as Much Money As Possible

Axios: White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients is asking his team to “sprint to the finish line” to cement the president’s legacy, reshape the federal judiciary and spend all the money they possibly can in their final 42 days in office. President Biden and Zients want to ensure a smooth transition to President-elect Trump’s second term, but they also want to lock in any policy changes allowed by law. That includes obligating funds in Biden’s four signature pieces of legislation: The American Rescue Plan, The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (Axios). Washington Times: All four bills added up to roughly $5 trillion in new spending, with $1.9 trillion for the COVID-19 stimulus package, $1.2 trillion for the infrastructure law, $52 billion to boost semiconductor manufacturing, and $1.2 trillion for the health, climate and tax law. He said the government has already spent 98% of the funding already legally available through October, but there is more available to spend (Washington Times).

Democrats Angry With Biden for Yielding Presidential Power to Trump

Wall Street Journal: The American tradition is that the nation has only one president at a time. Right now, that president looks like Donald Trump—because President Biden is ceding the spotlight. While Biden remained in Washington, it was the president-elect who met on Saturday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is lobbying Trump to continue wartime aid. At the time they met, Damascus was falling to rebels in Syria. While Trump briefly spoke to reporters about Ukraine and posted online about U.S. interests in Syria—saying “this is not our fight”—Biden didn’t make a public appearance on Saturday and waited until Sunday to comment on Syria…This has left a number of Democrats perturbed that Biden and party leaders, after spending years casting Trump as a threat to democracy, have left a communications and policy vacuum during the transition period. These critics believe top Democrats have bypassed chances to make the case against nominations by the president-elect that they see as instruments of his promised “retribution…” Fury from the Democrats’ progressive wing has been even sharper: “This is one of the lamest of lame ducks we’ve seen with a Democratic administration. A massive missed opportunity,” said Usamah Andrabi, spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, who says the consequence is that Trump has grabbed the public’s attention uncontested (Wall Street Journal). Scott Jennings: Amazing how quickly the world has moved on from Biden. From Trump in Europe to Trump on NBC, we saw the actual center of political power filling a leadership void that truly weakened the US for four years (X).

Documents Reveal Dozens of UNRWA Teachers, School Employees Are Hamas Fighters

Times of Israel: Some two dozen teachers, counselors and administrators at UNRWA schools in Gaza are members of Hamas or other terror groups, according to a foreign media report published Sunday based on documents provided by Israel. The materials, seized from terror groups during the ongoing war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, shed further light on Israel’s longstanding contention that the United Nations agency responsible for aid to Palestinians — which administered some 288 schools in the enclave before the war — has fostered radicalism, and been used by terror groups in their efforts against Israel. The documents viewed by The New York Times identify 24 employees at 24 different UNRWA schools — the majority of them principals or deputy principals — who are registered members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad; about half of them had documented possession of lethal weaponry, including assault rifles and hand grenades, provided by the terror groups, or participated in their training exercises (Times of Israel). National Review: UNRWA has accused Israel of waging a smear campaign in order to discredit the agency and put its personnel in harm’s way. The agency is calling for new regulations to stop the spread of Israeli “disinformation” and urging advertisers to stop allowing it… The Israeli parliament passed two laws earlier this year banning UNRWA from operating in the Jewish state and preventing Israeli government agencies from maintaining contact with the organization. The legislation effectively bans UNRWA from operating in Gaza and the West Bank because of its terror ties (National Review).

Daniel Penny Acquitted By New York Jury

He is a free man! NBC: Daniel Penny was acquitted Monday of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness whose final moments on a New York City subway train were captured on bystander video that set off weeks of protests and captured national attention. The decision, on the fifth day of deliberations, came after the jury deadlocked Friday on the more serious charge of manslaughter, leading the judge to dismiss it. Penny faced up to four years in prison (NBC). Collin Rugg: Daniel Penny found NOT GUILTY of criminally negligent homicide. Praise God. Jordan Neely’s father was reportedly removed from the courtroom for speaking out (X). Libs of TikTok: NY BLM leader Hawk Newsome calls for “Black vigilantes” to step up in response to Daniel Penny’s acquittal (X).

TIME Magazine Considers Kamala Harris as 2024 Person of the Year

TIME: The night of July 21, President Joe Biden announced he was ending his presidential campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination. What followed was a remarkable 107-day presidential campaign as Harris sought to become the first woman President (TIME). Colling Rugg: TIME Magazine is considering naming Vice President Kamala Harris as TIME’s Person of the Year. Some of Harris’ accomplishments in 2024 include becoming the Dem candidate with no votes and losing the 2024 election while spending $1.5B. Other names on TIME’s list include Joe Rogan, Kate Middleton, Elon Musk, Yulia Navalnaya, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerome Powell, Claudia Sheinbaum, Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg (X).

Oakland Crime Surges as Police Budget Cuts Announced

CBS: Oakland police had a very busy Sunday morning, responding to multiple sideshows, shootings, and a mob of people ransacking a gas station. This comes as the city is looking to shrink the police force and balance the budget. “It happens all the time, you hear gunshots,” complained Oakland resident Debra Harper, who was not surprised by the Sunday incidents. “This is every weekend. Every single weekend, they do donuts out here, they fight” (CBS). End Wokeness: Just another weekend in Oakland: $50k stolen by mob at gas station, multiple “teen takeover” sideshows, more police cuts and layoffs coming, 4 days for cops to answer many calls (X).

Lara Trump Steps Down as RNC Co-Chair

ABC: Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump whom he tapped to co-chair the Republican National Committee for the 2024 election cycle, said she intends to step down from her position. The move comes amid mounting speculation that she could be tapped to fill an upcoming Senate vacancy in Florida, whose Sen. Marco Rubio has been nominated for secretary of state (ABC). Lara Trump: Serving as the GOP co-chair throughout the course of the most consequential election in American history has truly been the honor of my life… The job I came to do is now complete and I intend to formally step down from the RNC at our next meeting (X).

NeverTrump Magazine Editor: Deport illegal immigrants because they are no longer reliable votes

HotAir: Jonathan Last is the Editor of The xxxxxx, a NeverTrump magazine whose sales pitch is that it represents pre-Trump conservatism. Many of us have been skeptical that NeverTrumpers as a group are actually still conservatives at all if they ever were. Some clearly were, some remain a version of conservative, and many are now unapologetic Democrats who toe the party line no matter what. I think we can safely say that Last fits into that category (HotAir). Bluesky Libs: The xxxxxx: Democrats should deport illegals because they’re no longer reliable illegal votes (X).

House Considers $895 Billion Defense Bill

Washinton Examiner: The House is set to consider the National Defense Authorization Act this week in an attempt to push through one of Congress’s highest priority bills before it expires later this month and lawmakers leave town until Jan. 3. Bipartisan congressional leadership released legislative text of the NDAA over the weekend, outlining more than 1,800 pages of spending priorities for the Defense Department’s budget and teeing it up for a vote in the House later this week. But first, the bill must make it through the House Rules Committee, where it could face opposition from some of the Republican conference’s most conservative members. The compromise legislation hammered out with the Democratic-led Senate has a $895.2 billion topline figure, which will come in under the budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act despite efforts in the Senate to exceed the limit (Washington Examiner).

10.

Would Be Trump Assassin Asks Judge to Delay Trial

Washington Examiner: Ryan Routh asked a judge on Sunday to postpone his trial until December 2025, arguing he needed more time to prepare a defense against charges that he attempted to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump. Routh’s request would mark a 10-month delay of the trial, which Judge Aileen Cannon set for February 2025. Routh is facing charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer, and gun possession felonies after a Secret Service agent spotted him aiming a loaded rifle toward Trump International Golf Club in Florida while Trump was golfing in September. Prosecutors revealed in court filings that Routh had a lengthy criminal record and had penned a note addressed to the “world” that he had made “an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.” Authorities also said Routh once came under FBI investigation and that he was a diehard activist for Ukraine in its war with Russia (Washington Examiner). Hill: Prosecutors said they will be prepared for trial in February but do not oppose a “reasonable” delay. However, a continuance until December 2025 is not reasonable, they said. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, set a hearing for Wednesday to discuss the matter. She ordered the government to respond to Routh’s motion by Tuesday (Hill).