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Thursday, September 24, 2026

President Xi Arrives in US: Pomp, Circumstance and Substance Today and Friday

The president knows how to utilize the power of ceremony in an effort to advance the nation’s interests. The greeting itself was extraordinary. Axios: President Trump welcomed Xi Jinping at Joint Base Andrews for the Chinese leader’s state visit to Washington D.C. Wednesday evening. U.S. presidents typically receive visiting foreign leaders at the White House, making Trump’s airport welcome an unusual diplomatic gesture. Trump met Xi at the foot of the stairs after the Chinese leader’s jet landed at Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. military base 13 miles southeast of the White House in Maryland. It’s much more common for U.S. presidents to greet visiting leaders at the White House (Axios). Financial Times: Trump and Xi will spend most of Thursday and Friday morning together attending a series of meetings and cultural events. They are expected to discuss a range of issues, including the trade war truce and the creation of an AI dialogue to discuss risks posed by the technology…. The visit will also include a lot of pomp. During a formal welcome ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday morning that will include a military review, the two leaders will make public remarks before holding talks…. The ceremony will conclude with F-22 Raptor fighter jets and B-2 Spirit bombers — the same warplane that dropped bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer last year — conducting a military flyover…. Dennis Wilder, the White House China official who managed former president Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington in 2006, said Xi would be “thrilled with the unprecedented reception” (Financial Times).

Treasury Secretary Bessent Announces Two-Month Extension to Trade Truce With China

The short time frame, presumably, gives the administration more time to negotiate. Bloomberg reports: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the US and China have sealed a two-month extension to their trade truce, as Xi Jinping landed in America for his first state visit in eleven years…. Bessent unveiled a Jan. 10 deadline for the deal struck last year to keep down tariffs and some export controls between the world’s largest economies. The Chinese government has not confirmed that expiration date. “I don’t know whether a bigger deal can be done,” Bessent told Fox News (Bloomberg).

Minnesota Senate Race Now Dead Heat as Welfare Fraud Hits Democrats

In the latest poll, Michele Tafoya sits at 42 percent, with the progressive Peggy Flanagan at 43 percent—a virtual tie as we consider the margin of error. Breitbart reports: Minnesota’s races for governor and U.S. Senate are both within the margin of error, putting the fraud-battered state in play for Republicans up and down the ballot, according to a new poll. The Co/efficient survey, fielded September 14-15, found Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 47 percent and Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth at 45 percent in the race to succeed retiring Gov. Tim Walz. In the Senate contest, Democrat Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan led Republican Michele Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster, 43 percent to 42 percent. Dustin Grage, a Minnesota-based Republican strategist and Townhall columnist, circulated the numbers, arguing they show the party competing statewide. “Minnesota is in play for Republicans up and down the ballot,” Grage wrote (Breitbart). Ward Clark: We may be looking at an upset in the making (RedState).

El-Sayed Signed 2012 Open Letter Supporting Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian President to ‘purge the media and the police as quickly as possible’

First, for context: In 2012 Egypt elected Mohamed Morsi president in the Arab Spring. He was a senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood. He very quickly brought disaster to Egypt, overstepping his authority and creating a crisis worse than the crises he inherited. And: El-Sayed was supportive! Jon Levine at the Free Beacon: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed demanded in 2012 that the repressive Muslim Brotherhood “purge” media and police in Egypt after the radical Islamic group seized control of the country. A brutal religious crackdown on the press was soon to follow. The demand was made in an Arabic-language statement on Al-Ahram Gate, an Egyptian news portal, and was signed by 46 “leaders of the Egyptian community” in the United States, one of whom was El-Sayed, who was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrants. The November 2012 statement came just days after the country’s Islamist then-president, Mohamad Morsi, granted himself broad new powers in an effort to quell growing unrest. Morsi had five months earlier become Egypt’s first elected president after longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled in the Arab Spring. But Morsi himself was starting to act like a strongman. “Statement by Morsi Supporters in America Backs His Decisions and Calls on Him to ‘Purge the Media and Police,'” blares the headline published on Nov. 25, 2012. “We, leaders of the Egyptian community, support the revolutionary decisions taken by the president, and we call on him to purge the media and the police as quickly as possible,” the letter reads (Free Beacon).

Socialist Nithya Raman Takes Lead Over Karen Bass in Latest Poll of LA Mayor’s Race

Mayor Bass herself has a long, pedigreed history as a leftist radical. Nithya Raman—if she were to win—would take the city several notches further to the left. Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman has taken a wide lead over incumbent Karen Bass in the L.A. mayor’s race, according to a new poll released Wednesday, although a high percentage of voters remain undecided less than two weeks before mail-in ballots are sent out for the Nov. 3 election. Raman is favored by 39% of likely L.A. voters, compared with 28% for Bass, according to the poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, which was co-sponsored by The Times. The poll found that 33% of voters were undecided. Six weeks ahead of election day, a third of L.A. likely voters are undecided. Nithya Raman leads with 39% support compared to Mayor Bass’ 28%. “Raman clearly has the advantage. Her task is a little less onerous than Bass’,” said Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS Poll (LATimes).

Democrats in Tight Races Are Finding Communism Is Not a Winning Issue

Fancy that. The Hill reports: Democrats in tight Senate and House contests are fighting back against efforts to brand their party as communist, an effort they say has taken on new urgency in a midterm cycle that has seen candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) dominate in high-profile primary races. At the Republican midterm convention this month, GOP leaders warned of the dangers of a blue wave in November. President Trump said, “It’s going to be a communist country if they win,” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) claimed there was a “Bolshevik Revolution” going on in the Democratic Party. “Next year the communists will be in Congress,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the convention. “That’s what’s so frightening.” There are no known congressional candidates who identify as communists, according to Joe Sims, co-chair of the Communist Party USA, but the recent wave of leftist primary wins has forced Democrats in competitive races to navigate efforts to tie them to the socialist wing of their party…. A separate New York Times/Siena University poll released last week suggests the socialist label could be problematic for Democrats among the broader electorate. The poll found 51 percent of likely voters viewed socialism unfavorably, compared with 31 percent who viewed it favorably. Thirty percent said they would be less likely to support a candidate who identified as a democratic socialist, while 13 percent said they would be more likely to do so, and 44 percent said it would make no difference. Half of surveyed voters also described the Democratic Party as too far to the left, up from 47 percent earlier this year (The Hill).

Straight Talk From Milei at the UN: A ‘useless organization’

Refreshing candor from the Argentinian president. New York Times reports: Argentine President Javier Milei dismissed the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday as a “useless organization,” devoting a significant portion of his speech to the General Assembly in New York to attacking the body in unusually harsh terms. Milei repeatedly attacked the UN, claiming that its sole purpose was to sustain a caste of “fatally arrogant parasites disguised as well-intentioned bureaucrats.” He also criticized the organization for voting against Israel and for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the UN pact to uphold international law, sovereignty and peace had been broken (New York Times). His critique mirrored—in many respects—the critique we see coming from various members of the Trump administration. But when it comes to the COVID pandemic, he was even more forthright: Where some allege a public health policy error, we see a global experiment in social control disguised as science. And when a state takes away the right to work, to be educated and to say goodbye to the dead, resulting in millions of preventable deaths, there is a word for it: genocide (Clash).

Rand Paul Was Ready to Offer Immunity Deal to Fauci Aide; Democrats Blocked It

The Kentucky Senator has been relentless in pursuit of what really happened with the all things related to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was willing to offer a plea deal to Patricia Conrad, senior adviser to the director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—the position Fauci held. Democrats blocked him. Washington Times reports: Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday he will refer a longtime aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, saying she had a “20-year history of destroying records” for him. He made the announcement after Democrats refused to back an immunity deal for the aide, which would have let her tell her story without fear of prosecution…. “I will personally be sending a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to pursue this,” Mr. Paul said. He sought to lead the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in voting to offer an immunity deal. He said the committee subpoenaed the woman to come testify and she appeared but invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions. Mr. Paul said the immunity deal would have freed her to speak. To approve a deal would have required support of a two-thirds vote of the committee. All eight Republicans supported it, but all seven Democrats opposed the idea, dooming it to defeat (Washington Times).

Senator Marsha Blackburn: ‘Girls' sports are for girls. Boys’ sports are for boys’

It’s a remarkable day when such a truism needs to be said, much less that it is controversial. It’s all the more remarkable that in the Senate hearing on women’s sports, not a single Democrat even showed up. We’ve come a long way: The purported feminists and advocates for feminism won’t stand up for women. Tennessee Senator Blackburn yesterday: The Democrats did not have a witness today. They did not show up. They did not participate in the hearing. They didn’t ask any questions, and it is because they know they are wrong on this issue. They know that. And their position is not a defensible position. Girls’ sports are for girls. Boys’ sports are for boys. Young women deserve the opportunity just as a man does, just as a boy does—to be able to be a part of a team, to learn those lessons that we’ve discussed today (Blackburn). Fox News: NCAA softball player Kendall Kotzmacher describes walking onto the field and seeing a biological male athlete on the opposing team after working her entire life for the chance to compete at that level…. “Knowing there’s nothing you can do about it is unimaginable” (Fox News). Alabama Senator Katie Britt: “It can’t go unspoken that not one member on the other side of the aisle has had the respect for women to come in here and ask questions, to figure out how we get this right, how we stand up for fairness, for safety, for an opportunity for young women across the country.” “It’s absolutely ABSURD” (Kolvet).

10.

Son of Israeli Ambassador Critically Injured in Terror Attack

Yechiel Leiter is the Israeli ambassador to the United States. On November 10, 2023—in the immediate wake of the October 7 terror attacks—Leiter lost his 39-year-old son Moshe (a father of six) in Gaza (Times of Israel). Now he has another son critically wounded—“in need of a miracle.” Israel Hayom: Neria Leiter, the son of Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, was critically injured Wednesday in a car-ramming terrorist attack on Route 443 near Beit Horon in the Binyamin region. According to police, a terrorist drove his vehicle toward a Judea and Samaria District Police patrol car in which a policewoman and an IDF soldier were operating as part of a joint mission, deliberately attacking them. Leiter suffered head injuries and was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where doctors are fighting to save his life. Security forces killed the terrorist at the scene (Israel Hayom).

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