Democrats
May 18, 2024 — Scott Johnson
New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and his wife are charged with corruption the likes of which will serve as fodder for Hollywood at some point. We haven’t kept up with his developing defense. Senator Menendez ungallantly blames his wife, who will stand trial separately. “[S]he took all the bribes, he claims,” the editors of the New York Post point out, “which doesn’t explain why he provided all the pro quos
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May 17, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In the 2004 Illinois Senate race that launched Barack Obama on the path to political prosperity, only Republican candidate Jack Ryan stood in his way. Ryan appeared to be a formidable candidate. George Will wrote a memorable column — I remember it, anyway — asking whether Ryan was “too good to be true.” He thought Ryan was an impressive and formidable candidate. Once Ryan secured the Republican nomination to oppose
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May 14, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Leading Democrats have realized that Joe Biden is hopeless as a presidential candidate, and that Donald Trump may actually win the election. Their desperation is therefore mounting, and they are pulling out all the stops. For a long time, the New York Times has been basically a clipping service for the Democratic National Committee. But in the present crisis, the Times is taking hysteria to a level that might embarrass
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May 12, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Taking account of President Trump’s huge Jersey crowd over the weekend, John Hinderaker cruelly observed that President Biden, by contrast, could hold a rally in a parking lot. What would it take for Biden to draw a crowd of 80,000 or more like Trump? I think it could be done. Everyone knows Democrats love “free gifts,” as they say in the retail business. Biden might easily draw a Trump-sized crowd
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May 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden chose to revise and extend his mealymouthed comments on anti-Semitism with a 1600-word speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance Ceremony yesterday. The White House has posted the text of his remarks here. The speech seems to me late and wanting. Revisiting the history of the Holocaust, Biden referred to “the perils of indifference, the complicity of silence in the face of evil that
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May 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Until I saw Lloyd Billingsley’s post, I hadn’t realized that Joe Biden awarded Al Gore, among others, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The White House’s press release is here. This year’s recipients were the usual mixed bag, but I want to focus specifically on Gore. This is what Gore’s citation says: Al Gore is a former Vice President, United States Senator, and member of the House of Representatives. After winning
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May 3, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump continues in Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom. Today’s testimony was devoted mostly to the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump made an obscene reference to the liberties that celebrities are allowed to take. What that has to do with the “crime” with which he is charged, God only knows. The gist of the prosecution’s case is that Trump tried to prevent bad stories about him,
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May 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Judge Juan Merchan is considering a motion by Alvin Bragg’s office to fine Donald Trump an additional amount for further violations of Merchan’s unconstitutional gag order. Merchan has also threatened to throw Trump in jail. So what did Trump do to merit such a response? The four new alleged violations are quoted here. Trump criticized the Manhattan venue and expressed concern that the jury would be unfair: “That jury was
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April 30, 2024 — John Hinderaker
This morning, Judge Juan Merchan fined Donald Trump $9,000 and threatened to imprison him for violating Merchan’s gag order in the farcical Stormy Daniels case. The order prohibits Trump from commenting publicly on witnesses, jurors or prospective jurors, prosecutors (other than the District Attorney), staff members of the court or District Attorney, or family members of various persons. The offending statements by Trump were mostly reposts of comments by others
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April 30, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Kill-the-Jews protesters at Columbia have taken over that school’s main administration building, Hamilton Hall. Scenes from the campus are horrifying: Students at Columbia University have occupied Hamilton hall. Today the university president explicitly said to students the school would not be divesting and threatened to suspend students protesting. The last time this building was taken over by student protesters was in 1968 pic.twitter.com/IhoWVYlocB — Lama Al-Arian (@lalarian) April 30, 2024
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April 28, 2024 — John Hinderaker
A year ago, it would have been hard for me to imagine anything that would cause me to sympathize with the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and its attendees. A more disgraceful event, and a more disgraceful group of people, are hard to conceive of. But last night, the dinner was beset by kill-the-Jews protesters, an even worse gang: "Shame on you!" pro-Palestinian protesters let their voices known to the members
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April 25, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump was argued in the Supreme Court today. The issue is the extent to which ex-presidents are entitled to immunity for acts committed while they were in office. The New York Times covered the arguments with live updates. Here are some excerpts: Overall, several justices — maybe a majority — apear to have suggested through their questions that presidents should indeed enjoy some
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April 24, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Mark Twain said that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress. However, he didn’t know about the Minnesota DFL party’s legislative delegation: The arrest rate in the United States is 2,181.7 per 100,000 each year, or 2.18%. The arrest rate for #mnleg Democrats is 3 per 104 in the last year, or 2.89%. Elected #mnleg Democrats have a 32% higher arrest rate than the general population. pic.twitter.com/rXxYlU31qi —
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April 24, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I wrote last night about the absurdity of Alvin Bragg’s criminal prosecution of Donald Trump. Today both Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Turley made similar points. Andrew went into considerably more detail. He writes: As I’ve related a few times, Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s elected progressive Democratic district attorney, is trying to hoodwink the jury into believing that (a) it is a crime for a candidate for public office to conspire with
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April 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Donald Trump is undergoing a criminal trial in Manhattan. He is charged with filing corporate records that included a false statement; namely, that payments to Michael Cohen that were described as being for legal services were, in fact, to reimburse Cohen for making one or more payments to Stormy Daniels in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement. But those payments to Daniels were perfectly legal, and filing a false corporate document
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April 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats hold a one-vote majority in Minnesota’s state Senate. They used that advantage to pass an unprecedented barrage of far-left legislation in the 2023 session. Their skinny majority is now in jeopardy, however, because a DFL senator has been arrested for burglary. This account is from a local news outlet in Alexandria, Minnesota: A state senator from Woodbury, Minnesota has now been charged with burglary for breaking into her
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April 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden paid his respects to Al Sharpton and his National Action Network yesterday. In prepared remarks read from his teleprompter (transcript here), Biden spoke virtually at NAN’s annual convention. At the top of his remarks, video below) Biden celebrated Sharpton: “Look, we’ve known each other for a long time. I’m grateful not only for your leadership and partnership but, quite frankly, more importantly for your friendship.” In his remarks
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