Wednesday, May 21, 2025

May 21, 2025

Good morning,

Welcome to the news for independent thinkers

Leading the News . . .

Mainstream Republicans Hope for Unity on Budget Bill After Trump Visit to Capitol . . . After President Donald Trump's Tuesday meeting with the House GOP Conference, moderate Republicans are hoping that his stern command to unify will bring holdouts into line to vote for the budget reconciliation bill. "Listen, the president spoke in a very strong way about the need to quit screwing around and pass this bill. And that did irritate some members who were there," Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., told The Daily Signal. The bill would fulfill a number of Trump's campaign promises, such as funding border security and extending his first-term 2017 tax cuts. Daily Signal

Speaker Johnson reaches tentative deal with blue state Republicans to boost cap on SALT deduction

Senate unanimously approves $25,000 tax break for tipped workers

Politics

Justice Dept. investigating former New York Gov. Cuomo over pandemic testimony . . . The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo after congressional Republicans recommended that he be charged with lying over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. attorney's office in Washington launched the investigation shortly after Rep. James Comer, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight, asked DOJ to prosecute Cuomo over statements he made to the committee investigating his management of the pandemic when the virus was spreading through nursing homes, the person said. Associated Press

Jake Tapper Flails When Confronted With His Role In Biden Cover-Up, Says conservative Media Were Right . . . Jake Tapper scrambled to respond when confronted directly over his new book — written with Axios reporter Alex Thompson. "Alex and I are here to say the conservative media was right and conservative media was correct and that there should be a lot of soul-searching, not just among me, but among the legacy media to begin with, all of us, for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently 100 percent," he said. Daily Wire

Not covered 100%? It wasn't covered 1%.

Not a Conspiracy: The Bidens Have a Long History of Lying About Health Issues . . . Tapper and Thompson recount in Original Sin how the Biden family covered up Beau Biden's diagnosis of terminal brain cancer in the summer of 2013, when Beau was the sitting attorney general of Delaware and Joe was the sitting vice president. The family discussed how much information to disclose about Beau's health, but ultimately said nothing as Beau started to limit his public appearances. In November, Beau lied to a reporter and said doctors had given him a "clean bill of health." Washington Free Beacon

'It Could Be 12 to 18 Months': Former White House Doctor Says Biden's Cancer Prognosis Is Grim . . . Rep. Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), who served as physician to the president from 2013 to 2018, told the Free Beacon that Biden may not have much time left. "This is not my area of specialty, but I have spoken to multiple urologists since this came out, and the general consensus is like, you know, it could be 12 to 18 months," Jackson said. "Hopefully it's longer than that, and I hope that they're able to treat this effectively, and, you know, he lives many, many more years. But it's far advanced." Washington Free Beacon

Rubio Clashes with Sen. Kaine Over Afrikaner Refugees: 'You Don't Like that They're White' . . . Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with Democrats over the Trump administration's recent acceptance of South African refugees, telling Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) that he does not "like the fact that they're white" in a Tuesday exchange. The heated conversation took place during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, with Kaine calling the State Department's claims of "government-sponsored racial discrimination" against the minority Afrikaner population "specious." Breitbart

Rubio also puts Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland in his place . . .

Mace, alleging assault, shares nude photo of herself during House hearing she says was taken without her consent . . . Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) shared a photo of what she described as a "naked silhouette" of herself that she said was taken without her consent while renewing allegations of sexual abuse against multiple men, including her ex-fiancé, during a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday. The four men Mace has accused of crimes have repeatedly denied wrongdoing. The South Carolina Republican framed her testimony as part of a broader effort to advocate for stronger legal protections for victims of non-consensual recording and sexual misconduct. Politico

Easy, guys.

Culture

Supreme Court Sides With Lawmaker Censured for Defending Women's Sports . . . The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Maine lawmaker who was censured for defending women's sports from male intrusion. Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, filed a federal lawsuit against Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau for censuring her after she sounded the alarm on a biological male student beating his female competitors at the Maine State Class B Championship in pole vault for girls. Daily Signal

Federal Trade Commission Sets Sights On Transgender Procedures On Kids . . . The FTC, an tasked with protecting American consumers, will hold a day-long workshop in July on transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers, according to an internal memo obtained by The Daily Wire. That's a likely indicator of the agency's intentions: the FTC often holds such events before initiating legal action against an industry to gain information, gather evidence, and solicit the input of affected Americans. Daily Wire

National Security

Trump Announces 'Golden Dome' Missile-Defense . . . The U.S. will build a "Golden Dome" to guard against missile attacks, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday. The president said he has "selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the lands, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors." Trump said the total cost of the defense system is estimated to be around $175 billion, noting that the "one big, beautiful bill" that is currently being debated in Congress will include $25 billion for getting construction of the "Golden Dome" underway. Daily Signal

He says it will be ready withing three years.

ICE captures illegal immigrant wanted for allegedly killing mother in DUI crash . . . Immigration and Customs Enforcement captured an Ecuadorian illegal immigrant who is facing vehicular homicide charges in Minnesota on Friday. The August crash, in which German Adriano Llangari Inga allegedly had a blood alcohol content "twice the legal limit," killed mother Victoria Eileen Harwell, and hurt her teenage daughter and sister, according to DHS and local media outlets. "Despite a lack of cooperation from local Minnesota authorities, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien German Llangari Inga," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Tuesday. Fox News

International

Adviser to Ukrainian ex-President Yanukovych shot dead outside American School in Spain . . . Spanish authorities said that an adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was shot dead on Wednesday. Andrii Portnov, 51, was identified as the victim by Spain's Interior Ministry. He was shot at 9:15 a.m. local time, authorities said, after apparently dropping his children off for class. During Yanukovych's presidency, Portnov was widely viewed as a pro-Russia political figure and was involved in drafting legislation aimed at persecuting participants of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. Associated Press

Money

Ford will let Nissan use part of its flagship Kentucky battery factory . . . Ford made a big bet on electric vehicles in 2021, announcing two new battery plants in Kentucky as part of a bigger $7 billion investment. The plants are a joint venture with Korean battery maker SK On. Today, one of the Kentucky factories is sitting unused, and only part of the other factory is producing batteries for Ford. The active plant will now also make Nissan batteries, according to the people. Wall Street Journal

You should also know

New Trump vaccine policy limits access to COVID shots . . . The Trump administration said Tuesday it will limit approval for seasonal COVID-19 shots to seniors and others at high risk pending more data on everyone else — raising questions about whether some people who want a vaccine this fall will be able to get one. The FDA laid out new standards for updated COVID shots, saying they'd continue to use a streamlined approach to make them available to adults 65 and older as well as children and younger adults with at least one high-risk health problem. Associated Press

New Orleans jail worker charged in mass escape, as Soros-backed sheriff catches heat . . . Louisiana officials said Tuesday that they had charged a New Orleans sheriff's employee in a jailbreak by 10 violent inmates, as the governor and law enforcement advocates blamed the sheriff's lax oversight of the facility on her ties to left-wing billionaire George Soros. "I take full accountability for this failure," said Sheriff Susan Hutson. Mr. Soros is a prodigious political financier who supports candidates with lenient attitudes toward violent criminal suspects. Washington Times

George Wendt, who played beloved barfly Norm on 'Cheers,' dies at 76 . . . George Wendt, an actor with an Everyman charm who played the affable, beer-loving barfly Norm on the hit 1980s TV comedy "Cheers" and later crafted a stage career that took him to Broadway in "Art," "Hairspray" and "Elf," has died. He was 76. Wendt's family said he died early Tuesday morning, peacefully in his sleep while at home, according to the publicity firm The Agency Group. Associated Press