The Morning Briefing: Congressional Hearing Circuses and Much, Much More

Good Wednesday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president participates in a roundtable with supporters in San Antonio, Texas
President Trump delivers remarks at a joint fundraising committee lunch
The president arrives at International Union of Operating Engineers International Training and Education Center in Crosby, Texas
President Trump delivers remarks and signs an Executive Order on energy and infrastructure
The president participates in a roundtable with supporters in Houston, Texas
President Trump delivers remarks at a joint fundraising committee dinner

AG Barr testimony

Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to talk about the DOJ budget, but that was more of an afterthought as the Democrats used the opportunity to showcase their virtue on the Mueller report. The Democrats are upset that Barr released a letter summarizing Mueller’s findings and those findings blew up more than two years of claims that Trump is a RUSSIAN asset who worked with the RUSSIANS to win the presidential election. Now, the objective is to create a cloud of suspicion around Barr which, I guess, will cast doubt on the Mueller report. Silly stuff.

Some good news, other than Barr’s stellar performance, is that Barr is investigating the origin of the entire Trump-RUSSIA travesty.

“A headline today is that William Barr’s personally reviewing the conduct of the FBI in launching the Trump Russia collusion hoax. He knows and there is a plethora of evidence that the process by the FBI was corrupted by political bias and personal animus,” Gregg Jarrett told Sean Hannity.

Further, Bloomberg reports:

Attorney General William Barr has assembled a team to review controversial counterintelligence decisions made by Justice Department and FBI officials, including actions taken during the probe of the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This indicates that Barr is looking into allegations that Republican lawmakers have been pursuing for more than a year — that the investigation into President Donald Trump and possible collusion with Russia was tainted at the start by anti-Trump bias in the FBI and Justice Department.

Yes, that’s right and tainted would be the best possible outcome, illegal is more like it.

“I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016,” Barr told a House panel on Tuesday.

Barr’s investigation is in addition to the one being conducted by the DOJ’s inspector general.

Barr will testify today before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Buckle up.

They haven’t even seen it yet, how are they preparing a response? Democrats prepare their response to Barr’s redacted report

The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on white extremism

The Barr hearing was not the only hearing yesterday. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on white extremism in order to continue an important part of the Democrat platform: Trump is growing a white power movement. The panel was very heavily weighted toward the hate crime industry and also included Candace Owens of Turning Point USA and Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America. Poor Mr. Klein, he was shut down by chairman Jerry Nadler when he brought up Congress’s resident Jew-hater, Ilhan Omar, and the Democrats’ inability to condemn anti-Semitism.

“As a child of Holocaust survivors, I was horrified to see Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and [Minority] Leader [Steny] Hoyer defend Representative Omar after her vicious anti-semitic remarks …” and BOOM, that was the end of that. Child of Holocaust survivors? Sit down and shut up.

And that wasn’t even the main spectacle. The main event was Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif. of course) pulling out his phone to play a recording he had snipped up of Candace Owens, A BLACK WOMAN, appearing to give Hitler a pass. Lieu is a punk ass bitch, straight up.

Owens fired back and was also met with resistance from Fat Jerry.

“I think it’s pretty apparent that Mr. Lieu believes that black people are stupid and will not pursue the full clip in its entirety,” Owens said.

“It is not proper to refer disparagingly to a member of the committee. The witness will not do that again” quacked Nadler.

Owens did not call Lieu stupid like Nadler misrepresented. Owens continued: “As I said, he is assuming that black people will not go and pursue the full two-hour clip. He purposefully cut off — and you didn’t hear the question that was asked of me. He’s trying to present as if I was launching a defense of Hitler in Germany, when in fact the question that was presented to me was pertaining to whether I believed in nationalism, and that nationalism was bad.

“And what I responded is that I do not believe we should be characterizing Hitler as a nationalist,” Owens said. “He was a homicidal, psychopathic maniac that killed his own people. A nationalist would not kill their own people. … That was unbelievably dishonest, and he did not allow me to respond to it.”

Despicable behavior and quite ironic since one of the points Owens made in her testimony is that the left dehumanizes their political opponents making it acceptable and even desirable to attack them both verbally and violently.

(Shameless plug) Here’s my piece over at American Greatness on this very topic: Are Far-Right Extremist Crimes on the Rise? No

You Go, Girl! Candace Owens Blasts Dems For Splicing Her Video To Fit Their Despicable Narrative

The left’s new blacklist

Democrats and leftists are actively trying to “other” their political enemies. They’ve done it via their social media companies by deplatforming or censoring targets who disagree with their political agenda. They’ve done it by causing public scenes, screaming at Trump administration officials like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen, and they’ve done by shutting down campus speakers like Ben Shapiro and Ann Coulter.

Now, they are explicitly demanding that former Trump officials and designated enemies be blacklisted from employment. Authoritarian AOC, a sitting member of Congress, tweeted: “In stealing 1000s of children, deporting their parents,& refusing to provide info for reunification, Sec. Nielsen oversaw one of the largest-scale human rights violations in recent history… Awarding her a lucrative deal or prestigious post is to legitimize+celebrate that abuse.”

AOC was responding to writer Jamil Smith, who works for the disgraced publication Rolling Stone:

“No cable deals, no cushy college gigs,” Smith tweeted, attaching a link a New York Times column by Michelle Goldberg “on what should happen to the Trump foot soldiers who think that they can escape with their reputations intact simply because they were following orders.” What should happen? Self-appointed tyrants get to decide who is allowed to make a living?

And of course, there is even a petition.

“Jesse Eisinger at ProPublica thinks that Nielsen might quickly find a berth at a think-tank, university center or similar institution,” said petition writer and political scientist Henry Farrell, of Washington University. “Different people have different limits. Nielsen is some distance beyond mine. If she gets a position at a think-tank, university center or similar, I will not participate on any panel that involves anyone from that think-tank, center or other institution. I will not participate in any event where the institution plays an organizing role, nor will I associate myself in any way that might reasonably be seen as providing active support for that institution.”

I’d like to say I’m optimistic that think-tanks and institutions will push back on this sort of occupational extortion, but I’m not. Get used to it.

Israel’s election

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks to be the winner of Israel’s election.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be heading to re-election on Wednesday local time, according to exit polls that show him edging out his primary competitor in the tight race, The Associated Press reported.

Both Netanyahu and his challenger Benny Gantz claimed victory, but according to reports, Netanyahu’s Likud party had pulled ahead. Go BiBi!

“It’s a night of tremendous victory. I was very moved that the nation of Israel once again entrusted me for the fifth time, and with an even greater trust,” Netanyahu said at his victory rally.

“I want to make it clear, it will be a right-wing government, but I intend to be the prime minister of all Israeli citizens, right or left, Jews and non-Jews alike,” he said.

Netanyahu Wins Nail Biter Re-Election, Supporters Wave Trump Flags

Airbnb Lifts Israel Boycott After Lawsuits Challenge Decision

Immigration round-up

Acting deputy DHS secretary was forced to resign after Nielsen exit

Ocasio-Cortez claims climate change is driving migrant crisis

Yikes. More than 100,000 migrants apprehended or turned away at border in March, CBP reveals

Pentagon awards nearly $1B in border-wall contracts

Wow. Immigrants from 50 countries illegally entering US: Border Patrol official

The media really nailed this one. Trump immigration crackdown won’t include family separations, he says

MSNBC, CNN Spread False Impression that Trump Called Immigrants ‘Animals’

Your daily WTFs:

Woman on probation for having sex with a dog indicted for bank robbery