Newsbusters

Democrats and their corporate media allies like to quietly redefine political terms to suit their needs. Threats to “democracy” are really threats to unaccountable, left-of-center government bureaucracy; “misinformation,” along with its “dis-” and “mal-” cousins, is any fact or narrative that is inconvenient for the political left; and basically anyone or anything who runs afoul of the Democratic party’s agenda can instantly become a “racist.”

One such term that had lain dormant for much of the Biden presidency has re-emerged this week: “constitutional crisis,” — defined as anything that the Trump-run Executive Branch does which Democrats disapprove of but are powerless to stop.

On January 20, President Trump renamed the the Obama-era United States Digital Service to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As the media’s recounting of events goes, Trump then handed the reins over to Elon Musk, and within moments, a torrent of constitutional crises erupted all over the country.

When Elon hired a Generation Z hacker who once went by the online handle, “Big Balls,” a constitutional crisis promptly ensued. Just days later, DOGE set its sights on a $500,000 government-funded program to promote atheism in Nepal, resulting in another constitutional crisis. Then DOGE began scrutinizing all manner of nonsensical USAID grants, which prompted yet another devastating constitutional crisis.

As far back as 2017, the media were seeing constitutional crises around every corner. Nancy Pelosi once remarked in 2019 that Trump had triggered one, and the cable (CNN, MSNBC) and broadcast (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks eagerly parroted that claim 386 times in five days.

The journalists are very frustrated that nobody’s taking their protestations seriously anymore. But it was their own overuse of the term that caused it to lose whatever potency it once had. After all, what does a journalist really expect of you when he bursts into your bedroom at 11 p.m., sobbing about the constitutional crisis lurking under his bed? And really, what can you  do — except get him a glass of water, tuck him back in, and make a show of checking under his bed before you return to your room?

 

On Thursday morning, CNN host John Berman gave no pushback as Congressman Jim Clyburn (D-SC) appeared as a guest to complain about the Republican proposal for tax and budget cuts, calling it “reverse Robin Hood.”

The CNN host didn’t take exception with the veteran Democrat laughably generalizing that Democrats “keep people above our politics” while Republicans “put the politics above the people.”

Without clarifying that the tax cut would be an extension of the tax cuts passed in 2017 — which aided most taxpayers, not just the rich — Berman set up the segment by reading the tweeted criticism from Congressman Clyburn:

Also this morning, House Republicans have released their budget blueprint, calling for a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The response from Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, quote, “Republicans want to cut Medicaid for seniors. All the while, Elon Musk just got a $38 million government contract. They have one agenda — stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.”

After introducing the South Carolina Democrat as a guest, the CNN host began by simply asking him what he meant by his tweet, giving the South Carolina Democrat a chance to expand on his criticisms. Congressman Clyburn took the time to suggest that Republicans in Congress are bad:

CONGRESSMAN JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): This reverse Robin Hood has been taking place by Republicans for a long time. Everybody enjoys tax cuts — the question is, how do you make them fair? And there’s been nothing fair about these tax cuts. I have not read thoroughly the contours of this budget that we are supposed to be seeing in a few minutes. But, from what I’ve seen, you’re talking about a trillion and a half dollars in tax cuts, and then you’re talking about preparing to give another big tax break to multimillionaires.

Now, all of these so-called “Matthew 25 Christians” that operate in this place — this doesn’t seem as if it’s a fulfillment for doing for the least of these. We are doing much more for the wealthy — the wealthiest among us. And that’s what’s going on with this budget. And this is just unfair, it’s not the American way, and I just think that we ought to really take a hard look at what comes before us.

Berman followed up: “You mentioned possible cuts to Medicaid. What are your concerns there?” Democrats always warn of Medicaid “cuts” to insure they don’t pass.

After Clyburn predicted that the budget would cause some nursing homes to close, the CNN host asked how Democrats should vote on the issue of the government shutting down, and soon changed the subject to former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voting against some of President Donald Trump’s cabinet choices. After modestly praising McConnell, Clyburn wrapped up by taking another shot at Republicans leading Berman to simply wrap up the segment:

CONGRESSMAN JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): But there’s a big differences in Democratic leadership and Republican leadership. We tend to keep people above our politics. On the Republican side, they put the politics above the people. And that’s why you see these votes going the way they’re going — people with all these cabinet selections. That’s what the politicians want — Trump the politician. That’s what they want, so they give it to him.

They know better. They are voting against what they know to be in the best interests of this country, putting the country at risk, putting people in charge of running the government who have absolutely no idea about how to run anything. And then we’re saying that we’re doing it for the people. No, you’re doing it for the politicians.

JOHN BERMAN: Congressman James Clyburn from South Carolina, thanks for coming on this morning. Appreciate it.

Transcript follows:

CNN News Central

February 13, 2025

9:34 p.m. Eastern

JOHN BERMAN: Also this morning, House Republicans have released their budget blueprint, calling for a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts and $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. The response from Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, quote, “Republicans want to cut Medicaid for seniors. All the while, Elon Musk just got a $38 million government contract. They have one agenda — stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.”

With us now is Congressman James Clyburn, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. You just read that tweet — that statement — out loud. What do you mean?

CONGRESSMAN JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me. Well, simply that. This reverse Robin Hood has been taking place by Republicans for a long time. Everybody enjoys tax cuts — the question is, how do you make them fair? And there’s been nothing fair about these tax cuts. I have not read thoroughly the contours of this budget that we are supposed to be seeing in a few minutes. But, from what I’ve seen, you’re talking about a trillion and a half dollars in tax cuts, and then you’re talking about preparing to give another big tax break to multimillionaires.

Now, all of these so-called “Matthew 25 Christians” that operate in this place — this doesn’t seem as if it’s a fulfillment for doing for the least of these. We are doing much more for the wealthy — the wealthiest among us. And that’s what’s going on with this budget. And this is just unfair, it’s not the American way, and I just think that we ought to really take a hard look at what comes before us.

BERMAN: You mentioned possible cuts to Medicaid. What are your concerns there?

CLYBURN: My concerns were about certain people who are low-income people in need of health care, and that is a lot of what Medicaid is about. Medicaid is also about nursing home care. And the fact of the matter is, I’ve been telling people all the time, we keep focusing on the beneficiaries of these laws like people who are in nursing homes? What about the people who benefit from them? If you own a nursing home, this is going to have dire consequences upon you and the people that you hire in that nursing home. And so I just think that we ought to really think about what it is that we are doing to the economy not just withholding health from people in nursing homes, but you are going to have a lot of people unemployed, and you’re going to have a lot of people owning nursing homes that will have to be put in mothballs. And I don’t see how that helps the economy at all.

BERMAN: As this process moves forward, how willing do you think Democrats should be to vote in a way that would lead to a government shutdown?

CLYBURN: Well, you framed that question in a very interesting way. We’ll vote in the best interests of the American people, and I think that that’s what we’re going to be doing. Nobody wants to shut the government down. That, too, leads to unemployment. We want to do what is best for the American people, and we should vote that way. And so there’s people coming forward with these unfair tax cuts, making these unfair cuts to services. We need to vote against that. That’s not voting to shut the government down — that’s saying that, to people, “The government is open — it’s running smoothly — let’s continue it going that way.” And you can come out with a trillion and a half dollars tax cut — that’s going to be what’s shutting the government down — your proposals, not my vote.

BERMAN: I want to ask you very quickly. You’ve been in leadership — Democratic leadership — for quite a while. On the Senate side, Mitch McConnell has been in Republican leadership — was for a long time. Now that he’s out of leadership, he’s casting some interesting votes against the confirmation of Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard. We don’t know about Robert F. Kennedy, but what do you think of these votes from Mitch McConnell against a Republican President?

CLYBURN: Well, I think they’re interesting votes because Mitch has, for a long time, been voting one way and talking another. He seems to be lining up his votes now with his rhetoric, and, well, it was a bit late, but I guess you take it when you can get it. But there’s a big differences in Democratic leadership and Republican leadership. We tend to keep people above our politics. On the Republican side, they put the politics above the people.

And that’s why you see these votes going the way they’re going — people with all these cabinet selections. That’s what the politicians want — Trump the politician. That’s what they want, so they give it to him. They know better. They are voting against what they know to be in the best interests of this country, putting the country at risk, putting people in charge of running the government who have absolutely no idea about how to run anything. And then we’re saying that we’re doing it for the people. No, you’re doing it for the politicians.

BERMAN: Congressman James Clyburn from South Carolina, thanks for coming on this morning. Appreciate it.

The liberal ladies of The View had totally measured and sane reactions, during Thursday’s show, to the Trump administration announcing they were looking to ax the government bloat at Department of Education. Not really. According to ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin, President Trump want to “create” a “permanent underclass” of “cheap labor.” And using her platform at ABC News, she proclaimed: “That is the bottom line, and that’s what they’re doing.”

Hostin began her unhinged proclamation by misleading the ABC News audience about the origin of the idea to do away with the Department of Education. She falsely suggested it was the spawn of Project 2025, despite the fact that conservatives had been talking about axing the department for many years.

What she was doing was continuing the liberal media narrative of trying to tie everything back to Project 2025, no matter how long the ideas had been out there. The liberal media had tried to suggest ubiquitous Republican ideas such as border security and expanding domestic oil production to the products of Project 2025.

That’s when Hostin pivoted to talking about the “much more nefarious reason for” looking to get rid of the Department of Education. To prey on misconceptions about the role DoE played, she asserted that without it, future Americans would be a dumber and “cheaper” workforce:

I think it’s because without education, you get cheaper labor. I think what they want to do is create in the United States a permanent underclass, a permanent cheap workforce, because educated workers cost more. That is the bottom line, and that’s what they’re doing.

 

 

Of course, she provided no evidence of what she claimed were the facts, faux Republican Alyssa Farah Griffin was as useless as ever since she didn’t push back on Hostin’s lies at all, and none of them seemed to be aware that the states already controlled their curriculums. Particularly co-host Sara Haines, who feared the states overseeing their educations because “there are some really religious states.”

Meanwhile, they had spent weeks decrying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) for his state’s black history curriculum. Oh, what short memories they have!

Former teacher and “comedian” Joy Behar also had some rage at America she just had to get out of her. She was very upset that America got her name from “a white European…man”:

In that case, this country that we’re in was settled by indigenous people, right? And yet they name the country after an Italian white man, Amerigo Vespucci. That is what America is named after: Amerigo Vespucci, a white European. Why is it named after a white man?

She also took issue with Trump saying America didn’t rank highly in education compared to other countries, but she couldn’t state the numbers either:

BEHAR: First of all, they’re lying. He’s a liar. The United States is not ranked 40. The United States –

GOLDBERG: It isn’t? What is it ranked, Joy?

BEHAR: It depends. Well, the U.S. is ranked up there; better. It’s not 40. They just make things up.

“We’re 29th in the world in math and we’re in the 20s globally for just across the board,” noted Farah Griffin.

The transcript it is below. Click “expand” to read:

ABC’s The View
February 13, 2025
11:03:05 a.m. Eastern

(…)

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, is completely deleting these agencies and kicking education back to the states – because that’s what this means, that’s what it mean – is this going to make things run more smoothly? Maybe it will.

JOY BEHAR: First of all, they’re lying. He’s a liar. The United States is not ranked 40. The United States –

GOLDBERG: It isn’t? What is it ranked, Joy?

BEHAR: It depends. Well, the U.S. is ranked up there; better. It’s not 40. They just make things up.

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: We’re 29th in the world in math and we’re in the 20s globally for just across the board.

BEHAR: It’s not 40.

GOLDBERG: It’s not 40.

BEHAR: Right. They get these numbers from Elon Musk’s son, the little kid. That’s where they’re coming up with this stuff.

It ranks number 6 in reading, 12 in science, 28 in math. Okay, math is hard. But it’s not 40.

(…)

11:05:27 a.m. Eastern

SUNNY HOSTIN: It’s not really about saving money.

BEHAR: No.

HOSTIN: I think there’s a much more nefarious reason for it.

BEHAR: Which is?

HOSTIN: I think it’s because without education, you get cheaper labor. I think what they want to do is create in the United States a permanent underclass, a permanent cheap workforce, because educated workers cost more. That is the bottom line, and that’s what they’re doing.

(…)

11:20:15 a.m. Eastern

BEHAR: In that case, this country that we’re in was settled by indigenous people, right? And yet they name the country after an Italian white man, Amerigo Vespucci. That is what America is named after: Amerigo Vespucci, a white European. Why is it named after a white man?

(…)

Puck’s Dylan Byers wrote Wednesday night in his latest must-read media article that the mood inside CBS News has grown even more grim as, not only are they facing a lawsuit from President Trump and an FCC investigation (and, we would add, a public and private struggle session over their far-left staffers objecting to a host’s basic decency to defend Israel), but network insiders are now forlorn over what they view as a dreadfully boring new format for the CBS Evening News.

In “CBS News’ Blue Period,” Byers used Tuesday’s impromptu Oval Office Q&A between Elon Musk, Trump, and that day’s White House press pool as a jumping off point to voice internal angst with the CBS Evening News’s newsmagazine format as it chose to lead off with a lengthy report on the pitiful state of American education.

Byers noted that co-anchor John Dickerson started with the show with the adage from 70 years ago of “[w]hy can’t Johnny read” before divulging that, “within CBS’s Washington bureau, it has become fodder for a broader internal critique of Evening News—and, indeed, the network itself—under C.E.O. Wendy McMahon and Evening News supervising producer Bill Owens.”

He dished these spicy stabs at Dickerson, who’s a pompous leftist hack in his own right:

“Why can’t John read the news?” one CBS News correspondent asked me, referring to Dickerson. “It’s tough to watch,” a former CBS News insider said. “I appreciate doing something new. I really do… [but] Bill and I have different theories of the case.”

(….)

“It’s just not good, sorry” one said—while irking several of the Washington-based correspondents[.] 

(….)

On Wednesday morning, I’m told that Owens came down to the newsroom floor and made it clear to executive producer Guy Campanile and others that even he thought the broadcast had underplayed the Musk news. Was this ass-covering, an actual volte-face, or simply the latest sign that no one in charge really knows what to do anymore? “I think last night was the night many around here really got upset or confused by what they’re attempting to do,” one CBS News insider told me. 

Owens — who added the weeknight newscast two years ago to his purview to go along with leading 60 Minutes — came up with, in Byers’s Cliff Notes version of events, “a new editorial strategy prioritizing longer enterprise packages, human interest stories, and ample weather coverage over the usual digest of the day’s big headlines” and not include then-anchor Norah O’Donnell.

Byers conceded “[p]erhaps none of these were great ideas, but they were at least an attempt to shake up a stale format whose decline mirrors the demise of linear television” and thus “could afford to take the risk.”

“[Y]ou can understand the desire to create a product that offered something other than headlines that audiences are already familiar with…If 60 Minutes and CBS Sunday Mornings have proven successful with the newsmagazine format, the logic goes, then why not Evening News? The longer packages seemed designed for social media and YouTube, which is where the future…resides,” he continued.

After revealing the show’s ratings sunk by nine percent in week two from last year and five percent from its debut, Byers painted what comes off as arguing about what to have for dinner while the Titanic is sinking:

Still, the 60 scandal and the aimlessness of Evening News have taken some of the shine off…adding insult to injury for journalists struggling to come to terms with the real existential crisis—which, as I’ve noted before, is that CBS News is a fading division in a fading network within a fading company.

A newly empowered government oversight official just promised to uphold free speech. 

Beth A. Williams, currently the only member of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Board addressed the 2025 State of the Net Conference, making clear that the era of debanking and government collusion to censor free speech is over. “I’m committed to moving forward rapidly in our current investigation into the government’s efforts to counter speech it labels mis-, dis- and malinformation,” she said. 

The U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Board’s stated mission “is to ensure that the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism are balanced with the need to protect privacy and civil liberties.” In this case, that includes preventing unconstitutional government censorship.

Williams continued, “We’ve already seen substantial evidence that the government pressured social media and other companies to censor Americans’ free speech in the name of combating domestic terrorism. Tying disfavored speech to counter-terrorism paves the way for censorship under the guise of national security.” 

Last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the government put pressure on Facebook to censor content related to Hunter Biden scandals and COVID-19. The Twitter Files have exposed that the government also pressured Twitter to censor a host of COVID-19-related topics.

Researchers have repeatedly found numerous federal agencies involved in censorship. MRC Free Speech America, The Twitter Files, the Murthy v. Missouri lawsuit and the House Judiciary Committee together have exposed no fewer than nine federal agencies that colluded with Big Tech to censor speech. One such censorship program included the Department of Homeland Security’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Program which gave $700,000 to push censorship. This came from the same department that created Biden’s infamous Disinformation Governance Board, which Williams called a “public embarrassment.” 

In her remarks, Williams promised to investigate behavior like this and work to prevent it in the future. “I am hopeful that our renewed efforts with the current administration will yield more transparency and I hope that we will be able to recommend safeguards to prevent improper government coercion to suppress speech in the future,” she said. 

Williams went on to warn of other excesses, including that she hoped to investigate government efforts to pressure banks to debank “disfavored customers.” 

Also in attendance at the conference was Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who once again pushed for the imposition of a “duty of care” upon social media companies. Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) used part of his time to go after Big Tech executives who have moved away from censorship and biased fact-checkers over the last few years. Rep. Jay Obernalte (R-CA) discussed artificial intelligence regulation and the pros and cons of former President Joe Biden’s AI executive orders. 

Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.

When Kasie’s away, Sciutto will play . . .
We wouldn’t call CNN This Morning host Kasie Hunt fair ‘n balanced. She certainly leans to port. But at least when it comes to assembling her panels, Hunt has sought some viewpoint balance.
Hunt consistently has one bona fide Republican on her panel, typically Brad Todd or Matt Gorman. Neither is a fire-breathing advocate in the mold of Scott Jennings, but neither are they the CNN equivalent of “MSNBC Republicans.” The two generally make the case for Trump, and for Republicans in general.
But with Hunt away this week [and in line to be replaced by Audie Cornish], hard-core lefty Jim Sciutto has been hosting the show. His pernicious influence was apparent in the composition of today’s panel, which consisted of Isaac Dovere, Meghan Hays, and Joe Walsh.
Dovere is a CNN reporter, and surely no conservative. Meghan Hays is a Dem strategist and a former Biden aide.

There was also some entertaining wishcasting by Hays. She suggested that, given Trump’s efforts in office to date, Democrats would score gains in the midterm elections and in the 2028 presidential election.

In her cheerleading, Hays chose to ignore the her party’s grim predicament. Democrats are dealing with historically bad approval ratings. Think how painful it must have been for the Washington Post to publish a story with this dread headline: “Democrats’ brutal poll problem. Two recent polls show the party is more unpopular than it has been in nearly two decades.”

The article reported that whereas Americans are about evenly split in their views of the Republican party, Democrats are underwater by a whopping 26 points. Adding to Dem depression was this paragraph [emphasis added]:

“Democrats’ 57 percent unfavorable rating is their highest ever in Quinnipiac’s polling, dating back to 2008, while the GOP’s 43 percent favorable rating is its highest ever.”

Then there was the recent CNN poll that found 58 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents wanted “major changes” in their party.

And 70% of Americans say Trump is making good on his campaign promises.

Unlike the UK, we don’t have snap elections in the US. But if Trump could call one today, what do you imagine the results would be?

The other pundit on the panel was Joe Walsh, introduced by Sciutto as a “former Republican Representative for Illinois.”

Unsuspecting viewers would think that Walsh was the Republican on the panel. In fact, Walsh is an ardent Trump antagonist who in 2020 said he’d support any Dem running against Trump. He endorsed Biden in 2020, again in 2024, and Kamala Harris when she replaced Biden on the ticket. The first comment out of Walsh today was to suggest that in their efforts to trim wasteful government, Trump and Musk are acting illegally.

And next time Sciutto assembles a panel, perhaps he could include an actual Republican.

CNN This Morning
2/13/25
6:02 am ET

JIM SCIUTTO: As President Trump and Elon Musk look for more places to slash funding and jobs, the Department of Education finds itself very much front and center. 

REPORTER: How soon do you want the Department of Education to be closed? 

DONALD TRUMP: Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education’s a big con job. So they rank the top 40 countries in the world. We’re ranked number 40th. But we’re ranked number one in one department, cost per pupil. 

SCIUTTO: Joining me now to discuss, Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter, Meghan Hays, Democratic strategist, former director of message planning for the Biden White House, and Joe Walsh, former Republican representative for Illinois and host of the podcast, The Social Contract. Good to have you all here. 

I mean, you know, the question about these cuts, right, is they’re clearly popular with some. When do they start affecting average Americans, is the question, Joe? And is there a potential danger there for the Trump administration that folks will begin to notice that they, they don’t get services they used to rely on?

JOE WALSH: Yes, because as most Americans right now really have no idea what’s going on. I mean, think about that. Most Americans don’t know what Elon Musk is doing. They’re not going to feel the impact of this stuff until it hits. 

Jim, I say this as a former Member of Congress, that government’s too big. We can look for efficiency and all of that. But I keep thinking about the rule of law. There’s a legal way to do this. And this gets missed every time we talk about this. Darn near everything that Trump and Musk are doing right now is being taken to court. And just unilaterally firing federal employees that Congress has already appropriated money for: that story’s got to be told. 

SCIUTTO: Meghan, the Democrats’ strategy seems to be to fight this in court, right? They’re still struggling to find not just a message, but it seems, someone capable of delivering that message in a convincing fashion. Who’s going to step to the fore? Or is the Democratic strategy, it strikes me the Democratic strategy is, just wait for people to feel the pain. 

MEGHAN HAYS: I mean, that’s unfortunate. I don’t think that’s going to be a good service for our country. I think that will be seen in the midterms. I do think that will end up being what happens. I don’t think Democrats know who the messenger is going to be. I don’t think a lot of members of Congress are stepping up to the plate. Thank goodness for these legal organizations that are out there suing, because members of Congress really are not providing that leadership right now. And I think they are starting to, but it seemed like they got caught a little flat-footed. I’m not sure what more they can do. I don’t think protesting outside of these agencies is really helpful. I think it makes them look breathless [?] 

And I do think, until people realize that their services are being cut, they are not going to understand what’s going on here. So I think this is going to be something that will be felt in the midterms and in 2028, which unfortunately Donald Trump will not feel the effects of. This will not impact Donald Trump. It will impact the Republican Party moving forward. 

SCIUTTO: Unless he decides to run again, which he does occasionally say publicly. 

It’s a bit early for spring cleaning but that’s what President Trump and his faithful companion Elon Musk appear to be doing.

When I was a child, every spring my mother would open closets and check the attic and basement for clothes and other items that could be discarded or given to charity. Sometimes it was difficult to part with them, especially if they had sentimental value, but generally we went along with most of it because clutter was regarded as unnecessary and taking up space that could be used for other things.

Today’s cable shows have programs about what they call “hoarding” that gives you a flavor of what I mean in case you are not old enough to share my memories.

“Who voted for Musk?” is the cry by some Democrats who are resisting his and Trump’s effort to downsize government, something Trump promised to do during his campaign. Does any politician want to say the government is too small, costs too little and that we need more regulations? Maybe some on the fringes of the Democratic Party (and we know who you are), but probably no one else.

The pathetic image of a few radical politicians showing up at the Department of Education (DOE) and getting blocked from entering the building by what appeared to be a security guard, was only the latest example of how Democrats have run out of even bad ideas. What were they protesting? The guard asked them, “What is your business here?” No one answered because the protest was the endgame. They couldn’t even tell the guard who they wanted to see.

One of the showboating protesters at the DOE was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), whose district includes Los Angeles public schools.

According to U.S. News and World Report: “Los Angeles Unified School District spends $19,576 per student each year.” And what are taxpayers getting in return? The publication reports that in math elementary students are at just 33 percent proficiency. By middle school the number drops to 25 percent. It declines further to 18 percent by high school. It’s not much better with reading where the numbers are 40 percent, 38 percent and 46, respectively. Perhaps Rep. Waters ought to focus on the schools in her district rather than engage in bad political theater in Washington that helps no child.

Once again, we see how money and education achievement are unrelated. If they were, these proficiency levels would be much higher. It’s a major reason school choice is winning approval in increasing numbers of states, thanks to an executive order by President Trump, perhaps soon at the national level.

Back to the main reason Democrats, the party of big government, are apoplectic when it comes to Musk. Their main criticism is that no one elected him.

Who “elected” the people responsible for these wasteful, fraudulent and in many cases, unnecessary and duplicative programs? The answer is no one. They are mostly appointed or hired bureaucrats and regulators who have made life (and the cost) worse for America. Sometimes it takes a chainsaw, instead of a scalpel, to get a job done.

So far, voters who put Trump in office for a second term appear to be pleased with his (and Musk’s) performance. According to the latest YouGov poll: “Slightly more Americans strongly or somewhat approve of Donald Trump’s job performance (46%) than disapprove (44%).” The breakdown by party shows approval by “90% of Republicans, 38% of Independents, and 10% of Democrats.”

Democrats claim that cutting or ending some U.S. foreign aid will cause poor children to starve. Some news organizations, who have lost credibility among many Americans, follow suit. Much of the public seems not to be buying what they are selling.

Three weeks into Trump’s second term, Democrats have nothing new to offer the country and that’s where Trump and Musk would like them to stay while they continue making cuts.

Comedy Central’s Jordan Klepper did not take the news that President Donald Trump has given Elon Musk and DOGE more power when it comes to hiring decisions. On Wednesday’s edition of The Daily Show, Klepper suggested that such a move would lead to the government hiring more Nazis.

After a news clip on the situation, Klepper freaked out that, “Yes, Elon Musk is now in charge of all government heilings—hirings. Hirings. I didn’t say that Reich—right. I didn’t say that right. Yeah, okay. I don’t know why I keep Hitler— misspeaking. I don’t know why I keep misspeaking.”

 

 

Klepper then moved to Musk’s recent appearance with Trump in the Oval Office, “So, this was already a pretty unusual thing for a president to do, but Trump being Trump, he had to make it even more ridiculous by introducing it with a full on circus act in the Oval Office.”

It did not take long for Klepper to return to the Nazi allegations, “Look at this scene: Musk is holding court with his hands tented like a Bond villain, probably to stop him from doing a Nazi salute, with his four-year-old child in tow.”

As for Musk and his son, Klepper added, “I mean, that poor kid. His dad literally runs SpaceX, and Elon took him to a meeting on federal spending. ‘Dad, are we going to see the rockets?’ ‘No, son, we’re going to discuss budgets because I’m a shitty dad.’”

 The lack of excitement around the minutia of government of spending aside, that is a cheap shot for someone who was just spending time with his kid. Furthermore, does Klepper think Nazis were known for their commitment to limited bureaucracy? That makes him sound as crazy as some of the MAGA people he cherry-picks for his man-on-the-street segments.

Here is a transcript for the February 12 show:

Comedy Central The Daily Show

2/12/2025

11:03 PM ET

JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, Elon Musk is now in charge of all government heilings—hirings. Hirings. I didn’t say that Reich—right. I didn’t say that right. Yeah, okay. I don’t know why I keep Hitler— misspeaking. I don’t know why I keep misspeaking. So, this was already a pretty unusual thing for a president to do, but Trump being Trump, he had to make it even more ridiculous by introducing it with a full on circus act in the Oval Office. Look at this scene: Musk is holding court with his hands tented like a Bond villain, probably to stop him from doing a Nazi salute, with his four-year-old child in tow. I mean, that poor kid. His dad literally runs SpaceX, and Elon took him to a meeting on federal spending. “Dad, are we going to see the rockets?” “No, son, we’re going to discuss budgets because I’m a shitty dad.”

Amanpour & Co., which airs on PBS after appearing on CNN International, was guest hosted on Tuesday by Paula Newton, last seen here in January fretting over the disturbing coincidence of Martin Luther King Jr. Day coinciding with the inauguration of Donald Trump.

On Tuesday Newton hosted the architect of Obamacare, Ezekiel Emanuel, to warn about the Trump Administration’s “drastic cuts” to the National Institute of Health, part of the cost-cutting Trump promised (with advice from space entrepreneur Elon Musk) during his campaign.

After decades of the media lying about Republican budget “cuts” that were actually just slowdowns of projected increases, there are actual spending cuts on the table, and the press is in fight mode. Newton didn’t hold back and neither did her sole guest for the segment, from the unlabeled liberal group Center for American Progress.

PAULA NEWTON: …. judges are preventing or delaying the implementation of several of [Trump’s] executive orders, among them halting proposed cuts to the National Institute of Health’s research efforts in 22 states now, drastic cuts that some experts argue could severely impact American public health. Joining me now to talk about all this is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He’s a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He was an adviser to President Biden amid the COVID-19 pandemic and also a key architect of the Affordable Care Act….

Now, the announcement from the Trump administration of capping indirect payments to the NIH sent chills, I don’t have to remind you, through the entire scientific community. We have been hearing from many, a reminder that the NIH grants have been crucial in groundbreaking medical research that I have to say, not just the United States partakes in, but people all around the world….

When Newton set him up with the softball, “Is there any doubt in your mind that this will affect the wellbeing of Americans for starters?” Dr. Emanuel obligingly took a whack.

DR. EMANUEL: ….patients on research protocols are having to be stopped. You’re in the midst of a cancer treatment as part of research and they’re saying, we’re not funding that grant to the same level, or we’re doing critical experiments on a particular new novel therapy, that’s going to stop. No, this is meant to undercut the biomedical research enterprise….

Newton also brought out that favorite liberal pinata, Project 2025.

NEWTON: And to the reasons as to why they’re slashing and burning perhaps, a 2022 report by the conservative think tank that published Project 2025, something Americans have heard a lot about, they claimed that NIH funding was being used to subsidize the DEI agenda of the political left….

Emanuel agreed: “….the cutting in the NIH indirects was part of Project 2025. It’s right there in the program.”

Newton came off patronizing.

NEWTON: I do want to point out how perhaps someone looking for efficiency may not understand exactly what’s at stake when they’re looking for it, despite what you say is they might mistake it for overhead, that’s too expensive, when really, it’s necessary….

At the end Newton promised “Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, we will continue to follow up with you on this….” Oh joy.

 

CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip, known colloquially as “The Thunderdome”, was particularly lively as conservative commentator Scott Jennings clowned multiple guests across multiple segments. Each own was progressively more brutal than the other.

The show began slowly enough with a segment on the potential end of the war in Ukraine, but business eventually picked up. A segment on the Associated Press’s exclusion from the Oval Office as a result of their guidelines regarding the recently renamed Gulf of America had Jennings shutting Brian Stelter down on the matter of presidential transparency:

CNN’s Brian Stelter huffs, “that’s not true” when Scott Jennings lets the panel know that Donald Trump answered more press questions in 3 weeks than Joe Biden did for his entire quadrennium. pic.twitter.com/Nku2nUf5wW
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 13, 2025

SCOTT JENNINGS: The Biden administration treated the press as poorly as any president has ever treated them, gave them less access, answered no questions, no transparency at any given time. Donald Trump has answered more questions in three weeks than Joe Biden answered in four years. Elon Musk answered more than that…

BRIAN STELTER: That’s not true. 

JENNINGS: C’mon, Brian.

STELTER: And also a lot of the answers are not true and accurate.

JENNINGS: This administration is giving the most access they could possibly want.

Stelter went to the “but Trump lies” card after Jennings wrecked him on transparency, and he has a point. President Donald Trump has likely had more Resolute Desk press conferences than Joe Biden has had press conferences. And unlike Biden, Trump does not require cue cards with the journalist’s name, image, outlet, and question.

The following segment was on the FCC’s investigations of DEI programs at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Phillips and The View co host Ana Navarro linked up to try to posit that the “conservative” position is to let DEI run amuck at these institutions. This is not unlike some conservatives opposing statutes keeping boys out of girls’ sports:

Abby Phillip comes in for a quick referee stoppage after Scott Jennings brutally owns Ana Navarro on the FCC pic.twitter.com/eQzBNKQ4ov
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 13, 2025

ABBY PHILLIP: I mean, are we okay with the government telling corporations how they can govern themselves?

ANA NAVARRO: There’s nothing less conservative than that and less of a Republican value than that. I mean, Republicans used to be for small government and for the private sector governing themselves. And we are for less regulation, supposedly. And so I just -I see it such, such an so opposed to all of the things that we grew up believing.

SCOTT JENNINGS: So you’re saying we should do away with the FCC?

NAVARRO:  No, I’m not saying we should do away with the FCC.

JENNINGS: Is that- Is that the conservative view?

PHILLIP: Scott, I’m going to- hold on, Ana…

NAVARRO: I’m saying- I’m saying- I’m saying that no government agency should be telling…

PHILLIP: I’m going to stop this conversation right there, because I think it’s so…

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIP: It’s in such bad faith for you to take what she just said…

JENNINGS: Well, I’m asking…

PHILLIP:…and then no, and then say, you want to get rid of the FCC.

JENNINGS: No, she said we should have less regulations. This is a regulatory agency, what are they supposed to do?

PHILLIP: No, that’s not at all what she said.

JENNINGS: She said they shouldn’t be so active.

Navarro got so viciously owned here that Phillip had to cut in, accusing Jennings of making bad-faith arguments. 

Here, Phillip is playing the role of fight referee…………………..Finally, there was the entire segment on rebutting Vice President JD Vance’s remarks on immigration and Ordo Amoris, which establishes an order in which we love, beginning with our own family. A woke priest was brought in in order to discuss Pope Francis’s letter, and it did not go well:

.@ScottJenningsKY DESTROYS the entire segment crafted to dump on @JDVance over Ordo Amoris: “Isn’t it kind of irrelevant? We don’t live in a theocracy. We live in The United States of America”, closing it out by checking the priest over The Vatican’s own border policies. pic.twitter.com/pvmvEBDRt8
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) February 13, 2025

PHILLIP: That is, I mean, very powerful for you to say. And I think it is an important point that he is trying to say, well, you’re supposed to really only care about your family first, and then maybe later you care about other people. But as father beck is saying, as the pope is saying, the Bible actually teaches otherwise.

JENNINGS:I know, but isn’t it kind of irrelevant? We don’t live in a theocracy. We live in the United States.

>> Wait a minute. Wait a minute

(OUTRAGED CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: We have a Constitution.

PHILLIP: I thought we were in a Judeo-christian society…

(CROSSTALK)

JENNINGS: But we but we are, Abby.

PHILLIP: Organized according to Judea and Christian Judeo- judeo-christian values.

JENNINGS: We live in a-

PHILLIP: I thought that the Ten commandments were to be taught to kids in the schools.?

JENNINGS: I mean…

ANA NAVARRO: What about the war on Christmas?

JAMAL SIMMONS: And prayer. So there’s prayer.

JENNINGS: We live- we live under a constitution. We live under laws. I was researching this before I came out. I read a headline, Father, from January 15th. Quote: “Vatican cracks down on illegal entry into its territory.” You’ve had a wall around it since the ninth century, and you have the most draconian immigration laws in Europe. The lectures, I understand, as a matter of…theology? I’m just saying.

FR. EDWARD BECK: The Pope has Invited migrants into the Vatican to sleep and has cared for them within the walls of The Vatican. They live inside the walls of the Vatican.

JENNINGS: Listen. January 15th wasn’t that long ago.

Jennings’s “This isn’t a theocracy” smackdown obliterated the priest’s previous six minutes of lecturing and moral preening. There is this impulse to absorb an unlimited number of migrants in the name of Christian values. 

Jennings’ continued presence on CNN gives one pause to consider the quality of his “heel” work, as mentioned in the recent Daily Caller profile. Final Boss Rock may well be his floor, with Jennings rapidly approaching The Iron Sheik.