🧵 Five Politico reporters contributed to a glowing Van Hollen puff piece. It includes falsehoods, disputed claims presented as fact & glaring omissions. “Garcia, a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration on erroneous charges of gang membership.”

“Erroneous”? Per DHS:
… it might be fair to write that he’s credibly accused of gang membership (with two judges making this determination during his many rounds of due process), but his advocates deny it. But to ignore the evidence presented by the government in order to call the accusation “erroneous” is incorrect and asserted ‘without evidence’…

🧵 Kamala Harris was asked twice tonight about a personal weakness or mistake & how she can learn from it. Her, um, ‘answers’ were that she’s very well-versed/prepared on issues, and that she has such an exceptional team around her. At first blush, these are laughable responses… …because (a) these are not “weaknesses,” of course, and (b) she is infamously under-prepared/not well-versed — and she has sky high staff turnover due to the widely-reported toxic workplace environment she fosters. BUT, I think there was a flash of truth in these responses…

🧵 ~10 days after Biden was forced out, a leader at a major right-leaning organization (which spends significant resources on high-quality, private polling) told me their data had taken a serious downward turn for Trump across key states & Senate picture looked worse… …Trump’s leads were gone & he was trailing in several battlegrounds. In Senate races, most theoretically winnable races were looking like duds for the GOP. The trend continued…until it didn’t. There has been a rebound, now detectable over more than one poll in their series…

🧵27 days since Hamas terrorists massacred 1400 civilians. Israel delayed its invasion for weeks. Hamas leader JUST said they’ll launch endless 10/7-style attacks until Israel is annihilated. And major “pro-Israel” liberals are already going wobbly on Israeli self defense...





Someone should tell CBS and the international pressurers that the “refugee camp” (not from this conflict) in question was attacked by Israel because Hamas has been *using it for its terrorism.* Fully legitimate target…

🧵 I have now heard from multiple @UChicago students about something that happened on campus last week. Pro-Israel students followed the rules and reserved the quad for a rally. “Pro-Palestine” students showed up and did everything they could to drown out the event, an apparent violation of the school’s (good) free speech policy:
Note the “resistance is justified” chanting, which is hard to interpret as anything other than backing the Hamas massacre, given the context. I’m told this was the ‘Dean on call’ during the incident…

🧵 In the 2+ weeks since the fires ripped through Maui, the president has looked less like a concerned, empathetic national father/grandfather figure, and more like a detached retiree shuffling between vacations… …and his curious brand of empathy has too often entailed embellishments and fabrications involving his own life — which is not at all a new phenomenon with him…

It’s pride month, which means it’s time for a lot of noise — from corporate posturing to culture warriors’ endless competing grievances (sometimes they have a point, on both “sides”). There are any number of things ‘Pride’ *doesn’t* mean to me — but here’s what it does: I’m living my life to the fullest, as best I know how, while being truthful about who I am: A gay man. For years, I never expected this sort of life would be possible or accessible to someone like me. Despite my fear, I’ve never regretted finally accepting & sharing that truth…

🚨👀 So this person is rushing to affirm Trump’s nonsense attack against DeSantis for supposedly closing down FL beaches. I assumed it was a hardcore Trump fan. Nope…

…it’s someone else highly invested in helping Trump attack DeSantis: The Democrats’ rapid response director!🤔

https://twitter.com/ammarmufasa/status/1619887953412767744

Also: DeSantis refused to close down the beaches in March 2020 & urged local officials who did to reopen them for scientifically sound reasons the following month.

This 🧵 is framed as uncharitably as possible, based on a negative story in a lefty publication about a Republican who’s feared & despised by the journo/Dem alliance. Yet several of the tweets, meant to inspire revulsion, make me *more* favorably disposed toward its target…

https://twitter.com/lesleyabravanel/status/1538897121130303489

…I don’t know how this is supposed to be a negative, especially from the people who purport to loathe $ in politics (except their own side’s, of course)…

https://twitter.com/lesleyabravanel/status/1538897126478032898

🧵 Let's discuss this talking point, which I've seen floating around in recent days:

"If you oppose abortion, don't have one."

It's a snappy slogan that, in my opinion, betrays shallow thinking and a weak substantive argument... 1/ Consider:

'If you oppose rape, don't commit one.'

'If you oppose a war, don't enlist.'

'If you don't like AR-15's, don't buy or use one.'

'If you don't like cigarette smoke in a bar, don't smoke.'

'If you want to limit carbon emissions, don't drive/fly'... 2/

When Dems demand a federal law "codifying" the existing legal regime on abortion (Roe/Casey), that would *actually* mean generally available abortion early in pregnancy, w/ heavy restrictions permitted post-viability (~20 wks). Would they even allow a vote on that? I doubt it... The legislation they've offered on this front has been grotesquely radical & out of step with public opinion (abortion on demand for any reason, for all 9 months, financed by taxpayers). They dress this up as "codifying Roe" because that polls better than their actual views...

Here is my five-point analysis/commentary on the SCOTUS abortion case leak -- addressing both process and substance. I'll hope you'll read and consider each of my points, even if you don't agree. The final one may be the most important: townhall.com/tipsheet/guybe… (1) The leak is shocking and dangerous, regardless of one's views on abortion or abortion jurisprudence: townhall.com/tipsheet/guybe…

A few thoughts. There have been a # of examples that have built toward the current moment. This is one of them—and it’s a big one. I’m still against the retaliatory (mis)use of government power, but I understand why many conservatives now believe fighting this way is necessary…

https://twitter.com/CTIronman/status/1517916089967161347

I’d add that the Left has used levers of government power to wage culture wars for years. Obama admin suing the nuns. CO persecuting the baker. Blue city mayors attacking Chick-fil-A. CA formally boycotting red states over culture war policies. Those are off the top of my head…

Hollywood to Florida: WE SAY GAY!

Hollywood to China: We will certainly not say gay — thank you for your censorship notes, please give us money.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1513873793508388867

As I formulate views on the finalized LGBT-related bill just passed by FL's legislature, I've read the legislative text. I have Q's about what certain verbiage means, or could mean, in practice. But I recommend reading it as a starting point. Just 7 pages: flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2… 🧵 Here’s what I’ve gleaned from reading the bill and talking to some folks about it: First, I don’t think it’s fair or helpful for the news media to adopt progressive activists’ shorthand ‘don’t say gay’ to describe the legislation, especially in its final form…

🚨 Wow. It looks like the university president at @GWtweets told complaining pro-CCP students that the posting of anti-regime placards by a Chinese artist was a “terrible event” & vowed the school would remove the “offensive posters” ASAP / identify the offenders… @badiucao To be clear, the art opposes a totalitarian regime’s genocide against minorities, crushing of democracy in Hong Kong & cover-up on origins of a virus that has killed millions. *Criticizing that regime* is what GW’s president apparently deems unacceptable and offensive. A scandal.

Dems: Gerrymandering is bad!

Also Dems: Dems: Dark money is bad!

Also Dems:

Big, special shout-out to the absolute hacks who signed a letter demanding full protection of the legislative filibuster in 2017, when they were in the minority, then voted to blow it up (failing, thankfully) tonight — using a terrible bill and a phony “crisis “ as their excuse: Pat Leahy (D-VT), Angus King (I-ME), Mark Warner (D-VA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bob Casey (D-PA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA)…

Free ideas for journos asking Q’s of POTUS tomorrow at his first formal presser in forever:

1. You’ve called the filibuster a Jim Crow relic. Was your party using a tool of racism when it mounted hundreds of filibusters during the last admin, adding another just last week?… 2. In Delaware, you were elected repeatedly under a system that was (& still is) much more “suppressive” under your definition than Georgia’s new law. You’ve called that law worse than Jim Crow. Were you elected under a racist voter suppression regime in your home state?

Parents are free to follow this dubious advice, contradicted by reams of data, for their own children. Other parents are free not to.

https://twitter.com/VAPediatricians/status/1483237586399281153

Same AAP. nymag.com/intelligencer/…

🧵 Where I am on Rittenhouse: These shootings should never have happened. It was extremely poor judgment for an armed teenager to insert himself into a volatile and violent situation. I don’t know what motivated him but he shouldn’t have been there. Likewise… …the volatile & violent situation into which he inserted himself represented an utter failure of authorities who wouldn’t/couldn’t enforce laws/state monopoly on violence. This failure occurred in context of wider, disgraceful coddling & excusing of violent unrest elsewhere…