Thursday, May 9, 2024

5/9 WAKE-UP CALL: Biden to Bibi..You're On Your Own


President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.


“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

➤BIDEN FIGHTS ECONOMIC PERCEPTIONS: Biden was speaking Wednesday in Racine, Wisconsin, where he’d just promoted new economic investments that could result in thousands of new jobs. In the CNN interview, he sought to reframe perceptions of the American economy, touting strong job growth and efforts to combat corporate greed while questioning surveys showing voters still pessimistic about the country’s direction. “We’ve already turned it around,” Biden said, responding to a question on whether, less than six months before Election Day, he was running short on time to improve his standing among Americans on his handling of the economy.

Biden pointed to surveys showing many Americans view their own economic situation favorably, even as they look negatively on the nationwide economy. “The polling data has been wrong all along,” he said, questioning the effectiveness of phone surveys.

FETTERMAN RIPS BIDEN: Biden must stop delaying arms sales to Israel . . . Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) stated that while President Joe Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel, the administration delaying arms sales to the country is wrong and the only conditions should be on Hamas and their enablers. "I don’t think we should be withholding any kind of munitions and I think, I said I think we need to send them immediately. Of course, Israel is in this kind of war and we — I have no conditions. I never have, and I can’t imagine I ever will,” he said.

MTG FAILS:  The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday swiftly defeated an effort by firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove fellow Republican Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership role. Democrats joined Republicans in a 359-43 vote to protect Johnson's speakership, in a bid to avoid a replay of the chaos that occurred in October when Republicans ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. Greene's move represented a rare Republican defiance of presidential candidate Donald Trump, who in a social media post on Wednesday said it was "not the time" for Republicans to try to push out their own speaker.

"I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort," Johnson said following the vote. "Hopefully this is the end of the character assassination that has characterized the current Congress."

Earlier, standing flanked by fellow Republican Thomas Massie, Greene criticized Johnson for a string of compromises with Democrats, who hold a majority in the Senate. "Excuses like 'this is just how you have to govern in divided government' are pathetic, weak and unacceptable," Greene said of Johnson. "Even with our razor-thin Republican majority we could have at least secured the border."


➤JUDGES BLACKBALLING COLUMBIA PROTESTORS: Thirteen Trump-appointed federal judges are blackballing Columbia University graduates. In a letter to university President Minouche Shafik, the conservative jurists wrote that they won’t hire Columbia undergraduates or law students, beginning with the entering class of 2024. They said that the school’s response to pro-Palestinian protests was inadequate and that the campus had become an “incubator of bigotry” with rampant antisemitism and a lack of diverse perspectives. The Columbia law school said it’s proud that alumni “are consistently sought out by leading employers in the private and public sectors, including the judiciary.” Some legal professionals criticized blacklisting specific institutions. College protests and the Israel-Hamas war threaten President Biden’s reelection campaign, and campus unrest this spring has Democrats bracing for protests at their convention in Chicago in August.

➤COMPANY PROFITS SHIELDING THE ECONOMY:  Booming company profits are shielding the economy. Corporate results are coming in ahead of expectations, and analysts spent last month lifting their current-quarter estimates. Strong profits typically suggest continued expansion, but the higher earnings estimates might be because companies are upbeat, instead of feeling a need to temper analysts’ optimism and nudge estimates lower. Survey-based measures of corporate sentiment have clocked the confidence.

➤STORMY'S TESTIMONY DIDN'T HELP PROSECUTION:  Stormy Daniels testimony nearly derails Bragg's case against Trump . . . Stormy Daniels nearly derailed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case Tuesday as she testified about her alleged “sexual encounter” with former President Donald Trump, frustrating the judge and prompting the defense to motion for a mistrial. While he declined to grant a mistrial, Judge Juan Merchan — who has not often criticized the prosecutors — did disapprove of Daniels’ behavior on the stand, allowing many of the objections raised by the defense during her questioning and agreeing when the mistrial motion was raised that many details would have been left better “unsaid.” Daniels did not hold back on the stand. She provided elaborate descriptions, took detours with side stories and inserted demeaning details that showed her disdain for Trump.

➤RYKERS READY FOR TRUMP:  Democrat NYC Mayor Adams preparing Rikers Island to imprison Trump . . . New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced that the city’s Department of Corrections was prepared to imprison former President Donald Trump at Rikers Island. Adams’ comments came a day after New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, the judge presiding over Trump’s business records trial, threatened to jail the former president after finding him in contempt for violating a gag order for the tenth time.

💸ILLEGAL MIGRANTS COSTING $150B PER YEAR:  Illegal immigrants cost US $150 billion per year . . . Each illegal immigrant costs the U.S. more per year than it spends on the average food stamp recipient or Medicaid beneficiary, according to an analysis by the House Budget Committee that was shared first with The Washington Times. The total net cost to the U.S. is more than $150 billion a year, with the lion’s share of that going to educate children who are here illegally themselves or whose parents are here without authorization, the Budget Committee says.

ED SECRETARY WON'T ANSWER QUESTION ABOUT HIS DAUGHTER:  Biden education secretary refuses to say if he would let boys undress in front of his daughter . . . Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona declined to answer questions about whether he would let boys fight his daughter in sports or undress in front of her in bathrooms at a Tuesday hearing. President Joe Biden’s administration released a finalized rule in April that extends Title IX protection to encompass “sexual orientation” and “gender identity,” but it does not address transgender athletes. Cardona refused to answer the questions from Republican Utah Rep. Burgess Owens, saying he would not comment on rules related to athletics that his department has not yet proposed.

PARENTS SUE SCHOOL BOARD: Parents sue school board after student suspended for saying "illegal aliens . . . The Liberty Justice Center (LJC) filed a lawsuit against the Davidson County Board of Education Tuesday on behalf of 16-year-old Christian McGhee, who was suspended after using the term “illegal aliens” in class. A press statement released by the LJC calls out the North Carolina school board for allegedly violating McGhee’s “rights to free speech, education, and due process.”


⚾SOTO KNOCKS-IN 5 RBIs:  Juan Soto hit a two-run homer two batters into the bottom of the first inning and finished with five RBIs as the host New York Yankees continued their recent success against the Houston Astros with a 9-4 victory on Wednesday.

Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton added solo shots as the Yankees won their fifth straight and beat the Astros for the ninth consecutive time. New York is 6-0 in the season series that ends Thursday and is 11-2 against Houston since the start of last season.

Soto hit a 440-foot homer into the back off the Houston bullpen beyond the left field fence when he connected against Houston rookie Spencer Arrighetti's first-pitch fastball to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. It was his ninth home run of the season.

Judge lined a 404-foot drive into the right-center-field seats to open the third for a 4-1 lead, his eighth long ball of the year. Two batters later, Stanton lifted a 1-2 curveball into the second deck in left field for a 447-foot drive to left, also his eighth homer.

⚾MLB SCORES

  • Texas, As Split
    Yankees 9 Astros 4
  • White Sox 4 Rays 1
  • Blue Jays 5 Phillies 3
  • Giants 8 Rockies 6
  • Twins 6 Mariners 3
  • Braves 5 Red Sox 0
  • Rangers 12 Athletics 11
  • Athletics 9 Rangers 4
  • Orioles 7 Nationals 6
  • D-Backs 4 Reds 3
  • Dodgers 3 Marlins 1
  • Padres 3 Cubs 0
  • Royals 6 Brewers 4
  • Guardians 5 Tigers 4
  • Angles 5 Pirates 4

🏀NBA SCORES:

  • Knicks 130 Pacers 121

🏒NHL SCORES:

  • Canucks 5 Oilers 4
  • Panthers 6 Bruins 1



➤THURSDAY WEATHER:


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