Speaker Squeaker

The first session of the 119^th Congress begins today. New senators were sworn in, and Republicans, under Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), officially took over the chamber.

With the Senate leadership already decided, all eyes were on the House of Representatives, where Mike Johnson (R-LA) was fighting to remain speaker. He had Donald Trump’s endorsement, but Thomas Massie (R-KY), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and Keith Self (R-TX) did not vote for Johnson during the roll call vote.

That’s a big problem because it takes 218 votes to win the speaker’s gavel, and there are only 219 Republicans currently in the House. Johnson could lose only one vote. But after an hour of wrangling, Norman and Self changed their votes and Mike Johnson was reelected Speaker of the House.

Several Republicans reportedly were on the fence before the voting began. They were likely trying to negotiate certain concessions for their support.

One concession that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy made was a change to the rules governing efforts to remove the speaker, known as a motion to vacate the chair. In order to get enough support from conservatives, McCarthy agreed to lower the threshold required for offering a motion to vacate to just one member of either party.

But given the GOP’s incredibly narrow majority, House Republicans are changing the rules for the 119th Congress. (Every new Congress adopts new rules.) Now, a motion to vacate will require support from nine members, and all nine must be from the majority party.

In the past, the single-member rule made sense. But now, with such a narrow majority and knowing how the left will do everything it can to undermine Donald Trump’s agenda, the higher limit makes complete sense.

A Ukraine Connection

Do you remember Ryan Routh? He was the second attempted assassin who hid in the bushes at Donald Trump’s Florida golf course. Somehow, Routh managed to avoid being shot by a Secret Service agent when he was no more than five feet away.

Routh had a bizarre obsession with Ukraine. In spite of his serious financial troubles, Routh somehow managed to travel the world recruiting mercenaries to fight for Ukraine.

Now, there are unconfirmed reports that Routh visited Fort Bragg more than 140 times over the past four years. As we reported yesterday, both of the New Year’s Day terrorists also trained at Fort Bragg.

That could be a total coincidence. Tens of thousands of soldiers are stationed at Fort Bragg. But, if the reports are true, we need to know why Trump’s attempted assassin was also at Fort Bragg more than 140 times.

Here’s another odd “coincidence.” Matthew Livelsberger, the Green Beret who killed himself in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, also strongly supported Ukraine. He reportedly served in Ukraine at some point during his military career.

Online photos show him wearing a shirt with an inscription that reads, “Glory to Ukraine. Glory to heroes.” The inscription was written in Ukrainian. And like Routh, he was also attempting to recruit people to fight in Ukraine.

The FBI is puzzled by the incident outside the Trump Hotel because the explosives packed into the Cybertruck are not what you might expect a Green Beret would use to carry out such an attack.

They also discovered that as the truck was set on fire, Livelsberger put a bullet through his head, so they are labeling this as a “suicide.”

Well, it could be a form of suicide protest. There have been at least two self-immolations in Washington, D.C., in protest of the war in Gaza against Hamas. One involved a member of the U.S. Air Force. By the way, an Army veteran was just indicted for attempting to join Hezbollah.

I don’t think it’s much of a leap at all to view Livelsberger as a gung-ho Green Beret all in on fighting Russia in Ukraine. How he could be active duty and also be recruiting mercenaries online raises some questions in my mind.

But he and the American people have been subjected to years of lies that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, that Trump is a friend of Putin’s, that he will abandon Ukraine to Putin, and get us out of NATO. The “Deep State’s” lies have serious consequences.

So, there are a number of odd Ukrainian connections. But, once again, we are also seeing just how dangerous the left’s nonstop smears and false narratives against Donald Trump can be.

Moral Midgets

In the aftermath of the latest act of Islamic terrorism against our homeland, it’s worth reminding you that Joe Biden recently announced his national strategy for combatting radical Islam. Oh, wait – that’s not what he did.

Three weeks ago, Biden announced the “first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Islamophobia and Anti-Arab Hate.” Incredibly, the White House statement contains this outrageous claim, “Over the past year, this initiative has become even more important as threats against American Muslim and Arab communities have spiked.”

Excuse me? There’s been no massive surge in Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate over the past year.

The truly bizarre thing is that after more than a thousand innocent Israelis were raped and brutally murdered, the exact opposite thing happened -- there was an explosion of antisemitic hate!

No one is burning down mosques. There are no riots on college campuses demanding Muslim students be kicked out. There are no Jewish terrorists carrying out mass casualty attacks in our cities. No one is questioning the legitimacy of any Arab state or its right to exist.

What the moral midgets at the Biden White House are doing is not just stupid, it’s evil. They are ignoring the real victims of hate while providing cover for the hate-filled perpetrators.

Thank You!

Thank you so much to everyone who generously supported American Values during last month’s year-end fundraising campaign. We’re still processing mail, but it looks like we will definitely reach our goal and may even slightly exceed it. I know for many this is sacrificial giving, and I cannot express just how much we truly appreciate your support.

To those who regularly pray for our work, whether you donated or not, please know that your prayers are priceless, and we definitely need them at this critical time for our country.

Other Headlines

• A federal judge in Texas ordered the Biden administration to stop selling off border wall materials.

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials just canceled two programs that provided taxpayer-funded social services to illegal aliens. The Trump Effect is real!

• Another Florida state legislator switched parties and joined the GOP because of the left’s extremism and increasing hostility toward Israel.

• A government agency that led efforts to censor conservatives has been defunded and is now defunct.

• Meta (Facebook) announced that Joel Kaplan will be the company’s new president of global public policy. A top official in the Bush White House, Kaplan is the leading conservative voice at Meta and opposed past efforts to censor Donald Trump on the platform.