Issue: Politics

Pretty stupid if Doc Biden’s interview with Rita Braver of CBS is any indication:

Former first lady Jill Biden said she was “frightened” by her husband Joe Biden’s 2024 debate performance and thought he was having a stroke.

“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver in an interview airing Sunday on CBS. 

“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

But not so scared that she rushed Joe to Walter Reed. Instead, she cooed to the befuddled old man about how well he had done on the debate stage. The most incredulity-provoking claim Jill made was that she had never previously seen Joe act that way and hasn’t since. Golly, I have—haven’t you? Reporters at the Wall Street Journal certainly had noticed Biden’s decline—they wrote” How the White House Functioned with a Diminished Biden in Charge” in December of 2024.

An editorial in the New York Post argues that in the interview, Jill Biden just admitted to a scandal of historic proportions:

The most shocking thing about Jill Biden divulging that she thought her husband, the president of the United States, was having a stroke during his disastrous debate against Donald Trump, is that she so casually says this during a television interview two years later.

She’s admitting to a crime against the American people — and expecting sympathy for it.

This is on the level of Edith Wilson running the government while Woodrow Wilson was bedridden.

It is a scandal of historic proportions.

Thought Experiment: Are you more likely to compare Jill Biden to Edith Wilson (as above) or to, say, Lady Macbeth? Meanwhile, whether he knows it or not, Joe Biden is suing the Justice Department to block the release of the former President speaking at length to a biographer.

The full CBS interview, done in conjunction with the June 2 release of her new book, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir,” airs Sunday. Expect soul-searching honesty. One More CBS Note: Sharyn Alfonsi, who went out of her way to pick a fight with boss Bari Weiss, will exit “60 Minutes.” Alfonsi has no intention of going quietly. How much do you care? 

The MSM got itself in a pickle by refusing to notice Joe Biden’s precipitous decline because now their fervid speculations about President Trump’s health ring hollow. USA TODAY columnist Nicole Russell is onto the MSM’s shenanigans with Trump’s health.  We see President Trump all the time, and, while we aren’t all fortunate enough to have a medical degree like Jill Biden, we have eyes. We saw Trump conduct a big ol’ Cabinet meeting yesterday, all by himself, something poor old Joe simply could not do.

The U.S. Military is conducting new strikes on Iran. A Wall Street Journal news story asks, “How Long Can Iran Withstand the Economic Pain of the U.S. Blockade?” Their situation is dire:

Already, the blockade has choked off oil export revenue and raised the risk that Iran will have to shut down wells as it runs out of places to store crude. Iranian officials are urging people to conserve fuel, electricity and water—a sign that the economic squeeze is spreading from oil terminals and factories into daily life. Critical industries have been damaged. More than a million Iranians have been left out of work as the national currency falls to record lows. 

President Trump said during a Cabinet meeting yesterday that Iran was “negotiating on fumes.” Frequent Iran updates at Fox Digital. Several pro-U.S. nations are stepping up (here and here).

Delaney Hall, the ICE detention facility in Newark, continues to be a glam gathering spot for New Jersey’s liberal political establishment. Townhall captures the scene:

Another day, another leftist riot for murderers and sex offenders. After obstructing law enforcement, ICE agents are arresting Antifa activists and leftists outside of Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey.

Townhall introduces some of the detainees in Delaney Hall, and it’s safe to say nobody sane would want to come into contact with them. They are reportedly on a hunger strike. It is essential to treat detainees in a humane fashion, but I think Republican state Rep. Paul Kanitra might be onto something when she cruelly suggests that illegals have no entitlement to five-star accommodations.

The female-identifying male athlete at the center of a Title IX case before the Supreme Court found time to defeat more women athletes while waiting for the ruling:

Transgender athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson won a girls’ state championship in West Virginia this week, before the U.S. Supreme Court could make a ruling on whether the state can ban Pepper-Jackson from competing against females….

The Supreme Court appears ready to rule in favor of West Virginia against Pepper-Jackson with the expected June ruling looming. But that looming will do nothing for the girls who were impacted on Saturday.

“What has already happened by putting West Virginia’s law on hold as it applies to West Virginia in the B.P.J case is that girls have already been harmed,” Beecher added. “When you ignore differences between boys and girls, and between males and females, a lot of the harm falls on girls.”

The dust is beginning to settle after the Texas electoral earthquake. A RealClear Politics story by Caroline Lumetta suggests that the Ken Paxton victory over longtime incumbent Senator John Cornyn is the beginning of a remaking of the GOP:

In addition to showcasing Trump’s endorsement weight, the runoff election results also exposed the weakness of the Senate Republican establishment. For months, National Republican Senate Committee chair Tim Scott took to the morning news shows extolling Cornyn’s virtues while insisting that he was the key to keeping Texas safely red. The NRSC posted lists of Paxton’s various personal and professional scandals, as Cornyn called his opponent an embarrassment.

Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter urges readers to “Savor Our Victory Over the Establishment,” which the Paxton win represents, while Hugh Hewitt warns the GOP that it could lose the Senate if it doesn’t stop the infighting:

The entire Texas GOP will need to get behind [Paxton] quickly, and Paxton will need Cornyn’s half-million runoff voters and his financial supporters. The whole GOP will need to swing behind Paxton, even though Cornyn is respected and admired by longtime conservatives like me who value his knowledge of the Constitution, his work on the Judiciary Committee in every tough fight there over decades, and his tenure as GOP whip. But party loyalists have to know that ours is a two-party system and Winston Churchill’s admonition, “Trust the people!” applies in every fair contest.

Party Pooper. Karl Rove offers “The GOP’s Five Paxton Problems.” Rove says the GOP’s failure to repay Senator Cornyn for his loyalty was a mistake.

Financial Round Up. Kevin Warsh is now the Fed Chair, and David Malpass writes that he will face resistance to reform from colleagues eager to protect their turf in an op-ed headlined “Why the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet Needs to Shrink.” … An intriguing Wall Street Journal op ed explains how only booming capitalism allows New York Mayor Mamdani to fiddle with the pension system. Which might not be a good idea in the long run. … Wow! Vice President Vance’s fraud task force just received powerful reinforcements:

The federal agency that oversees more than $126 billion in federal contracts is joining Vice President JD Vance’s anti-fraud task force, expanding the White House crackdown into the federal government’s contracting system.

We’re often told by activists that when parolees end up back in prison, the poor dears were just victims of technicalities. Not so, according to “The Hidden Crimes of Parolees” in City Journal:  

If they committed a crime, though, why are these individuals reimprisoned on the basis of a technical violation? Why not charge a crime and seek a conviction?

The candid answer: it’s faster, easier, and more likely to pay off for prosecutors to send someone back to prison through a parole-violation hearing rather than through the courts. The parole hearing is held before representatives of the parole board, without any need to seat a jury, and the standard of proof is lower (“preponderance of the evidence,” not “beyond a reasonable doubt”).

Well, Texas, the eyes of the nation are upon you today, all the livelong day. What to make of the Texas-sized political earthquake that hit Texas yesterday?

AG Ken Paxton walloped incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Lone Star state’s GOP primary runoff yesterday, sending tremors far and wide.

A Wall Street Journal story suggests the Paxton win made strange bedfellows:  

President Trump and Democrats rarely find themselves in alignment. Yet both sides wanted the same outcome in Tuesday’s Texas Senate primary runoff election.

Ken Paxton’s trouncing of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican runoff represents Trump’s latest triumph in maintaining his grip on his MAGA base after he similarly ousted rivals in Indiana, Louisiana and Kentucky.

But to the delight of Democrats, the president’s decision to make an 11th-hour endorsement of Paxton could put the Senate seat in play for James Talarico after decades of Democratic futility in the Lone Star State.

An editorial in the same venerable outlet headlined “The Ken Paxton Republicans” is brutal:

Mr. Paxton is known for his polarizing style, ethical travails and lousy political judgment, but he won over Mr. Trump with his fealty and bombast.

Mr. Paxton represents the serrated edge of the Texas GOP, for which “owning the libs” is the highest political value. He’s a conservative culture warrior on gender and race. But when it comes to economics, he’s staked out a record of anti-business populism that is little different from that of progressive Democrats.

In a Washington Post editorial headlined “Texas and the Price of Loyalty to Trump,” editors argue that President Trump may have harmed his own agenda:

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) lost his bid Tuesday for a fifth term after Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the GOP runoff. This saddles Republicans with a scandal-plagued nominee whose liabilities will probably force the national party to spend significant sums this fall to hold what would have otherwise been a safe seat.

A big enough blue wave could even allow James Talarico to become the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas since 1994. If that somehow happens, Democrats would probably flip control of the Senate — bringing Trump’s domestic agenda and nominations to a standstill during his final two years in power.

USA TODAY’s conservative columnist Nicole Russell writes:

It’s difficult to imagine Paxton heading to Washington focused primarily on the best interests of Texans rather than on the spotlight he craves and the political ambitions he shares with Trump.

The Free Press goes so far as to ask, “Is Donald Trump Tired of Winning?” “From his endorsement of Ken Paxton to the White House ballroom, the president is putting his own priorities ahead of his party’s,” argues Mene Ukueberuwa.

Very much on the other side of the ledger, Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter writes that “Cornyn Never Represented the Will of His Voters” (alas, behind the paywall). PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser was upbeat on the Texas earthquake. Townhall’s Joseph Chalfant says, “Beware of Never Paxtons.” Meanwhile, Paxton is given credit for having helped to establish a long-overdue clinic for detransitioners in Texas.

Meanwhile, Democrat Maureen Galindo, a South Texas sex therapist who called for Zionists to be held in converted ICE facilities, was also defeated. And Rep. Al Green will threateningly brandish his walking cane on the House floor no more—he lost a special election primary to Christian Menafee. Jasmine Crockett-endorsed Colin Allred, previously crushingly defeated by Senator Ted Cruz, looks poised to make it to Congress.

What’s going on with the Iran negotiations?

President Trump is holding a Cabinet meeting today in Washington, originally scheduled for Camp David, to consider Iran. The discussion will include Iran’s demand for $24 billion in frozen funds to be released. Optics would be bad, even if the money isn’t delivered in pallets of fresh bills. “Is Trump blinking on Iran?” Guy Benson asks. Meanwhile, Byron York, also of the Examiner, asks, “Why doesn’t Trump just finish the job in Iran?” York answers:

So why doesn’t Trump just finish the job in Iran? The short version of this conversation was that it would take a substantial escalation of military force to change the current situation, and the president does not think it is worth it. The official did not detail just what a “substantial escalation” would involve, but the U.S. has already applied a lot of military force in Iran, so it would be a lot of force on top of force. It’s no surprise the president is reluctant to do it if there are other options available.

Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins asks an astonishing question: “In a Year, Will Iran Matter?” “The war made sense for President Trump only if he thought he could get a quick win,” Jenkins argues.

The New York Post has a double cover. The headline is “Give & Take.” “Give” is New York Governor Katht Hochul, who caved to the demands of the teachers’ union, and “Take” is New York Mayor Zohran Mamdami, who proposes doing what socialists have done throughout their dismal history: taking private property from the rightful owners. A story inside the Post reports:

Seize the means of accommodation!

Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani put bad landlords on notice Tuesday, pledging to help “transfer ownership” of chronically neglected buildings to tenants as part of his sprawling, new housing plan.

“When necessary we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers,” he said to cheers as he unveiled his administration’s “Block by Block” plan in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

“And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards – stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits or even the tenants themselves.”

And so it begins. … The Daily Wire warns that Mamdani “Wants to Decide Who Deserves to Keep Their Property.”

Anything to Help Illegals Put Down Roots: “California Is Giving Free Solar Panels to Illegal Aliens,” Chris Rufo and Austen Hufford report in City Journal. They write:

We spoke with MAROMA customer service representative Ángel Quintanilla, who confirmed that the company had provided solar panels for illegal immigrants. “You don’t need to have documentation,” Quintanilla said. “They ask for their pay stub and a form of their income and, of course, the gas and the electricity bill.”

Despite a $49 million budget and nearly seven years of operation, the farmworker “weatherization” program has only provided services to about 2,000 families. That means the State of California has allocated roughly $23,000 per household for its program to provide free solar panels, refrigerators, and other services—a number that raises serious concerns about financial accountability.

Another One from City Journal: Former Virginia AG Jason Myares writes about Steve Descano, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax, Virginia. In a congressional hearing last week, Descano was forced to look at the mother of a murder victim, whose alleged killer was free because of decisions of Descano’s office. Myares observes:

Descano’s office maintained impressive-sounding statistics. Fairfax County is a safe community, his staff said. Of course, it looks safe on paper when you’re consistently pleading felonies down to misdemeanors and declining to prosecute serious charges. But creative bookkeeping is not public safety. Meantime, the actual danger—the actual person—walked free to harm someone else. The reality: violent crime is up 92 percent under Steve Descano’s criminal-first, victim-last policies.

Memorial Day Hijacked. Jay Rogers writes at RCP that some jerks preferred to celebrate criminals instead of fallen soldiers on Memorial Day:

Memorial Day 2026 should have centered on flags at graves and the quiet dignity of remembering Americans who died in uniform. It didn’t. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz turned the day into another lap of the George Floyd perpetual remembrance tour.

While families visited Arlington and small-town cemeteries, Frey posted a Floyd tribute on X before his office had offered a single word about the fallen. Walz, meanwhile, skipped a scheduled appearance at Fort Snelling National Cemetery — where veterans waited for a governor who never arrived — to attend the Rise and Remember festival at George Floyd Square.

It’s a tragedy that George Floyd was killed, but a hero or role model for the young, he wasn’t.

Fresh Breeze Blowing? Writing in the London Spectator, Peachey Keenan says, “Get ready for a Spencer Pratt Summer.” The subtitle: “He Can Win.”

Well, now we know why the DNC was reluctant to release its 192-page autopsy on the 2024 presidential campaign. The report is notable primarily for what it doesn’t mention.

Put simply, the DNC can’t handle the truth. USA TODAY columnist Ingrid Jaques sums up the autopsy:  

The anticipated “autopsy” of the Democrats’ 2024 defeat shows that the party has learned … well … nothing.

The report is 192 pages long but says very little. Its biggest revelation is that Democrats want to blame everything for their loss except the main reasons behind it: the progressive ideas and policies voters rejected. It also ignores the devastating decision by then-President Joe Biden to run again, even though his declining physical and mental capacity had become obvious.

A Wall Street Journal editorial contends that party leaders “don’t want to tell themselves or their base why they lost in 2024”:

The main theory in the report prepared by party strategist Paul Rivera is that the Harris-Walz campaign didn’t attack Donald Trump enough. Yes, really. There are also some process complaints that Ms. Harris didn’t bother campaigning aggressively enough in rural areas, and long passages about insufficient or inefficient campaign spending.

Our favorite howler is the theory that Democrats were too rational to win in that cycle: “Democrats operate in an ecosystem defined by reason even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage.”

What’s missing is any discussion of the many obvious reasons Ms. Harris lost. The draft report makes no attempt to examine Joe Biden’s decision to stay in the race for as long as he did despite public evidence of cognitive decline, or to investigate the political consequences of the hasty handoff of the campaign torch to Ms. Harris, by resigned acclamation, without a party competition.

It was a report filled with “glaring omissions.”

While party leaders escape blame for not having taken the car keys from an obviously faltering old man, the Biden White House—and by extension the debilitated former president himself—do get plenty of blame:

The report found that the Biden White House did not “position or prepare the vice president” in a way that would allow her to lead a successful campaign.

A Wall Street Journal news report on the autopsy notes that the words “Gaza” and “Palestine” do not appear in the report. And there was the border czar issue:

It points to Biden’s decision to put Harris in charge of the root causes of migration—an assignment that conservatives were able to mischaracterize as “border czar,” pinning the blame on her for the administration’s handling of a surge in border crossings.

Rich Lowry gives the autopsy a “D”—for “dead,” I guess—and suggests it could have been improved by using. But what did we expect? Lowry writes:

Although our expectations for honesty in such documents shouldn’t be too high. What was the report going to say?

That Democrats disgraced themselves by pretending that Biden was fit for a second term, and only shifted course when he got exposed in the first debate, and then had no alternative but to turn to a charmless non-entity as a last-minute substitute?

If only Harris had convinced voters that she was not the border czar. … The report did acknowledge the Harris campaign “overlooked” rural and male voters. Other than these minor deficiencies, the Harris campaign was successful.

Going into the coming political season, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel suggests that Democrats have “Akinized” themselves—referring to midterms 16 years ago when the GOP ran such eccentric candidates as one who had to declare that she was “not a witch” and an unelectable guy named Akin:

It’s the Democrats’ turn now. In the party’s haste this midterm to recruit a younger, “fresher” “progressive populist” lineup, it’s getting its own season of cuckoo. Calls for “castration” of “Zionists,” mocking slurs of decorated U.S. servicemen, odes to prostitutes, laments for the dead Iranian supreme leader. They even have their own Wiccan defender. The media is keeping focus on GOP fights, but these Democrats are getting plenty of attention in their races, causing party leaders to shake.

Or to run, screaming, as in next week’s runoff in Texas’ 35th Congressional District. How else to handle Maureen Galindo, the sex therapist who led the first primary round? Her campaign’s Instagram account recently made a promise: If elected, she’d “turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers.” The new prison will “also be a castration processing center for pedophiles which will probably be most of the Zionists!” 

Not that everything is copacetic on the other side of the aisle. George Will writes that purging Sens. John Cornyn and Bill Cassidy was a mistake that could cost the GOP in the general election. House Republicans have pulled a bill to limit President Trump’s war powers, and Dems say that’s because they were fraidy cats. The president and GOP Senators are colliding over the controversial $1.7 billion anti-weaponization fund.

What would it take for the GOP to pull off the midterms? Victory in Iran (which would bring down fuel prices, among other things), says Marc Thiessen. Would the chattering classes be able to accept such a win? Benard-Henri Levy notices something unsavory about our “thought leaders”:

I watch the television generals and studio experts. They seem electrified by every image of smoke rising over an emirate and every siren sounding on a U.S. base.

Recipe Book. I would be remiss if I let the week go by without a mention of the Bundt Cake Caper. From Jonathan Turley:

Former Justice Department prosecutor Carmen Mercedes Lineberger has been indicted for allegedly removing confidential Justice Department material and then concealing her efforts. Lineberger is accused of secretly transferring former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report and hiding the material under files labeled “chocolate cake recipe” and “bundt cake recipe.” There has not been a greater recipe for disaster since aides tried to fit all of President Joe Biden’s candles on a cake. The case is particularly interesting because there was another person who was accused of a secret removal of Justice Department material who was not prosecuted: former FBI Director James Comey.

Meanwhile, Randi’s Recipe for Millionaire’s Cake:

Teacher union honcho Randi Weingarten’s 2025 vanity book “Why Fascists Fear Teachers” isn’t just a self-promoting, self-glorifying soliloquy: The unreadable screed also served as a helpful cash conduit for Weingarten and her friends to make bank on the back of teachers’ union dues.  

I was never a Colbert fan (surprise, surprise), but I sorta wish I’d tuned in for his last show.

We mourn the death of Robert L. Woodson,1937-1936. From an editorial in the Wall Street Journal: 

The American civil-rights movement has many heroes, and one of the most unsung was Robert L. Woodson Sr. The native of South Philadelphia, who died Tuesday at age 89, made his mark in the tradition of Booker T. Washington by arguing that the best path for empowering minorities and the poor is helping them lift up themselves.

Raised by a single mother after his father died soon after his birth, Woodson dropped out of high school to join the Air Force. He earned his high-school GED as an airman and went on to get degrees at Cheyney University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Woodson never denied that racism continues to exist in America. But he believed it was a cruel tyranny if minorities used racism as an excuse for not taking the opportunities available in this country. ….His legacy will live on in the Woodson Center he founded in 1981 to promote self-help solutions in low-income neighborhoods. He also created the 1776 Unites campaign to counter the 1619 Project of the New York Times that claims the real American founding was when the first slaves arrived on these shores.

Hope you enjoy the Memorial Day festivities and remember those who gave their lives to preserve our lives in the freest country the world has ever known. See you Tuesday.

Well, finally—a billionaire talks back.

Erect the guillotine! Amazon founder Jeff Bezos spoke truth to power. Bezos defended billionaires and discussed taxes, AI, and the Trump presidency in a wide-ranging CNBC interview.

The New York Post deemed Bezos’ remarks significant enough to give him the cover this morning. Mediate said it was a “wild” interview in which Bezos “fawned” over President Trump. As your mother always told you, consider the source.

Bezos’ words emblazoned on the NY Post cover beg to be quoted:

“If we ran Amazon the way NYC runs their school system, packages would take 6 weeks to arrive, we would charge you a $100 delivery fee, and the packages would have the wrong item  in them.”

Not only did Bezos torch the $43 billion Mayor Zohran Mamdani poured into New York’s mismanaged school system, but he called for zero income taxes on the bottom half of earners—while jabbing tax-the-rich pols. “Caution: May Cause Billionaires” is a National Review headline. Yes, rich people build things that are beneficial to society,

In other commentary on New York’s socialist boy wonder, City Journal reports that Mamdani doesn’t grasp what gig workers want and thus might squelch their opportunity—which they do want. Meanwhile, Seattle’s new socialist Mayor Katie Wilson admits (and here) it’s not a good idea to diss the town’s most iconic business (called “learning on the job” by the New York Times). The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman comments:

They say that acknowledging you have a problem is the first step on the long road to recovery. Is Seattle’s socialist Mayor Katie Wilson ready to reckon with the reasons why some of the city’s greatest entrepreneurs don’t live there anymore?

Meanwhile, a new “quality of life” report on U.S. cities reveals something the top-ranked cities have in common: 

Nine of the 10 best American cities in which to live are located in GOP-led states with mayors that lean into conservative values like law and order and “more accountable” government spending, according to a new report.

Quality of life, affordability, a strong job market and overall desirability were taken into account when ranking the best places in the US to settle down.

The top-notch cities were revealed by US News & World Report this week and only one landed in a blue state — Rochester Hills, Michigan, which was ranked the 7th best spot.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that President Trump has reached a “crossroads” with the Iran war and outlines various options. Douglas MacKinnon identifies a “terrifying aspect” of the Iran war that most of us probably have not considered: it concerns Cuba, 90 miles from our shores. As you probably know, Raúl Castro has been indicted by the U.S. in what is being called “a historic day for Florida.” Will Raul be the next Maduro?

Ms. Must thinks of Ruy Teixeira, formerly of the late and lamented Liberal Patriot, as the Democratic Cassandra, always trying to save his party by delivering sobering news. Now, writing at The Free Press, he has sobering news for Republicans: “Trump Is Making the Same Mistake That Doomed Biden.” The subtitle: “He insists that the economy is fine while angry Americans plead for relief.”

Ms. Must might point to the stock market, an indicator of a sound economy. Meanwhile, WSJ political columnist Karl Rove says that if the GOP is not to lose the House, and possibly the Senate, President Trump must be more “restrained,” an idea that would flabbergast the Fox commentators Ms. Must slavishly watches. President Trump’s $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is not universally popular. Applicant Michael Caputo recalls that his family “lost everything” because of weaponization, while the Washington Examiner contends that “Trump’s slush fund is no better than Obama’s.”

Speaking of the midterms, how about that Graham Platner? And you, poor innocent, thought his Nazi SS tattoo was going to be his worst problem. Nope: “Top Dem lawmakers duck questions when pressed on Platner’s Reddit scandal“:

Top Democratic leaders refused to answer whether Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s newly uncovered vulgar posts have become a liability for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

“I haven’t seen no posts,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital when asked whether Platner had become a liability to the Democratic Party.

Newly surfaced Reddit posts tied to Platner — from an archive of roughly 2,000 salacious takes — include graphic sexual comments about masturbating in portable toilets and praising explicit graffiti depicting genitalia.

In another post, he mocked a Purple Heart U.S. soldier that was nearly killed in combat, posting “dumb motherf—–  didn’t deserve to live.”

Progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., declined to comment on whether she would rescind her backing of Platner after publicly endorsing him in the Maine Democratic primary for Senate against Gov. Janet Mills, who pulled out of the race last month after falling behind in the polls.

Warren’s endorsement came after Platner had already been scrutinized for some of his other controversial Reddit posts — including comments praising Hamas’ tactics, telling rape victims to take accountability and asking why Black people don’t tip. This was also after Platner’s chest tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol circulated the internet, as well as his participation on the subreddit “r/SocialistRA,” where he described himself as a communist.

Platner’s opponent is liberal Republican Susan Collins, the longtime incumbent who has not missed a roll-call vote in her entire career and has no tattoos. Collins was the deciding vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal says that President Trump has “made Chuck Schumer’s day” by endorsing Ken Paxton for the Senate in Texas.

Bad News: “‘Woke’ Isn’t Dead, or Even Resting.” That’s the discouraging headline on Matthew Continetti’s Wall Street Journal column:

Mr. Trump’s antiwoke campaign changed policy. But no policy can reach wokeism’s core: the binary of oppressor and oppressed that supplies adherents with moral fervor—directed these days at MAGA and Israel with religious intensity. Mr. Trump’s very presence on the national stage drives Democrats ever farther to the left. The share of Democrats who say they are liberal or very liberal is at a record high. Since 2016, Democrats have viewed socialism more positively than capitalism. Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center asked Democrats to describe what made them proud of America. Among the answers the respondents volunteered: “Nothing.”

Climate change alarmism at least took a hit when the perfidious United Nations admitted that we might not all die on a burning (or freezing) planet. But climate alarmism was always a fashion statement rather than a cause. Cue up a new fashion statement: “The Panic Industry’s New Target” is the headline of a Barton Swaim column. “A generation coached to fear climate change is now fretting over AI and data centers,” Swaim contends. Too bad Germany committed industrial suicide over climate alarmism, isn’t it?

No More Philosopher-Kings! Jason Riley’s column asks what the Founders would have made of Sam Altman and Elon Musk. “America’s Founders and Adam Smith knew better than to entrust the future to philosopher-kings,” Riley replies to his own question.

Where are all the babies? Louise Perry writes in the WSJ that falling birthrates are a mystery and that the answer will not fit neatly into any mainstream political ideology. Good place to begin on this mystery: P. D. James’ prophetic, dystopian novel, “The Children of Men.”