BLACK REPUBLICAN BLOG - The Republican Party is the party of civil rights and the four F’s: faith, family, freedom and fairness. The Democratic Party is the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and socialism (Quote By Author Michael Scheuer).
Nobody deserves to be named Person of the Year more than President Donald J. Trump. President Trump put his freedom and his life on the line to save this country (and Western Civilization) from the horror of a second Biden-Harris term. President Trump is one for the ages. A true American hero. We will never see the likes of him again.
Few exiting officials merit fiercer censure than FBI Director Christopher Wray, who is resigning three years early. In an extraordinarily scathing letter, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) rightly provided it.
Wray has been a dissembler since he took over the bureau in 2017. He came into office promising transparency, candor, competence, depoliticization, and systemic reform. He has produced none of it, acting instead as an obfuscator and excuse-maker, as if his job is to be the FBI’s corner-cutting defense attorney. As this newspaper and its columnists have detailed repeatedly, Wray has shown that neither his word nor his judgment can be trusted.
On case after case and on institutional FBI culture more broadly, Wray has covered for the bureau rather than dutifully serving the public. On institutional matters, in 2022, it came to light that an internal audit three years earlier showed that FBI personnel broke the rules at least 747 times in only a year and a half in “high-profile” investigations involving politicians, news media, and religious groups, but Wray neither advised the public of those findings during the interim three years, nor made public amends, nor addressed the problems until more than a year after the audit was publicized.
Wray contemptuously brushed off concerns about the blatant mistreatment of a peaceful pro-life protester subjected to an armed raid at his home on a case that was bogus from the start. He lied to Congress about the extent of the FBI’s targeting of traditional Catholics for “threat mitigation” and prevaricated about the FBI investigating parent activists as domestic terrorists and about whether the FBI helped censor speech on social media platforms. He repeatedly resisted valid subpoenas for information on these and other cases.
Fortunately, Wray will have left his post before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated next month. Grassley, though, does not intend to let him slink away. In a blistering 11-page letter on Dec. 9, the senator used some of the examples above, and many others, to make sure the door hit Wray in the back on his way out.
Grassley is furious that Wray has “failed,” despite solemn promises when he was appointed, in his “fundamental duties” of “compliance with congressional oversight requests and the protection of whistleblowers.” Grassley has been Congress’s most stalwart advocate of government whistleblowers for decades, and his letter seethes when describing three specific examples of Wray’s failure to protect whistleblowers, along with several high-profile cases in which the director refused to provide records confirming that other whistleblowers had avoided retaliation.
Wray comes in for Grassley’s most vociferous criticism for thumbing his nose at congressional oversight. Grassley writes of “the FBI’s failure to provide basic information I requested more than two years ago related to the FBI’s ongoing mishandling of sexual harassment claims made by the FBI’s female employees.”
As Grassley wrote, “This is based on credible whistleblower disclosures alleging hundreds of FBI employees had retired or resigned to avoid accountability for sexual misconduct.” Grassley is right to characterize Wray’s noncompliance as outright “obstruction.”
Similarly, Grassley excoriated Wray for more than two years of failing to respond to “repeated requests” to provide information about Afghanistan evacuees who were not vetted before being allowed into the United States, including “at least 50” the FBI identified as “potentially significant security concerns.” These migrants could pose life-threatening dangers to large numbers of Americans, as was shown in October when the FBI apprehended one of them who had “planned an Election Day terrorist attack in the U.S. on behalf of the Islamic State.”
Grassley provides a litany of Wray’s failures, obstinacy, and obstruction in cases ranging from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information to the FBI’s repeated burying of credible allegations against President Joe Biden and from Biden’s strange cancellation of a successful anti-cartel program to “allegations that the Obama-Biden State Department obstructed” the arrests of criminals helping Iran’s nuclear programs.
Grassley is right to insist the record shows that Wray is a disgrace. He is lucky to escape formal sanction. No FBI director is entitled to his 10-year term if he does not do his job. A decade is a maximum allowable tenure, not an entitlement. The president has every right to replace him. In Wray’s wake, the FBI needs a serious disinfectant.
Donald Trump said he planned to end birthright citizenship on Day One in an interview on ‘Meet the Press.’ (Screenshot/NBC)
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., took NBC News to task for "selectively omitting" a key part of the 14th Amendment in a question about birthright citizenship during an interview with President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday.
Trump was asked about a number of changes he intends to implement once he assumes office during a sit down released on NBC’s "Meet the Press," including his plan to end birthright citizenship. Under the 14th Amendment, someone born in the U.S. is granted citizenship regardless of whether their parents are citizens. Trump confirmed that he intends to end the policy "on Day One," calling it "ridiculous."
NBC host Kristen Welker pushed back, arguing that the 14th Amendment "states all persons in the United States are citizens. Can you get around the 14th Amendment with executive action?" she asked.
Trump said he was open to using executive action, reiterating that the U.S. is "the only country has it" and "we have to end it."
Lee shared a clip of the exchange on X later Sunday, rebuking the NBC host for omitting six critical words from the 14th Amendment in her question to Trump.
"All persons born … in the United States, *and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,* shall be citizens of the United States," Lee wrote on X, highlighting the missing words in asterisks.
"Those words matter," he added.
The senator continued to break down the issue in a lengthy 12-part thread.
"Congress has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,'" he wrote.
" While current law contains no such restriction, Congress could pass a law defining what it means to be born in the United States ‘and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’ excluding prospectively from birthright citizenship individuals born in the U.S. to illegal aliens.
"Those who suggest Congress is somehow powerless to limit birthright citizenship ignore important constitutional text giving Congress power define who among those ‘born in the United States’ is born subject to the jurisdiction thereof.'
"It bothers me that@MeetThePress, long revered as America’s leading Sunday political news program, has become so one-sided," he continued.
"In this instance, @MeetThePress seems to try to render a debatable matter beyond debate by selectively omitting key words from the Constitution, making it appear incorrectly that the Fourteenth Amendment proscribes any and all restrictions on birthright citizenship."
NBC did not respond to Fox News Digital when asked whether the omission was intentional.
Trump addressed a number of other topics during the wide-ranging interview, including his plan to restore the country's reputation globally, his thoughts on FBI Director Christopher Wray, and how he plans to unify a fractured country in his inaugural address.
"It’s going to be a message of unity, and I think success brings unity. And I’ve experienced that. I’ve experienced it in my first term, as I’ve said. We’re going to be talking about unity, and we’re going to be talking about success. Making our country safe. Keeping people that shouldn’t be in our country out, we have to do that. I know it doesn’t sound nice, but we have to do that. Basically, it’s going to be about bringing our country together," Trump said.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
In a victory for justice in America, the Daniel Penny jury has made their decision, and they found him not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely.
As we reported, the judge in the case allowed a highly dubious maneuver by the prosecution on Friday:
In a bizarre twist, after the jury returned another note to the court indicating it remained deadlocked on Count I, the prosecution moved to dismiss the count (for second-degree manslaughter) and asked the court to instruct the jury to continue considering Count II (negligent homicide). The defense objected, contending that this move was coercive, but the judge ultimately determined to proceed in that fashion. The judge dismissed the jury, telling them to return Monday to continue deliberations as to Count II.
Penny had subdued the assailant, Jordan Neely, a homeless man who had a long rap sheet and a history of mental illness, when he burst onto a New York City subway train in May and started threatening to kill people. Former Marine Penny grabbed the assailant, restrained him, and prevented him from hurting the other passengers until police belatedly arrived.
Neely was still breathing when Penny released the hold and let police and first responders tend to him. However, Neely later died, and Bragg’s office inexplicably brought charges against the hero.
This verdict sends a message to George Soros-backed prosecutors across the country—Americans are tired of living in fear as criminals walk free and heroes sit in courtrooms. It’s a rare occasion that we can say, “Good job, New York jury!”
Enjoy your life as a free man, Daniel Penny. You deserve it.
AP Photo/Richard Drew
To riff off of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN earlier this year, a crucial part of The Curse got lifted last night from the Middle East. Iran has spent more than 40 years constructing the "Shiite Crescent" in the region in an attempt at encirclement of Israel and the Sunni Arab states in the region, with Hamas and Hezbollah as its proxy armies and Syria as its puppet state and main lines of communication.
Those plans are in utter ruin today. The collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus has cut Iran off from its proxy armies and likely ended any influence Tehran will ever have in the region. Hezbollah has spent the last couple of days attempting to salvage its own operations, and now that has apparently turned into a bug-out:
Lebanese armed group Hezbollah says it has withdrawn all of its forces from Syria, two Lebanese security sources have told Reuters news agency.
The group pulled back its troops as rebel factions approached the capital of Damascus.
One source said that supervising forces that Hezbollah had deployed to Syria overnight between Thursday and Friday had been sent to oversee the pullback.
Israel attacked at least one column of retreating armor from Syria along a well-known heavy-arms smuggling route. The cease-fire only applies in Lebanon, and the Israelis had good reason to take advantage of Hezbollah's retreat, but the heavy-arms smuggling is now over for a long while. Assad's regime created those opportunities for Iran to supply its main proxy in exchange for Hezbollah's help in maintaining power in Syria.
That brings us to a couple of points. First, as I remarked last night on Twitter, Iran's miscalculations in the wake of the October 7 massacres are nothing short of astounding. They knew that Assad had only managed an uneasy stalemate in the Syrian civil war and only had firm control over a fraction of his country -- and only Hezbollah and the Russians made that much possible. With Russia distracted and drained by its attempted conquest in Ukraine, the mullahs should have maintained the status quo rather than provoke a war with Israel. Perhaps they thought that the US would contain Israel to the kind of tit-for-tat responses of the past, but if so, they vastly underestimated the impact of October 7 on the Israelis. By having Hezbollah join the war Hamas started, they forced the Israelis to deal directly and decisively with the threat from the north for the first time in a generation.
If Iran was gambling, they came up snake eyes. Israel vastly outclassed and overpowered the Hezbollah terrorist/drug gang on which Iran had placed its entire regional strategy. The fall of Assad is a direct consequence of that decision. And now that Assad has fallen, Iran has not just lost its lines of communication to its proxy armies -- it has also lost its intelligence and warning systems aimed at deterring Israel from direct war on their regime. The mullahs got a taste of that a few weeks ago while Assad and Hezbollah still controlled some parts of Syria, and now the Iranians are completely naked.
At the moment, the Israelis are more concerned with border security, of course. They moved to recapture the demilitarized zone in the Golan overnight and began striking regime targets in Syria to ensure that they could not be reused by any radical-Islamist factions still in the southern regions:
The IDF, on Sunday afternoon, took over the Syrian side of the Mount Hermon mountain range to expand a demilitarized buffer zone along the border with Syria and also at several other points of significance for defense.
The Hermon range has always been thought of as providing a strategic advantage because it provides high ground for the entire area, enabling Israel to anticipate any potential invading force further in advance. ...
Earlier Tuesday, the IDF struck a chemical weapons factory belonging to the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Assad to prevent the rebels from seizing it, Arab media first reported on Sunday, and The Jerusalem Post later independently confirmed.
In addition, IDF sources responded about whether the air force had attacked Syrian chemical weapons, saying that the military follows developments that could endanger Israel and takes the necessary steps to attack any such dangerous threats.
Speaking of Netanyahu, he made an appearance at Golan today. He took credit for the collapse of the Assad regime by Israel's defeat of Hezbollah and offered "the hand of peace" to the rebels in Syria. Netanyahu also emphasized that Israel will defend its borders no matter what they decide.
According to Reuters, Netanyahu is already making good on the vow to deal with security threats. The IDF targeted Iranian-linked facilities near Damascus overnight:
Israel conducted three airstrikes against a major security complex in the Kafr Sousa district of the Syrian capital along with a research center where it had previously said Iranian scientists developed missiles, two regional security sources tell Reuters.
Is Netanyahu coordinating these actions with the rebels in Damascus? One would hope so, and the rebels may see any degradation of Iranian facilities as a symbol of their grip on power. However, at some point the new government will likely want to make use of the legitimate arms and facilities of the national military. Israel probably can't afford to let these kinds of facilities remain functional to just hope that the new regime is friendlier than the last, however. Netanyahu certainly understands the nature of the factions that control this rebellion and has to prepare for the worst while hoping for the, er ... least worst.
The last question is the obvious one: Whither Assad? Conflicting reports had him either leaving Damascus on a flight that fell off the radar screen around Homs, or else leaving Latakia and going north-ish. That hypothesis would have likely involved the Russians, whose air base at Khmemim is near Latakia. That would explain Russia's claim that Assad apparently arranged the end of his regime, and suggests that any destination would not have been to the southeast toward Homs:
The Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had left office and departed the country after giving orders there be a peaceful handover of power.
In a statement, the ministry did not say where Assad was now and said Russia has not taken part in the talks around his departure. Earlier reports suggested that Assad may have been killed in a plane crash as he attempted to flee the country.
The Kan public broadcaster reported that shortly before the Russian statement was released, a transport plane lifted off from the Russian base in the Syrian city of Latakia, hinting at Assad’s potential presence on the aircraft.
Assuming the Russians are telling the truth (always a risk), Assad would have fled Syria entirely. The only reason to relocate to another Syrian location would have been to try to hold onto power, either with loyal military forces or with Iranian or Russian forces propping him up. Hezbollah was already heading for the exits at this point and the Russians are more or less trapped now in Syria, and besides, the Russians are announcing the abdication. Assad most definitely would have fled the country rather than risk capture, and his plane would almost certainly have aimed for the Mediterranean rather than the interior of Syrian airspace. I'd bet he got out, and his current hosts probably aren't too anxious to announce his presence.
So is this good news in the long run? As the Zen master says, we'll see, but it's a catastrophe for the Iranian mullahs' regime. It's bad enough that it might provoke the Iranian people again in Tehran to demand an end to their regime, especially now that the mullahs look so weak and incompetent. At the very least, their regional ambitions and more than 40 years of machinations are utter dust. The Houthis had better prepare for what's coming next.
Update: Guess who else is getting the message?
Sources within various Palestinian terror groups in Gaza said Sunday that Hamas has told them to compile information on the hostages they hold in preparation for a potential ceasefire and hostage deal with Israel.
Hamas has told factions including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front and the Popular Resistance Committees to prepare information such as whether their hostages are alive or dead, the sources told AFP.
Qatar’s prime minister said on Saturday that there was renewed “momentum” for a ceasefire and hostage release deal following the election of Donald Trump in the United States.
Hamas is insisting that the Israelis stop offensive operations so that it can get information on the hostages, but they have apparently dropped the demand for a full end to the war and a withdrawal of the IDF as the prerequisite for returning hostages. For now, anyway, Hamas seems to have read the writing on the wall, and it's in Hebrew rather than Persian.
Update: The most likely outcome for the Assads' flight has been confirmed by Tass:
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Yashar Ali 🐘@yashar
BREAKING
The Russian government state media agency Tass reports that Bashar Al-Assad and his family are in Moscow and have been granted political asylum.
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As late as two days ago, regime mouthpieces insisted that Assad was in Damascus, but it's more likely that he moved to Latakia when Aleppo and Hama fell. The Russians would have provided protection there, and that explains why Hezbollah first began to fall back to the north coast rather than Lebanon. When Damascus fell and Assad's military refused to fight for him, the Russians got him out as was likely planned all along. That's when Hezbollah began to fall back to Lebanon, too. The Russians will likely be forced to evacuate from the Khmemim base near Latakia soon as well.
Update: One more point on that sequence: When dictators fall because their military refuses to fight for them, the usual result is a palace coup in which the military seizes the dictator. I'd bet that Assad has been in Latakia under Russian protection for a while simply to prevent the Syrian military from assassinating Assad. That may be the only reason he's still alive.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Earlier we told you that President Elect Donald Trump may as well be sworn into office right now, because he's already playing the part of world leader in France today for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. The handshakes and body language when Trump met Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy (who decided not to dress for the occasion) spoke volumes.
Trump also met other world leaders at the reopening and set the stage for the next four years:
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Monica Crowley @MonicaCrowley
One by one, world leaders rise to greet President Trump.
This is what respect for our President and country looks like.
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CSPAN @cspan
President-elect Trump greets Prince William at Notre Dame Cathedral Re-Opening in Paris, France.
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As for President Biden, yesterday Karine Jean-Pierre said that he had a "scheduling conflict" and wouldn't be attending the cathedral reopening in France, and apparently the White House doesn't care how that looks:
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Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze
I know we're long past any more assumptions that Joe Biden is still acting in charge of anything, but it seems weird that our devout Catholic president is not attending this re-opening alongside other world leaders.
Quote CSPAN @cspan
President-elect Trump arrives at Notre Dame Cathedral Re-Opening in Paris, France.
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There is representation from the Biden family in France today, just not from Joe:
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RNC Research @RNCResearch
Jill, Ed.D., shows up at Notre Dame in Paris after Joe Biden declined to attend.
President Trump is there representing the leadership of the United States instead.
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Maybe Joe stayed behind to help prepare a whole bunch of "preemptive pardons" or something.
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Steve Guest @SteveGuest
This picture says it all: Jill Biden was running the show instead of Joe.
Steve Cortes @CortesSteve
Amazing:
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It appears they've given up even trying to hide that fact now.
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We have no idea.
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Madison Maddytx76
Joe probably went to Notre Dame Stadium in Indiana.
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OOF!
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RELATED ARTICLE
Trump's Handshake With Macron in France Makes It Clear 'America Is Back!' (Guess Who Else Showed Up)
AP Photo/Evan Vucc
Emmanuel Macron, the French President, invited President Donald Trump to attend the grand re-opening of Notre Dame Cathedral after 5 years of reconstruction.
t will be a grand affair, attended by 50 heads of state, and Donald Trump is being treated as one of them even before he returns to power on January 20th, 2025.
That's a big deal, because it is a symbolic acknowledgment that in the eyes of the world, including Europe, Donald Trump is already the president who matters. Joe Biden is PINO (President in Name Only). I like that neologism.
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Fox News @FoxNews
RETURN TO GLORY: Trump will be among 50 heads of state expected to attend Notre Dame's reopening this weekend, an invite-only affair celebrating the restoration of one of Europe's most famous cathedrals. Nearly $1 billion was raised for the restoration. https://trib.al/eMN3dMV
It's no secret that European leaders viewed Donald Trump as an interloper, an uninvited member who barged into their cozy little club in 2017. They disdained him, ridiculed him as oh-so-gauche, and breathed a sigh of relief when he left the world stage in 2021.
And, it remains true that they would prefer a different president than the one they have coming, but not only are they reconciled to a Trump return, they may even be glad that it was he rather than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris who will be sitting in the Oval Office. After all, four years of Joe Biden have not exactly been great for Europe, with a hot war on their Eastern flank and turmoil on their Southern one.
On this latter point, I can't say--I am no mind reader, and Trump certainly presents a lot of problems for the transnational elite--but their dreams of a world in which elites can hire technocrats to run a utopia have run up against the realities of living in a tough world with some evil people.
Emmanuel Macron seems most interested in establishing good relations with Trump. His political future is in doubt, given the terrible elections he suffered. The German government right now is irrelevant, as it has essentially collapsed and will have new elections next year; and Kier Starmer is in no position to give Donald Trump any real trouble given his political woes. Trump is riding high as European leaders are...not.
There’ll be a strong sense of déjà vu when French President Emmanuel Macron lays the flattery on thick for Donald Trump in Paris this weekend.
Few foreign leaders did more to woo Trump when he was the 45th president. In fact, Macron treated him with such deference at a Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées that Trump came home wanting a military parade of his own — on July Fourth.
As Trump prepares to become the 47th president, Macron has surpassed himself, inviting Trump to attend the year’s most vaunted opening — the unveiling of the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral five years after a savage fire.
Putting Trump at the center of the star-studded VIP event, which will mark his big return to the global stage, says everything about the power fast flowing back to the president-elect six weeks before he begins his second term.
Trump isn’t waiting until January to launch his new foreign policy — he’s already threatened a trade war with Canada and Mexico and showed who is boss when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rushed to Florida to appease him last week. And on Monday, he warned that there will be “ALL HELL TO PAY” in the Middle East if Hamas doesn’t release hostages in Gaza before Inauguration Day.
Trump’s starring role in Paris will also mark a poignant contrast with Joe Biden’s increasingly ignominious long goodbye. The president came under fierce criticism Monday, even from within his own party, after he pardoned his son Hunter, undercutting a core principle of his term — that everyone is equal before the law.
Of course, it is true that Joe Biden still holds the reins of power and can do things to make things worse--his specialty--but in most respects, the leaders of the world have already acknowledged that Biden is the past and Trump is the future. In order to save their own backsides, they must kiss Trump's.
And a lot of backside kissing there will likely be. Europe is in deep trouble. Trump is a Euroskeptic, and at minimum he will demand more military spending to fulfill their NATO obligations. He will likely also push back on censorship in Europe, ESG requirements and start dismantling the worst of the transnationalist tripe that has been foisted upon Americans.
One thing we do know, though, is that Trump is responsive to flattery, and you can expect a lot of it when he arrives in Europe. There won't be the sniggering we saw during his first term as he is striding onto the world stage as a victor. I expect he will get most of what he wants.
Pleasing Trump is much more important than pleasing Ursula von der Layen at the EU.
Trump has already shown his mettle during his meeting with Justin "Castro" Trudeau, emasculating him in public by suggesting he consider making Canada the 51st state. That was a signal to everybody that the United States is back, Trump is in charge, and it is time to quit telling us what to do.
He who pays the piper chooses the tune, and the US is the main funder of the music.