THE SHOW NOTES: Ron DeSantis Joins Me Live
🚨 Ron DeSantis is joining me right now to talk about 2024. Listen here.
HEADLINE: University program linking Christians, Republicans to Nazis granted DHS funds under 'anti-terror' initiative - Fox News
OUTRAGE: Man gets community service for shooting anti-abortion campaigner.
NEW: Chinese hackers hit critical U.S. infrastructure, intelligence agencies warn - Axios
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Twitter Spaces
Ron DeSantis announced his presidential run yesterday in a glitchy broadcast on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk. After 20 minutes of dead air, muffled sound, and software crashes that kicked users out, Musk was left saying “That was insane, sorry.”
Backstory: The New York Times reports that Twitter did no advance prep to prepare for the onslaught of people joining the highly anticipated Twitter Spaces event, ultimately leading to its demise. Later, Musk admitted the influx of listeners coming from his 140 million followers on his personal Twitter account was too much for Twitter to handle.
Trump reaction: Donald Trump handled the announcement as well as one would expect, going on multiple tirades against DeSantis on Truth Social. Benny Johnson is reporting that the DeSantis announcement has convinced Donald Trump to return to Twitter.
Top takes on the DeSantis announcement:
Ben Shapiro: “Tonight was a perfect encapsulation of the campaign. If you're obsessed with the optics of the Twitter Spaces glitch, then you're probably not going to vote DeSantis. If you're interested in political substance, DeSantis is likely your candidate.”
Mick Mulvaney: “The Ron DeSantis event just wrapped. He did 75+ minutes on pure policy. Trump could never do that.”
Frank Luntz: “While the media focuses on Twitter glitches, the DeSantis campaign raised $1 million within the first hour of its announcement.”
Christian Terrorists
The Biden administration is handing out tax dollars to colleges that designate Republicans and Christians as terrorists through an anti-terrorism grant.
What happened: A Freedom of Information Act request from the Media Research Center revealed the Department of Homeland Security granted a program at Dayton University $352,109 that designates The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Christian Broadcasting Network, and others as domestic terrorists. Here’s the full report from MRC.
Fox News Poll
A shocking poll from Fox News claims that more Americans will blame Biden instead of Republicans if a spending bill is not reached before June 1st. This is a stark aberration from the norm of Republicans shouldering the blame from voters in spending fights. The same poll had Obama 15 points ahead of Republicans before a possible default in 2011.
Note: Polling from Fox News is historically one of the most accurate public polls available.
Quote from Axios: “Congressional Democrats are dreading a potential debt default. They are also dreading a potential debt ceiling deal.”
Related: Top Rating Agencies Threaten U.S. With Credit Downgrade Over Debt Limit Chaos, Even If A Deal Is Made - Dailywire
SCOTUS Smacks Down The EPA
In breaking news that will get negligible attention because of other major headlines, the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate water pollution only to bodies of water “with a continuous surface connection.”
Summarizing Alito’s majority opinion: The power of the EPA to regulate dry and obscure bodies of water puts a staggering array of landowners at risk of criminal prosecution if they do not adhere to environmental rules that are unknown to them. Go read Ed Whelan’s thread for more.
🔥 Trending news:
More than 150 former Trump administration officials now backing DeSantis for president - Fox News
Minnesota County Had No Right to Confiscate Elderly Woman’s Home Equity, Supreme Court Rules - National Review
CNN to host town hall with Pence amid 2024 speculation - The Hill
Thousands of stolen artifacts recovered by Italian police - CNN
Senator McCain knew back in 2015 what Putin was intended to do in Ukraine but nobody listened to him. - Twitter
China faces a new Covid wave that could peak at 65 million cases a week - NBC
Patriots are caught breaking the rules again - NY Post
The Parents Saying No to Smartphones - The Free Press
Summer Travel Worry: Increasing Runway Near Misses - WSJ (paywall)
Market snapshot:
How does Governor DeSantis balance running for President while trying to raise 3 little kids? I don't mean it in a negative way, just wondering how he can keep up the campaign schedule (and the Presidency) and raise small kids. I guess he will have lots of help!
Just a couple of points. NYT mentioning that musk didn't prepare for DeSantis onslaught... pure speculation to cast shade not journalism but the demand was overwhelming which happens to everyone at times, well maybe not the NYT for obvious reasons. McCain was right? Uhm, a lot of people were right but why did Mr. P wait until 2021?