THE SHOW NOTES: The Press Fell Into the DeSantis Trap, The Raptors Are Testing the Fences, & Get Ready for Blackouts
Welcome! Over 100,000 Americans died from a drug overdose last year.
BREAKING: Joe Biden may not be on the New Hampshire primary ballot.
HEADLINE: Montana becomes the first state to ban TikTok.
CRIME: Target lost $500 million more from organized retail crime than last year.
RECORD: Kami Rita just climbed Mt Everest for the 27th time.
CHIP ROY: "If you have eyes, Leah Thomas is in fact a dude." - Twitter
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Breaking: Dead Americans in Nigeria
At least four are dead and more are missing after a US convoy of embassy personnel was attacked in southern Nigeria.
What happened: Nine people were traveling in two vehicles to visit a US aid project in southern Nigeria when the attack occurred. The State Department said a motive had not been established while a local security analyst told The Wall Street Journal it appears to be the work of a separatist group who carried out three similar attacks earlier this year.
Debt Limit Drama
Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and other progressive Democratic Senators are imploring Biden to invoke the 14th amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling without negotiating with Republicans.
Why this matters: The move from the most progressive members of the Senate signals they are worried that Biden is entertaining McCarthy’s spending cuts and work requirements after Biden resolutely said he would not negotiate at all.
Asiox released a surprising poll claiming two-thirds of Americans including half of Democrats favor some form of work requirement for Medicaid and SNAP benefits which may explain Biden’s change in tone.
Not everyone’s on board: Chuck Schumer shrugged off the demands from progressives in his party claiming bipartisanship is needed.
Relatedly, Biden is cutting short his overseas trip meant to emphasize America’s support for Asian countries in the face of an increasingly aggressive China. Bloomberg had the best take:
What was billed as a three-nation tour to highlight the US commitment to Asia looks much-diminished after the White House said Biden will scrap stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia to focus on debt-limit talks with Republicans. He’s still going to a Group of 7 meeting in Japan where allies will confront what they call China’s economic pressure on less powerful countries.
Leaker Kept His Job?!
The New York Times (paywall) has a shocking story about the young Massachusets Airman who leaked national secrets on a discord server earlier this year.
Air Force officials caught Airman Jack Teixeira taking notes and conducting deep-dive searches for classified material months before he was charged with leaking a vast trove of government secrets, but did not remove him from his job, according to a Justice Department filing on Wednesday.
His superiors noted Teixeira displayed “concerning behavior” on two separate occasions which included stuffing notes in his pocket of classified material.
DeSantis
Ron DeSantis is planning to announce his presidential campaign next week with a heightened emphasis on Iowa. Marc Caputo at The Messenger reports a DeSantis-aligned Super PAC has $100 million at its disposal and is intently focused on winning Iowa to solidify a DeSantis vs Trump two-way race headed into New Hampshire.
Why this matters: The Super PAC’s decision to invest $10 million in hiring 80 full and part-time staffers in Iowa alone paired with Ron DeSantis’ strong consideration of visiting all 99 counties suggests the team views Iowa as a make-or-break state. From The Messenger:
So if DeSantis loses Iowa, it could give Trump an aura of inevitability and a sense of momentum that leads to a cascade of victories that make him the de facto nominee.
Let’s not forget that NBC reported that DeSantis was considering a plan to avoid all of the early states in favor of a delegate game. We now know that is total BS and NBC should have kept Marc Caputo.
NEW: DeSantis Bans Mutilating Surgical Procedures On Minors, Other Woke Initiatives: ‘Not Happening Here’ - Dailywire
Overdose
According to a provisional count from the CDC, American deaths related to a drug overdosage crept to an all-time high of 109,680 in 2022.
Why this matters: The rising number of deaths related to drug overdosage is another reminder about the potency and availability of fentanyl-laced drugs in the United States. The provisional count only eclipsed 2021 by a few hundred deaths but continues an upward trajectory in overdose deaths that has risen every year since 1990 with the exception of 2018.
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