Protesters swarm Chicago ahead of DNC

Pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed Chicago in preparation for the Democratic National Convention this week, setting the stage for a clash between the traditionally pro-Israel Democratic establishment and the progressive activist class. On Sunday night, protesters clashed with police and charged both major political parties with “genocide” for sending aid and weapons to Israel amid its war against Hamas. Thousands showed up at Union Park on Monday afternoon, far short of the 30,000-40,000 expected, but still a significant contingent. Signs held by blue-haired, masked protesters in cargo pants referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as “killer Kamala” and said that the “slaughter” of Palestinians would be President Joe Biden’s legacy.

While the protesters marched outside, the various factions of the Democratic Party prepared to unite on the convention stage Monday night. Progressive youngsters such as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jasmine Crockett will speak alongside Democratic mainstays like former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Senator Chris Coons. The main event, though, is President Joe Biden. He will officially pass the torch to Harris in his keynote address; White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the length of his speech will be a “surprise” while advisor Anita Dunn said it will be focused on looking forward. 

Harris’s running mate, Governor Tim Walz, made the rounds at various Democratic caucus events in the morning and afternoon. At a Congressional Black Caucus meeting, he did his best attempt at code switching, telling the crowd, “You can count on white politicians coming to black communities to ask for their vote… What’s different this time is, we have a black woman gonna lead us,” and “the teacher in me knows that you stood up because you’re about to fall sleep when we came in here.” He also stopped by a Pennsylvania delegation breakfast and an Asian American and Pacific Islander event.

Trump is not in Chicago, but campaign allies are here on his behalf. Campaign senior advisor Brian Hughes and Senators Rick Scott and Ron Johnson attacked Harris’s proposed economic plan, particularly her idea to put price caps on groceries, while standing in front of posters showing how much common household items have increased under the Biden-Harris administration. There will be press conferences held daily at the Trump Tower in Chicago while Trump and Vance swing their way through the battleground states.

Walz is set to speak from the convention stage Wednesday night, while Harris will close out the convention on Thursday.

-Amber Duke

On our radar

‘A DECISIVE MOMENT’ Secretary of state Antony Blinken described current Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks in the Middle East as “probably the best, maybe the last, opportunity to get the hostages home.” On Friday, President Joe Biden said that negotiators from the US, Egypt and Qatar were “closer than ever” to reaching a deal. 

TRUMP DELAYED Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg did not oppose delaying sentencing, which is currently scheduled for September 18, in former president Donald Trump’s “hush-money” case.

FETTER-MAN DOWN? A communications director for Senator John Fetterman called back a reporter for the Free Press who interviewed her boss to share that she did not agree with the senator’s position on the Israel-Hamas war. The staffer, who joined Fetterman’s office in April, has since locked her X account. 

The GOP’s DNC gift to Biden 

Hours before President Joe Biden delivers his swan song address at tonight’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he finally got an unwelcome, long-awaited present from Republicans: a report issued by three committee chairs accusing him of “impeachable conduct.” Although Biden is willingly removing himself from the Oval Office in January, the report does him and his family no favors.

In some ways, the 291-page document, authored by the majority staffs of the Ways and Means, Judiciary and Oversight Committees, mirrors the one authored by Democrats against former president Donald Trump in 2019. Republicans accuse Biden of both obstruction and abuse of power, the same charges that Democrats brought against Trump during his first impeachment. 

On the obstruction charge, Republicans focused on the Biden Justice Department’s steadfast refusal to hand over the audio of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, as well as their allegations that Biden’s IRS has repeatedly stonewalled inquiries into Hunter Biden’s alleged foreign bribery schemes. On the abuse of power charge, Republicans honed in on the skyrocketing wealth of Hunter and Biden’s brother James.

“The Biden family earned millions of dollars from numerous business deals with Chinese companies closely tied to the Chinese Community Party by selling access to Joe Biden while he was vice president and later preparing to run for president,” they note in the report.

While Republicans argue that the Constitutional remedy for Biden’s conduct is “impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate,” neither are viewed as likely to happen, especially with the election closing in, and with Biden having been defenestrated by members of his own party.

Congressman Jim Jordan, one of the GOP’s leads on the impeachment inquiry along with Congressmen James Comer and Jason Smith, tied its release directly to the DNC kickoff. “As Democrats celebrate Joe Biden and crown Kamala Harris as his heir apparent this week, Americans should remember the reality of the Biden-Harris Administration: crime, chaos and corruption,” he said. 

–Matthew Foldi

San-toast 

The saga of George Santos, the former freshman Republican congressman who represented New York’s 3rd district until the House voted to expel him in December 2023, appears to be coming to an end. Santos pleaded guilty to two federal counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft on Monday. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years, but a judge estimated he will serve closer to six to eight years in prison, according to CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane. Santos will also have to pay nearly $400,000 in restitution. 

As the story of Santos may have dimmed from memory in the midst of our country’s ongoing political drama, let’s refresh: he was elected in November 2022, and shortly thereafter, a New York Times exposé reported he had lied about where he went to college and where he worked. A series of other fabrications continued to be uncovered in the coming months, including a whopper Santos told about his grandparents fleeing the Holocaust (“I said I was Jew-ish”) and his mother surviving the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The impending federal fraud case stems from the source of large “donations” made to the Santos campaign that were allegedly used for Santos’s personal benefit: Botox, OnlyFans subscriptions, vacations and other questionable expenses.

CNN reports Santos had “previously pleaded not guilty to all twenty-three charges, [and] is set for a pretrial conference Monday in front of US District Judge Joanna Seybert in the Eastern District of New York.” New York magazine laments, as do I, that “We won’t get a wild George Santos trial after all.” 

–Teresa Mull

DoJ: Trayon White caught red handed

Ward 8 DC Council member Trayon White was arrested Sunday afternoon on a criminal complaint charging him with bribery.

The complaint alleges that White accepted $156,000 in cash payments in exchange for using his position as a DC Council member to pressure government employees at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to extend several government contracts, according to the Department of Justice. White was allegedly captured on video taking the cash from a confidential DoJ source on multiple occasions. 

The DoJ claims the alleged bribe led to a $5.2 million contract “for two companies to provide Violence Intervention services in DC.” The investigation is ongoing, and White is expected to appear in court on Monday.

White was elected to present Ward 8 in 2016, and in June he won the Democratic primary for what would be his third term, despite a series of controversies that have plagued him for years. In 2013, White tweeted that he was “honored” to share a birthday with the prominent antisemite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, adding he “[respects] his intelligence, will & boldness.”

In 2018, White made national headlines when he suggested that Jewish financiers control the weather. “And DC keep[s] talking about, ‘We’re a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man,” he said in the now-deleted video. “Be careful.” He later apologized for the comments, but left early from an arranged tour of the National Holocaust Museum that was meant to rehabilitate his image. 

And White’s victory in the June Democratic primary was tainted by a dispute with his campaign office. The office fined him $40,000 over funds for his failed 2022 mayoral campaign and 2020 reelection campaign, claiming that he had failed to account for $58,000 in missing funds. 

White was arrested at the luxury high-rise apartment building in the Navy Yard neighborhood where he was staying… conveniently located just outside of his district. Navy Yard has been plagued by a surge in violent and property crime since the pandemic, as The Spectator World’s April cover package pointed out.

–Elisenne Stoller