NEWS AND OPINION:
This phrase comes to us from Women’s March, a large group of feminist activists that has been staging large-scale marches and protests in the nation’s capital and other U.S. cities since 2017.
“On Thursday, starting at 10:00 a.m. — as the Supreme Court begins hearing oral arguments over Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution on obstruction and conspiracy charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — Women’s March will hold a noise protest outside of the Supreme Court, imploring it to reject Trump’s immunity claim,” the organization said in a written statement shared with Inside the Beltway.
“The noise protest will feature dozens of activists with instruments, the local punk rock band Boy Chiks, and protesters wearing kangaroo costumes and judges’ robes with gavels — highlighting how the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority includes three Trump-appointed, ‘kangaroo court’ Justices and exposing the case’s lack of merit and some of the justices’ loyalties to far-right ideologies,” the statement said.
And that’s not all.
“In conjunction with the protest outside the Supreme Court, Women’s March activists in New York City will gather in lower Manhattan on Thursday,” the organization said, noting that this protest will take place outside the New York Supreme Court.
A DRIVING FORCE
The Republican National Committee is doing some truck tracking this week, at least as far as President Biden‘s recent claim that he had driven one of the big rigs.
“I used to drive an 18-wheeler,” Mr. Biden casually mentioned at a campaign gathering in Tampa, Florida.
“It wasn’t the first time Biden has made that claim,” said Jake Schneider, director of rapid response for the committee, citing three previous dates when the president reminisced about his time in the cab of a very large truck.
On July 28, 2021, Mr. Biden said “I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man,” according to Mr. Schneider’s analysis. On Nov. 30, 2021, he said “I used to drive a tractor-trailer.” And on April 4, 2022, the president advised “I was driving [a tractor-trailer] through Shiloh, Ohio.”
Mr. Schneider disagrees with the idea.
“To state the obvious: President Biden — who has been a career politician for the past five decades — was never a semi-truck driver,” he said, adding that CNN, Politifact, Snopes and Newsweek have all declared that there was no evidence that the president had been a driver.
“Biden once rode in an 18-wheeler almost 50 years ago, but he has never driven one,” Mr. Schneider said.
‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO’
House Speaker Mike Johnson is at ease with the $95.3 billion national security supplemental package, which includes $60.06 billion to support Ukraine and $14.1 billion in security assistance for Israel.
“I know that history is going to judge this well. It was the right thing to do. This is a very dangerous time. We truly do have a new Axis of Evil. You have China, Russia, and Iran, and often North Korea working together in coordination,” Mr. Johnson told talk-radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview Wednesday.
“They’re funding one another’s aggression. And the reason you and I both know, and you highlight this all the time, the reason this is happening is because the current president is projecting weakness on the world stage and our adversaries are acting aggressively and provocatively, and taking advantage of that,” Mr. Johnson said.
“We had this moment in time, this historic question. Would America stand by our allies — stand by Israel, the beleaguered people of Ukraine, in this pivotal moment? Or would we shrink back and, in my view, abdicate our obvious responsibility and role in the world? I don’t believe we need to be the world’s policeman. I don’t believe that is our burden. But I do believe that the perception of a strong America is essential on the world stage. And I think the Congress has acted to make sure that happens,” he said.
100,000 ROUNDS ON THE WAY
In the meantime, here’s some promising news about the nation’s combat readiness.
“The U.S. Army is on a path to triple its monthly production of 155mm shells following the passage of the Ukraine supplemental,” wrote Sam Skove, a staff writer for Defense One, a news organization focused on the future of U.S. defense and international security.
And the source here? Mr. Skove cited a straightforward and very recent quote.
“We’ll be at 100,000 rounds by next summer,” Lt. Gen. James J. Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“That’s more than three times the 30,000 shells that the service’s factories are expected to turn out this month, he said, and will represent a sixfold increase since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Army officials had previously said that reaching their 100,000-round goal depended on $3.1 billion requested in a previous version of the Ukraine supplemental,” Mr. Skove wrote in reaction.
“The service is expanding production facilities and planning new ones in Arkansas, Kansas, and Texas, Army acquisition chief Doug Bush said last year. Artillery shells are among the few munitions whose production is controlled by the U.S. government, not purchased from private contractors,” he wrote.
POLL DU JOUR
• 49% of U.S. adults regularly use ABC, CBS and NBC News as a source of news.
• 46% cite social media, 34% family and friends.
• 28% cite public TV or radio, 25% cite CNN.
• 24% cite Fox News, 20% The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.
• 20% cite their local newspaper, 13% cite MSNBC.
• 13% cite some “other” news source, 11% cite an online source like Axios.
• 7% cite conservative news media.
• 6% cite “none of these.”
SOURCE: An Ipsos poll of 1,081 U.S. adults conducted April 10-13. Participants could cite up to five choices from a supplied list.
• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse. Contact her at [email protected].