The Daily Signal - Government Shutdown Looms, Democrats Call on Menendez to Resign Amid Charges, Canadians Angry After Ovation for Nazi-Linked Veteran | Sept. 25

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sherris. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Monday, September 25th. Here are today's headlines. Here in Washington, D.C., this is the week of budget debates. And unless something unexpected happens, Congress's budget debates are far from over for this year. Congress has until Saturday, September 30th, to pass a spending budget for next year in order to avoid a government shutdown. But because Congress is rarely able to agree on a budget for the new fiscal year, the House and Senate usually pass something called a continuing resolution or a CR. That continues to fund the government through the end of the year while budget debates continue. But as of today, there is not appear to be any movement on a continuing resolution. On Saturday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said there are still a few members that won't vote for funding the government while we finish. all 12 bills, adding that he doesn't understand that. Republican lawmakers are moving ahead with

Starting point is 00:01:15 four government spending bills, but they are unlikely to pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate. These four bills include billions of dollars in cuts to federal government spending. Reuters reports that the four spending bills would impose new abortion restrictions undue an $11 billion Biden administration climate initiative and resume construction. on the Mexican U.S. border wall. Some of the more conservative members of the House GOP are leading the way in pushing for the spending cuts in the new bills.

Starting point is 00:01:49 And McCarthy faces the threat of losing his position as speaker if he loses the support of those GOP members. Right now, McCarthy is under pressure from some of those GOP members to move forward with the bills that include the spending cuts. The House Speaker says he's still hoping to avoid a partial government shutdown, but that might not be possible given the different priorities in Congress. Former President Donald Trump encouraged GOP lawmakers to stick to their budget cut

Starting point is 00:02:20 demands. Earlier today, Trump posted on social media telling Republicans, unless you get everything, shut it down, close the border, stop the weaponization of justice, and end election interference. New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez was indicted last week by a jury in the Southern District of New York. He was indicted on charges of corruptly aiding the Egyptian government in exchange for bribes. Menendez did step down temporarily from his position as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but now lawmakers, including Democrats, are calling on Menendez to resign from the Senate altogether. New York Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told ABC News today that it's time for him to step aside. The situation is quite unfortunate, but I do believe that it is in the best interests for Senator Menendez to resign in this moment.

Starting point is 00:03:18 As you mentioned, consistency matters. It shouldn't matter whether it's a Republican or a Democrat. The details in this indictment are extremely serious. The serious charges in that indictment allege that the senator shared highly sensitive information about America's embassy in Cairo, Egypt, and tried to interfere in criminal prosecutions. Among the most serious of the charges are claims that he used his power as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in ways that benefited the government of Egypt in exchange for bribes that include money, gold bars, mortgage payments, and even a luxury car. Menendez has denied the allegations, but now the Guardian reports that human rights groups and lobbyists in Washington, D.C. are demanding that U.S. lawmakers withhold $235 million in military aid to Egypt that was previously approved by the Biden administration earlier this month. To be continued. Last week, we talked a little bit about a new Heritage Foundation report that found that the Commonwealth of Virginia, California's public universities have more DEI bureaucracies than any other state in America. Among those colleges is George Mason University, just outside Washington, D.C. in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Starting point is 00:04:39 The Heritage Report found that George Mason has more employees working in the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the school than any other college in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Well, the office of the president at George Mason fired back in an email, to staff on Friday saying the report paints an inaccurate picture of the school. The president of George Mason has invited the authors of the Heritage Foundation report to George Mason to discuss the report and explain to the university how they reached the conclusion that they did. Jay Green is one of those authors and he explained on X, formerly Twitter, how he and his colleagues here at the Heritage Foundation concluded that George Mason employees have more than six.

Starting point is 00:05:26 people in DEI positions. Now George Mason holds that they only have about 17 staff members who are employed in a DEI capacity at the school. If that meeting does take place between Jay Green and staff at George Mason, we'll be sure to let you know. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Canada and gave an address to the Canadian Parliament. Shortly after Zelensky spoke, the Canadian House Speaker Anthony Rhoda honored a man who said he was a Canadian-Ukrainian war hero from his political district. The man was in the crowd

Starting point is 00:06:03 and the lawmakers and political officials present gave him innovation as he appeared to stand and salute from the public gallery. But now, Speaker Rota has issued an apology because the veteran was reportedly part of a Nazi division in World War II. Canadian Jewish organizations Sunday demanded an apology after veteran Yaroslav Hunkah was honored in parliament.

Starting point is 00:06:29 Speaker Rota did issue an apology saying he was unaware of the veteran's alleged ties to a Nazi division. Politico reports that on Sunday afternoon, Rota said he recently became aware of more information which causes me to regret my decision to honor the veteran. And he went on to take full responsibility for the incident. Ukraine says it is killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters last week in Crimea. Now, Kiev says the commander was killed in the strike but has not offered any evidence of that fact. NBC News reports that Ukraine's Special Operations Forces said in a post on telegram that the commander,

Starting point is 00:07:20 of the Black Sea Fleet was among 34 officers who died in the strike on the fleet's headquarters in the Crimean City of Sebastopol on Friday. Russia has not confirmed the news, but if it is true, Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO Supreme Allied commander and current Chief International Security analyst for NBC News, says that the commander's death would likely be the highest-ranking naval officer killed in combat since World War II. With that, that is going to do it for today's episode of the Daily Signals, Top News. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed, where we interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Tomorrow morning, I'll be sitting down with Bethany Allen Ibrahimium, who is the China reporter for Axios. We'll be discussing her new book, Beijing Rules, How China Weapons, How China Weapons, its economy to confront the world. And if you haven't done so already, take just a moment to subscribe to the Daily Signal podcast wherever you like to listen to podcasts. We love seeing your five-star ratings and reviews roll in. Thanks again for listening.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Have a great evening, and we'll be back with you all tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Bly and Kate Trinco. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Government Shutdown Looms, Democrats Call on Menendez to Resign Amid Charges, Canadians Angry After Ovation for Nazi-Linked Veteran | Sept. 25

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.