The Daily Signal - Harvard, MIT, and UPenn Face Grilling on Antisemitism on Campuses, GOP Won’t Back Ukraine Aid Without Border Security, FBI Director Testifies | Dec. 5

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Brian Gottstein, and this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, December 5th. Here are today's headlines. FBI director Christopher Ray testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today in a hearing focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The act was enacted in 1978 and sets out procedures for physical and electronic surveillance and collection of foreign intelligence information. There are special surveillance powers granted to the FBI under the Act, and they're set to expire this month. Ray's purpose in testifying was to ask lawmakers to renew the surveillance powers called Section 702 powers and to explain to the Senate why they're a necessary tool for the FBI. We hear from Forbes.

Starting point is 00:00:59 As this committee knows, 702 allows us to stay a step ahead of foreign actors located out. located outside the United States who pose a threat to national security. And the expiration of our 702 authorities would be devastating to the FBI's ability to protect Americans from those threats. But much more than the 702 powers was discussed at the hearing, lawmakers used the opportunity to discuss Ray's handling of the FBI and is targeting of certain groups, including traditional Catholics. In January, the FBI's Richmond, Virginia office, issued a memo, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center

Starting point is 00:01:42 and urging an investigation of, quote, radical traditional Catholic hate groups. A whistleblower published the memo and the FBI ultimately rescinded it. Senator Josh Hawley questioned Ray on that memo today and wanted to know if he had fired those at the FBI responsible for writing it. Ray admitted he had not. Here's a bit of that live-reveillance. exchange. Do you have a problem with systemic bigotry against Catholics in the FBI? No. What are you going to do about this? Are you going to fire these people or not? Those individuals have all been

Starting point is 00:02:18 admonished and it is all going into their, if you would let me finish my answer, it is all going into their annual performance reviews, which has direct impact on their compensation, among other things. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. The FBI memo urged agents to probe the supposed nexus between, quote, racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and radical traditional Catholics. Check out the link in the show notes for Tyler O'Neill's full coverage. House Republicans won't back additional aid to Ukraine without what House Speaker Mike Johnson calls transformative changes being made to America's border security. The White House is calling on Congress for additional aid to Ukraine.

Starting point is 00:03:02 President Biden's $106 billion supplemental aid package, $61 billion for Ukraine, but Johnson sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget today reiterating his line in the sand on the issue. In the letter, Johnson referred back to a meeting with administration officials in October. At that meeting, Johnson says he explained that the supplemental Ukraine funding is dependent upon the enactment of transformative change to our nation's border security laws. So what kind of border security policies do Republicans want before they approve more aid for Ukraine? The goal of the House GOP is for a bill called HR2 to become law.

Starting point is 00:03:42 The House passed HR2 back in May. It closes many of the asylum loopholes allowing illegal aliens to enter and stay in America. And it also beats up border security by requiring border patrol to have at least 22,000 agents who are dedicated to border enforcement not to processing illegal aliens so that they can enter the country. The grassroots arm of the Heritage Foundation, Heritage Action for America, is urging Johnson to continue holding the line and not approve additional funding for Ukraine until real border security measures are taken. Heritage Action President Dr. Kevin Roberts wrote to Johnson today and said,

Starting point is 00:04:21 Please don't undermine the gains that have been made on behalf of the American people by substituting one corrupt, unaffordable end of year deal for another. hold firm to the convictions you and I and the American people share in common. Biden has proposed funding for the border in his $106 billion supplemental bill, but the money he's proposing wouldn't be used to secure the border. Johnson appears to be sending a clear message to the majority in the Senate that if they send a bill to the House that provides money to Ukraine but isn't strong on border security, it just won't pass. This is likely going to be quite the fight between the House Senate and the White.

Starting point is 00:05:01 House, so stay tuned. In a big change out of the Senate today, Senator Tommy Tuberville backed off a pro-life battle he's been waging for a while. For months, Tuberville has been challenging a Pentagon policy promoting abortion and has been holding up hundreds of military promotions as the tool to do it. The Defense Department continues to allow taxpayer-funded travel for service members or their spouses to obtain abortions. And Tuberville has said that until that policy has changed, he won't approve any military promotions. If Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin drops the Pentagon's abortion policy, Tuberville said he would approve of the promotions. Recently, Tuberville came under criticism from senators in his own party, who said he needs to give up on his efforts and allow the promotions

Starting point is 00:05:51 to move forward despite the Pentagon policy. Now, to be clear, the Senate could have still moved forward on those promotions if they'd been willing to vote on them individually, instead of trying to move faster by getting unanimous consent. All Tuberville's block did was require a specific kind of vote to move the promotions forward. The Senator announced today that he'll no longer hold up any promotions for a rank of three-star general or below, but he'll continue to hold up the promotions of about 10 nominations for four-star generals and officers. Tuberville said he agreed to the change after Senators Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, and Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, presented the idea to him to release the promotions for the three-star generals and lesser.

Starting point is 00:06:41 In a joint op-ed by Ryan Williams, Terry Schilling, and the Heritage Foundation's Kevin Roberts, the conservative leaders wrote that, Tuberville's hold on military promotions over the Pentagon's unjust decision to fund abortion tourism, is a righteous manifestation of the Senate's responsibility to scrutinize military leadership. They added that analysis from the Center for Renewing America indicates that over 40% of the officers whose promotions the Senator has held up have publicly supported diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and dozens of them have egregiously politicized their service through social media comments, speeches, or policy decisions.

Starting point is 00:07:22 President of Students for Life, Kristen Hawkins, responded to the news on X, writing, We're proud of the stand that Senator Tuberville took on behalf of the preborn. Every day he stood firm was a message sent to Washington that the lives of America's preborn are worth defending, even if Joe Biden and his Pentagon don't think so. After a rise of anti-Semitism has swept across American college campuses, presidents of several top universities, Harvard, M.I. and the University of Pennsylvania were confronted today before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. They all said that anti-Semitism was indeed a problem on the campuses of these elite schools.

Starting point is 00:08:08 Representative Elise Stefaniac of New York questioned Claudine Gay of Harvard University about anti-Semitic activity on our campus, and the exchange got a little heated. And there have been multiple marches at Harvard with students chanting, quote, there is only one solution, Intifada Revolution, and, quote, globalize the Intifada. Is that correct? I've heard that thoughtless, reckless, and hateful language on our campus. Yes.

Starting point is 00:08:36 So based upon your testimony, you understand that this call for Intifada is to commit genocide against the Jewish people in Israel and globally, correct? I will say again, that type of hateful speech is, personally abhorrent to me. Do you believe that type of hateful speech is contrary to Harvard's code of conduct or is it allowed at Harvard? It is at odds with the values of Harvard. Can you not say here that it is against the code of conduct at Harvard? We embrace a commitment to free expression, even of views that are objectionable, offensive, hateful. Liz McGill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Cornbluth of the Massachusetts.

Starting point is 00:09:24 Massachusetts Institute of Technology faced similar questioning during the hearing. Check out the Daily Signal website for Jared Stepman's coverage of the hearing. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signal's 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. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition. Virginia Allen will be sitting down with Heather Lawless to discuss her powerful pro-life story

Starting point is 00:09:57 and a unique model for crisis pregnancy centers. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us to reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great night, 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.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheris. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - Harvard, MIT, and UPenn Face Grilling on Antisemitism on Campuses, GOP Won’t Back Ukraine Aid Without Border Security, FBI Director Testifies | Dec. 5

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