The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | 3,000+ Veterans, Active Duty Military Members Side with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, GOP Holds FACE Act Hearing, John Durham Asked To Testify Before Congress | May 16

Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Samantha Chiris. I'm John Pop. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Tuesday, May 16. Here are today's headlines. Our colleague Rob Louie is reporting that the cavalry is coming to help Senator Tommy Tuberville. As we recall, for months, the Alabama Republican has waged a fight against the Defense Department's woke agenda by blocking the Senate's approval of nearly 200 promotions for military generals and flag officers. The military establishment, Senate Democrats, and the Biden administration have resorted to name-calling and unfounded warnings, even though Tuberville insists he won't budge until the Pentagon reverses its policies subsidizing abortions. Two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, touted a letter from seven former secretaries of defense to make his case. Today, a significantly larger number of current and retired service members announced their backing Tubberville. In a new letter shared first with a daily signal, more than 3,000 veterans and active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces are expressing their support for Tubberville and calling on the Pentagon to rescind its abortion policy. Four members of Congress joined state lawmakers, national leaders, and thousands of everyday Americans who have served their country in the military.

Starting point is 00:01:35 They write in the letter to Schumer and McConnell, The undersigned stand united in condemning this policy. This policy is not just illegal, it shamefully politicizes the military, circumvents the authority of Congress, and exceeds the authority of the Department of Defense. This letter includes 593 individual names, including Republican reps Eli Crane of Arizona, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Ronnie Jackson of Texas, and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, plus 32 endorsers and partners from the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, which represents the position of over 2,500 military chaplains.

Starting point is 00:02:13 We will include a link to Rob's full story in today's show notes. Our colleague Mary Margaret Ollahan is reporting that Republican lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee spent Tuesday morning highlighting the Biden administration's apparently selective use of the freedom of access to clinic entrances or face act. During the revisiting the implications of the Face Act hearing, the lawmakers brought forward Mark Halk as a witness. Halk is the father of seven children who is arrested by authorities in front of his children on face act charges brought by the Department of Justice. A jury found him not guilty earlier this year. Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, spoke about the FBI's targeting of Halk.

Starting point is 00:02:57 Let's take a listen to some of what he had to say via Mary Margaret O'Hawthand's Twitter. I think they did it. Why did they, you know, the local police saw this incident. They didn't, they weren't going to prosecute you. My guess is they probably exercised some common sense and said, you know, this is, this guy's been praying in front of this clinic for 20 years. This guy harassed his son. He did what a dad would do.

Starting point is 00:03:23 They chose not to come after you. You volunteered to turn yourself in, and yet they show up at your house. 20 agents, guns drawn in front of your family in front of them. Why do you think they did it? Thank you, Congressman Jordan, for the question. I've been thinking about that for many months, and I can only come up with it. The intention was to humiliate me, to scare my children, and to instill fear in pro-life America. Yeah, I think they want to make an example of you, right? I believe so. And they told us why they did it. They actually put it in writing. All you got to do is look at memorandum from the Richmond field office. I mean, you were, you were like front and center.

Starting point is 00:04:08 Look at this memorandum. Now, thank goodness they've rescinded it. FBI's rescinded this memorandum. This, they call it a domain perspective. I don't know why they can't use this normal terms. It's a memorandum. They rescinded it because the brave whistleblower came and gave us this information. But if you look at page, I think it's page four, has this sentence, events in which extremists and radical traditional Catholics will remain, excuse me, events in which extremists and radical traditional Catholics might have common cause include legislation or judicial decisions in areas such as abortion rights, immigration, affirmative action, LGBTQ protections. So if you're pro-family, pro-life, and you want to border, you're a target, and your family fit all

Starting point is 00:04:53 of that. Like, you're a pro-life, pro-family Catholic, for goodness. sake, they're going to come out. You've got seven kids. You're not allowed to have seven kids today. You know, we're trying to save the planet. You can't do that in America today, according to the... They made... You were the example, and that is how pervasive this political attitude is at the highest levels of our agencies. And in this case, it was the FBI so much so. They put together a memo and said, we want to put informants and snitches inside the Catholic Church, inside the parish, to go rat out people like Mark Halk and his family. The only Democratic witness at Tuesday's hearing was Talcott Camp,

Starting point is 00:05:33 chief legal and strategy officer at the National Abortion Federation. Camp previously came under fire for remarks she allegedly made at the National Abortion Federation Convention in 2014 or 2015, recorded by pro-life activist David Dalladon. Republican Texas Representative Chip Roy pressed Camp to explain her remarks on Tuesday to which she claimed the videos were heavily edited and said it would be impossible for her to know if she made these comments.

Starting point is 00:06:01 She also accused those who publicized the videos of her alleged remarks of stoking a massive uptick in violence. Let's take a listen to their exchange via the Heritage Foundation's Twitter. In 2015, the Center for Medical Progress released a video on which you stated, quote, I'm like, oh my God, I get it. When the skull is broken, that's really sharp.

Starting point is 00:06:22 I get it. I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that colvarium. Colvarium being an incomplete skull. When abortion has crushed the skulls of babies to kill them, what physical risks are there for the baby? So, Congressman, thank you for the question. It allows me to clarify that the media products you're referring to stoked a mass uptick in violence, those heavily edited, misleadingly edited media products, caused three murders and nine woundings in Colorado Springs in 2015. The question was about the baby and the skull crushing that is, I think, a direct quote attributed to you. Well, the folks who distributed those media products may have attributed something to me, I can't speak to one. So true or false, did you say that? I'm like, oh my God, I get it.

Starting point is 00:07:25 when the skull is broken, that's really sharp. Did you say that? It's impossible to know, Congressman. Would you have said that? Is that something you would have said? I don't know, Congress. You don't know. You don't know if you talked about the crushing of the skull of a baby. We'll include a link to Mary Margaret's full report in today's show notes. Our colleague, Friend Lucas, is reporting that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, announced that he would like Special Counsel John

Starting point is 00:07:55 Durham to testify to Congress. Jordan is also the chairman of the judiciary select subcommittee on weaponization of the federal government. Jordan tweeted Monday, we've reached out to the Justice Department to have a special counsel John Durham testify next week. Durham, in a widely anticipated report Monday, condemned the Justice Department and FBI for their conduct in the Russian collusion investigation of Donald Trump. Durham's investigation looked at the origins of crossfire hurricane, the name of the FBI probe of whether Trump or his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russians to win the election. The investigation was taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, after Trump was elected president. Mueller's team concluded there was no evidence of conspiracy or

Starting point is 00:08:42 collusion between Trump or his campaign and Russia. Trump's second attorney general, William Barr, appointed Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, to look into the origins of the investigation. In late 2020, Barr named the veteran prosecutor who has scored convictions in high-profile cases of public corruption and organized crime as special counsel. Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI pushed back against Durham's findings. In a written statement, the FBI didn't contest the findings, saying the conduct in 2016 and 2017 special counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been to be. been in place for some time.

Starting point is 00:09:26 Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented. This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the vigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightfully expect. We'll include a link to Fred's reporting in today's show notes.

Starting point is 00:09:46 The IRS removed the entire investigative team dealing with its tax fraud probe into Hunter Biden, the New York Post is reporting. As you'll recall from previous reporting from Fred Lucas, a whistleblower from the IRS in April notified congressional committees and an inspector general about potential political interference in the investigation of the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, in China, Ukraine, and elsewhere. Tristan Levitt of Empower of Empower, a Mark Little of Nixon Peabody LLC, who represent the whistleblower, wrote in a letter to Congress that said, today the Internal Revenue Service,

Starting point is 00:10:23 the IRS criminal supervisory special agent we represent was informed that he and his entire investigative team are being removed from the ongoing and sensitive investigation of the high-profile controversial subject about which our client sought to make whistleblower disclosures to Congress. The letter also said any attempt by any government official to prevent a federal employee from furnishing information to Congress is also a direct violation of longstanding appropriations restriction. Furthermore, 18 U.S.C. 1505 makes it a crime to obstruct an investigation of Congress. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted about the post story saying the repeated weaponization of the federal government to attack one political party and protect the other is un-American. The Ways and Means Committee will expose any possible cover-ups at the IRS, and Republicans will protect the whistleblowers who shine a light on government misconduct. We'll keep you updated with any developments in this story. And that's going to do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal's Top News.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Now, if you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed. We interview lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition. I'll be sitting down with Derek Kreifles. He's the chief executive officer of the State Financial Officers Foundation. And we'll be discussing environmental, social, and governance policies, some of the way that the State Financial Officers Foundation is helping states navigate the ESG issue and much more. And make sure you subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach more listeners

Starting point is 00:12:03 by sharing and leaving a five-star rating and a review. We read all your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great evening and we'll be back with you all tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Lewy and Kate Trinco. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheris. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | 3,000+ Veterans, Active Duty Military Members Side with Sen. Tommy Tuberville, GOP Holds FACE Act Hearing, John Durham Asked To Testify Before Congress | May 16

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