The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Hunter Biden to Pay Less Child Support, John Durham Testifies Before Congress, Justice Alito Responds to ProPublica | June 21

Starting point is 00:00:01 I'm Virginia Allen. I'm Samantha Sherriss. And this is the date-less signal top news for Wednesday, June 21st. Here are today's headlines. Former special counsel John Durham testified before Congress today. The hearing was focused on a report. Durham recently released looking into the Trump-Russia investigation. Durham's report concluded that the Justice Department and FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia investigation in the first place. It's worth noting that John Durham is an apolitical career prosecutor. His full report is 306 pages long and concludes that there was no basis to immediately launch a full-fledged investigation against Donald Trump. Durham testified before the House Judiciary Committee today and said the FBI failed to follow up on leads, which indicated that the Trump-Russia collusion investigation was politically motivated. As our report details, the FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele dossier.

Starting point is 00:01:22 The FBI relied on the dossier in FISA applications knowing there was likely material originating from a political campaign, a political opponent. It did so even after the President of the United States, the FBI and CIA directors and others received briefings about intelligence suggesting that there was a Clinton campaign plan underway to stir up a scandal tying Trump to Russia. The accuracy of the intelligence was uncertain at the time, but the FBI failed to analyze or even assess the implications of the intelligence in any meaningful way. According to the Daily Signals, Fred Lucas, at least two House Democrats yielded their time during the hearing to Representative Adam Schiff. Schiff asked questions of John Durham and gave the impression that Democrats are still holding to the Russia collusion theory. Chairman Jim Jordan issued this warning during the hearing. Seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough, but what's more frightening, any one of us could be next.

Starting point is 00:02:31 In fact, it's already started. Parents at school board meetings are terrorists. Pro-life Catholics are extremists, even journalists aren't safe. According to Durham, some FBI agents have been apologetic and even emotional about the conduct of their leaders in the probe. Justice Samuel Alito is firing back at the news site, ProPublica, after it published an article raising concerns over issues relating to recusal and gift disclosures. On Tuesday, ProPublica published a piece saying Alito did not disclose gift. he was given on his 2008 financial disclosure report. The gift was a fishing trip allegedly paid for by a man named Paul Singer.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Singer is a hedge fund manager and had had business-related cases before the Supreme Court. Because of Alito's connection to Singer, the ProPublica article included comments from those who argue that Alito should have recused himself of any cases Singer was involved in. but Alito says ProPublica is wrong, arguing that neither charge is valid. Alito responded to the ProPublica recusal argument in a Wall Street Journal piece saying, I had no obligation to recuse in any of the cases that ProPublica cites. First, even if I had been aware of Mr. Singer's connection to the entities involved in those cases, recusal would not have been required or appropriate.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Alito continued that my recollection is that, I have spoken to Mr. Singer on no more than a handful of occasions, all of which, with the exception of small talk during a fishing trip 15 years ago, consisted of brief and casual comments at events attended by large groups. On no occasion have we discussed the activities of his businesses, and we have never talked about any case or issue before the court. In relation to the second claim ProPublica made against Alito, Alito says he was not required to disclose the gift of the fishing trip. Alito wrote that until a few months ago,

Starting point is 00:04:39 the instructions for completing a financial disclosure report told judges that personal hospitality need not be reported. And hospitality was defined to include hospitality extended for a non-business purpose by one, not a corporation or organization on property or facilities owned by a person. ProPublica's criticism of Lido comes shortly, after the news media has also criticized Justice Clarence Thomas for not disclosing trips, he was gifted.

Starting point is 00:05:11 On the education front, we unfortunately have another bad report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The group's latest assessment has found that math and reading scores have fallen significantly for 13-year-olds. Math scores fell by nine points from the 2019-2020 academic year to the current academic year. And reading scores fell by about four points during that same time frame. Reading scores for 13-year-olds are now at the lowest point that they've been since 2004, and mass scores have not been this low since 1990. The National Assessment of Education

Starting point is 00:05:51 Progress Commissioner Peggy Carr said the green shoots of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized as we continue to see worrisome signs about student achievement and well-being more than two years after students returned for in-person learning. Hunter Biden has reportedly reached an agreement with the mother of his daughter regarding child support payments. The New York Post is reporting that the younger Biden reached the agreement with London Roberts privately. Biden has been paying London $20,000 a month. The payment is rumored to have now been cut to $5,000. a month. Legal analyst Jonathan Turley tweeted earlier today that Hunter Biden reportedly

Starting point is 00:06:39 succeeded in not only lowering his payments to his daughter, but getting her to drop the request to use the Biden name. Turley added that if true, the dropping of the name change is particularly sad for this little girl. Hunter Biden originally denied that he was the child's father, but a DNA test approved otherwise in 2019. The four-year-old girl's name is Navy. The mother's attorney Clint Lancaster said London is a great mom and little Navy is going to be fine. The kid has lots of love on the maternal side of the family in Batesville. They are a very, very close family. They adore her and are always going to support her.

Starting point is 00:07:19 But I think everybody is disappointed that there's not more contact with the Biden family. Lancaster added that it's not lost on anybody that Jill Biden wrote a children's book and dedicated it to her grandchildren. She could have kept it at that, but she named every child except Navy. And finally today, there are rumors in Washington, D.C. that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is going to launch a campaign for president as a third-party candidate. According to Fox News, this would be of significant harm to Democrats for two reasons. First, it would likely pull some Democrat votes away from President Joe Biden. and second, it would open Mansion Senate seat up in West Virginia,

Starting point is 00:08:04 giving Republicans an opportunity to fill it. Virginia Democrat Senator Tim Kane says he does not think Manchin will give up his Senate seat. My gut tells me that that's not going to happen, Kane said, adding, My Gut tells me there's still a really good likelihood that Joe's going to run for re-election and we need him to. This is one D.C. rumor. that we're just going to have to wait and see what happens. But with that, we are going to leave it there for today's episode of 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

Starting point is 00:08:42 lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition. Rob Louie is sitting down with Ryan Wolfe, who leads the fun for American studies. They discuss journalistic integrity and how to raise up the next generation of journalists be truth tellers. Also, make sure you subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. Thanks again for joining us today. We hope you all have a wonderful evening. We'll see you right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage

Starting point is 00:09:21 Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Bowie and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Hunter Biden to Pay Less Child Support, John Durham Testifies Before Congress, Justice Alito Responds to ProPublica | June 21

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