The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Zelensky Visits White House, Congress, Omnibus Bill Fight Continues, Elon Musk Searches for New Twitter CEO | Dec. 21

Episode Date: December 21, 2022

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky visit with President Joe Biden and is speaking to Congress The continued debate on the omnibus spending bill The White House weighs in on Title 42  Elon Musk’s hunt for a new Twitter CEO  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Samantha Chiris. I'm John Pop. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, December 21st. Here are today's headlines. Ukrainian President Zelensky visited the White House today and is set to deliver a speech to Congress this evening. President Joe Biden and First Lady Joe Biden welcomed Zelensky earlier this afternoon. Let's take a listen to some of Biden's remarks while meeting with the Ukrainian leader via WUSA 9. 300 days, hard to believe, 300 days been going through this, and Putin has waged a brutal assault on the Ukraine's right to exist as a nation

and the attack on innocent Ukrainian people for no reason other than intimidated. And he's escalated his assault on civilians after school, orphanages, hospitals, landmarks. It just – it's – it's – he's trying to use one. winter as a weapon. But the Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world. I mean that sincerely. Not just inspire us, but inspire the world with their courage and how they have chose the resilience and resolve for their future. The Associated Press reports that the United States will provide an aid package that includes $1 billion in weapons and equipment from Pentagon stocks, including the Patriot Battery for the first time, and $850 million in funding through the Ukraine

Security Assistance Initiative. Included in the massive omnibus spending package totaling $1.85 trillion, $45 billion in aid will be given to Ukraine should it pass. Richard Stern, a senior policy analyst for budget policy here at the Heritage Foundation, points out that only 62% of it would go toward military activities. A total of $17 billion would go to economic assistance and efforts to support the Ukrainian government. As I mentioned earlier, Zelensky is scheduled to speak to Congress tonight around 730. Congress has not yet voted on passage of the massive $1.85 trillion omnibus spending bill as the Friday deadline approaches. Many conservative lawmakers are continuing to speak out against the bill, including incoming House Oversight Chairman James Comer.

Our colleague Rob Blewey reports that Comer is urging his Senate counterparts to reject the $1.85 trillion omnibus spending bill in order to strengthen the GOP's oversight authority for the next Congress. Comer told the Daily Signal in a statement, it's imperative that we stop the massive omnibus so that Republicans can use our majority power next Congress to conduct oversight of the federal government. hold the Biden administration accountable and enact good government reforms. Passage of the Amnibah spending bill would insulate the Biden administration from a spending fight for the next year. The bill making its way through the Senate funds the president's agenda

through September 30th, 2023. On the Senate side, Republican Rand Paul also spoke out about the bill during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. Let's listen to what he said via his Twitter. I brought with me the Omdi, 4,155 pages. When was it produced in the dead of the night, 1.30 in the morning when it was released? Now, people argue that it's conservative's fault. You don't have the Christmas spirit. Somehow you're holding up government. Well, whose job is it to produce this?

The people in charge of spending. The people in charge of both of the parties. When did they know that this would be necessary? Well, it's in the law, September 30th. You got nine months, almost 10 months, to produce a plan. During the same press conference, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, noted that the spending bill includes 9.8 billion worth of earmarks for both Democrats and Republicans. We here will keep you updated as this story develops. Elon Musk is on the hunt to find a replacement for his role as Twitter's chief executive officer.

Over the weekend, Musk tweeted a poll asking whether he should step down as Twitter CEO. More than 17 million Twitter users wait in, with 57.7% of respondents saying he should step down. Musk tweeted on Tuesday, I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job. After that, I will just run the software and servers teams. The Biden administration is calling on the Supreme Court to allow the COVID-era policy Title 42 to end, but not until after the holidays, per Fox News. The Biden administration made the request just a day after the nation's highest court stopped the measure from being lifted. Back on November 15th, a United States district court ordered the policy be repealed by today, December 21st, but the Supreme Court has placed a stay on the order. Solicitor General Elizabeth Preligar submitted a 41-page filing to the Supreme Court on Tuesday,

arguing that the government is prepared to comply with a lower court order in November that found Title 42 to be illegal, and that the 19 Republican-controlled states seeking to delay Title 42's rescission were not entitled to intervene in the court case over the policy's legality, according to CBS News. Our colleague Virginia Allen reported recently, Customs and Border Protection, reports over 2 million encounters with illegal aliens at the border in fiscal year 2022, which ended September 30th. In October, Border Patrol encountered 230,678 illegal aliens at the southern border, an increase of more than 65,000 from last October. Border Patrol has not yet released the number for encounters in November.

And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to 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. Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition. I'll be sitting down with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to discuss TikTok, why he thinks it should be banned, and how parents can protect their children from potentially harmful content. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us

reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all 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. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen, Samantha Asheris, and Jillian Richards. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney and John Pop. To learn more, please visit daily signal.com.