Biden’s sloppy Easter message

As believers around the world observed the holiest day of the Christian calendar yesterday with traditional Easter celebrations, the administration of the self-proclaimed “devout Catholic” president of the United States issued a proclamation acknowledging Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility” and banned religious-themed art from the White House Easter egg decorating contest.

President Biden is evidently proud of his Catholic heritage, as he frequently touts his faith and attends Mass. Yet many of his policies, on abortion and LGBQTIA-related issues, for instance, directly contradict Catholic doctrine.

Biden is receiving all kinds of flack in response to the White House proclamation. Cardinal Wilton Gregory, who serves as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, told Face the Nation host Ed O’Keefe he believes Biden is “very sincere about his faith,” but “like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts. There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a ‘cafeteria Catholic,’ you choose that which is attractive, and dismiss that which is challenging.”

Gregory added that “there are things that [Biden] chooses to ignore, or he uses the current situation as a political pawn rather than saying, ‘Look, my church believes this, I’m a good Catholic, I would like to believe this.’ Rather than to twist and turn some dimensions of the faith as a political advantage.”

Donald Trump’s campaign issued a statement in response to Biden’s Easter debacle, saying: 

It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility,’ Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden Administration’s years-long assault on the Christian faith. We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign @BidenHQ and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only — the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The Associated Press notes International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) “takes place annually on March 31 to celebrate transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. It was not designed intentionally to fall on Easter Sunday as claimed by some online account.”

-Teresa Mull

On our radar

TRUMP’S APRIL FOOLS Former president Donald Trump blasted out a press release with the subject line, “I’m suspending my campaign…” with the inside of the email revealing it was an April Fools’ Day joke and that he will “never surrender.” 

A NAVY YARD SHOOTING … AGAIN  An unnamed victim was shot and killed on the tentth floor of the Harlow apartments in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, DC early Sunday morning. Harlow describes itself as a “luxury building” and one-bedroom rents start at $1,900. 

BIDEN TO BALTIMORE President Joe Biden will visit the site of the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse on Friday, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Speaker Johnson’s ‘innovative’ approach to Ukraine

Congress may be on recess right now, but the fun never ends, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has a Kiev-sized problem waiting on his desk.

For months, Congress has feuded over how, if at all, to get billions of dollars of aid to allies like Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan out the door. Clamoring caucuses in both parties have their own reasons to oppose funding Ukraine or Israel — and, in some cases, both — and have rejected the idea of passing anything that couples the two. Meanwhile, Taiwan is left in the lurch. There’s no major opposition to Taiwanese aid, but it’s roped in with the multi-billion-dollar aid package, and is languishing as a result. 

Johnson unveiled a series of tweaks he’d like to see added to the package, including issuing a massive loan to Ukraine. This idea was floated by Donald Trump and has been implemented by several American allies in Europe. Some Senate Democrats have signaled an increased openness to this idea. Another plan is to use the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to fund the Ukrainian war effort, which Johnson told Fox News’s Trey Gowdy would be “pure poetry.” 

Johnson’s creativity hasn’t quieted complaints from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who has become his most vocal critic. Last week, she filed a motion to vacate the speaker before Johnson attempted to mollify her by appointing her one of the managers of the Mayorkas impeachment. Nevertheless, Greene still sounds undeterred in her opposition to Johnson, tweeting that if he gives “another $60 billion to the defense of Ukraine’s border after he FULLY FUNDED Biden’s deadly open border, the cruel joke would be on the American people.”

Johnson does have a surprising ally in his pushback to Greene: Congressman Matt Gaetz, who, of course, led the ouster of Johnson’s predecessor, Speaker Kevin McCarthy. In an interview with CNN, Gaetz said he is glad that Johnson “hasn’t rolled over to the $95 billion Ukraine supplemental that the Senate passed, and I think that he’s forging a better path on that issue as we speak.”

More moderate House Republicans are noting that relying on Gaetz to preserve the speakership is a risky bet as Johnson fends off attacks from his right flank. “We have one or two people that are not team players,” Congressman Don Bacon, a retired Air Force General, told NBC News. “They’d rather enjoy the limelight, the social media.”

Regardless of the final formulation of aid Johnson puts forward, he’s going to face opposition from progressives over support for Israel, the Freedom Caucus over funding to Ukraine, and Democrats in the Senate and White House who are enjoying the GOP chaos.

–Matthew Foldi

CBS’s Havana Syndrome special 

CBS’s 60 Minutes might have thought they were airing a groundbreaking report on an alleged connection between Russia and so-called “Havana Syndrome,” but quickly found themselves the butt of April Fools’ Day.

According to the 60 Minutes report, several producers spent five years investigating a possible cause of the mysterious illness plaguing US officials who traveled to Cuba or China. Symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, ringing in the ears, nausea and vomiting and headaches. There is an open debate in the scientific and intelligence communities as to whether the illness might be psychosomatic, but new reports from CBS and the Insider claim it could be the result of an acoustic weapon developed by Russian intelligence. The National Intelligence Council previously concluded that alleged Havana Syndrome victims likely had “medical, environmental, and social factors that plausibly can explain” their symptoms. 

Unfortunately for 60 Minutes, its report was also quickly overshadowed by the goofy disguise put on one of its sources. After noting makeup artists were “disguising,” the female FBI agent appeared on camera with a poorly applied blonde wig and heavy makeup with an unmistakable accent. “60 Minutes did a great job disguising their source. Nobody is ever going to be able to identify this woman,” New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi snarked. 

–Amber Duke

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