U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, including Border Patrol agents and CBP OFO officer, encountered 302,000 migrants along the southwest border in December, according to an official source speaking with Fox News on Tuesday. The reported encounters set a new single-month record for CBP encounters and mark the first time this number has exceeded the 300,000-migrant threshold.
If the numbers reported by Fox News are accurate, this brings the first-quarter total number of encounters to more than 785,000 migrants.
Forget Michelle Obama or Gavin Newsom -- Dems' Choice to Replace Biden is Nikki Haley
President Joe Biden is clearly declining cognitively and physically, based on his garbled speech, frequent falls, disorientation on stage, and inappropriate behavior, especially toward young girls.
Voters agree.
In the Democrat stronghold of New York City, 62 percent of New Yorkers believe Biden is unfit to serve another term.
So, who takes his place?
Not Vice President Kamala Harris, whose approval rating, “Is a 2024 problem,” according to Newsweek. She is “notably less popular than Mike Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, and Al Gore were after the same number of days as vice president.”
Who else is on the Democrat bench to replace Biden? Filmmaker Joel Gilbert makes a compelling case for Michelle Obama swooping into the race at the last minute, avoiding a messy primary season. Her popularity and thin political resume, not to mention her skin color and gender, make her untouchable, buffered by cries of racism or sexism whenever she is questioned or challenged.
Podcaster Dan Bongino says otherwise and makes a good case based on his experience with Mrs. Obama from his time as a Secret Service agent on the presidential detail in the Obama White House. He believes she is far too private, and comfortable in her wealth and idolatry, to go head-to-head with Donald Trump, or whoever the GOP nominee is.
Bongino also correctly adds the caveat that, “Predictions are like a**holes, everyone has one.”
There are also some current Democrat governors like Gavin Newsom or Gretchen Whitmer who are suggested as Biden replacements. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a legacy Democrat, is running as an independent candidate because he, like Trump, is reviled by his party’s ruling class and establishment, but he could always revert back to his family roots and run on the Democrat ticket.
It's far simpler for Democrats to replace Joe Biden by letting him lose in November. Forget impeachment or the 25th Amendment. There is already a candidate, already running, who could replace Biden and continue many of his policies, perhaps not as vigorously, but certainly appealing enough to the left and the donor class that they are all in for her candidacy.
I speak of Nikki Haley, ostensibly running as a Republican.
After the Iowa caucuses, she channeled her inner Joe Biden by calling it a two-person race, despite her finishing third in Iowa.
YouTube screen grab
That sounds like Joe Biden “literally” convincing Democrat segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Biden was 22 at the time, not a U.S. Senator, instead supposedly a football star, triple-major, college kid, appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy.
Humorous tall tales and misstatements aside, why would Haley be Democrats’ Biden replacement?
Are Democrats supporting her candidacy? Hell, yeah!
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and “one of the Democratic Party’s biggest financiers,” also an Epstein Island visitor, gave $250,000 to a Nikki Haley Super PAC.
Why would a liberal Democrat mega-donor support a Republican candidate? Hoffman must approve of Haley’s platform and plans for America.
Reid Hoffman is not only funding Haley’s campaign, but also E. Jean Carroll’s farcical lawsuit against Donald Trump. Will Haley be beholden to Hoffman’s leftist politics and agenda?
The open borders, Trump-hating Koch Brothers, endorsed and are financially supporting Haley’s campaign, too. Perhaps they like Nikki’s position on the border rather than Trump’s “build the wall” approach.
Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who couldn’t lobby his caucus to fund a southern border, is lobbying Congressional Republicans to support Haley.
Pro-war, former conservative Republican, now liberal Democrat, Bill Kristol also endorsed Haley. Perhaps he shares Nikki’s “I love war” platform for America.
What are Haley’s views on illegal migration? She wants to roll out the welcome mat: “We don’t need to talk about them as criminals. They’re not. They’re families that want a better life.”
Do voters, especially Republicans, agree?
Rasmussen Reports asked U.S. likely voters if the current surge of migration was “an invasion.” Some 77 percent of Republicans said it was, perhaps reflecting the hordes of military-aged men streaming across the border, as opposed to “families wanting a better life.”
They are not all criminals, but many are, including this four-time deported migrant from El Salvador who killed a Colorado mother and son in a drunk driving crash.
Who supported the George Floyd BLM riots in the summer of 2020? Democrats certainly did. Some Republicans, like Mitt Romney, marched in the BLM protests. Nikki Haley tweeted, “In order to heal, it needs to be personal and painful for everyone.” Does that mean painful for those who had nothing to do with George Floyd but had their businesses destroyed in the riots? Her position is more aligned with Democrats than Republicans.
What about the Ukraine war? Pew Research found, “About half of Republicans now say the U.S. is providing too much aid to Ukraine.” This compares to only 16 percent of Democrats.
Haley’s position is closer to the Democrats, saying “This is a war about freedom, and it’s one we have to win.” Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, agree.
Two years into it, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men are dead and the U.S. has spent hundreds of billions of dollars, with nothing to show for it other than a Russian economy “going strong” as NPR observed.
She wants the war to continue, keeping her military industrial complex donors happy and wealthy. She served on the board of Boeing, a company with numerous military contracts, profitable during wartime.
Haley, according to ABC News: “has said that climate change is real and supports carbon capture.”
John Kerry and AOC agree.
She also plays into the current censorship state with her, “Proposed requirement that social media companies ban people from posting anonymously online for national security reasons.” Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray would approve as “Federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as part of an investigation into January 6.”
If one can’t post anonymously on social media, posting anything pro-Trump will invite scrutiny or worse from Big Brother. Haley supporting this, despite a partial walk back, sounds like a Democrat.
America has had Republicans in the mold of Nikki Haley and the results speak for themselves. President George H.W. Bush raised taxes after proclaiming: “Read my lips, no new taxes” and the electorate responding by choosing a glib, charismatic alternative from Arkansas as president.
Bush’s son drove America into a 20-plus years' war in the Middle East, destroying countries and wasting trillions in American wealth. He also ushered in the surveillance police state, now further weaponized by Obama and Biden against political opponents. He gave us John Roberts leading the high court and wanted Harriet Myers as Roberts’s sidekick.
He also pushed for amnesty for illegal aliens. Haley would likely follow a similar path accepting Gaza refugees into the U.S. under the logic, “America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists.” Then why let any in without proper vetting, rather than all of them? That’s Democrat logic.
Speaking of migration, under the natural-born provision of the U.S. Constitution, Haley may not even be eligible to serve as U.S. president as neither of her parents were U.S. citizens at the time of her birth, as Laura Loomer explains in detail. In other words, she has birthright citizenship, quite possibly not natural-born citizenship.
How will Democrats handle this? Those questioning Barack Obama’s eligibility were decried as "birthers.” Will Democrats question Haley’s eligibility? If they don’t, that’s a strong signal that they would welcome her presidency, hardly a ringing endorsement for GOP voters.
Wannabes along the way included John McCain, another warmonger and deciding vote to keep Obamacare in place. Mitt Romney voted to remove Donald Trump from office for asking Ukraine about the Biden family’s involvement in Ukraine corruption and money-laundering.
Nikki Haley is the latest version of the neo-con globalist Republicans who have come before her, bullish on open borders, endless wars, and big government. The donor class is smiling and writing her checks.
Expect under a Haley presidency, war with Russia, China, North Korea, and/or Iran. “Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” Bush-style, will be resurrected with a “path to citizenship” (amnesty) for the tens of millions of migrants who came to America under Biden, forever changing the electoral, demographic, and cultural aspects of America.
Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito will retire from the high court, replaced by “moderates” in the mold of John Roberts or David Souter. The climate agenda will move forward, but in a less radical form than John Kerry would like. Gun rights will shrink.
Expect another 9/11-type event, perhaps blamed on Trump supporters, ushering in version two of Bush’s Patriot Act, with a further erosion of liberty and freedom.
The deep state will remain untouched, with no reckoning for the crimes of Russia-gate, COVID, and a weaponized intelligence and justice system. In fact, Haley would allow her administration to target and harass Trump and his supporters, following the recommendation of David Plouffe and the permanent administrative state, “It is not enough to simply beat Trump. He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again.”
No wonder Democrats are embracing her candidacy. Better her than a Trump-Biden matchup which Trump would likely win. Haley’s GOP primary efforts may be moot after Iowa and with Trump’s 39 point lead in South Carolina, Haley’s home state.
While she won’t be an Obama puppet like Biden, she will govern similarly enough that the ruling class will be happy for her to continue much of the Biden agenda, even if she carries an ‘R’ after her name.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.
With DeSantis out, Democrats are getting what they want
Yesterday, Ron DeSantis dropped from the Republican Presidential Primary and endorsed Trump as the inevitable nominee. Given that Democrats have long wanted a presumably wounded Trump as the Republican nominee, they are now almost certainly going to get what they wish for. God help them and this country.
Going out with class, DeSantis led with a Churchill quotation and then endorsed Donald Trump:
I think Brit Hume’s analysis of why this happened is correct.
By driving from the race a competent man without baggage, the neo-Marxist leftists have just succeeded in turning 2024 into an existential election, with far more on the line than just who will be President, whether it’s the Orange Man who can’t control himself (according to Democrats) or the utterly corrupt Biden crime syndicate, now being led by a cabal of puppet masters (according to the facts).
Despite all sorts of Democrat claims to the contrary, “democracy” is not on the line in 2024, as we are not and have never been a democracy. On the other hand, the last vestiges of a constitutional republic…well, yes, that is on the line—and that is why Donald Trump is now the inevitable Republican nominee for President. I would have preferred Lincoln, but one has to go with who’s available.
One can only assume that the radical neo-Soviet left decided in 2021 or ’22 that they could beat a wounded Donald Trump in 2024, perhaps even without massive voter fraud. To that end, they wanted Republicans to nominate Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate. That scenario is the most reasonable explanation for the lawfare Democrats are waging against Trump in federal and courts on ludicrous charges. Just as a reminder, those cases include:
- A federal case brought by “Special Prosecutor” Jack Smith for mishandling classified documents (a case without viability and, hypocritically, filed even while Biden and Hillary remain free from charges)
- A New York Case by Alvin Bragg for hush money payment to Stormy Daniels (a case brought without any due process protections for Trump).
- A New York Case by Letitia James for business fraud (even though no one was financially injured and all parties profited). This is the quintessential prosecution in search of a wrongful act.
- A Georgia Case by Fani Willis for RICO (a ridiculous overreach of the law brought by a corrupt prosecutor who, in matters directly related to the prosecution, appears to have engaged in corruption at best, money laundering at worst.)
That lawfare, on top of the J6 prosecutions, a non-event played up as stopping the second coming of the Civil War, is a shot across the bow to anyone who would dare stand in the way of the neo-Marxist left’s march to power. They’ve made their philosophy clear: “Contest our right to rule, and we will destroy you.”
By waging war against Trump, the corrupt operatives in the Democrat party have turned Trump into America’s last hope to withstand their neo-Marxist coup.
The reality is that the radical left drove Trump into the arms of conservatives. Left alone, his history suggested that he would have governed America as a moderate Democrat, happy to concentrate on only the economy. But the neo-Marxist left, having failed at its moment of permanent victory with Hillary, was determined to destroy all opposition, beginning with Trump.
The neo-Marxist Democrats have created in Trump their Frankenstein and, with him, they have driven our nation perilously close to a point of no return. As Suetonius claimed Julius Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon, alea iacta est (“the die is cast”).
Image: Internet meme.
Migrants BRAWL At NYC Shelter
REPUBLICANS PARTNER WITH BIDEN FOR WIDER OPEN BORDERS AND ENDLESS FOREIGN WARS.
5000 ILLEGALS ACCEPTED DAILY. BUT NO ONE WILL BE COUNTING. IN OTHER WORDS, A TOTAL SURRENDER OF OUR BORDER!
Leaked Senate Bill Legalizes Illegal Immigration
Cygnal Poll: Republicans Should ‘Tap into’ Voter Anger over Illegal Migration
Republican candidates should recognize that 70 percent of swing-voting independents “strongly” or “somewhat” favor the deportation of illegal migrants, according to a poll by Cygnal released Tuesday.
“This new national data shows just how voters view an unsecure border and the subsequent illegal immigration as a crisis, one that they believe is not being addressed by the Biden Administration,” said Brent Buchanan, president of the Cygnal polling firm. He continued:
Republican candidates at all levels would be wise to tap into this sentiment and contrast themselves with a sheepish bench of Democrats who have largely let the issue fester to a boiling point no locality can afford to further ignore because it’s impacting voters day-to-day lives.
The detailed results from the January 11-12 poll of 2,000 likely voters show that 61 percent of Republican supporters “strongly” support deportations.
RELATED VIDEO — Dem Sen. Bennet: Dems Have “Shifted Dramatically” Thanks to Migrant Busing, Border Chaos That’s Partially Biden’s Fault:
Forty percent of independents, and 21 percent of Democrats, blacks, and Biden’s 2020 voters “strongly” favor deportations.
The “strongly” opinions are more important than “somewhat” opinions because they are the most likely to determine how a person votes.
The survey showed that 50 percent of all Democrats favor deportations of illegals — 21 percent “strongly,” and 29 percent “somewhat.”
Many other polls show rising public opposition to legal and illegal migration amid President Joe Biden’s business-backed, easy-migration border policy.
The poll comes as Republican leaders in the Senate intensify their push to reach a border deal with Democrats, despite Democrats’ record of using legal and illegal methods to extract millions of poor and desperate migrants from poor countries. Many Democrats — and some Republicans — want the draft deal so they can minimize the visibility of Biden’s aggressive migration policy during the 2024 presidential campaign.
Support for deportations is weaker among some groups: Roughly 33 percent among women, 5 percent among women younger than 55, 34 percent among voters who vote in presidential elections, and 28 percent among “swing voters.” An additional 32 percent of “swing voters” say they “somewhat” support deportation.
Federal Appeals Court Reverses Position, Allows Texas Floating Barrier to Remain
EAGLE PASS, Texas — The State of Texas secured a rehearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that will allow the floating buoy barrier installed in the Rio Grande to remain in place until the full court hears the case. The en banc court hearing will take place in May 2024 and reverses a prior ruling ordering the state to remove the barrier system.
In December 2023, the Fifth Circuit panel issued a split 2-1 ruling affirming the Biden administration’s Department of Justice argument that the buoys posed a threat to public safety and blocked navigation in the Rio Grande. As reported by Breitbart Texas, the decision of the appeals court at the time upheld a lower court injunction that instructed the state to remove the 1000-foot floating barrier within ten days.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement promising constituents he and Attorney General Ken Paxton would be filing the request for a full court hearing on the matter and expressed his willingness to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.
The barrier, installed at a busy migrant crossing point near Eagle Pass, Texas, in July 2023, is a product manufactured by the Cochrane USA corporation. Abbott announced the installation of the floating barrier system in 2023 as he signed a host of border security bills in Austin. The project quickly came under fire by open-border protesters unhappy with the installation of the buoys and Governor Abbott’s enhanced border security efforts under Operation Lone Star.
Wednesday’s ruling issued by the Fifth Circuit is a part of several legal battles between the state and the Biden Administration over steps Texas is taking to reduce migrant crossings at its border with Mexico. The announcement of the ruling by the Texas Attorney General comes on the heels of another potential legal battle between the Biden Administration and Paxton over the recent seizure of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass by the Texas Military Department.
As a result of last week’s seizure of the border park adjacent to the Rio Grande, the Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security issued Paxton a cease-and-desist letter claiming the Border Patrol’s right to enter the park to perform official duties had been unlawfully impeded by the move. The letter demanded the state to remove temporary gates from the park’s entrance and allow the Border Patrol full access by the end of the day on Wednesday or face legal action.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Paxton responded to the letter by sending correspondence to the Department of Homeland Security refuting the legal issues contained in the cease-and-desist letter and vowing to stand firm on the State’s seizure and conditions for entry into the area by the Border Patrol.
That issue, as well as another federal court case regarding the Border Patrol’s right to cut or move concertina wire installed along the border, remains unresolved.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.