🇺🇸 Whistleblower Exposure

Good morning, and happy Tuesday. A rural Texas community is coming together in an enthralling search atop horses and ATVs to find an escaped rodeo goat. You won’t believe how much the reward is worth to bring the missing animal home.

Plus, a rare fossil discovery suggests that dinosaurs may have been hunted by mammals.

Also, planning a night out with your friends anytime soon? Give today’s sponsor a glance first.

TRENDING

Right: GOP Must Fight To Reverse Dems' Assault on Election Integrity Deroy Murdock, Daily Caller

Right: The Dems' Plan To 'Fortify' the 2024 Elections Hayden Ludwig, American Conservative

Right: Trump's Enemies Working To Ensure His 2024 Nomination Rich Lowry, NY Post

Left: Trump Is Gearing Up for His 'Final Battle' Robert Reich, The Guardian

Left: SCOTUS' Assault on Women and Minorities Michèle Lamont, Los Angeles Times

Left: Is This the End of Bibi? David Remnick, The New Yorker

QUICK CLICKS

Biden’s New Hire, Romney’s Request, Twitter Becomes “X”

US: Biden chooses a longtime Hill aide respected by Republicans as his new legislative affairs director (AP)

US: Romney calls on GOP donors to pressure non-competitive Trump rivals to drop out (The Hill)

US: IRS halts most unannounced visits to taxpayers, citing safety concerns (CNBC)

Business: Twitter begins its transition to 'X' after changing its iconic bird logo (Engadget)

Business: Spotify hikes prices for its 200 million premium subscribers (Fox Business)

World: White House calls Israeli Knesset's passage of judicial overhaul bill "unfortunate" (Axios)

World: Ukraine carried out drone attack on Moscow, officials say (CNN)

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IRS

Whistleblower Exposure

Last Wednesday, House Republicans raised allegations against President Joe Biden over his family’s finances as they summoned IRS whistleblowers to testify publicly for the first time about claims the Justice Department improperly interfered with a tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter.

Reporting from the Right: IRS whistleblowers reveal who's really to blame for shocking Biden corruption (Fox News)

Reporting from the Left: Second IRS whistleblower goes public at House Oversight hearing about Hunter Biden probe (CNN)

From The Flag: Lawmakers received testimony from two IRS agents assigned to the Hunter Biden case, Greg Shapley and Joe Ziegler. The case looked into his failure to pay taxes. Here’s how both sides are reacting to what was revealed in the testimonies.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

DOJ Has Been Covering for Hunter

• It’s clear the Biden family has been offering political influence in exchange for money, and Biden’s DOJ has been covering it up.

• It’s becoming increasingly difficult to believe AG Merrick Garland wasn’t aware of any DOJ interference on behalf of Hunter Biden.

• The whistleblower’s testimony confirms major political interference into the Hunter Biden investigations, and the Biden family is hiding much more.

The Jaw-Dropping Hunter Biden–Investigation Revelations The Editors, National Review: “First, the investigation into Biden corruption — millions of dollars pouring into the family coffers from apparatchiks of corrupt and anti-American regimes seeking to buy Joe Biden’s political influence — is real and has been thwarted by the Biden Justice Department. Second, the president’s son Hunter Biden received preferential treatment, and, next week, a federal judge should reject the sweetheart plea deal he was given by the Justice Department. Third, Attorney General Merrick Garland owes the country an explanation for why the Biden investigation has been sabotaged from within, even as he maintains publicly that it was conducted with independence and integrity. The two whistleblowers…recounted being blocked at every turn by Justice Department prosecutors as they tried to go about the routine steps investigators would take in any case — or, at least, any case not involving politically connected suspects.”

The Hunter Biden Whistleblowers The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal: “The two IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. say the Justice Department interfered in their investigation, for example, by tipping off Hunter’s legal team to a planned search and preventing questions related to Joe Biden. They also said the IRS team didn’t have access to Hunter’s laptop and or the FD-1023 document in which an FBI informant alleged that Joe and Hunter each accepted a $5 million bribe from Ukrainian energy giant Burisma. … The IRS and FBI agents who investigated Hunter are saying live on C-Span that they were prevented from getting evidence. The allegations are becoming more specific as the number of witnesses backing them up grows. If Mr. Garland and Mr. Weiss want to persuade America they’re telling the truth, they ought to go before Congress and do what the two IRS agents have now done: answer questions under oath.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: The Latest On James Comer’s Biden Crime Family Investigation Tim Meads, The Daily Wire

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Not the Conspiracy It’s Being Made to Look Like

• Congressional Republicans suggest a former IRS agent is proof DOJ slow-walked its investigation. But there may be a simpler explanation.

• Going into the 2024 elections, the GOP doesn’t appear to have much of a platform that extends beyond going after Hunter Biden.

• Representative Jamie Raskin believes there are two big flaws when it comes to Republicans’ “whistleblowers.”

Hunter Biden 'whistleblower' controversy feels more like confusion than conspiracy Barbara McQuade, MSNBC: “Delaware U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., ‘to clarify an apparent misperception’ by stating unequivocally that he ‘has never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction.’ Weiss was addressing testimony by former IRS agent Gary Shapley, who placed himself at the center of an ongoing controversy over the federal criminal investigation into the president’s son. …Shapley testified that at a ‘very contentious’ October meeting between agents and prosecutors, Weiss said he had sought and been denied special counsel status to pursue charges in districts outside Delaware. … Weiss explained one reason for the possible disconnect between what Shapley said he heard: a misunderstanding between two different types of prosecutors — a ‘special counsel,’ which is an attorney appointed under one set of regulations, and a ‘special attorney,’ which is an attorney appointed under a different set of regulations.”

Without Hunter Biden, What Do Republicans Have? Jessica Tarlov, The Messenger: “...it was never clearer to me that the GOP has nothing on which to run but a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that the Biden family is somehow akin to the Gotti crime family. The problem with it, as with most right-wing conspiracies, is that it doesn’t hold water if you do even the slightest semblance of digging. It’s a house of cards built for right-wing echo chamber consumption. …Hunter Biden has done a lot wrong in his life. Addiction, which he has acknowledged, is a disease and I’m glad he’s in recovery, but it’s quite clear he has traded on his family name to make a lot of money… That said, this week’s much-hyped IRS whistleblower testimony showcased just how divorced from reality many Republicans have become. … Both of the whistleblowers’ testimonies undercut the GOP argument that Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss was hamstrung in investigating Hunter Biden by a Department of Justice (DOJ) that wanted to protect the Bidens.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Star Hunter Biden Witnesses Have Already Undermined GOP’s Case Tori Otten, The New Republic

FLAG THIS

Americans Divided on Hunter

A new survey found half of Americans believe Hunter Biden is receiving favorable treatment from prosecutors because he is President Joe Biden's son.

On the other hand, about half of Americans say that Hunter Biden's legal troubles are independent of and unrelated to Joe Biden's service as president (51%). Democrats (73%) are much more likely to say this than Republicans (32%) and independents (52%) (Reuters/Ipsos).

FLAG FINDS

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WATERCOOLER

Atlantic Collision, How to Brush, Abandoned Gift Cards

On This Day in 1956: At 11:10 PM, 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria and the Swedish ocean liner Stockholm collide in a heavy Atlantic fog. Miraculously, all 1,660 survivors on the Andrea Doria were rescued from the severely listing ship before it sunk late the next morning.

Popular Science: How to Be a Responsible Adult and Brush Your Teeth Properly

Time: How to Tell the Difference Between Heat Stress, Exhaustion, and Stroke

Nautilus: This Is Where Your Childhood Memories Went

Today I learned Americans have accumulated $21 billion worth of unused gift cards. Almost two-thirds of Americans have a gift card, and half of those will likely lose the gift card before using it.