Ex-G-Man: ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence vs. Biden

“Democrats and their media cohorts” dismiss the House investigations as “Republican conspiracy theories,” denying that any evidence proves President Biden used his office to substantively help Hunter Biden, observes ex-FBI agent Mark D. Ferbrache at the Daily Caller. The truth? A “reliable FBI source” reported that Burisma’s CEO insisted he was forced to pay the Bidens $10 million, and documents show “170 suspicious activity reports” and 20 shell companies created to “obfuscate” the Biden family’s receipt of foreign funds. Whistleblowers charge the Justice Department with interference on behalf of the prez, and it’s also “clear” Joe Biden “lied” about his conversations about Hunter’s business. None of this is “a smoking gun,” but “the circumstantial evidence” against him is “becoming ‘overwhelming.’”

Legal take: The Big Hole in Trump Indictment

The government’s case against Donald Trump is “dangerous because it sets up the federal government as the arbiter of truth,” argues law prof Jonathan Turley at The Hill. “The government acknowledges that the Constitution protects false statements made in campaigns, but it insists that Trump must have known that his statements were false and therefore was engaged in fraudulent statements to obstruct” the electoral results. Yet the case falls apart “if Trump actually did (or does) believe that he did not lose the election.” The indictment “essentially charges Trump with not accepting the ‘truth,’ ” but there’s “no limiting principle to this indictment.” If Trump is convicted, it would set a precedent in which “the government would choose between which politicians are lying and which are lying without cause.”

Econ watch: Recession Is ‘Around the Corner’

While Team Biden proclaims “a golden era of economic prosperity,” the facts point toward a looming recession that “could be the largest in more than half a century,” warns Justin Haskins at Newsweek. President Biden’s “claims about job growth and unemployment are greatly exaggerated,” as most gains “are due to the COVID-19 lockdowns ending.” Growing amounts of economic data, especially housing data, point in “a troubling direction,” with the possibility of “unprecedented drops in housing prices.” Who’s to blame? Biden “has run up massive deficits and substantially increased government spending, fueling inflation,” while the Federal Reserve maintained low interest rates for far too long. “Available data” now “seem to show that as a result, an economic downturn is right around the corner.”

Eye on 2024: DeSantis’ Nerd Power

“Given DeSantis’s widely reported penchant for substantive discussions over the small talk that retail politics calls for, it is surprising that his campaign website does not feature a section devoted to his positions on issues,” Jesse Arm remarks at City Journal. A Manhattan Institute poll suggests “that aggressively prosecuting the war on wokeness is a good strategy.” But while his “anti-woke crusade, shrewd technocratic governance, and resistance to the federal bureaucracy’s Covid guidelines formed the basis for DeSantis’s dominant midterm performance,” the priorities for primary voters are “the economy, taxes, government spending, and immigration.” Trump may have “already won the hearts of GOP voters,” but his challengers’ best path “to securing the nomination is to win their minds.”

Culture critic: Ignore Race in Politics, Like Sports

“America needs to look more like sports” and “less like the Democrat vision of identity politics,” insists Clay Travis at Fox News. In sports, “no scoreboard begins with diversity points added, [and] there aren’t different rules for the game based on the races of the participants. You either can or cannot make a play.” This is true of political candidates too. Dems forget that “it’s not the race of the candidate that unites people from diverse backgrounds, it’s the candidate.” If teams perfectly reflected America’s “racial diversity,” they’d lose. Similarly, “identity politics will eventually destroy the Democrat Party,” because Americans “reject it.” “Democrats have lit themselves on fire with identity politics. The worst thing Republicans can do is grab a fire extinguisher and help them.”

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board