Friday Morning Minute: Are We There Yet?

Friday, May 23, 2025

Good morning, and welcome to RedState's "Morning Minute" — a brief glimpse at which stories are trending at the moment and a look ahead at what the day may bring. Consider this your one-stop shop for news to kickstart your day.

TOP O' THE MORNIN'

Red-Hot at RedState

Karoline Leavitt Bodies Yamiche Alcindor for Her 'Ridiculous Line of Questioning' on South Africa

The term "master class" is overused. What Leavitt did to Alcindor is post-doctoral level instruction on how to handle the dishonest and ridiculous legacy media.

Harvard's News Cycle Just Got Worse As Medical School Morgue Director Pleads Guilty to Disgusting Crime

This guy’s activities come straight out of a horror movie.

The City of St. Louis Failed Its Residents When They Needed It Most - Why the Tornado Sirens Didn't Sound

I love my city, even while I've grown weary with its bad governance and increasingly heartbroken by its decay. The fact is, it's been in a downward spiral for years.

Trending Across Townhall Media

Gun Rights Groups Celebrate Suppressor Victory

But we can keep notching wins and being aggressive in going after the restoration of our rights.

Wow: SCOTUS Demolishes 'Independent' Agency Model -- For Now

Let's hope that the Supreme Court has the opportunity to end this constitutional offense -- and that they remain firm in their apparent desire to do so.

The View from the Bottom: How ABC’s Harpies Drowned Out the Last Shred of Civility

The only people still watching The View are the ones who want to be told what they already believe.

Ed Martin: 'Senior Democrat' Whistleblower Has Come Forward Regarding Biden Autopen Fiasco

Martin said the president can use an autopen, but he must be mentally fit for the contract to have the force of law.

Sen. John Kennedy FLOORED By Energy Secretary's Testimony About Biden Admin's Last-Minute Loan Approvals

Follow the money and hold people accountable.

WHAT'S ON TAP?

Today on Capitol Hill...

After a busy week on the Hill, with multiple hearings featuring fiery exchanges with Cabinet members, COVID vaccine revelations, some rather stunning testimony about the assassination of JFK, and the passage by the House of the "Big, Beautiful Bill," the critters have scattered as we head into a long holiday weekend.

Kudos to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for once again finding a way to herd the cats. Joe Cunningham has a nice write-up on that.

There's also some fascinating insight at Punchbowl on Johnson's attitude — which may have something to do with his success — as well as some insight into how the House Freedom Caucus finally came around.

The speaker deserves a good deal of credit for executing an incredibly difficult task – rallying a GOP conference split sharply along ideological lines around a mammoth tax and spending bill filled with a wide range of priorities.
“I think I anticipated the speed bumps that we would encounter along the way,” Johnson told us Thursday afternoon.
Johnson has tremendous patience, a huge asset in his job. We joke that his tenure should be called the “stay tuned speakership” because he’s always shuttling between different constituencies, trying to resolve conflicts.
Other Republicans told us the speaker takes verbal abuse quite well. This is a marked difference from past speakers. Johnson doesn’t get angry when people get angry at him – which happened quite frequently during the negotiations on this package.
“I can have somebody completely unload on me, and I can look through that and say, ‘You know what? I love that guy. I love that guy. I love her,’” Johnson said.
The Louisiana Republican continued: “I give a lot of grace to people. Because there’s another thing the Bible says: ‘The measure of mercy you give is the measure of mercy you ultimately receive.’”
During the White House meeting Tuesday between Johnson, the GOP leadership team, the House Freedom Caucus and President Donald Trump, tensions were running high – “intense fellowship” as Johnson puts it. Trump left the room with the issues unresolved.
Johnson said OMB Director Russ Vought and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) were able to lower the temperature and get the Freedom Caucus to a good place.
“Especially in these times of great stress and high anxiety, if the leader, if the speaker, throws his hands up and walks out, the whole thing melts down,” Johnson said.

I also want to highlight a measure passed by the Senate on Thursday. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) discussed it in his video (shared in yesterday's Morning Minute), describing the Democrats' meltdown over it late Wednesday night. Their hissy fit notwithstanding, on Thursday, the Senate passed H.J.Res.88. Here's how streiff aptly described it:

Thursday, the Senate voted to block a package of vehicle emissions regulations issued by California, including a highly controversial rule that would have banned the sale of gasoline-powered (aka real) cars by 2035. In the process, tears were shed, threats were issues, and knickers became tightly knotted by leftist Democrats out to cripple the US economy.

White House What's Up

President Donald Trump hasn't yet skedaddled away for the holiday weekend — he'll be signing more executive orders in the Oval Office at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. (I guess someone has to keep the lawyers and the courts busy...) After that, he'll head to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he'll spend at least part of the weekend at Trump National Golf Club.

Vice President JD Vance is speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy graduation on Friday.

Full Court Press...

The Supreme Court was busy on Thursday, handing down two decisions (well, one decision and one non-decision) on the merits docket, and then surprising us with an afternoon order/opinion from the emergency docket.

Winning: SCOTUS Settles Legal Showdown Over Trump Firing NLRB and MSPB Appointees

With some of their willy-nilly behavior of late, I won't be shocked if we get another random decision thrown out over the weekend. There are also some lower court rulings regarding various Trump administration actions that are noteworthy. I covered one yesterday and have another in the works for later this morning.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

We can expect more merits docket rulings from SCOTUS next Thursday.

Next Wednesday, May 28th, 2025, Vice President JD Vance will deliver remarks at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

President Trump will be heading to the G7 Leaders' Summit in Alberta, Canada, in mid-June.

MORNING MUSING

I'm at the age where time flies by so fast it about gives me windburn, and yet, once we hit late September, all I can do is start anxiously marking the time — like a kid in the car on a long road trip — until we're there, back to late May and Summer and my happiest of happy places: the pool.

And now here we are. And it was 46 degrees this morning when I took the dog out. It's supposed to at least be sunny today, but cloudy through the weekend, with rain on Sunday and Monday and highs in the 60s at best. It's like Mother Nature hates me, I swear. But she won't deter me. My happy rear will be at the pool at least two days this weekend — clad in sweats maybe, but I'll be there. (And I will jump into the pool at least once — it's a tradition.)

I should warn y'all, though: Big news has a tendency to break while I'm at the pool. (Think Butler, Pennsylvania, Biden's exit from the race, the second attempt at Trump International Golf Club.) Never fear, though — when and if it does, we'll be on top of it.

LIGHTER FARE

Too funny not to share.

So dramatic 😭 pic.twitter.com/yNi7CMmrKs
— Why you should have a cat (@ShouldHaveCat) May 22, 2025

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