Thursday, July 17, 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
Miller brings it to a fine point by reinforcing that America must stay America, not just for its citizens, but for those men and women of goodwill who require asylum and refuge. If you destroy the fabric of our country, we can no longer be a cohesive body, and we lose the ability to offer shelter or aid to anyone.
Rock Legend Just Canceled Entire North American Tour for the Most Idiotic Reason Imaginable
Imagine completely fabricating an excuse to cancel your tour and then claiming it's a means to keep your fans safe from the big, bad weather? I'd imagine a vast majority of the fans would be willing to brave cool 60-degree nights with a slight crosswind.
Watch: Adam Schiff Meltdown Video After Criminal Referral, Ducks Questions From Reporters
I think we're seeing something more than a strongly worded letter going on here.
Trending Across Townhall Media
Even if you don't actually care about women's safety because you're a terrible person, at least consider the fact that anti-gun lawmakers depend on women to support them in order to stay in office. Helping make these women pro-gun means fewer threats to your right to keep and bear arms.
Finally: Trump Derails California's No-Speed Rail Boondoggle
If Newsom wants to build his train set, then let the people of California fund it themselves, and see how popular that will be with voters.
Trump Ends Boondoggle on Rails
The California high-speed rail project didn’t fail because it was too bold. It failed because it was managed like a student council project with a Pentagon budget. In the end, it proved a fundamental truth: the federal government should stop playing SimCity with your money.
Can We Get Out of This Without a Civil War?
There are far too many soft people on our side who would simply give up because of sad sob stories and manufactured narratives. That’s not the way.
You'd have to have your head deliberately and firmly planted in the sand not to see how grossly biased NPR and PBS have become over the past couple of decades.
WHAT'S ON TAP?
Today on Capitol Hill...
The Senate was busy overnight, ultimately passing the $9 billion DOGE cuts rescissions package in the wee hours of the morning, 51-48. While Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined with Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in voting no on the procedural run-up votes, Collins and Murkowski were the sole Republican no votes on final passage, so Vice President JD Vance did not have to step in and break the tie.
Senate approves bill to cut public broadcasting and foreign aid, 51-48. Collins and Murkowski are the only GOP nays
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 17, 2025
The measure now heads to the House, which has been wrestling with cryptocurrency measures, but may have worked those out overnight. Expect a vote on the rescissions package in the House sometime this afternoon.
Only five meetings/hearings set on the Hill today, several of them markups:
- Senate Judiciary — Business meeting to consider S.1038, to direct the Attorney General to include a data field in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to indicate whether the last known location of a missing person was confirmed or was suspected to have been on Federal land, S.1098, to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to enhance the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Grant Program, S.1528, to amend the National Child Protection Act of 1993 to ensure that businesses and organizations that work with vulnerable populations are able to request background checks for their contractors who work with those populations, as well as for individuals that the businesses or organizations license or certify to provide care for those populations, the nominations of Emil J. Bove III, of Pennsylvania, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, Edward L. Artau, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, Kyle Christopher Dudek, Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe, and Jordan Emery Pratt, each to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, and Kurt Alme, to be United States Attorney for the District of Montana, for the term of four years, Nicholas Chase, to be United States Attorney for the District of North Dakota for the term of four years, Lesley Murphy, to be United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska for the term of four years, Jeanine Pirro, of New York, to be United States Attorney for the District of Columbia for the term of four years, Daniel Rosen, of Florida, to be United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota for the term of four years, Erik Siebert, to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia for the term of four years, and Kurt Wall, to be United States Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana for the term of four years, all of the Department of Justice
- Senate Appropriations — Business meeting to markup H.R.3944, making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026
- House Appropriations — Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bill, Fiscal Year 2026 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bill, and Updated Interim Subcommittee Allocations
- Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions — Hearings to examine freedom to work, focusing on unlocking benefits for independent workers
- Senate Indian Affairs — Hearings to examine the nomination of William Kirkland, of Georgia, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior
White House What's Up
President Donald Trump will receive his intelligence briefing Thursday morning. He'll sign executive orders in the afternoon.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing at 1:00 PM Eastern.
Full Court Press...
There were some promising rulings from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday as they denied petitions for rehearing en banc regarding previously issued stays pending appeal. (IOW, a three-judge panel of the court stayed the lower court injunctions against the administration while the matters are up on appeal, and the court now has denied the plaintiffs' requests to reconsider.) These were in the Grundmann case (removal of independent agency leaders) and National Treasury Employees Union v. Trump (rescission of collective bargaining).
We got an odd "indicative ruling" out of Maryland District Court Judge Deborah Boardman on the CASA v. Trump case confirming that if she had the jurisdiction to do so (she does not right now, because the case is up on appeal before the 4th Circuit), she would, indeed grant plaintiffs' motion for a class-wide injunction.
If you're interested in hearing a bit more about that and some of the other legal issues of the day, I had a chat with Zack Smith, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, while guest-hosting the "Tim Jones and Chris Arps Show" on NewsTalkSTL Wednesday afternoon. (Video should be cued up to the start of the segment with Zack.)
COMING ATTRACTIONS
We'll anxiously await the House vote on the rescissions package Thursday afternoon. Something tells me Speaker "Magic" Mike Johnson (R-LA) will get 'er done.
MORNING MUSING
There's never a dull moment with President Trump — his Truth Social posts can flip from serious foreign policy discussion to blasting Democrats and fake news to putting real sugar back in Coke. Yes, yes, he did.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 16, 2025
Not sure how Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) feel about that, but those of us who remember the joys of "The Real Thing" approve. I don't even drink regular Coke anymore (I'm terrible and drink Coke Zero), but will I try one if they revert to real cane sugar? Yep. It may not be great for my aging body, but it will be worth it for the nostalgia.
LIGHTER FARE
I LOL'd at the one in the box...
Cat's logic..🐈🐾😅 pic.twitter.com/6WarStqPMF
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) July 16, 2025
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