TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: President Joe Biden says he is willing to debate former President Donald Trump ahead of the November election.  Trump was in court for day 4 of arguments in his criminal case. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says his state will not comply with the Biden administration's new rule on Title IX. Curious similarities exist between the pro-Palestine protests on college campuses.  Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The nine Supreme Court justices have a major question before them. Is a current or former president immune from prosecution?  Former President Donald Trump is facing prosecution for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump argues that his actions as president are protected from prosecution under presidential immunity.  Trump lawyer John Sauer argued Thursday before the Supreme Court that unless a president is first impeached and convicted by the Senate, he is immune from prosecution, explains John Malcolm, senior legal fellow and vice president for the Institute for Constitutional Government at The Heritage Foundation. (Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.) Now, Malcolm says, the justices have to answer three questions in order to make a decision in the Trump case:  One, is there a blanket immunity for a president's official actions because he was not impeached and convicted by the Senate? Two, what is a private action and what is an official action? And three, if the court rejects John Sauer’s, absolute immunity argument, will there be any other kind of immunity that might attach to an official action? Malcolm joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in former President Donald Trump’s immunity case.  Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial continues. President Joe Biden tells voters that taxes will go up for some Americans if he is reelected.  The highest court in New York state overturns a rape conviction of film producer Harvey Weinstein. Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pro-Palestine protests on the campuses of some of America's most elite colleges have resulted in hundreds of arrests and led Columbia University in New York to move classes online for the remainder of the semester.  The pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protests at Columbia University, Yale, and New York University aren't just representative of an “antisemitic movement,” but a “fundamentally an anti-Western and anti-American movement,” Bill Jacobson says.  Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and the founder of Legal Insurrection and the Equal Protection Project, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain who or what is driving the antisemitism on America’s college campuses.  Jacobson points to the activist organization National Students for Justice in Palestine as the organizing force behind the current protests.  “They are an organization I have followed and written about for well over a decade,” Jacobson says of the pro-Palestine group. “They support terrorists. They honor people like Rasmea Odeh, who killed two Jewish students in Jerusalem.” Jacobson points to the ideology of critical race theory, which has spread across college campuses, for this rise in antisemitism. The related push for "diversity, equity, and inclusion," or DEI, is fundamentally anti-colonialism, Jacobson says, explaining that Israel is viewed by antisemites as “colonial occupiers.”  The anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment likely will continue on college campuses, he says, because “unless you are going to change the faculty at these schools, unless you are going to change the fundamental ideologies which drive them, removing students from the courtyard isn't going to change a thing.”  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: ·         President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill on Wednesday. ·         The Supreme Court appeared to be divided on an Idaho abortion law during oral arguments. ·         House Speaker Mike Johnson condemned antisemitic rhetoric at Columbia University and called on the school’s president to resign. ·         Rep. Chip Roy sounded the alarm over the FCC’s quick approval process for a radio station purchase by billionaire George Soros. Relevant Links:  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is not going to allow one lone judge to dictate whether the children of Ohio are protected from “transgender” surgeries and hormones, he shared in an interview with The Daily Signal. Yost asked the state’s Supreme Court to intervene after Judge Michael Holbrook issued a temporary restraining order for House Bill 68, the Saving Ohio Adolescents From Experimentation, or SAFE, Act, on Tuesday. That law bars physicians from performing “transgender reassignment” surgeries on children and from prescribing cross-sex hormones or drugs to block children’s puberty. It also would allow students to sue if they are deprived of a fair playing field in sports due to transgender activism (such as a boy who “identifies” as a girl playing on a girls’ volleyball team) and would protect parents’ rights to raise their children according to their biological sex. A supermajority of Republican lawmakers voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s controversial veto of the bill in January, and before Holbrook blocked it, it was scheduled to go into effect on April 24. On Monday, Yost, the Medical Board of Ohio, and the state of Ohio filed an emergency motion for a writ of prohibition, asking that Holbrook be ordered to modify his temporary restraining order to “comply with Ohio statutory and procedural limitations.” The Ohio attorney general discussed the move and what he hopes will ensue from here in an interview with The Daily Signal. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Columbia University is moving almost all classes online for the rest of the semester over safety concerns due to the pro-Palestine protests on campus.  Lawmakers weigh in on anti-Israel protests on college campuses.  The New York criminal trial against Trump over alleged campaign finance violations focuses on former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony. The Justice Department reached an agreement with victims of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics official and doctor.  Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The House passed a four-bill $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend that includes $60 billion in additional aid for Ukraine. The bill could cost House Speaker Mike Johnson his job.  The aid package passed in a 311-112 vote with the unanimous support of Democrats and 101 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., threatened to introduce a motion to remove Johnson, R-La., from his position as speaker if he brought the funding for Ukraine to the House floor for a vote.  “I think she's looking at the totality of what's come across the floor over the past few months, and she is expressing extreme disappointment with that,” Ryan Walker, executive vice president of Heritage Action for America, says of Greene. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation, of which Heritage Action is the grassroots arm.) Greene left Washington at the end of last week without introducing the motion to vacate the speaker but said during an interview Sunday on Fox News that she still planned to try to oust Johnson.  “Mike Johnson’s speakership is over,” Greene said on “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding, “He needs to do the right thing—to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.”  Less than one year after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the role, Capitol Hill is bracing for the potential of another speakership battle when Congress returns to Washington next week.  Walker joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the reason for the sharp divide in Congress over the foreign aid package and the likelihood Johnson will face removal as speaker. Walker also explains where Congress is getting the money to send to Ukraine.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Opening statements are delivered in former President Donald Trump’s alleged hush money case out of Manhattan.  The House has passed a four-bill $95 billion foreign aid package, including $60 billion for Ukraine.  The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for a case involving ghost gun kits.  At Columbia University, there were anti-Israel protests over the weekend and into Monday.  Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the first night of Passover, Jewish homes gather around a Seder meal and remember how God delivered the Jewish people from Egypt, and that God has always rescued His people, author and lecturer Rabbi Pinchas Taylor explains.  “We say that we recognize that in every generation, there are nations that have come against us, that seek to destroy us, and that each and every generation, God saves us from their plot,” the rabbi says.  Passover begins at sundown on Monday night, and following Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, and this month's attack by Iran, the reminder that God saves His people, “that's going to be something that resonates quite a bit extra this year,” Taylor says. (Passover runs through sundown on April 30.) Taylor joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” as Passover begins to explain safety concerns in the Jewish community amid a rise in antisemitism after Oct. 7, and to discuss how Americans can support the Jewish people right now.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: A rule to consolidate aid to Ukraine and Israel into one bill failed to gain the support of more than 25% of House Republicans. A third Republican has announced support for ousting fellow Republican Mike Johnson as Speaker. New Biden administration regulation would open girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, housing, sports teams to boys who “identify” as girls Biden closes off large swaths of Alaska to oil, natural gas, and critical minerals mining. Rep. Jim Banks introduced legislation Friday to cut off federal funding to National Public Radio. Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a direct link between being raised in a family with a mom and dad present and a commitment to faith, according to the president and founder of Communio, a nonprofit that equips churches to work for the renewal of healthy relationships, marriages, and the family. “Many pastors don't know that 80% of everybody sitting in the pews on Sunday morning come from a home where mom and dad stayed continuously married,” says Communio's J.P. De Gance.  After working in public policy and politics in Washington, D.C., De Gance says he began to see that “so much of what's going on wrong in our country flows from the collapse of family and faith.”  He started Communio to come alongside churches to help them identify how they can foster healthy families and marriages, and to equip singles with the tools to create those thriving relationships in the future, with a goal toward furthering the Gospel in America.   De Gance joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain why an American revival of faith requires a restoration of the family.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Google fires 28 employees who were involved in an anti-Israel protest.  Jury selection continues in former President Donald Trump’s criminal case. Congress moves one step closer toward passing the TikTok bill. Challenges continue for House Speaker Mike Johnson.  The Senate impeachment trial against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ended before it began.  Relevant Links:  https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/17/import-a-new-electorate-congress-alarmed-by-flyers-in-mexico-urging-illegal-aliens-to-vote-biden/  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Supreme Court will determine the fate of a major Jan. 6 Capitol riot-related case. The ruling could affect hundreds of people who were in the Capitol that day in 2021, and at the center of the case is the applicability of a federal statute.  The Justice Department has been using a statute enacted in the early 2000s to prosecute those in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The statute makes it a crime to “obstruct or impede or influence an official proceeding or attempt to do so,” according to Seth Lucas, a senior research associate with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) During oral arguments Tuesday, the justices appeared skeptical that the statute could be applied and used in the Jan. 6 cases the way it has been. “It was clear that enough justices were skeptical of the government's expansive reading of Section 1512(c) [of the statute in question] to make a reasonable guess that they're probably going to read the statute a little more narrowly,” Lucas said.  Lucas joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the details of the case and what the ruling will mean for those men and women who are facing charges for their actions on Jan. 6.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: ·         Speaker Mike Johnson will back four foreign aid bills that includes nearly $100 billion in spending. ·         The Columbia University president is grilled in a House hearing on antisemitism ·         Lawmakers react to a Daily Signal story about an NGO distributing flyers urging illegal aliens to vote for Biden. ·         NPR whistleblower quits after suspension. Relevant Links:  https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/02/national-council-of-teachers-of-english-hosts-seminar-on-how-to-teach-gender-queer/  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new bill in Congress would stop illegal aliens from squatting in U.S. homes.  “We're trying to get out in front of it to protect American homeowners,” Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., says. Leonel Moreno, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, recently went viral on social media after a video post explaining how to take advantage of squatting laws in the U.S.  Under U.S. law, Moreno told his followers that “if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it.”  In response to the video, and growing reports over illegal aliens squatting in homes in New York and his state of Pennsylvania, Meuser introduced the Safeguarding Homes from Illegal Entry, Living, and Dwelling Act, or the SHIELD Act.  The bill makes trespassing “a deportable crime,” Meuser says.  “So if an illegal were to claim squatter rights and enter an individual's home illegally without any rental paperwork or legitimate lease” then, Meuser says “they can be arrested and deported and prohibited from ever entering the United States again.” Meuser joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the growing need for the SHIELD Act, and what, if anything, he anticipates President Joe Biden will do to address growing concern over the crisis at the southern border.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: ·       Rep. Thomas Massie joined the movement to call for a motion to vacate the Speaker’s office. ·       A National Public Radio whistleblower has been suspended by the news network ·       President Joe Biden has refused to appear before the House committee involved in his impeachment investigation. ·       The Supreme Court heard a case involving Jan. 6. Relevant Links:  https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/04/02/national-council-of-teachers-of-english-hosts-seminar-on-how-to-teach-gender-queer/  Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Israeli leaders say the nation will respond to Iran’s weekend attack, but what that response will entail remains unclear. “I can see a number of scenarios in which this does escalate to a regional and potentially even a global conflict,” says a former member of the National Security Council, Robert Greenway, adding, “I can see fewer ways in which we prevent that from occurring.”  Over the weekend, Iran launched about 300 drones and missiles at Israel. Unlike other attacks, this was not carried out by proxy terrorist groups in the region, but the nation of Iran itself.  If a larger conflict in the Middle East is to be avoided, says Greenway, who also serves as director of the Center for National Defense at The Heritage Foundation, the U.S. will need “to radically alter its policy and approach toward Iran and Israel.” (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.) U.S. policy changes toward Iran should include “to deny it the resources necessary, and to restore deterrence, with the support of Israel and our partners and allies,” Greenway says.  Greenway joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what options Israel has as it considered retaliation against Iran, and how U.S. Middle East foreign policy is affecting the conflict. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TOP NEWS | On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: Israel says it must respond to Iran’s attack.  Former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in New York City begins. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas missed oral argument at the court and no explanation was given.  The FBI opens a criminal investigation into the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among all the legal charges facing former President Donald Trump, the criminal case out of New York City that begins Monday “is the most bogus,” according to legal expert Hans von Spakovsky.  Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump in 2023 with 34 counts of falsifying business records supposedly to cover up “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.  “This case is just bogus from start to finish,” Von Spakovsky says, adding, “It's in Manhattan. It's a Manhattan jury, and I'll tell you, quite frankly, I think if the DA charged Donald Trump with eating a ham sandwich, the jury would find him guilty.”  Jury selection in the case begins on Monday, but concerns have been raised as to whether it’s even possible to find an unbiased jury in Manhattan. Von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow and manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative at The Heritage Foundation, says he thinks the jury is “going to find him guilty, regardless of the facts and regardless of the law.”  If Trump is found guilty, and even if he faces time in prison, that will not legally impede the former president from continuing to run for reelection, or even serving as president, given that the Constitution does not address that, the legal expert explains.  Von Spakovsky joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what he expects to see during the case, and what will happen next if the jury does find Trump guilty.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.