President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will make dueling visits to the Texas border on Thursday, jockeying for political advantage and blame on an issue increasingly crucial to voters. 

Biden, who has largely ignored the border and has only briefly visited it once, will look at a relatively calm area in Brownsville. Trump, who frequently visited the border while in office, will be about 300 miles away in Eagle Pass, where the border is far more chaotic and where the federal government and Texas are enmeshed in a brewing constitutional crisis over the state’s efforts to combat illegal immigration on its own.

“Biden’s handlers are sending him there on the same day as President Trump’s publicly reported trip, not because they actually want to solve the problem, but because they know Biden is losing terribly,” said Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Read Full Story

• American Greatness: Biden’s Half-Hearted Border Control Pitch
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• American Thinker: 8th Amendment Comes Out in Favor of Trump
• The Daily Caller: Jonathan Turley Breaks Down Most ‘Damaging Aspect’ of Fani Willis’ Contradictory Testimony
• The Federalist: Politicized Prosecutions Warning Shot Across the Bow for All Americans

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he won’t be rushed to consider the Senate’s stripped-down $95 billion version of a foreign aid package that includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan because it lacks any mention of U.S. border security.

Instead, Johnson said he has been requesting for nearly a month to meet with President Joe Biden to deal with the crisis at the southern border.

The speaker did not rule out consideration of foreign aid funding, but said before Congress deals with issues around the world, lawmakers will “take care of our own first.” Read Full Story

• The Hill: House Judiciary Requests Information From Biden Ghostwriter
• Washington Examiner: McConnell Chides ‘America First’ as Trump Takes Harder Line on Ukraine
• Townhall: So, Is That Why FBI Ransacked Mar-a-Lago?
• The Federalist: Our Most Serious National Security Threat Isn’t Russian Nukes in Space, It’s Intelligence Agencies in Washington
• American Thinker: What Is Congress for?

The House Oversight Committee launched an investigation Wednesday over alleged meetings between climate envoy John Kerry and environmental activists.

Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to provide unredacted documents and communications related to Kerry’s “collusion with leftist environmental groups,” as well as information on the makeup and payroll of his office. 

Comer said Americans deserved to know what Kerry and his staff have promised “in off-the-record meetings with leftist environmental groups.” 

Communications reviewed by the committee, Comer said, show groups asking for and receiving consultation from the climate envoy office on “strategic guidance for navigating ‘funding gap[s]’ for climate-related finance action” that could be used to support “possible wealth transfers or insider dealings.”

He is asking for the requested documents to arrive at the committee no later than Feb. 21 and cover the time period from Jan. 20, 2021, to the present. Read Full Story

• The Hill: Gingrich Slams Attempt at Border Deal
• The Washington Times: Senators Eye Slimmed-Down Package With Ukraine, Israel Money
• Townhall: Trump Leads Biden Big in North Carolina, RFK Stalks
• The Daily Caller: ‘There Was No Deal’: Sen. Kennedy Explains Why Republicans Killed Bipartisan Border Security Bill
• American Greatness: Attention, Deep State: You Are Headed for Shellacking Come November