Happy Monday!

Even Marjorie Taylor-Greene and AOC could agree today  it’s nice to be heading toward Memorial Day Weekend. More on that in a bit.

Also coming up, why the Congressional Catfight Heard ‘Round the World could help bring the Trump Trial to a quick close.

But first, we’re witnessing history being made.

Chief’s Owner’s Wife Defends Kicker Harrison Butker; Even Bill Maher Is Blasting Left’s Effort to Cancel Him

For the first time in the history of the NFL, people are paying attention to something a kicker has to say. In this case, the media and the Left continue having a fit over Kansas City Chief’s kicker Harrison Butker’s advocacy for parenthood.

But here’s the good news. The people are with Butker. After the “scandal” over his commencement address at Benedictine College last week, Butker’s jersey became the bestselling one in the NFL, topping even superstar teammates Patrick Mahomes’s and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelsey’s.  

Thinking the team might punish Butker? Not a chance Both the wife and daughter of Kansas City Chief’s owner Clark Hunt have come out in strong support of Butker. Hunt’s wife, Tavia, offered a beautiful defense of motherhood and family on Instagram, sharing her experience as a stay-at-home mom pushing her daughters to pursue their dreams in a manner that honors God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Tavia Hunt (@taviahunt)

 

“I believe finding a spouse who loves and honors you as or before himself and raising a family together is one of the greatest blessings this world has to offer,” Mrs. Hunt wrote. “Our society desperately needs dedicated men and women to raise up and train the next generation in the way they should go. Proverbs 31:28 says, ‘Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.’ Embracing the beautiful roles that God has made is something to celebrate.” 

Daughter Gracie Hunt defended Butker’s comments on Fox & Friends, adding, “I really respect Harrison and his Christian faith and what he’s accomplished on and off the field.”

Even liberal talk show host Bill Maher knocked the Left’s efforts to cancel Butker. “I don’t see what the big crime is,” he said Friday night. “And I think this is part of the problem people have with the Left, is that lots of people in this country are like this. Like he’s saying, some of you may go on to lead successful careers, but a lot of you are excited about this other way that people, everybody used to be. And now, can’t that just be a choice, too?”

Meanwhile, you don’t need to see Butker’s speech or read Mrs. Hunt’s story. Just give this Coke commercial out of Argentina 60 seconds. (You won’t see it on American television because the same people attacking Butker would attack Coke.) Helpful hint: Grab a tissue first.

Coke made this ad in Argentina and only released it there

What do you notice? pic.twitter.com/7udkL0Y2ui

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 18, 2024

Real Housemembers of Washington, D.C.

“These are serious times and they require serious people.” –Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd in The American President (1995)

Well, good luck finding those serious people in the U.S. House of Representatives. Last Thursday night, the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on whether to charge Attorney General Merrick Garland with contempt for refusing to turn over damning audio of Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur turned into an episode of Real House Members of Washington. The video of Reps. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R- GA) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), joined by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-MO_ going at each other like cast members of a trashy reality show has gone viral.

I know I’m supposed to say it was ugly and beneath the dignity of the House … but after seven years of Adam Schiff, we now know nothing’s beneath the dignity of the House. And “ugly” is relative in a body where conservatives are routinely called “racist,” “homophobic,” “Nazis,” “insurrectionists,” and worse. (Though “bleach-blonde, bad-built, butch body” is a first.)

Plus, the faces of the men as the women went at it were priceless. 

The House Oversight Committee hearing descended into chaos early Friday, with several members shouting and hurling insults at each other. pic.twitter.com/oHKXhAiicT

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 17, 2024

What triggered the ruckus? The media will tell you it was Taylor Greene responding to a question from  Crockett with the catty, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.” That dig sent AOC into feigned rage, sounding like she came just out of the hood, calling MTG “baby girl” … and off the rails the hearing went.

But what was Crockett’s question? She was wondering what a question MTG asked had to do with Merrick Garland. And what was that question? It was: How many Democratic members of the Oversight Committee have sent money to the DNC activist daughter of the judge hearing former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” case in New York?

Ahhhhhh …. there’s your trigger. There’s your cause for distraction.

Taylor-Greene never got an answer. We know from the official records that Loren Merchan’s firm, Authentic Campaigns, receives millions from Trump hunters like Adam Schiff, Rep. Dan Goldman, Kamala Harris, and a host of others. However, earlier Thursday controversial journalist and activist Laura Loomer made an eye-opening claim: Goldman was sending checks to Loren Merchan’s personal address in Virginia right before the trial, rather than her corporate offices. He also misspelled the name of the company in his Federal Elections Commission filing, perhaps to obfuscate the money trail (a common trick used to dodge investigators’ word searches). Goldman is neck deep in the Trump trial, admitting recently that he had worked with Michael Cohen on his testimony. (NOTE TO SELF: Never hire Goldman as my attorney.)

EXCLUSIVE EXPOSE:

🚨🚨🚨NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN SENDING MONEY TO JUDGE MERCHAN’S DAUGHTER’S PERSONAL HOME RESIDENCE IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA AND DECEPTIVELY DISTORTING FEC RECORDS TO COVER UP PAYMENTS TO LOREN MERCHAN’S COMPANY🚨🚨🚨

I was searching through… https://t.co/R9U8sM2YQE pic.twitter.com/Ssv2PicORe

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 17, 2024

See why fellow NY Democrat AOC had a reason to go off when MTG started asking about money to the judge’s daughter? 

Bigger picture: If you are Judge Juan Merchan, do you really want Congress poking around payments to your daughter from the enemies of Trump? Because it already looks shady, and if Goldman was paying your kid on the sly right before the trial, that looks downright dirty. Lucky for him, Merchan has an out — and his name is Michael Cohen.

Trump Trial Resumes as Case Falls Apart 

The shredding of Michael Cohen continues today at Trump’s “hush money” trial. No doubt Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg had a long, bad weekend, listening to even MSNBC and CNN saying just how devastating Friday’s cross-examination of Cohen was.

As Friday’s Brew mentioned, Bragg’s case rests on one phone call Cohen says he had with Trump about Stormy Daniels … except texts show that phone call was to Trump’s security guy about, of all things, a 14-year-old prank caller.

Plus Cohen’s former attorney Robert Costello is set to testify that Cohen repeatedly swore he had nothing on Donald Trump, and Trump had nothing to do with the payment to Daniels. Even worse for Bragg is the fact that Costello, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, says he told the D.A.’s office all of this and gave them hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence. In other words, Bragg and the U.S. Department of Justice knew Cohen was lying but put him on the stand anyway. This, Costello told Mark Levin Saturday night, is suborning perjury. That’s a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. 

Merchan’s best move, both for the sake of the law and to head off Congress poking too closely into his daughter’s connection to the case, would be to agree to a directed verdict when the prosecution rests: Declare Bragg and the DOJ haven’t proven their case, declare Trump “not guilty” — and then run for the hills, leaving Bragg holding the bag. 

Hold tight, we’re in for a wild week.

Along The Stream

Stream contributor Jules Gomes shares “The Supernatural Torque of Pentecostal Fire.”

Our Nancy Flory shows us how “Multiplied Documents the Current State of Evangelism Around the World.”

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.