Thursday morning news: February 2, 2023

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Border hearing » On Capitol Hill, members of the House Judiciary Committee tackled the border crisis on Wednesday.

Lawmakers heard from Brandon Dunn, whose teenage son died of fentanyl poisoning.

DUNN: Illicit fentanyl is primary manufactured in Mexico by the drug cartels and smuggled through our southern border.

He has since founded a nonprofit group to bring awareness to the issue.

Arizona Republican Congressman Andy Biggs said the border has spiraled out of control.

BIGGS: We don’t control our southern border. It is controlled by the criminal drug cartels of Mexico.

Biggs is unveiling articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayokas.

But the top Democrat on the panel, Jarrold Nadler, fired back.

NADLER: Sadly, at every turn, this extreme Republican majority fails to offer genuine solutions and resorts to political theater.

The Border Patrol has reported record numbers of migrant encounters at the southern border, including more than a quarter of million in December alone.

McCarthy » Meantime, at the White House, Speaker Kevin McCarthy emerged from an Oval Office meeting with President Biden.

The two leaders met to talk over their differences about raising the debt ceiling.

McCarthy called it a positive first step.

McCARTHY: I shared my perspective with him. He shared his. And we can. We agreed to continue the conversation. We want to make sure we do this in a responsible, reasonable way. And we'll be talking again.

Republicans note that Uncle Sam set to possibly add another trillion dollars or more this year to the national debt. They say Congress must curb its overspending before agreeing to borrow even more.

Democrats say the GOP is threatening the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

The two sides have until sometime this summer to reach a deal and ensure the U.S. does not default on its debt. 

Ilhan Omar » House Republicans are also preparing to remove Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

SCALISE: Speaker McCarthy has made it very clear and the whole conference has been very vocal about the concerns to national security both the Intelligence Committee and the foreign affairs committee.

In a procedural vote on Wednesday, Republicans were unified on the matter. Speaker McCarthy plans another vote this morning to formally remove her.

Republicans say she’s not fit to serve on the Foreign Affairs committee due to past remarks criticized from both sides of the aisle as antisemetic.

The speaker says she can serve on other committees.

He has also barred Democratic Congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee.

FBI search » FBI agents say they found no classified documents during a three-and-a-half-hour search of President Biden’s Delaware vacation home on Wednesday.

Ian Sams is a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s office:

SAMS: The president’s been fully cooperative, and he’s directed his team to be fully cooperative. And that’s because he believes in the independence of the Justice Department. He believes in giving them the space to conduct a thorough review.

Wednesday was the third time investigators have searched for classified material in Biden’s possession.

Nicholas funeral » Mourners gathered at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis Wednesday for the funeral of Tyre Nichols.

Nichols died last month after he was beaten by police during a traffic stop.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke during the ceremony.

HARRIS: This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe.

Five Memphis Police officers have been fired and charged with second-degree murder

College Board » The College Board is making changes to a controversial Advanced Placement course for high schoolers. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: After a trial run in 60 schools, the College Board is finalizing a new AP African American History class.

Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would ban the curriculum from classrooms over concerning content on critical race theory and intersectionality.

The updated curriculum removed some references to black feminists and queer authors.

It also made optional a lesson about the Black Lives Matter movement.

The College Board said curriculum outlines often change during the pilot process.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Fed raises interest rate » The Federal Reserve has bumped up its key interest rate again by a quarter of a percentage point. That’s half the size of its previous half-point hike.

But while the pace of inflation has slowed in recent months, the Fed says it will need to see further decline before it considers halting rate hikes altogether.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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