A GOP-led House panel is seeking access to Dr. Anthoni Fauci‘s personal email accounts and cell phone records as part of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, made the request in a letter to Fauci on Wednesday ahead of the former government health official’s planned testimony next week. Emails show Dr. David Morens, Fauci’s former senior adviser, discussed a “‘secret’ back channel” and suggested that Fauci used a private account to get around Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. “He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble,” Morens said in one April 2021 email obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Morens testified to the subcommittee last week that he “may have” sent information related to COVID-19 to Fauci’s personal email. Wenstrup said his panel wants access to documents from Fauci’s personal email accounts, cell phones, or other electronic devices that would be responsive to his request by June 12. The records being requested regard the Wuhan Institute of Virology, EcoHealth Alliance, Inc., the origins of COVID-19, or congressional oversight of these issues between January 1, 2020 and the present. A press release from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic said the panel held Morens “publicly accountable” for a number of alleged infractions when he testified last week. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP They included “undermining the operations of the U.S. government, likely lying to Congress on multiple occasions, deleting federal COVID-19 records, and using his personal email account to evade FOIA.” The press release also said the panel is “concerned that Dr. Fauci had knowledge of his Senior Advisor’s nefarious behavior and potentially engaged in the misconduct himself.” Fauci, a longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, is scheduled to appear before the subcommittee on Monday, June 3. Topics that will likely come up include gain-of-function research and EcoHealth recently getting cut off from taxpayer funds amid scrutiny of its support of coronavirus research at the lab in Wuhan from where COVID-19 is suspected to have leaked. Americans will have a chance to hear from Fauci about “his role in overseeing our nation’s pandemic response, shaping pandemic-era polices, and promoting singular, questionable narratives about the origins of COVID-19,” Wenstrup said.

Remember Comedy Central? The channel dedicated to 24/7 laughs gave us “South Park,” “Key & Peele,” “Tosh.0,” “Chappelle’s Show,” and more. Today, it’s a graveyard of reruns and “The Daily Propaganda” with Jon Stewart. Comedy needs a helping hand in our woke world, and YouTube and TikTok can only do so much of the heavy lifting. Enter Netflix. The streaming giant has been delivering stand-up specials and original sitcoms for years. Nothing new there, at least on paper. Lately, however, Netflix brass have taken the task more seriously. And it’s paying off, big time. The streamer is home to comedy’s biggest stars (Sebastian Maniscalco), rising players (Nate Bargatze), and even woke wonders (Hannah Gadsby). Its “Netflix is a Joke” festival series, which just wrapped its second gala, is a who’s who of comedy giants. The event churns out even more original content aimed at our funny bones. Netflix stand-up specials took on a special significance near the end of 2021. Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer” ignited a firestorm on the Left. Progressives raged against him mocking the trans community, ignoring how the Ohio native honored a deceased trans comic at the special’s end. The streamer’s comedy bona fides hung in the balance. Would Team Netflix cave, cancel the special and cut ties with someone considered the best living stand-up? Remember, this was during the post-George Floyd mania, a time when offensive sitcoms got memory holed and comedians feared the wrong joke could end their careers. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos initially stood by Chappelle. Then, he got on his Schwinn and furiously backpedaled via The Wall Street Journal. He said he “screwed up” in his initial response to the blowback, adding that people were hurt by jokes.  “To be clear … storytelling has an impact in the real world . . . sometimes quite negative.” Somehow, some way, Sarandos and co. stiffened their collective spines and rebuffed the Cancel Culture swarm. Netflix even extended its ties to Chappelle. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Netflix We’re starting to know exactly why that happened. A new Deadline.com report shows how challenging comedy is irresistible to Netflix subscribers. Turns out, aggressively unwoke comedians draw eyeballs on the platform. A lot of them. Comedian Matt Rife isn’t as combustible as Chappelle, but he’ll veer into challenging topics when necessary. “Matt Rife: Natural Selection” delivered the biggest viewing numbers of 2023’s second half with 13M hours viewed. That’s despite an alleged outcry over Rife’s domestic violence joke that hit social media shortly after its debut. Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Other huge performers included Ricky Gervais’ “Armageddon,” which drew more than 8M hours between Christmas Day and December 31. Another mega hit? Chappelle’s “The Dreamer,” generating 2.1M hours in just one day. Ricky Gervais: Armageddon (2023). Neflix. IMDB. Shane Gillis, the comic canceled by “Saturday Night Live” for offensive jokes, joined the party. Twice. His “Beautiful Dogs” special scored with subscribers, and his just-released comedy series “Tires” opened strong, standing tall against fan favorite “Bridgeton” with less media adulation. Few performers capture the cultural tug of war between comedy and space spaces better than Gillis. Even “SNL” admitted the error of its ways and invited him to host the show earlier this year. Netflix welcomed him with open arms. Funny is funny. Tires (2024). Netflix. IMDB. And if Netflix needed more excuses to ditch the woke mob, Nikki Glaser gave it one. Her recent HBO special, “Someday You’ll Die,” smashed a streaming record for the venerable platform. Glaser’s blistering set at the recent “Roast of Tom Brady” likely boosted those numbers. She took zero prisoners with her bawdy gags. Neither did anyone else. Comedy Central used to be the home of rip-roaring roasts. The Brady roast happened, where else, at Netflix. Netflix’s comedy embrace makes perfect sense. We’re starved for unexpurgated humor, the kind you’ll never see on “Saturday Night Live” or “The Late Show.” It’s why podcaster Joe Rogan, a center-Left comic who loathes the “woke mind virus,” holds such sway over the culture. It explains how the digital space propels formerly unknown talents like Tim Dillon and Andrew Schulz into the top-tier of touring comics. It also explains why Louis C.K., cast out of Hollywood for admitting to gross sexual acts in front of multiple women, can still sell out Madison Square Garden. He doesn’t follow the rules, and he never has. The streamer knows ignoring part of its potential audience is a terrible move in today’s challenging economic climate. Plus, Netflix no longer has the streaming space to itself like it did just a few short years ago. It’s fending off ferocious challenges from Peacock, Disney+, Max, and more. Those platforms aren’t as comfortable with “problematic’ storytelling and yuks. At least not yet. Netflix is. And it’s doing the best financially of them all. Why? Capitalism. Give ‘em what they want. The streamer still delivers woke content on demand. The channel featured a second Gadsby event, “Something Special,” last year. How it performed is anyone’s guess. Its documentary lineup leans to the Left. You won’t see rebellious documentaries like Nick Searcy’s “The War on Truth,” “The Fall of Minneapolis,” or “Police State” on the platform. Maybe ever. It still acknowledges half the country leans in the other direction. Even better? Many viewers on both sides of the ideological aisle are exhausted by the woke bylaws. * * * Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

An advertising industry trade group under congressional investigation for its role in alleged collusion between the world’s largest companies to push a leftist agenda is worried that the investigation will have a “chilling effect” on its efforts. Anonymous sources from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) complained to Business Insider that congressional oversight from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has been an inconvenience that’s distracting them from completing their latest project, “a major piece of work that aims to create standards for measuring and disclosing carbon emissions produced by media and advertising,” Business Insider reported. GARM previously set standards that forbid companies from buying ad space from media outlets that promote “misinformation,” while targeting mainstream conservative outlets including Fox News and The Daily Wire, Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said in letters to companies on GARM’s Steer Team. “Evidence the Committee has obtained suggests that GARM members, led by Steer Team members, are colluding to demonetize conservative platforms and voices. Further, this coordination does not always revolve around ‘brand safety’ and ‘harmful’ content as GARM publicly claims, but instead the desire to censor conservative and other views that GARM members disfavor,” Jordan wrote, saying such conduct could run afoul of antitrust laws. The anonymous GARM sources acknowledged that roping major corporations, the kind that want to sell everyday goods to all Americans, into a partisan controversy is terrible for their members, saying the member companies that belong to GARM “want to avoid any kind of public qualm that has a partisan signature like the plague.” Another advertising source complained of a “chilling effect,” apparently referring to having to change the way they operate to avoid such a left-wing signature. The Judiciary Committee responded to the complaint by saying that the notion that these corporate giants are being harassed is “laughable.” “The idea that seven massive corporations are being harassed for having to comply with new documents requests is laughable,” a committee spokesman said. “These companies know the evidence collected shows that members of GARM have worked for years to spread their personal biases and censor conservative voices and journalists online. These companies are simply trying to get ahead of the incriminating evidence before it becomes public.” The GARM sources themselves seemed to support that in their comments to Business Insider, saying they were concerned that lawsuits could be imminent. Business Insider noted that documents obtained by Congress could be handed over to red-state attorneys general or to conservative media outlets who could use them to show that they were financially harmed by “brand safety” initiatives that were secretly motivated by partisanship. Coming to the defense of GARM against claims that its anti-misinformation efforts are partisan is a group that stands to profit off of the “anti-misinformation” regime while being closely tied to far-left groups. The chief strategy officer of Ad Fontes Media, Lou Paskalis, said there is a “blinding-you-with-paperwork aspect to Jim Jordan’s assault on GARM,” that the Republican was “embarrassing himself,” and that it wouldn’t change GARM. Ad Fontes makes its money ranking media outlets by who it says peddles misinformation. The ratings firm sent out a celebratory email after Trump and his 18 Republican co-defendants were indicted in Georgia, praising the “wheels of justice.” The Media Research Center said, “Ad Fontes’ whole ranking system is a lie aimed at telling Americans to trust the leftist media and not to trust anyone on the right.” Both Ad Fontes’ CEO and director of communications are also officials with Media Literacy Now, a radical leftist group that, on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, organized a conference for teachers that trained them in techniques used by Germany, which does not have a First Amendment, to “inoculate” children against misinformation. MLN also lobbies states to make laws requiring such “media literacy” training in schools, calling it a “tool to create the society we all deserve: one that nurtures racial equity, social justice, and true democracy. Media literacy equals cultural change.” The Daily Wire is suing the State Department for backing other “misinformation” groups, arguing that they were aimed at financially harming domestic media that covered the administration skeptically.

NBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann appeared to abandon all pretense of objectivity during a “Morning Joe” appearance on Thursday, delivering a full-on sales pitch to minority voters for President Joe Biden’s reelection. Heilemann called on black and Hispanic voters to “do what you did in 2020,” claiming that no one believed there was a risk that minority voters would “flock” to the former president in droves. Rather, he said the risk was that voters who would otherwise vote for Biden — and other down-ticket Democrats — might stay home instead. WATCH: MSNBC’s @jheil: “For African-Americans & Latino voters, a Trump re-election would be terrible for them. Just, please, do what you did back – from the Biden campaign’s point of view — do what you did in 2020 [and vote Democrat].” pic.twitter.com/c9YPGupivM — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 30, 2024 “The concern is that they stay home. In a very close election in all of those battleground states, is a large chunk of any of those parts of the coalition decide to just say, ‘Screw it, I’m not going to vote,’ that’s a problem for the Biden campaign,” Heilemann said. Despite recent polling that indicates Trump has made inroads with Hispanic voters and black male voters in particular, Heilemann argued that moving the needle in Biden’s favor was just about getting them out to vote, not about drawing them back from Trump. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP “What a devastating outcome it would be for their issues — for their interests. The interests of young voters, they are pocketbook interests, more on the economy than they are on Gaza, we see that in the polling,” he said. “For African-Americans and Latino voters, a Trump re-election would be terrible for them,” Heilemann declared, in spite of the record employment numbers both black and Hispanic Americans saw during Trump’s time in office. “Just, please, do what you did back – from the Biden campaign’s point of view — do what you did in 2020 … that is the easier sell.”

When a shy 13-year-old introduced herself to the America’s Got Talent judges, she looked like a typical teenager. A lanky dancer’s body in a cute sweater. Arshiya Sharma traveled from India to the AGT stage for this audition. Her mom was nervously waiting in the wings with Terry Crews. Welcoming Arshiya to the show, judges asked about her act. She described it as a dance routine with some gymnastics and flexibility moves. Intrigued, the judges encouraged her to begin. Arshiya scurried off the stage to “prepare.” Stagehands brought out a small wooden house with dolls scattered around the base and one lying across the peaked roof. The judges speculated about what they might be about to experience. The music started, and there was movement behind the tiny house as Arshiya made her entrance. Image from YouTube. Arshiya shook the dollhouse and popped up over the roof with a scream. The audience screamed. The judges screamed. As she crawled from behind the dollhouse, Simon said calmly, “She’s changed.” The shy girl transformed into a fully costumed dancer who appeared ready for an audition for a remake of The Exorcist. Image from YouTube. The music, a super creepy version of Ring Around the Rosie, was perfect. What followed was amazing to watch but also haunting. Arshiya is a brilliant contortionist. She moved her body in ways that would cripple a normal person. The sheer athleticism of her act is incredible. Arshiya moved around America’s Got Talent stage with the assurance of a professional dancer. The audience and judges cringed with each new articulation as Arshiya danced, twisting, turning, and rotating her limbs horrifyingly. The most unnerving part was the crunching sounds during some of Arshiya’s most vigorous contortions on the AGT stage. Arshiya Gets 4 Yes Votes From America’s Got Talent Judges During her opening interview, Arshiya told the America’s Got Talent judges that she wanted her dance to be “different.” Her choreography was definitely fresh and different. The complexity of the moves had everyone spellbound as the creepiness kept them cringing and wincing. After her performance, one thing was certain: Arshiya had the talent to earn her place on the AGT stage. Image from YouTube. During the closing interview, Howie Mandel said that, with two daughters and two granddaughters, this “was the scariest, most horrific dance recital I have ever been to.” Heidi Klum stated that Arshiya was “probably one of the best contortionists we’ve ever seen.” When Sofia Vergara spoke about the crunch-crunch noises, Arshiya performed an encore backflip, landing on her chest. Simon stated that he had expected a Disney routine or similar because Arshiya was so sweet during the opening interview. He said the act was “so unexpected, and frightening, and brilliant at the same time.” When the final tally was in, all four judges gave the performance a “yes” vote. Simon said, “The chihuahua turned into a werewolf, and we loved you!” As the last vote was announced, that shy 13-year-old reappeared, and Arshiya jumped excitedly. She ran off-stage to her waiting mom with a huge smile, and Simon remarked, “That was bloody amazing.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post AGT Judges Freak Out When Shy 13-Yr-Old Girl Begins This Jaw-Dropping Performance! appeared first on InspireMore.

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