POLITICAL BOMBSHELL: In his most public break with Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war, President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett that he will not provide the weapons for an offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

  “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem,” Biden said. 

  Biden has already blocked a shipment of massively destructive 2,000 and 500 pound unguided “dumb bombs” that can take out whole city blocks. He said he’ll also cut off the supply of artillery shells if Israeli Defense Forces go into Rafah where a million people are taking refuge.

  Under increasing political pressure in his own Democratic party and swelling protests on behalf of embattled Palestinians, Biden admitted that many of the 35,000 deaths in Gaza have been caused by US weapons. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” he said.

  At the same time, Biden is unwavering in his support for Israel’s right to exist.

GREENE PEACE: The House yesterday quickly tabled and killed the motion by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to “vacate” the speakership and remove Mike Johnson.

  The vote was 359 to 43, with a majority of Democrats voting to save Johnson. Only 11 Republicans voted with Greene. Johnson has held the office only since October 25^th.

  Greene wanted Johnson out because he pushed forward with renewed aid for Ukraine, which she opposed. “Given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allying with Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats,” Greene said before the vote.

  At one moment members of the House booed Greene and she dismissed that as the voice of the “uniparty,” her term for Republicans and Democrats actually cooperating with each other. 

  Johnson said after the vote, “Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118^th Congress.”

HIGHER EDUCATION: Public school leaders from three generally liberal areas of the country yesterday handily defended themselves before a House committee panel accusing them of failing to stem antisemitism, similar to the grilling that cost some university presidents their jobs.

  Republican members of a House education subcommittee fired questions based on accusations made by Jewish students, parents, educators, and advocacy groups. Those groups filed federal civil rights complaints charging that the districts allowed a hostile climate for Jewish students.

  The school leaders said that investigations found that some of the incendiary reports turned out to be untrue and that in other cases both students and faculty members engaged in antisemitic acts had been disciplined. 

   All three districts have a wide variety of students, including those who are Jewish. David Banks, the chancellor of the New York schools, stood his ground in particular against New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who had previously reduced college presidents to rubble. He said that some of Stefanik’s accusations about antisemitic chanting at a Brooklyn high school never happened and that Congress itself needs to do more to fight anti-Semitism. Banks said the representatives were trying to score political points rather than actually doing something about anti-Semitism.

STORMY WEATHER: The Georgia Court of Appeals agreed to consider appeals Donald Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the 2020 election subversion case. The trial judge ruled that despite Willis having an affair with her hired chief prosecutor, she can stay on the case. 

  Porn actress Stormy Daniels is expected to be back on the witness stand today to face more cross examination from Donald Trump’s lawyers in his New York criminal trial. 

  Daniels testified Tuesday about having sex with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite, leading to his payment of $130,000 for her silence 10 years later on the cusp of the 2016 election. Defense lawyers will do their best to batter Daniels and make her look like an opportunist. 

  In 2006 when the incident happened, Daniels was 27 and Trump was about 60. In her account on Tuesday Daniels said that during sex she just laid back staring at the ceiling, “trying to think about anything other than what was happening there” — something along the lines of “Just lie back and think of England.” 

  She said that afterwards, “My hands were shaking so hard. I was having a hard time getting dressed. He said, ‘Oh, great. Let’s get together again honey bunch. We were great together.’”

THE OBIT PAGE: Dick Rutan, pilot who in 1986 made the first flight around the world without refueling, died last Friday in a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho after being unable to recover from long Covid. He was 85.

  The ultralight Voyager aircraft, with wings the span of a Boeing 727, was designed by Rutan’s brother, Burt. The propeller-driven plane was basically a collection of 17 fuel tanks and a minimal structure covered with carbon fiber cloth. You could poke your finger through it and in the air the wings flapped like a bird.

  Rutan’s co-pilot was Jeana Yeager, with whom he had just concluded a romantic relationship. In a trip that took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds they napped, dodged a mountain in Africa, and almost ditched in the Pacific Ocean.

  Rutan, who had flown combat missions in Vietnam, said the Voyager was the only plane that really sacred him.

THE SPIN RACK: General Motors announced that it is discontinuing the gasoline-powered Chevy Malibu to make more electric cars. Introduced in the 1960s, the Malibu has been an affordable mainstay of the fleet. — The movie business is expecting a $1 billion falloff from last summer’s BarbenHeimer blockbuster season.

BELOW THE FOLD:  The NY Post reports that Lala Kent in ‘early talks’ to join ‘The Valley’ after cryptic ‘Pump Rules’ finale. We thought you should know.

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