Throughout the past year, AMAC Newsline has endeavored to bring our readers engaging and insightful content on the biggest stories driving conversations in our country and around the world. While we always base our analysis on the facts, we have also sought to provide unique and insightful perspectives on what storylines to follow. Here are twelve big stories that we gave AMAC readers the inside track on in 2022.
2022 was a historic year for the pro-life movement
One of the first major political events of 2022 was the March for Life, an annual gathering of pro-life activists in Washington, D.C. This year’s march, however, felt a little different, as AMAC Newsline author Seamus Brennan predicted that it would be a “historic year for the pro-life movement.” And indeed it was, as the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the power to legislate on abortion to the states. Again as Brennan predicted, it was former President Donald Trump’s nominees – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – who delivered the deciding votes.
Biden’s State of the Union Address was a political flop
After a historically long delay, President Joe Biden finally delivered his first State of the Union Address on March 1. In February, AMAC Newsline’s Shane Harris predicted that “Biden has little choice but to try and convince the American people that things are actually going quite well – in spite of the abundant evidence that they are not.” Claire Brighn followed that up with another prediction on the day of the speech that the remarks “are likely to be filled with a number of rosy predictions that economic measures like inflation and gas prices – which have been dismal for most of his presidency – will soon get better thanks to his administration’s policies.”
Biden’s lackluster speech turned out to be exactly that – a blatant effort to gaslight the country into believing that everything was great. As AMAC Newsline noted at the time, Biden failed to mention the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, made only a vague passing mention of the need to “fix” the border, denied any responsibility for inflation, and baldly lied about rising violent crime.
Supreme Court nomination process was dominated by identity politics
Following Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement announcement in January, speculation immediately began to swirl about who would replace the liberal judge. Progressives were thrilled at the chance to confirm one of their own to the high court.
But as AMAC Newsline author Seamus Brennan warned, the confirmation process “may not be without some serious political risks.” Specifically, he predicted that Democrats’ obsession with “race, sex, and other identity-oriented factors” would drive the selection and confirmation process, and that if Biden chose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, as was then rumored, her spotty track record would lead to serious questions about the rationale for her selection.
Sure enough, Biden did nominate Judge Jackson, and her confirmation process was dogged by concerns about whether or not she was truly the best candidate for the job. Biden and Senate Democrats gushed about the fact that she was a black woman, but failed to make much of a case for her legal acumen, even as questions about her lenient sentences for child sex offenders lingered. Overall, the process led to a continuing slide in public confidence in the Court.
Soros-backed DA Chesa Boudin falls in recall vote in deep-blue San Francisco
Throughout the early months of 2022, AMAC Newsline author Andrew Abbott tracked growing backlash to the policies of Chesa Boudin, San Francisco’s radical district attorney who was funded by ultra-liberal billionaire George Soros and supported policies like ending cash bail and freeing violent felons from jail. Ahead of a recall vote in June, Abbott predicted that Boudin would be ousted. 55 percent of San Franciscans voted “yes” on the recall, putting other far-left DAs on notice.
Biden caved to far left on student loan bailout
In March, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a radical manifesto of demands for President Biden to meet through executive action as it became clear that such policies could never pass through Congress. One of those was for the administration to cancel student debt. AMAC Newsline’s Shane Harris predicted at the time that that those demands would become the “blueprint” for Democratic governance.
Sure enough, just a few months later, Biden canceled roughly $500 billion in student loans via executive fiat, a decision of dubious constitutionality that is still being challenged in court and has further exacerbated inflation.
Republicans flipped control of the House
It’s undeniable that November’s midterm election results fell short of expectations for Republicans. But the media’s predicted recovery for Democrats that would allow them to retain control of both chambers of Congress also did not come to pass. AMAC Newsline author Daniel Berman advised readers in August that marginally better poll numbers were “almost certainly not enough for Democrats to have a serious prospect of holding the House.” That proved to be the case, as concerns over inflation and Democrat radicalism were enough to flip the chamber.
3 Virginia House races were bellwethers for midterms
In an article from mid-September, Shane Harris advised readers to pay particularly close attention to three House races in Virginia, predicting, “If Republicans win none of these races, Democrats have a good chance of retaining control of the House and even expanding their majority. If Republicans win just one, who wins the majority is a toss-up and will likely be determined by just a few seats either way. If Republicans win two or all three, it is a safe bet that narratives of a Democratic “resurgence” were overblown, and the GOP is well on its way to a large majority.”
Republicans won just one – Jen Kiggans ousted Democrat Elaine Luria in the Virginia 2nd – and control of the House was indeed very close, with Republicans winning a four-seat margin.
Benjamin Netanyahu re-elected as Israeli Prime Minister
Just a few months after he was removed as Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the post, buoyed by a sudden resurgence of popularity for the conservative Likud Party. AMAC Newsline author Barry Casselman called this one early, hypothesizing that shifting alliances within the Israeli parliament would pave the way for Bibi’s return.
Hakeem Jeffries becomes new House Democrat leader, cementing Pelosi’s legacy of failure and radicalism
One of the biggest political stories of the latter half of the year was the retirement announcement of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had been atop the House Democratic Caucus since 2007. Amid speculation about Pelosi’s exit all the way back in January, Shane Harris predicted that Hakeem Jeffries of New York would replace her, “signaling the beginning of a new, even more, radical era for the Democratic Party.” Andrew Abbott similarly speculated in February that Pelosi’s “legacy of… radical progressivism will continue, with the next Democrat leader likely to be even more extreme than she.”
In December, Democrats elected Jeffries by a wide margin, underscoring that it is progressives in the mold of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the “Squad” who are now the center of power in the party. As Pelosi makes her exit, her record of failure is also clear – she lost control of the House immediately after becoming Speaker in the 2010 midterms, did not gain back control until 2018, and then lost the House again in 2022, all while allowing far-left radicals to hijack her caucus.
House Republicans prioritize Afghanistan, Fauci, Hunter Biden investigations
Once it looked like Republicans had a good chance to retake the House in November’s midterm elections, attention began to turn to how the GOP would use its new power to hold the Biden administration and career bureaucrats accountable for their many failures. In February, AMAC Newsline’s Louis Senn argued that investigations into the Afghanistan debacle, Dr. Fauci’s role in censoring the “lab leak” theory, and a deep dive into the Hunter Biden laptop scandal could be at the top of the list. Soon after winning the majority, House Republicans announced that those items would indeed be among their first slate of investigations.
Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase devastating for Big Tech, mainstream media credibility
In April, Shane Harris penned a piece detailing why “the left is terrified of Elon Musk.” Specifically, he pointed out how Musk’s bid to buy Twitter “has exposed the rank hypocrisy and authoritarian mindset that defines America’s cultural left.” If that bid was successful, Harris predicted, it would force the left “into revealing the corrupt game they are playing.”
Musk’s release of the “Twitter Files,” has done just that, revealing the extent to which Big Tech, the mainstream media, and government bureaucrats worked together to stifle free speech and stories that could be damaging to Democrats and left-wing dogma. From suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story to censoring expert opinions that ran counter to the narrative pushed by government scientists, Musk has single-handedly laid bare just how incestuous and corrupt the country’s elites are. As Harris predicted, transparency was ultimately the thing the left feared the most.
Bipartisan momentum emerges to ban TikTok
Late last month, Louis Senn highlighted urgent national security concerns associated with TikTok, a popular social media app with close ties to the Chinese government. Just a few weeks later, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the app on government devices, a move that was followed by several governors. Though it is not yet clear whether there is enough support for a blanket ban on the platform, conservatives are continuing to agitate in that direction.
As the calendar flips over to 2023, we’ll be ready to continue providing our readers with coverage of the stories that the mainstream media won’t touch. Along with all the important facts and figures, our mission is to keep you informed about how the biggest events in our country and around the world could impact your life and the future direction of our world.
