Welcome back in for Al’s Afternoon Tea. We’re preparing for 40 days of fasting and prayer for the election, which starts tomorrow.

But for this afternoon, let’s start with a chuckle.

Haha. Best ad ever. pic.twitter.com/4qKwBBuAMh

— 🇺🇸🔥Bͥreͣeͫ🔥🇮🇱 (@Flame_442) September 22, 2024

Make that two.

Post of the year 😂 pic.twitter.com/MjtbFcepM2

— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) September 24, 2024

We need a chuckle after reading the Senate Homeland Security and Accountability Committee’s report on the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The Secret Service’s failures are even worse than previously reported.

Bipartisan Senate Report Condemns Secret Service Failures

The conclusion is devastating:

The Committee finds that USSS failures in planning, communications, security, and allocation of resources for the July 13, 2024 Butler rally were foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day.

The details are damning. If there was a way for the Secret Service to make things easy for Thomas Crooks, they found it.

We knew the agency had brushed off local cops’ desperate pleas to secure the building from which Crooks ended up firing. We knew rallygoers were warning about Crooks as well. What we didn’t know is that a Secret Service sniper spotted cops running toward the building with guns drawn to apprehend Crooks, but the sniper did not alert the agents protecting Trump on the stage.

Nor did anyone tell the agents to keep Trump from going on stage while Secret Service and law enforcement tracked down the suspicious person who’d been seen lurking in the vicinity with a range-finder.

We knew the Secret Service had rejected offers from local cops to put their drone to good use. But as Just the News reports, we did not know “an inexperienced Secret Service drone operator was on the phone, trying to figure out how to operate the device as the assassination plot was unfolding.”

Did you catch that? The feds sent an inexperienced drone officer to protect Trump when they already knew Iran is hell-bent on taking him out.

Here are a couple of other doozies:

A Secret Service official was made aware that “credible intelligence” existed of a threat, but still wrote in a security planning document that there was “no adverse intelligence” concerning the visit to Butler, PA.

Other Secret Service officials involved in the planning of the rally told the Committee they had no knowledge of any threats and the FBI did not respond to USSS’ intelligence request.

In fact, the senators have a whole chapter in the report on “Federal Agencies’ Lack of Compliance with the Committee’s Bipartisan Inquiry.”

On and on it goes. You can read the full report here.

On tomorrow’s Brew, we’re going to run down the keys issues on which this election will turn with 40 days to go. Reports like this convince us the number one key is: “Will Prayer Keep Donald Trump Alive?”

Meanwhile, second would-be assassin Ryan Routh has now officially been charged with attempting to murder Trump.

On Truth Social, Trump suggested that still others have been thwarted.

And yet the current administration and its friends continue to pave the way for Trump to be assassinated.

Cabinet Secretary Calls for Trump to Be “Extinguished for Good”

It’s not enough for the White House to continually call Trump a “threat to democracy,” or for the Department of Justice to inexplicably release Ryan Routh’s letter posting a $150,000 bounty for anyone who can “finish the job.” It’s not enough that the Secret Service rejected requests for more security for Trump even though the Department of Homeland Security knew there were at least five teams, including three from foreign countries, actively hunting the former president.

Now you’ve got a Cabinet member, Commerce Secretary Gina Riamondo, going on MSNBC and calling for people to “extinguish” Trump “for good.”

Biden’s Secretary of Commerce: "Let's extinguish Trump for good.” pic.twitter.com/WLbZHKMaH9

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 25, 2024

Host Miki Brzezinski quickly came to Riamondo’s rescue. “And by extinguish, you mean vote him out.”

“Yes, vote him out,” Riamondo said. “Banish him from American politics.”

She might as well have said, “Oh, I don’t mean kill him. Who would think that? I mean deny him the right guaranteed every citizen to participate in the political process. No, not kill him — kill the Constitution.”

At a time when “rhetoric” is so heated and both sides have called for it to be toned down, this sort of “slip of the tongue” from a federal official is just unconscionable. From the heart the mouth speaks.

Not to be outdone, Joe Biden on The View Wednesday reacted to Whoopi Goldberg comparing Trump to a bug by pretending to squash the bug. 10 days after a second person ignited by hateful rhetoric tried to kill the former president.

Whoopi compares Trump to a bug, Biden pretends to kill the bug

pic.twitter.com/0dPk7LHtde

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 25, 2024

Games to Toss The Election: FCC Fast-Tracks Soros Radio Station Purchase

Between now and Election Day, beware of all manner of subtle ways the Biden-Harris regime will use the federal government to help pull Harris over the finish line. Here’s a good one.

George Soros, the same man who has bought off officials across the country to ensure radical, law-ignoring Soros loyalists are in charge of state elections, is now trying to buy more than 200 American radio stations — specifically Audacy Incorporated.

The purchase of a major radio group is usually a laborious process, particularly when foreign investment is involved. It’s not like running to Subway to buy a sandwich. However, when Soros and the regime are involved, apparently it’s free delivery.

In an unprecedented move, the FCC is fast-tracking the approval of the Audacy sale to Soros just in time for the election, says Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. He told a House committee the FCC is creating an “entirely new shortcut” to help Soros acquire the stations before Nov. 5. The FCC wants to bypass the routine process — namely, months of review of the purchase by national security agencies, followed by a another from the full FCC.

Why the rush? Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY) thinks the answer is obvious:

It seems that the administration is giving a left-wing billionaire, who is a major donor, a close ally, one of the chief funders of all of the efforts in their dark money, a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda.

Oops. Faking a Child’s Death to Make Israel Look Bad?

While we’re talking about propaganda, did you see this epic fail from the war in the Middle East? It shows a father grieving over a child supposedly killed in an Israeli bombing. Except the little boy (being a little boy) couldn’t hold still and is seen moving his legs, even scratching an itch.

https://twitter.com/EliAfriatISR/status/1838277395142602911

Not to minimize the loss of any child caught in the genocidal war against Israel, but this shows how far some will go to make Israel out to be the bad guy.

U.S. Sending More Troops to Middle East as Diplomats Try to Soothe Things Between Israel and Hezbollah

Remember when Kamala Harris said in the presidential debate there were no U.S. troops in an active war zone? That’s patently false, but now the administration is sending even more troops into harm’s way. The Pentagon announced Monday a “small,” undefined number of additional troops are being sent to the Middle East in response to the spike in tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. They’ll join the 40,000 American troops already there.

On the diplomatic front, The Associated Press reports the U.S. and other countries are using this week’s U.N. General Assembly in New York to try to build an “off-ramp” for Israel and Hezbollah to stand down and prevent an all-out war.

Who Is Commander-in-Chief?

With a massive war on the verge of breaking out in the Middle East, the U.S. getting more deeply involved in the Ukraine-Russia war, and China drooling over Taiwan like it was a slice of Jersey pizza, isn’t it fair to ask who is commander-in-chief?

We posted a clip the other day of Joe Biden completely blanking on who he was meeting with. (In that case, India’s prime minister.)

Biden seemingly forgets the name of the Prime Minister of India and snaps… pic.twitter.com/L9w4NIfJe4

— USA🇺🇸 (@ThePatrioticWay) September 23, 2024

Biden admitted on Monday, “You know, I thought when I got to be president, I’d get to do things that I want to do. But my staff tells me what I can’t do.”

BIDEN: "I thought when I got to be president, I’d get to do things that I wanted to do, but my staff tells me what I can't do." pic.twitter.com/zGli29Fqs4

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 23, 2024

The New York Post and others point out that Biden seems to be referring to his staff not wanting him to interact with young women and girls. For good reason. Do you agree that was the intent?

As creepy as that is, is it worse than the commander-in-chief admitting that his staff tells him what to do and not to do — just before flagrantly ignoring their advice in such a public way?

But look on the bright side. The Big Guy did wake up in time today to make an appearance on The View. Biden says he’s made peace with being tossed off the presidential ticket like a piece of garbage by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris, but insisted again that he would have beaten “loser” Trump.

On The Stream Menu

Stream publisher James Robison offers cogent insights on “America and the Poor.”

Wanda Alger is back with “Link Arms Around Those Getting Hit on the Front Lines.”

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.