Rep. McCaul (R-TX) is the New Foreign Affairs Committee Chair

Three reasons progressives should celebrate.

“Representing the people of Texas’s 10th congressional district is a tremendous honor — and a responsibility I do not take lightly,” Rep. McCaul tweeted, along with this photo of his 2023 swearing-in ceremony. “I look forward to continuing to serve you and fight for conservative principles in the 118th Congress!”

President Joe Biden inherited a not-insignificant number of foreign policy challenges from previous administrations. That isn’t at all unusual, but Biden was also unlucky enough to draw Covid19; ongoing, aftermath, clean-up duty, and long-term management.

Biden also drew the short straw on long-simmering global conflicts beyond the control of any American president— like the slow-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which actually began over a decade ago before escalating last February.

Still, some of Biden’s challenges have been of his administration’s own making. Or rather, mishandling.

The Afghanistan withdrawal could certainly have been handled better, not least of which was the botched drone strike of a humanitarian aid worker and his entire family by U.S. forces acting on faulty intelligence that the man was carrying explosives.

He was carrying water.

The U.S. border is a humanitarian nightmare of epic proportions, where Fentanyl smuggling and human trafficking are flourishing.

Opposition to Biden’s lax border policies isn’t confined to the Republican side of the aisle anymore, either.