The SCOTUS Case To Watch—Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo thumbnail

The SCOTUS Case To Watch—Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo

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By Royal A. Brown III

This could be good news for reducing the unfettered power of the Administrative State.

SCOTUS Grants Review of Case That Will Gut the Federal Bureaucracy

By Bonchie | May 01, 2023

In the biggest news to come out of the Supreme Court of the United States since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Court has granted a review of Loper Bright Enterprises vs. Raimondo. In its deliberations, the court will deal with the question of whether to overrule the infamous Chevron Doctrine, a ’70s-era precedent that granted broad powers to the bureaucratic state to interpret vague, often narrow statutes with near zero accountability.

Here’s a quick explainer on the Chevron Doctrine via Cornell Law School.

One of the most important principles in administrative law, the “Chevron deference” was coined after a landmark case,Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 468 U.S. 837 (1984). The Chevron deference is referring to the doctrine of judicial deference given to administrative actions. In Chevron, the Supreme Court set forth a legal test as to when the court should defer to the agency’s answer or interpretation, holding that such judicial deference is appropriate where the agency’s answer was not unreasonable, so long as Congress had not spoken directly to the precise issue at question.

Read more.

©2023 Royal A. Brown III. All rights reserved.

Good News for Florida Voter Integrity thumbnail

Good News for Florida Voter Integrity

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By Royal A. Brown III

This is very good news indeed for voter integrity in the Sunshine State.

By Dara Kam

TALLAHASSEE — An appeals court on Thursday overturned the bulk of a federal judge’s ruling that a 2021 Florida elections law was intended to discriminate against Black voters, finding that he relied on “fatally flawed” analyses and “out-of-context” statements by legislators.

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved the elections law as GOP leaders across the country pushed to make voting changes after former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020.

The law imposed new restrictions on mail-in voting and voter-registration groups and prohibited people from giving snacks and drinks to voters waiting in line to cast ballots.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last year ruled that the law, challenged by voting-rights groups, was intentionally intended to discriminate against Black voters. The judge also made the rare move of putting the state under a process known as “preclearance,” meaning that he would have to approve any changes to certain parts of state elections laws.

But Thursday’s split ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Walker’s decision “does not withstand examination.”

“The district court relied on fatally flawed statistical analyses, out-of-context statements by individual legislators, and legal premises that do not follow our precedents,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote in a 79-page decision joined by Judge Britt Grant. “On the contrary, examining the record reveals that the finding of intentional discrimination rests on hardly any evidence.”

Judge Jill Pryor issued a dissenting opinion.
While Florida had a relatively smooth 2020 election, Republicans in 2021 said changes were needed to help ensure future elections would not have issues such as fraud. The law (SB 90) included restrictions on ballot drop boxes, such as requiring boxes to be manned by employees of the supervisor of elections and limiting their use to early-voting hours.

The law also required voter-registration groups to return completed applications to elections supervisors in the counties where applicants live and imposed a 14-day deadline for submitting the forms.

The League of Women Voters of Florida and a number of Black and Hispanic advocacy groups went to federal court to challenge the measure, alleging that it was an effort to restrict minority voters from accessing the ballot.

In his March 2022 ruling, Walker found that “every single challenged provision has a disparate impact on Black voters in some way.”
The state “has repeatedly, recently, and persistently acted to deny Black Floridians access to the franchise,” the judge wrote.

But Thursday’s decision said that, “from the start,” Walker “erred,” adding that judges must remain mindful “of the danger of allowing old, outdated intentions of previous generations to taint (Florida’s) legislative action forevermore on certain topics.”
The state’s “more recent history does not support a finding of discriminatory intent. The only pieces of legislation cited by the district court that were adopted since the year 2000 offer no support for its finding of discriminatory intent,” the majority opinion said.

In her dissent, Jill Pryor said Walker, in a “thorough and well-reasoned order, committed no reversible error.” Jasmin Burney-Clark, the founder of an organization that is one of the plaintiffs, called Thursday’s ruling disappointing.

“Today, the appeals court has assisted Florida Republicans in silencing Black and Brown Floridians, but attacks to suppress our voices are nothing new, and we will adapt, organize, and overcome until we are heard and we are represented,” said Burney-Clark, the founder of Equal Ground.

Thursday’s ruling also disputed Walker’s conclusions “about the close relationship between racial identification and political affiliation” among Floridians. Walker found that “for white and Black voters in Florida, separating race from politics only works in science fiction.”

But William Pryor wrote that “the Supreme Court has warned against conflating discrimination on the basis of party affiliation with discrimination on the basis of race.”

The appeals court found that the parts of the 2021 law imposing restrictions on drop boxes and on voter registration by third-party groups were not intended to discriminate against Black and Hispanic voters and did not violate the federal Voting Rights Act.

“In sum, based on this record — and even in the light of the deferential standard of review we must apply to the findings of fact — the district court clearly erred in finding that the challenged provisions were enacted with discriminatory intent in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. As a result, we reverse the decision of the district court in part,” Thursday’s ruling said.

But the appellate panel also ruled that part of the law prohibiting people from “engaging in any activity with the . . . effect of influencing a voter” outside of polling places was “unconstitutionally vague.” Plaintiffs argued the provision would prevent people from giving food or water to voters waiting in line to cast ballots.

“How is an individual seeking to comply with the law to anticipate whether his or her actions will have the subjective effect of influencing a voter? Knowing what it means to influence a voter does not bestow the ability to predict which actions will influence a voter. As a result, the district court correctly determined that this phrase in the solicitation provision ‘both fails to put Floridians of ordinary intelligence on notice of what acts it criminalizes and encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, making this provision vague to the point of unconstitutionality,’” Thursday’s ruling said.

The appellate panel put that part of the 2021 law on hold and sent the issue back to Walker “for further proceedings.”

While Republican lawmakers argued the changes in the 2021 law was necessary to make the state’s elections more secure, Walker decided that was a “justification” for discrimination because voting fraud is rare in Florida.

But Thursday’s ruling called Walker’s analysis flawed, saying that court precedent “does not require evidence of voter fraud to justify adopting legislation that aims to prevent fraud.”
Florida lawmakers “passed a bill that supporters argued would safeguard the integrity of elections against non-imaginary threats. The wisdom of the Legislature’s policy choices is not ours to judge,” William Pryor wrote.

©2023 Royal A. Brown III. All rights reserved.

NYC: Two Muslims who punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat Jewish man plead guilty to hate crime charges thumbnail

NYC: Two Muslims who punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat Jewish man plead guilty to hate crime charges

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By Jihad Watch

The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they claim that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); they love to listen to lies (5:41); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13). They are disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).

2 of Joey Borgen’s attackers plead guilty on hate crime charges for 2021 beating

by Jacob Henry, New York Jewish Week, April 26, 2023:

Two men pled guilty this week for attacking Joey Borgen, a Jewish man who was severely beaten in 2021 while walking to a pro-Israel rally in Manhattan.

Waseem Awawdeh, one of five men who punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beat Borgen with crutches, pled guilty on Tuesday for attempted assault in the second degree as a hate crime and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed his plea to the New York Jewish Week. It was first reported by Jewish Insider.

The beating, which took place amid a spike in antisemitism surrounding Israel’s 2021 war with Hamas in Gaza, drew national attention. And the court battle that followed led to criticism from activists in the city’s Jewish community that District Attorney Alvin Bragg was being too lenient with Awawdeh. Earlier this month, Borgen’s father, Barry, was invited by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee to testify at a hearing in New York City on Bragg and violent crime in Manhattan.

Awawdeh will serve a total of 18 months in jail, and will be sentenced on June 13, Bragg’s office said. That includes 12 months for the attempted assault charge, and six months for the criminal possession charge, to be served consecutively.

Another defendant, Faisal Elezzi, pled guilty to attempted assault in the third degree as a hate crime on Monday. He will be sentenced on June 8 to three years’ probation and is required to continue compliance with anti-bias programming. Both Awawdeh and Elezzi were required to make a public apology.

Awawdeh’s sentence is longer than a six-month plea deal Bragg had reportedly offered him months ago, which had spurred backlash from Borgen, his family and Jewish activist groups, which demanded a longer sentence.

But Borgen told the New York Jewish Week that he still is not “happy about” the sentences, which he believes should be harsher. He pointed to a report that Awawdeh had said he would “do it again.”

Borgen was wearing a yarmulke while heading to a pro-Israel rally, the same day Hamas and Israel announced a ceasefire after 11 days of conflict, when he was attacked on the street in Midtown on May 20, 2021 by five people, including Awawdeh and Elezzi. Awawdeh also yelled “dirty Jew” while beating Borgen, who was sent to the hospital and needed surgery on his wrist….

Read more.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Dems. Johnson, Bowman Back Bill to Protect Rappers Over Violent Lyrics thumbnail

Dems. Johnson, Bowman Back Bill to Protect Rappers Over Violent Lyrics

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By Discover The Networks

House Democrats are pushing a new bill that would make it illegal for prosecutors to use violent lyrics by rap artists against them in court if they commit crimes, citing First Amendment protections, according to Fox News

On Thursday, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) announced they would reintroduce the Restoring Artist Protection Act, or RAP Act. The bill would protect artists from the use of their lyrics against them in criminal and civil proceedings, a practice that’s more common in cases involving hip-hop artists.

The pair introduced the bill last Congress, but it failed to gain any traction. The measure, they say, would add a presumption to the Federal Rules of Evidence that would limit the admissibility of evidence of an artist’s creative or artistic expression against that artist in court.

The underpinning of such a law, they say, is the freedom of expression granted by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“This legislation is long overdue,” Rep. Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “For too long, artists — particularly young Black [sic] artists — have been unfairly targeted by prosecutors who use their lyrics as evidence of guilt, even though there is no evidence that the lyrics are anything more than creative expression. When you allow music and creativity to be silenced, you’re opening the door for other realms of free speech to be curtailed as well. The government should not be able to silence artists simply because they write, draw, sing or rap about controversial or taboo subjects.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) predictably backed the measure in a press conference Friday.

“I don’t think that art and creativity should be weaponized in the criminal justice system, and hopefully we’ll be able to have some bipartisan support to move that legislation forward,” Jeffries said.

“Rap, hip-hop and every lyrical musical piece is a beautiful form of art and expression that must be protected,” Rep. Bowman said in a statement. “Evidence shows when juries believe lyrics to be rap lyrics, there’s a tendency to presume it’s a confession, whereas lyrics for other genres of music are understood to be art, not factual reporting.”

That’s not due to racism. It’s because rap lyrics are uniquely violent and misogynist, and rappers have a far greater tendency to commit actual crimes than other musical artists do. That’s because committing crimes, especially violent ones, lends credibility to a rapper; that’s not the case with artists on other genres.

Jamaal Bowman

66 Known Connections

Condemning America’s Allegedly Intransigent Racism

On July 4, 2021, Bowman tweeted: “Let us reflect on the full story of America today. Black people were not freed in 1776. Despite a system stacked against us, we must continue to use our collective power to change that system.”

To learn more about Jamaal Bowman, click here.

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Is this what our war heroes fought for? Is this the country you want for your children? 😤 pic.twitter.com/ZXhzXxDOhu

— Paul Golding (@GoldingBF) April 28, 2023

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Judicial Watch and CatholicVote Sue FBI and Justice Department for Records of Targeting Catholics thumbnail

Judicial Watch and CatholicVote Sue FBI and Justice Department for Records of Targeting Catholics

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By Judicial Watch

The Biden administration is shredding the First Amendment – censoring our freedom of expression by colluding with Big Tech in a massive effort to suppress speech on social media under the pretext of removing “misinformation” and “disinformation” and “protecting national security.” And now, the Biden FBI is going after our freedom of religion – targeting Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on abortion and other cultural issues.

That’s why we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit along with CatholicVote Civic Action against the FBI and the Department of Justice for records containing keywords and records about an FBI intelligence memo targeting ‘radical traditionalist’ Catholics (CatholicVote Civic Action and Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Federal Bureau of Investigations and Department of Justice (No. 1:23-cv-01166)).

In February 2023, an FBI intelligence document was leaked that revealed FBI targeting ” of Catholics who adhere to traditional beliefs on abortion and other cultural issues. The Catholic News Agency reported: “The leaked document has been condemned by several federal and state officials, as well as clergy, including Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond, who recently called the memo a ‘threat to religious liberty.’”

On March 8, 2023, we teamed up with CatholicVote and sent four FOIA requests to the FBI, which is a division of the Department of Justice) for:

(a) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the following FBI Headquarters officials: Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, Asst. Director George P. Beach, II, General Counsel Jason Jones, Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner, Executive Asst. Dir. Larissa Knapp, and Asst. Dir. Timothy Langan for the period March 1, 2022, to the present referencing:

  • “Catholics”
  • “Latin Mass”
  • “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics”
  • “RTC”
  • “Church Militant”
  • “Catholic League”
  • “Southern Poverty Law Center”
  • “SPLC”
  • “Pope Francis”
  • “Vatican II”

(b) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the following FBI Richmond Field Office (RFO) officials: SAIC Stanley Meador, ASAIC David Lewis, ASAIC Stephen Farina, and the FBI Richmond Chief Division Counsel for the period March 1, 2022 to the present referencing:

  • “Catholics”
  • “Latin Mass”
  • “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics”
  • “RTC”
  • “Church Militant”
  • “Catholic League”
  • “Southern Poverty Law Center”
  • “SPLC”
  • “Pope Francis”
  • “Vatican II”
  • “Second Vatican Council”
  • “Rosary”
  • “FSSP”

(c) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the following FBI Headquarters officials: Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate, Asst. Director George P. Beach, II, General Counsel Jason Jones, Chief of Staff Jonathan Lenzner, Executive Asst. Dir. Larissa Knapp, and Asst. Dir. Timothy Langan for the period March 1, 2022, to the present referencing:

  • actions taken to remove the Intelligence Note from FBI systems;
  • the FBI review of (1) the basis for the Intelligence Note and (2) any official FBI actions taken pursuant to the Intelligence Note

(d) All emails, Lync messages, and text messages sent to and from the following FBI Richmond Field Office (RFO) officials: SAIC Stanley Meador, ASAIC David Lewis, ASAIC Stephen Farina, and the FBI Richmond Chief Division Counsel for the period March 1, 2022, to the present referencing:

  • actions taken to remove the Intelligence Note from FBI systems;

the FBI review of (1) the basis for the Intelligence Note; (2) any official FBI actions taken pursuant to the Intelligence Note

Also, on March 8, 2023, we and CatholicVote sent similar FOIA requests to the U.S. Department of Justice; Office of the Attorney General and Office of the Deputy Attorney General.

“Our weaponized and corrupt government agencies have demonstrated a pattern of contempt for justice and the rule of law by prioritizing partisan ideology and agendas over the protection of the American people – in particular those with whom they disagree politically,” said CatholicVote President Brian Burch. “We are demanding transparency from our government and are determined to uncover just how high up the anti-Catholic bigotry goes.”

In a brazen attack on the First Amendment and Christians, the Biden FBI planned to treat Catholics as potential terrorists and spy on them in their churches, and now, as our new FOIA lawsuit shows, the FBI and Justice Departments are trying to cover their tracks by hiding documents about this growing scandal.

(CatholicVote.org is a community of patriotic Americans who believe that the timeless truths of the Catholic faith are good for America. It makes its mission “to inspire every Catholic in America to live out the truths of our faith in public life.”)

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The wold is going batshit crazy.

Social services in forcefully taking a child away from Muslim family in Germany because his parents were teaching him that homosexuality/transgenderism goes against their faith. pic.twitter.com/jLAjv9z1KG

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) April 28, 2023

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Internal Revenue Service Hiring ‘Armed Agents’ for All 50 States thumbnail

Internal Revenue Service Hiring ‘Armed Agents’ for All 50 States

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By The Geller Report

“Must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.” Sick. The Democrats are at war against its own citizens.

IRS plans to hire gun-carrying special agents in all 50 states

Special agents with the IRS’ Criminal Investigation division are the only IRS agents permitted by law to carry firearms as part of their duties

By Eric Revell FOX Business

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist reacts to revelations in the Hunter Biden investigation and President Biden’s tax-and-spending spree.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is looking to hire special agents who carry guns and make arrests with jobs available in all 50 states, according to a posting on the agency’s website.

The law enforcement branch of the IRS, known as the Criminal Investigation (CI) division, is hiring for the role at locations throughout the U.S. IRS special agents within the CI division are the only IRS employees who are authorized by law to carry and use firearms. IRS-CI investigates financial crimes, money laundering, tax-related identity theft and terrorist financing efforts.

Under the posting’s “major duties” section, the IRS says that special agents “[c]arry a firearm; must be prepared to protect him/herself or others from physical attacks at any time and without warning and use firearms in life-threatening situations; must be willing to use force up to and including the use of deadly force.”

Additionally, IRS-CI special agents must be “willing and able to participate in arrests, execution of search warrants, and other dangerous assignments.” The posting adds that special agents need to maintain “a level of fitness necessary to effectively respond to life-threatening situations on the job.”

Jobseekers must meet a number of other requirements, including having U.S. citizenship and being between the age of 21 at the time of completing the training academy and 37 at the time of appointment.

Would-be special agents with the IRS’ Criminal Investigation division must be able to pass pre-employment medical and tax exams, in addition to passing a drug test and being legally allowed to possess firearms.

The IRS’ job posting for the role on USAJobs opened in mid-February and will remain open through the end of the year. The posting lists 360 vacancies in 249 locations around the country — at least one of which is in each state.

IRS special agents in the CI division can expect a salary between $52,921 and $94,228 annually.

The IRS faced criticism last year when a similar posting went live amid debate in Congress over Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which included $80 billion in increased funding for the IRS over a decade — much of which was intended to help the agency crack down on tax evasion.

Similar language related to the use of force and carrying firearms is listed on other federal law enforcement job postings that involve field work and potentially dangerous situations.

FOX Business’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.

Read more.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

McCarthy Proves What He’s Made Of with Gritty Budget Win thumbnail

McCarthy Proves What He’s Made Of with Gritty Budget Win

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By Family Research Council

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hasn’t had an easy path. After painstakingly working through conservatives’ gripes with House leadership this January, he finally squeaked out the votes he needed to assume the third most powerful job in Washington. But even after that chaos died down, questions loomed. Was he cut out to be speaker? Would he bring the fractious, competing corners of the GOP together? In a staring contest with Democrats, could he win? The answer, Americans learned from a hard-won victory on the budget bill, is a resounding yes.

With just two votes to spare, McCarthy accomplished something that seemed improbable even 48 hours ago: he held his fragile coalition together and passed a bill that all but forces Democrats to the negotiating table. Under the House proposal, America would not default on its loans. But there were strings attached. In exchange for raising the debt ceiling and protecting the country’s credit line, conservatives are demanding a massive overhaul of spending and deep cuts to bloated programs.

For starters, Republicans would set a $1.47 trillion limit on discretionary spending — with a 1% increase built in for each year. In a blow to the Democratic messaging machine, even the AP admits that the legislation poses no threat to Social Security and Medicare, which has been Joe Biden’s favorite scare tactic about the bill. To the cheers of most conservatives, the proposal also scoops up all of the unused COVID relief money from the series of bills passed between 2020-2022. Another way the GOP carved out savings was to roll back the $71 billion boost in IRS funding.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), all of this would make a huge difference in the country’s bleak financial picture, slashing the deficit by a whopping $4.8 trillion in a 10-year span.

Fueled by coffee and power naps, Republicans worked past 4 a.m. Wednesday to hammer out the deal. That all-nighter paid off. The bill eked through by a 217-215 margin that afternoon, putting Republicans in an unusual place — the driver’s seat.

In a triumphant press conference after the vote, McCarthy threw down the gauntlet. “We have lifted the debt ceiling, so nobody could worry about whether the debt ceiling is going to get lifted. We did it. The Democrats have not. [If] the president wants to make sure the debt ceiling is going to be lifted, sign this bill.”

Although Rules Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) made it clear that it’s “not the end of the road,” he insisted that “it’s a great personal and political victory for the speaker who got it done. He got a lot of people to vote for a debt ceiling increase who’ve never done that before.”

House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was equally complimentary, telling Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch” that the vote was “quite honestly, another historic moment in modern times here in Congress.” “For most people, this is just another day in the saga of Washington. But … as far as I know in modern times, this has never happened before.” And one of the reasons it was possible, he said, is because conservatives put specific conditions on the speaker in January — things like single-subject bills. More debate. Free-flowing amendments. In other words, Congress is back to operating how the Founders intended, not as a graveyard of ideas where decisions were predetermined by a powerful few.

Even if you go back to the 2011 days of Cut, Cap, and Balance, Republicans never insisted on “real cuts in that first year.” But this isn’t your 2011 GOP. And while the prevailing wisdom in Washington may be that the House has to cave to Joe Biden and Senate Democrats without demanding concessions like meaningful spending reform, Perry insists, “We’re not going to cave.”

“We have a narrow majority,” he conceded, but “we have worked for months — right up until about 4:00 in the morning last night to get this to where we can pass it. And, it is the beginning of the conversation, but what it does is … it shows [Biden] that we can pass something and he has no choice except to negotiate.”

For Republicans, who only control one part of the legislature, this is a “landmark occasion,” Perry says. “We’re supposed to be in a completely defensive posture. [But] we are on offense. And I will also take some pride in this: 90% of this bill has been written by the House Freedom Caucus — and we are driving and pulling our entire conferences … to the Right, to the side of principles that [say] we cannot keep spending and bankrupting our country.”

In a movement that’s watched Republicans snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Wednesday’s developments were groundbreaking. “I’ve watched this process for 20 years,” Perkins said. “I’ve even watched the Republicans when they were in the majority and they had the numbers. … But the reality is, even when Republicans had a large margin to work with, they never ever drove a stake in the ground and stood on principle. That is a sea change here in Washington, D.C.”

And McCarthy’s week-long speaker drama is a big reason why. Even then, FRC believed Republicans — and the speaker in particular — would emerge stronger from that emotional debate. It was there that the California leader proved he was willing to listen, to compromise, and to pursue the tough changes voters demanded. Now, Perkins insisted, we’ve had time to see that McCarthy was sincere. “We’ve seen a succession of decisions that the speaker has made. He’s stuck to his word. … And Republicans have [also] kept their word and done exactly what they said they were going to do when they elected this speaker.” So Democrats need to realize, he warned, “you guys aren’t going to cave.”

Already, that message seems to be sinking in. Far-left senators like Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) are calling on Biden to negotiate — and negotiate now. Moderate Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) agreed, pointing out, McCarthy’s bill is the “only bill actually moving through Congress that would prevent default.”

As NRO’s Noah Rothman explains, “The White House and Senate Democrats have so far operated on the assumption that Republicans were too disunited to be worth negotiating with.” Now, the script has flipped. “And with the Republican position strengthening and Democrats’ eroding, it seems like it’s only a matter of time before the White House consents to good-faith negotiations with their Republican counterparts. The sooner, the better.”

In the meantime, Perry has a message for those “weak-kneed senators over there that always work with the Democrats: … You need to stick with your Republican colleagues [and] do the work of the American people. … There’s a fighting spirit in this House of Representatives,” he insisted, “but … we do expect our senators to stand up and stand for us.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Bloated Voter Rolls Make It Easy to Cheat in Elections thumbnail

Bloated Voter Rolls Make It Easy to Cheat in Elections

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By The Daily Skirmish – Liberato.US

Here’s how election fraud is committed.  First, you bloat the voter rolls, like keeping dead people on them.  Next, you create a bunch of loose ballots floating around out there, like through universal mail-in balloting.  Then, bad actors get ahold of loose ballots and vote them in the name of people who won’t vote because, for example, they’re dead or moved out of state.  The last step is to match up illicitly cast ballots with registered voters in the election computer system to make it all look kosher, and you’re done.

Now do you understand why the Democrats ferociously resist cleaning the voter rolls at every turn, which is just common sense?  Bloated voter rolls make it easy for the Democrats to cheat.

But people who care about election integrity are starting to get a handle on things:

A lawsuit by a watchdog group forced Colorado to start cleaning up its voter rolls as required by the National Voter Registration Act.  The state settled a lawsuit by agreeing to report its progress in removing ineligible voters to the group for six years.  The number of ineligible voters removed per reporting period has already gone up.  The watchdog group has achieved similar results in other states.

Virginia elections officials discovered 19,000 dead people were left on the rolls, supposedly because of a computer coding error.  This will be corrected when the state’s new voter registration system is finished.  Meanwhile, local elections officials are being given the authority to remove dead people from the rolls on the basis of an obituary or family notification, instead of requiring an official death certificate.

Wisconsin Senate Republicans have introduced a bill to start examining 3.8 million voter registrations in the state that are believed to be voters who are deceased, inactive, noncitizens, felons, or declared incompetent.  The Governor is likely to veto the bill, but an override is a decent possibility.

A bill in the Texas Senate would suspend voters if they haven’t cast a ballot in more than two years. They’d be sent a notice and, if they fail to respond, they would be removed from the rolls after another two years.  The U.S. Supreme Court approved a similar Ohio law in 2018.

Iowa follows a similar process, but with a twist.  It moved half a million voters to inactive status after they didn’t vote in the election last fall.  They’ll still get to vote through 2026, but the state no longer waits for voters to miss two consecutive general elections before starting the process of potentially removing them from the rolls.

Count on citizen and legal groups to keep banging away on cleaning up the voter rolls until the problem is cut down to size.  Maine lost in court after it tried to restrict researchers from obtaining and using voter roll data to look for ineligible voters by comparing it to data from other states.  Maine’s law originally restricted access to voter data to certain entities like political parties, but was amended to frustrate the lawsuit with, among other things, the state line restriction.  The new restrictions were cooked up by Democrat lawmakers, staffers, lobbyists, and ERIC, a left-wing voter data nonprofit.  But the court blew them all away, ruling the new restrictions thwarted Congress’ intent to achieve transparency under the National Voter Registration Act.

A group in Michigan has figured out how to give access to Michigan voter data to approved citizen researchers working at home on their own computers.  Researchers can now see whether someone voted in past elections, uncover an impossible number of voters registered at the same address, and determine whether registrations belong to actual living persons at addresses of record.

Cleaning the voter rolls will be a never-ending process.  For example, hundreds of noncitizens are on the voter rolls in Maricopa County Arizona.  Some of them vote even though they are ineligible.  The problem stems from the federal Motor Voter law, which requires states to allow people to register to vote at their local motor vehicle bureau when getting a driver’s license.  Not an easy problem to solve, but the status quo is unacceptable, and people who care about election integrity will eventually get around to working on it.

©2023 Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Sen. Tim Scott Introduces Legislation Redirecting $15 Billion From IRS To Border Security thumbnail

Sen. Tim Scott Introduces Legislation Redirecting $15 Billion From IRS To Border Security

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By The Daily Caller

Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott introduced legislation Wednesday that would redirect $15 billion that was meant to help pay for 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees and spend it on security measures along the southern border instead.

The Daily Caller first obtained the legislation, which is titled the Securing Our Border Act. The bill would specifically fund border inspections to better equip law enforcement to track down drugs and other illegal items or substances before they enter the United States. The bill would also fund border wall construction and other technologies to help with tracking and enforcement efforts along the southwest border.

Additionally, the legislation would give retention bonuses to Border Patrol agents and end the “catch and release” policy.

Republicans have expressed particular concern about the more than $80 billion in new funding for the IRS. Although Democrats claim the increased funding will boost revenue and enable Congress to pay down the federal debt, GOP officials argue that middle-class and poor Americans will face more audits. The funding allows the agency to hire up to 87,000 new employees.

“We have a crisis on our southern border. Rather than putting resources in place to address this major national security and humanitarian catastrophe, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats chose instead to spend $45 billion of taxpayer money to hire an army of IRS agents to audit the middle class,” Scott told the Caller before introducing the bill.

READ THE LEGISLATION HERE: 

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

“While President Biden continues to drop the ball, I’m introducing legislation to fund border infrastructure and give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need to help stop the unaddressed flows of illicit goods and persons into this country. Americans need more border agents keeping them safe – not thousands more IRS agents looking over their shoulder,” Scott added.

The bill has five original cosponsors —Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Steve Daines of Montana, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, and James Lankford of Oklahoma — and has been endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council, a group representing 18,000 Border Patrol agents.

AUTHOR

HENRY RODGERS

Chief national correspondent. Follow Henry Rodgers On Twitter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Whistleblower: U.S. Govt. is ‘Middleman’ in Massive Migrant Child Trafficking Operation thumbnail

Whistleblower: U.S. Govt. is ‘Middleman’ in Massive Migrant Child Trafficking Operation

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By The Geller Report

Today, a whistleblower is set to testify before Congress with bombshell claims that the federal government has essentially become a “middleman” in a child trafficking ring along the southern border, an operation that is allegedly worth billions.

We’re in hell.

By: Paul Aubert, Trending Politics, April 25, 2023

On Wednesday, a whistleblower is set to testify in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee that the United States government has been operating as the “middleman” to a multi-billion dollar migrant child trafficking operation, Fox News reported.

The alleged child trafficking is believed to be taking place via the unsecured Southern border of the US. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement will be evaluating the number of unaccompanied children crossing the southern border on Wednesday’s hearing.

Three witnesses are testifying at the hearing, which is titled “The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children.”

One of those testifying is Tara Lee Rodas, a former employee, and whistleblower at the Department of Health and Human Services. A copy of Rodas’ testimony, obtained by Fox News, will detail the US government’s alleged role in child trafficking at the border.

“Today, children will work overnight shifts at slaughterhouses, factories, restaurants to pay their debts to smugglers and traffickers. Today, children will be sold for sex,” Rodas is planning on testifying. “Today, children will call a hotline to report they are being abused, neglected, and trafficked. For nearly a decade, unaccompanied children have been suffering in the shadows.”

Rodas will, citing her work experience with the HHS’ resettlement office, argue the US government is operating a “large scale, multi-billion-dollar, child trafficking operation run by bad actors seeking to profit off the lives of children.”

“I thought I was going to help place children in loving homes. Instead, I discovered that children are being trafficked through a sophisticated network that begins with being recruited in their home country, smuggled to the U.S. border, and ends when ORR delivers a child to a sponsor – some sponsors are criminals and traffickers and members of Transnational Criminal Organizations. Some sponsors view children as commodities and assets to be used for earning income – this is why we are witnessing an explosion of labor trafficking,” Rodas will explain.

“Whether intentional or not, it can be argued that the U.S. Government has become the middleman in a large scale, multi-billion-dollar, child trafficking operation run by bad actors seeking to profit off the lives of children.”

The former HHS employee intends to call for a congressional investigation into the federal agencies overseeing the transportation of migrants into the US. “We can no longer turn a blind eye and pretend this isn’t happening. Congress has the power to stop this, which is why I am calling on you to do what is right.”

Recent reports have shown the Biden administration has been unable to contact nearly 100,000 child immigrants. “The Biden administration has been rocked by a number of reports that officials have been unable to make contact with over 85,000 child migrants, and more recently that administration officials ignored signs of “explosive” growth in child labor,” Fox News reported……

Keep reading.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Disney Sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis thumbnail

Disney Sues Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

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By The Daily Caller

Disney filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, accusing him of launching a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” against the company.

Disney and DeSantis have been engaged in a years-long struggle since the governor removed the company’s special governing status. Disney responded Wednesday by filing a lawsuit against the Sunshine State’s governor, according to Axios.

In the lawsuit, the company alleges that DeSantis’ “campaign” unfairly punishes Disney and has put their business at risk, according to CNBC.

Jeremy T. Redfern, deputy press secretary, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, that the office was “unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state.”

“This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law,” Redfern said.

The company accused DeSantis of patently retaliatory, patently anti-business, and patently unconstitutional” behavior in dealing with Disney over the past two years. The lawsuit was filed on the same day DeSantis’ new governing board took over control of Disney’s Orlando parks after the company previously tried to thwart the board with a special agreement that would have protected the company’s development rights.

This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

AUTHOR

KATE ANDERSON

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: Chris Christie Takes Shots At DeSantis, Claims He Isn’t A ‘Conservative’

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Bullies Carve Large Swastika into Autistic Jewish Child’s Back and the Nevada School Did Nothing thumbnail

Bullies Carve Large Swastika into Autistic Jewish Child’s Back and the Nevada School Did Nothing

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By The Geller Report

With the rise of left-wing Nazism, Jew-killing is ignored and Jewish children are fair game.

Large swastika cut into autistic Jewish boy’s back in Nevada school

The boy’s mother filed a complaint after the school did nothing; the FBI is currently investigating it as a hate crime.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News, April 20, 2023:

The FBI is currently investigating as a hate crime an incident where a large swastika was cut into an autistic boy’s back in a Nevada public school, Ynet reported Tuesday.

The mother of the 17-year-old, who does not speak and attends the Clark High School in Las Vegas with both a service dog and a shadow, said that her son came home on March 9 with the marking. She also found that the dog’s equipment bag had been torn and resewn.

“My son is the only student I know of who wears a kippah at the school,” said the mother, making him visibly Jewish. Her immediate email to the school regarding the incident generated no investigation, with both the administration and her son’s assistant saying that “nothing happened at school,” said the mother to Orthodox Jewish news site COLlive.

The family filed a police complaint four days later, and then pulled the boy out of the school, she told the news site, “because it’s an unsafe environment.”

In an emailed correspondence with the Jewish Press, she added, “As far as I know, the one-on-one is still working at CCSD (Clark County School District). Her job is to be with my son. If she did not do [the etched mark], I believe she knows who did.”

As the school does not have cameras installed in its classrooms or hallways as many public schools do today, there is no video documentation of the hate crime and the FBI will have to rely on other means to find out who was involved.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

AG Garland Identified as Official Misleading Congress in Hunter Biden Tax Probe thumbnail

AG Garland Identified as Official Misleading Congress in Hunter Biden Tax Probe

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By Discover The Networks

Attorney General Merrick Garland is the previously unidentified official who, according to an IRS whistleblower, misled Congress about the Justice Department’s probe into Hunter Biden, a report alleged Friday.

Garland refused to name a special counsel in Hunter’s tax investigation to provide a degree of separation between President Joe Biden and his Justice Department.

Garland has repeatedly testified before Congress that U.S. Attorney David Weiss has the “full authority” to make a criminal referral against Hunter without the permission of the Justice Department. Garland noted he would personally have to “authorize” any charges.

“There will not be interference of any political or improper kind” in the investigation of Hunter led by Weiss, Garland insisted in April 2022.

But the IRS whistleblower believes Garland’s claims have misled Congress. The IRS agent’s attorney explained that his client can “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” — whom the New York Post identified as Garland.

As early as 2019, Hunter was under investigation by Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, for potential tax and gun violations. Yet no charges have been levied.

“There’s enough to indict Hunter Biden now, there was enough to indict Hunter Biden three or four years ago with what’s on the laptop,” House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) exclaimed on Lou Dobbs’ podcast. “So for whatever reason, this U.S. attorney hasn’t produced very many results.”

The tax probe into Hunter could implicate President Joe Biden. A witness who testified before the jury was reportedly asked to identify the “big guy.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Breitbart News he believes Garland and Biden are culpable for the alleged abuses.

“Under President Biden and Attorney General Garland, America is not equally applying justice and the rule of law. They are both equally culpable and responsible for abuse alleged by the IRS whistleblower,” he said.

Merrick Garland

8 Known Connections

Garland Says “Domestic Terrorism” by “White Supremacists” Are Among America’s Leading Problems

On June 15, 2021, Garland announced the unveiling of the Biden administration’s new “First National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” an initiative designed to combat what Garland viewed as one of America’s most serious problems: “domestic terrorism” carried out mostly by conservative adherents to a doctrine of “white supremacism.” In his remarks from that day, he: (a) cast the Trump supporters who had breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as uniquely evil; (b) warned of the allegedly enormous threat posed by violent white supremacists; (c) likened such people to genocidal Islamic terrorists; and (d) gave anecdotal examples of past terrorist incidents that had been perpetrated exclusively by whites…

To learn more about Merrick Garland, click here.

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Most Americans Now Suspect Federal Agents Provoked Jan 6th, Says Poll Data thumbnail

Most Americans Now Suspect Federal Agents Provoked Jan 6th, Says Poll Data

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By The Geller Report

The whole thing was a set-up to cover for the real coup – the November 2020 election.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” — first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln.

Most Americans Now Suspect Federal Agents Provoked Jan 6th, Says Poll Data

Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, of likely U.S. voters, think the events at the Capitol were provoked following the release of the videotapes by Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight in March. This represents an increase of 4 points since March 2nd, when Rasmussen last polled on the issue.

Just 12 percent of all surveyed thought that it is “not at all likely” that undercover agents helped provoke the Capitol riot – less than one-eighth of the American voter base.

Perhaps surprisingly, on the same question, Rasmussen discovered a majority of Democrat voters, 59 percent, believe it was either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that “undercover government agents helped provoke” the incident.

Among Republican voters the number is even higher, with 60 percent thinking it is “very likely” and another 14 percent “somewhat likely” – a total of 3 in 4 voters.

Despite the lack of mainstream media coverage of the videos exposed by Tucker Carlson, only eight percent of those surveyed have “not at all” followed the news whereas a majority of 68 percent have followed the news either “very closely” or “somewhat closely.”

A major impact of the tapes, not covered by the mainstream media, was the early release of Jacob Chansley, the “Q Anon Shaman,” who was sentenced to 41 months in prison at the end of March.

The National Pulse was the first news outlet in the world to being debunking the narrative around January 6th, just a few days after the incident occurred. The Pulse also revealed the lies of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortes surrounding the events of the day, as well as popularizing the term “regime” to use in lieu of “administration” after the event.

The National Pulse’s reporting on the death of officer Brian Sicknick also forced corrections out of the corporate media, as well as correcting the record on the fact that President Trump called for National Guard forces to be deployed ahead of the day, whereas Speaker Pelosi and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser objected. The ensuing militarization of Washington, D.C. cost taxpayers over half a billion dollars.

The January 6th narrative has only become more bizarre since, with suspected FBI informant Ray Epps giving one of the strangest testimonies to the January 6th Committee that one could have expected in his situation.

Read more here.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Incitement Of Violence’: Ocasio-Cortez Calls For Regulating Conservative News thumbnail

‘Incitement Of Violence’: Ocasio-Cortez Calls For Regulating Conservative News

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By The Daily Caller

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for regulating Fox News and other news organizations in a Sunday interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki.

Psaki asked Ocasio-Cortez for her thoughts on Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million minutes before a defamation trial was set to begin.

“We have very real issues with what is permissible on air and we saw that with January 6th and we saw that in the lead up to January 6th. And how we navigate questions not just of freedom of speech but also accountability for incitement of violence. These are, this is the line that we have to really explore through law as well,” Ocasio-Cortez replied.

“Do you think media organizations or social media platforms should be accountable for the role, for being platforms for incitement?,” Psaki interjected. Ocasio-Cortez responded by singling out Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson.

“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t. And when you look at what Tucker Carlson and what some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence, very clearly incitement of violence,” she said.

Psaki is the former White House Press Secretary for the Biden administration. She interviewed Ocasio-Cortez on her MSNBC Show, “Inside with Jen Psaki,” that debuted in March.

AUTHOR

JAMES LYNCH

Reporter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

RNC Chair Tells Republicans: ‘We Can Win on Abortion’ thumbnail

RNC Chair Tells Republicans: ‘We Can Win on Abortion’

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By Family Research Council

After a deflating 2022 midterm election, the surest path to lose the White House would come from Republicans refusing to speak on the issue of abortion, the party’s chair told aspiring candidates.

“We’ve seen what happens when we let Democrats define who we are and what we stand for,” said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel during a speech Thursday at the Reagan Library. In 2022, “a lot of Republican candidates took their D.C. consultants’ bad advice to ignore the subject. Then what happened? Democrats spent $360 million running ads filled with lies about abortion, and most Republicans had no response.”

“Let’s talk about abortion, which has become a huge issue coming after the Dobbs decision,” McDaniel exhorted GOP candidates. “When you don’t respond, the lies become the truth.”

The discussion should include a national minimum standard of protections for the unborn, which most voters favor — especially contrasted with the Democratic Party platform, she said. “Polling shows that when the choice is between a Democrat who wants zero abortion restrictions and a Republican who supports protecting life, at 15 weeks, we win by 22 points,” McDaniel noted. A 15-week national pro-life standard wins over “72% of voters, including 60% of Democrats [who] support protecting unborn children.”

“We are the pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family party, and we can win on abortion. But that means putting Democrats on the defense and forcing them to own their own extreme positions,” she concluded.

Her comments came during a moment of uneasiness within GOP ranks, as aspirants and advocates contemplate the best strategy to advance the pro-life cause in a post-Dobbs environment. A statement from former President Donald Trump roiled the movement, as some interpreted it to advocate inaction at the federal level. “President Donald J. Trump believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told The Washington Post late last week. The Post last week also reported on tales from unnamed sources that Trump personally believes abortion should be a matter of “states rights” and advocated not discussing the issue — comments that drew instantaneous backlash.

“Life is a matter of human rights, not states’ rights,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the SBA Pro-life America, adding that a states-only position would result in “abortion up until the moment of birth” in states such as California, New York, and Oregon. “We will oppose any presidential candidate who refuses to embrace at a minimum a 15-week national standard to stop painful late-term abortions while allowing states to enact further protections,” she added. Other pro-life leaders amplified her position. “If you don’t understand killing children is a federal issue, you shouldn’t be running for federal office,” said Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America. “Imagine supporting a candidate who said that slavery was a ‘states rights’ issue,” tweeted Lila Rose of Live Action.

Trump did not address the criticism directly — but he appeared to take McDaniel’s words to heart, bashing Democratic extremism on abortion “As the most pro-life president in American history, I will continue to stand strong against the extreme late-term abortionists in the Democrat Party, who believe in abortion-on-demand in the ninth month of pregnancy, and even executing babies after birth,” said the 45th president in pre-recorded comments to the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition on Saturday. “They actually talk, beyond birth — after birth — executing the baby.”

He likely had in mind comments from then-Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D), who said in 2019 in the event of a live birth during a botched abortion, the abortionist would hold “a discussion” about whether the newborn would receive lifesaving care. In January, the House of Representatives passed the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to establish national standards of care — with the support of only one Democrat.

“This is where we’ve come, and it’s so sad to see,” said Trump. “I will stand proudly and defend innocent life, just as I did for four, very powerful, strong years. Because every child, born and unborn, is a sacred gift from God.”

Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, said the former president provided a strong foundation during his four years in office. “President Trump gave us the justices who gave us Dobbs. He was the first presidential candidate to actually describe what an abortion is — a child being ripped out of her mother’s womb even just before birth — and he was the first president to attend the March for Life,” Szoch told The Washington Stand. “His administration did more for the unborn than any other.”

That sets a high bar for any Republican, including himself. “In a second term, he — or anyone else who calls himself a Republican — must be held accountable to do the same, which means committing to signing any democratically passed pro-life legislation and committing to upholding and reinstating federal protections for the unborn,” Szoch told TWS. “The pro-life movement must continue to work until nobody has the power to take away the fundamental right to life with a vote, scalpel, or pill.”

Trump’s proposals for future pro-life accomplishments seemed less precise. He promised to “again [appoint] rock-solid constitutional conservatives to be federal bench judges and justices, in the mold of Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who spoke at the Iowa event in person and plans to decide whether to mount a presidential campaign “well before late June,” endorsed national pro-life protections after the first trimester over the weekend. “I think the American people would welcome a minimum national standard in Washington, D.C. — 15 weeks,” he told CBS “Face the Nation” Sunday. Another likely presidential contender, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), has vowed, “If I were president of the United States, I would literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation that they can get through Congress.”

His colleague, senior South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R), believes his legislation, the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act, deserves top consideration. “America does not need, and the unborn cannot afford, to have two major parties who support no restrictions on abortion up to the moment of birth. The unborn need a voice in Washington,” Graham said. “It is up to us to provide it.”

Beltway pundits and consultants widely blamed the lack of the 2022 “red wave” on Graham’s bill, which Democrats portrayed as a “national abortion ban.” Yet Republican Governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Kim Reynolds of Iowa all signed heartbeat bills protecting children from abortion beginning at six weeks after fertilization before winning lopsided victories in 2022. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also signed a heartbeat bill after his 20-point reelection.

Being willing to have accurate, disciplined, unapologetic messaging and refusing to run from discussions about abortion will prove indispensable to retaking the White House and U.S. Senate in 2024, McDaniel said.

“Just as Reagan was the great communicator, we have to be great communicators. Republican candidates right now are trying to do that. They are out there working hard to get the nomination of our party. And in four short months, the RNC will host its first primary debate in Milwaukee.”

The second debate would take place at the Reagan Library, she announced. Life, family, parental rights, and children’s safety will all likely be topics of debate.

“I firmly believe that our next president will be on that stage,” as long as he handles the abortion issue properly, predicted McDaniel.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: The ‘Father of the Abortion Pill’ reveals it was always about death

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

NYC Mayor Adams Rebukes Biden for Border Crisis, Citing $4.2 Billion in Costs thumbnail

NYC Mayor Adams Rebukes Biden for Border Crisis, Citing $4.2 Billion in Costs

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By Federation for American Immigration Reform

New York City Mayor Eric Adams last week issued a sharp rebuke to President Biden for his immigration policies that have left the City inundated with illegal aliens.  “The president and the White House have failed New York City on this issue,” Mayor Adams said during a press conference at City Hall.

Mayor Adams’ press conference came the day before he was scheduled to meet with federal officials to discuss the surge of migrants into New York City. Already infamously crowded and expensive, the City has been lurching from crisis to crisis as its services are overwhelmed by newly arriving illegal aliens. According to the New York Times, more than 55,000 migrants have arrived in New York City since the spring of 2022. Close to 35,000 are being housed by the city and are receiving services.

To deal with the influx, New York has opened more than 100 emergency shelters, and eight Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers. In March, Mayor Adams announced a new 24-hour center to welcome migrants, as well as the creation of a new agency to help coordinate the arrival of migrants.  Last week, the city announced the opening of another emergency shelter, this one at a 492-room Holiday Inn in the Financial District.

Finally, at Tuesday’s press conference, Mayor Adams put a price tag on the cost of caring for the surge of illegal aliens: “$1.4 billion this fiscal year, 2.8 the next. Those are the numbers.”  “This is one of the largest humanitarian crises that this city has ever experienced. It will impact every service in the city,” Mr. Adams said. “Why isn’t every elected official in Washington, D.C., asking the national government, ‘Why are you doing this to New York?’”

Looking ahead, Mayor Adams noted that the end of Title 42 would drive more illegal aliens into his city.  He also cautioned that the price tag to care for illegal aliens could also grow.

Mayor Adams is one of the few Democratic leaders willing to acknowledge the out-of-control costs of illegal immigration and rightly blame the Biden administration. This comes out of necessity; the mayor can’t simply explain away the $4.2 billion dollars that illegal immigration will cost the city over two years.

Unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who elected him, Adams sees more destructive policies as the only proper solution for the migrant crisis that “sanctuary” laws and lax border controls created. For example, Adams has asked  President Biden to simply hand out work permits to illegal migrants in his city. This non-solution, in addition to being a gross misuse of our immigration laws, would only make the problem worse. Allowing tens of thousands of illegal aliens into New York City’s job market just pushes out Adams’ struggling American constituents while making the city even more attractive for costly illegal migration.

What’s happening to New York City is proof that “sanctuary” policies are not only illegal but extremely self-destructive because they attract illegal aliens. Loosening federal immigration laws, as Adams calls for, will not end the costly flood of illegal immigrants that has left immigration courts with waits of up to a decade. The changes Adams proposes would only attract more migrants and further overwhelm expensive, inflation-wracked “sanctuary” cities across the country.

Solving this crisis will require ending the free-for-all at the border and being tougher, not weaker, in enforcing existing immigration laws. The Biden administration has simply stood by as hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens cross our borders every month, and actively aided hundreds of thousands more in flying directly into the U.S. It shouldn’t surprise Mayor Adams that many of these migrants will come to the city he insists is a “sanctuary” despite the huge costs to the city’s services. Ending the uncontrolled influx is the only solution to New York’s, and America’s, woes.

Ultimately, Adams is correct in saying that the Biden administration needs to clean up its mess. If Adams wanted to be truly courageous, he would admit that advertising New York City as a “sanctuary city” was a mistake, work with ICE to remove criminal aliens from the country, and call on the Biden administration to secure our borders.

AUTHOR

Michael Capuano

Michael Capuano joined FAIR in 2022. As a researcher and staff writer, he contributes to the work behind FAIR’s long-form research publications as well as topical content responding to immigration-related issues as they happen. Before joining FAIR, Michael worked in the Enforcement and Removal Operations Law Division at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during law school at George Washington University and then as an immigration attorney at a Spanish-speaking law firm. Having grown up in Southern California and with experience on both sides of the issue, he is acutely conscious of the importance of the immigration issue to everyday life and the necessity of FAIR’s vision for reform. Michael’s background before law school was in Urban Studies/Planning at the University of California, San Diego, informing a deep concern for the environment and good urban design, two issues very relevant to the current immigration crisis.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden’s domestic policy chief steps down

© COPYRIGHT 2023 FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

In Eid message, Biden boasts of ‘inter-agency task force with senior government officials to tackle Islamophobia’ thumbnail

In Eid message, Biden boasts of ‘inter-agency task force with senior government officials to tackle Islamophobia’

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By Jihad Watch

This will mean more crackdowns on the freedom of speech. This is because the term “Islamophobia” is an illegitimate conflation of two distinct phenomena: vigilante attacks against innocent Muslims, which are never justified, and honest analysis of the motivating ideology of jihad terror, which is always necessary. The objective of this conflation is to silence that analysis by falsely claiming that it leads to or causes those attacks.

Biden pledges to fight Islamophobia in Eid message

by Anwar Iqbal, Dawn, April 22, 2023:

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden assured Muslims in his Eid message on Friday that his administration was committed to addressing Islamophobia as an ideology of hate.

“As we celebrate our blessings this Eid, let us also recommit ourselves to the timeless work of building peace and standing up for the rights and dignity of all people,” he said in a message released by the White House.

“My administration is also committed to addressing all forms of hate, including Islamophobia. This is why I established an inter-agency task force with senior government officials to tackle this and related challenges and encourage every American to build a more inclusive nation,” he added.

This year, the United Nations observed the first International Day to Combat Islamophobia on March 15. Since Pakistan had initiated the proposal, it was invited to chair the first observation at UN headquarters in New York.

March 15 was chosen as it is the anniversary of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, in which 51 people were killed.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, focused on remembering those who were away from their homes on Eid due to violence and persecution. “As we celebrate, let us not forget those who are unable to do so in the safety and comfort of their homes due to conflict, violence, persecution, or humanitarian crises,” he said in his Eid message.

He assured those separated from their loved ones on Eid that the United States would continue to work to reunite broken families. “The United States remains unwavering in its commitment to promoting peace, justice, and religious freedom for all. We wish you a blessed and joyful Eidul Fitr. Eid Mubarak,” he said.

President Biden said he was “moved by the generosity” shown during Ramazan and Eid when Muslims provide food and give charity to those in need. “We are proud to celebrate Eidul Fitr at the White House again this year to honour inspiring Muslim Americans who are making contributions across our country,” the US president said…

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Biden Regime Obstructing Afghan Investigation On All Fronts thumbnail

Biden Regime Obstructing Afghan Investigation On All Fronts

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By Jihad Watch

These are serious grounds for impeachment.

Nearly a year after I wrote this, House hearings made it clear that the Biden administration is still illegally obstructing the Afghanistan watchdog.

In June, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s office (SIGAR), dispatched letters to Secretary of State Blinken and Samantha Power complaining that the State Department and USAID were stonewalling its investigation of waste, corruption and terror cash.

“Two SIGAR audits are also being hindered by a lack of cooperation from State and USAID. The first evaluates your agencies’ compliance with the laws and regulations prohibiting transfers of funds to members of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network,” the letter to Power complained.

Instead of turning over the information, Blinken and Power’s people have lawyered up.

“A State official has informed SIGAR that department staff have received internal direction to not engage with or speak to SIGAR without prior clearance from State legal counsel,” the open letter that was also sent to members of Congress revealed.

Illegally refusing to cooperate with an inspector general and then using State Department lawyers to impede any investigation in a matter involving possible terrorist financing is shocking.

Fast forward to late April 2023 and SIGAR is still being illegally obstructed by the Biden regime.

Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko told the House Oversight Committee. “Unfortunately, as I sit here today, I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer we are not currently funding the Taliban.”

“I don’t trust the Taliban as far as you can throw them. And the information we’re getting … is that the Taliban are already diverting funds,” Sopko told lawmakers. “I haven’t seen a starving Taliban fighter on TV. They all seem to be fat, dumb and happy. I see a lot of starving Afghan children on TV, so I’m wondering where all this funding is going.”

Sopko said the problems with oversight are exacerbated by the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) “failure to fully cooperate” with SIGAR audits and other inquiries.

“The lack of cooperation by State … and to a lesser extent USAID, is unprecedented in the nearly 12 years that I have been the SIGAR,” said Sopko, who was appointed to his role in 2012 under the Obama administration.

He said the agency’s refusal to fully cooperate has led to a significant portion of the watchdog’s work, including five reports for the Oversight Committee, being “hindered and delayed.”

In addition to obstructing the Afghanistan watchdog, the Biden administration has decided to also obstruct Congress.

The State Department on Wednesday violated a congressional Republican subpoena to hand over a sensitive diplomatic cable about the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

The subpoena was issued late last month by chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and is part of Republican efforts to investigate the Biden administration over the chaotic and deadly pullout from Afghanistan at the end of August 2021.

State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement to The Hill that, “​​Discussions with the committee about next steps are ongoing,” and said Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered to brief the chairman and the committee next week on the contents of the dissent cable without providing the actual document.

Discussions are ongoing.

Trump was impeached the first time for a whole lot less than this. We’ve had a lot of talk about impeaching Biden. But these are actually serious grounds for impeachment. The entire Afghanistan mess isn’t behind us, it’s still ongoing and so is the cover-up. Terrorism financing is serious business and should be taken seriously.

AUTHOR

DANIEL GREENFIELD

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EDITOR NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Anti-2A Kamala: ‘Weapons of War Have No Place on the Streets’ thumbnail

Anti-2A Kamala: ‘Weapons of War Have No Place on the Streets’

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By Discover The Networks

Thursday on FOX’s Jennifer Hudson Show, epically incompetent Vice President Kamala Harris declared that an “assault weapon” ban is reasonable.

Kamala said, “When I look at the tragedies all over our country that have affected so many people so personally, and the senseless nature of it all. Here is the thing: first of all, we should not have to be presented with this false choice which suggests you are in favor of the 2nd Amendment or you want reasonable gun safety laws. That is a false choice. The point is to say it is reasonable to say we would have background checks. Because it is reasonable, you might want to know if someone has been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or others before they buy a gun.”

Fact checks: we already have reasonable gun laws. We already have background checks.

She continued, “It is just reasonable. It is reasonable to say weapons of war have no place on the streets of America. I mean assault weapons, weapons of war. They were designed to be weapons of war. We need an assault weapons ban. These are reasonable things to do. Also, as we look at our children, so many of us were blessed to grow up at a time where we did not have the experience what the children of America are having to experience right now. Which is as they are learning to read and write, they are being taught how you hide and be quiet if there is a rampant gunman, a mass shooting happening in your classroom.”

“Weapons of war” and “assault weapons” are propagandist words that Democrats can’t — or won’t — define when asked, because they 1) don’t know anything about guns, and 2) they want to be able to ban all guns.

Kamala concluded, “I think it is pitiful that the people in the United States Congress do not have the courage to stand up to the gun lobby and the NRA and say I support the Second Amendment, but we need reasonable gun safety laws.”

Fact checks: again, we already have reasonable gun laws. And Kamala Harris does not support the Second Amendment. She and her fellow Democrats would scrap the Second Amendment in a heartbeat if they could. But they can’t, so they have to keep chipping away at it by punishing law-abiding gun owners instead of targeting gangs and career criminals.

RELATED ARTICLE: Michelle O: ‘Unfettered Access to Firearms is Not a Good Thing’

EDITORS NOTE: This Discover the Networks column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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