Thursday, July 19, 2018
By Gary Bauer
By Gary Bauer
The Left's New Leader
Pop quiz: Name the leader of the political left today.
If you said Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, you'd be wrong.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi? Nope.
No, the leader in the sense of setting the "tone" of the political left is a 28 year-old socialist from the Bronx, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
As we have noted, she burst onto the political scene just a few weeks ago after defeating a member of Nancy Pelosi's leadership team by running on a platform of free health care, free college, opposition to Israel, calls for widespread civil disobedience, and demands that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) be abolished.
Just to be clear, abolishing ICE means letting violent criminals roam our streets. According to the Pew Research Center, "Immigrants with past criminal convictions accounted for 74% of all arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in fiscal 2017."
We're talking about more than 100,000 illegal immigrants with DUIs, drug charges, sexual assaults and even homicides.
After her victory, many prominent progressive politicians jumped on the "abolish ICE" bandwagon. And Ocasio-Cortez's influence was on full display yesterday in the House of Representatives.
House conservatives called for a vote on a resolution expressing support for "the officers and personnel who carry out" ICE's important mission. All Republicans but one (Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan) voted to express their support for the brave men and women of ICE who put their lives on the line to protect us.
Incredibly, only 18 Democrats voted for the resolution.
Following the lead of socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 34 progressives voted against it, while 133 voted "present."
The American people are not on board with the left's lawless, radical agenda. A recent Politico poll found that only 25% of voters support abolishing ICE.
By the way, a new Gallup poll finds that immigration is the top concern among voters. Gee, I wonder why?!
About That Meddling. . .
I was on Capitol Hill this week, and I had a fascinating conversation with Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas.
As you may know, he aggressively confronted renegade FBI operative Peter Strzok, who was once chief of the FBI's Counterespionage Section. There were several significant revelations from that hearing, which the media largely ignored.
Rep. Gohmert filled me in on some of the details of his exchange with Strzok, and this is something that really can't be ignored.
Strzok told the committee that he was concerned about foreign influence in the 2016 election. Rep. Gohmert asked how serious his concern really was because key officials in the intelligence community had briefed Strzok about an "anomaly" they found on Hillary Clinton's email server, and he did nothing.
They discovered during a forensic analysis that essentially everything Hillary sent on her server had been redirected to a hostile foreign power that was not Russia. Strzok told Gohmert that he could not recall this briefing.
Really? He could not recall being told that 30,000 emails from the secretary of state had been contemporaneously redirected to an enemy?
It seems that the Obama Administration was compromised by a foreign enemy because of the stupidity of the secretary of state and the malfeasance of the FBI's counterespionage division, which was distracted by its efforts to take down the Republican presidential nominee.
In what world is this not a HUGE story?
If we had a truly non-partisan, unbiased free press, this would be banner headlines. But the entire media complex is instead talking about the Trump/Putin press conference.
Wray Said What?
There has been a lot of talk about Russia lately. Democrats are accusing President Trump of treason.
Even some Republicans, like Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain, are accusing the president of being weak when it comes to confronting Vladimir Putin. But what really gets them mad is when he imposes tariffs against China.
Well, guess what FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday? He told NBC News that China's spying and meddling was "the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country." Wow!
Where are all the China hawks now?
Prayers For Pastor Brunson
As one of President Trump's appointees to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the plight of Pastor Andrew Brunson is a top priority for me, for the Commission and for the Trump/Pence Administration.
Pastor Brunson has been unjustly imprisoned since 2016 by the Islamist government of Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is holding Brunson as a hostage. He is demanding we hand over Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of the Edogan regime who lives in Pennsylvania.
One of my fellow commissioners, Kristina Arriaga, traveled to Turkey this week to be in the courtroom for Pastor Brunson's latest hearing. Sadly, it was a kangaroo court that once again denied his release and ordered him to be detained for another three months.
Reacting to this outrage, President Trump tweeted:
"A total disgrace that Turkey will not release a respected U.S. Pastor, Andrew Brunson, from prison. He has been held hostage far too long. Erdogan should do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!"
To all our pastors and prayer partners, please urge your churches to pray for Pastor Brunson's safety, and for his family.
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