Election Update, Defending Life, Defending Religious Liberty

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Election Update

 

Attorneys for President Trump held a press conference today in Washington, D.C., outlining what they described as "massive fraud" and a "well-funded coordinated effort to deprive" the people of our right to elect our leaders.

 

Rudy Giuliani alleged that there was systemic fraud concentrated in big cities controlled by the left. He also outlined a number of potential constitutional violations regarding mail-in ballots that were not inspected and ballots that may have been illegally "cured."

 

Giuliani said his team has more than 200 affidavits alleging all kinds of fraudulent activity. He suggested that there was a sufficient number of "null and void" ballots that the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could be overturned.

 

Giuliani also indicated that the Trump campaign would be filing "a major lawsuit in Georgia" and quite possibly in Arizona as well.

 

Sidney Powell charged that the Dominion and Smartmatic voting systems employed algorithms that reassigned weighted values to the candidates' vote. For example, Powell suggested that one Biden vote might be counted as 1.25 votes, while one Trump vote might be counted as three-quarters of a vote.

 

Powell called for an immediate "full-scale criminal investigation" into these companies.

 

Jenna Ellis noted that state and local officials, often using the coronavirus as an excuse, "changed the rules at the last minute," which is a huge legal problem by itself. This is why Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz recently predicted that President Trump could prevail in a lawsuit against Pennsylvania.

 

Sensing the frustration of the reporters in the room and expecting hostile coverage of their presentation, Ellis reminded them that today's press conference was "just an opening statement," and it was "not a Law & Order episode where everything is wrapped up in 60 minutes."

 

She stressed that their efforts are meant to preserve and protect the integrity of our elections, and that a thorough investigation will take time.

 

 

 

Defending Life

 

When Donald Trump announced his campaign for president, many in the pro-life community were skeptical about his commitment to the sanctity of life. It didn't take long for Trump to dispel those concerns. 

 

There's an old saying in Washington, "Personnel is policy." And Donald Trump's first major appointment was to select pro-life stalwart Mike Pence as his running mate. Together, the Trump/Pence team has been the most pro-life administration in history.

 

Here's a brief look at the Trump record:

 

·     President Trump reinstated Ronald Reagan's Mexico City policy barring taxpayer funding of overseas abortions. 

·     He cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood. 

·     He appointed three pro-life justices to the Supreme Court and appointed more than 200 constitutionalist judges to lower federal courts. 

·     He routinely used the bully pulpit to promote pro-life policies and repeatedly urged Congress to ban late-term abortions.

·     And in January, President Trump became the first sitting president to address the annual March for Life in person.

 

We don't yet know how the election will be resolved, but if things continue on their current course, we could well be facing four years of tremendous push back and pro-abortion advocacy. Ironically, it's coming from some who claim to be committed Christians. 

 

Joe Biden frequently touts his Catholic faith and could be the first Catholic president in 60 years. While abortion wasn't much of an issue for John F. Kennedy, he condemned Japan's attempt to control its population through abortion as "repugnant to all Americans."

 

In stark contrast to JFK, Joe Biden went to China and defended the communist regime's forced abortion policy, saying it was "understandable" and he wasn't "second-guessing" it.

 

Not surprisingly, Biden supports federally subsidized abortions and was endorsed by Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business.

 

Alarmed by Biden's embrace of abortion on demand, America's Catholic bishops announced this week that they are forming a task force to address the expected challenges a Biden Administration may present to the "fundamental values" Catholics hold dear.

 

The bishops are also concerned about Biden's promise to reinstate Obamacare's contraceptive mandate, other threats to religious liberty and the independence of Catholic schools.

 

Catholics aren't the only ones grappling with the issue. Some evangelicals embraced Joe Biden and even attempted to make a "pro-life case" for his election. 

 

 

 

Defending Religious Liberty

 

As the legal wrangling over the election continues, key administration officials are continuing to advance our shared values. 

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the Middle East this week helping to solidify the Abraham Accords, the recent peace deals between Israel and moderate Arab states.

 

During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, Secretary Pompeo announced that the Trump Administration was labeling the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel as "anti-Semitic," and that the Trump Administration would cut off funding to groups that support the BDS movement.

 

In addition, Ambassador Sam Brownback addressed the first annual International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance this week. This 31-nation alliance was created thanks to the Trump Administration's commitment to promoting religious freedom around the world.

 

In his remarks, Ambassador Brownback denounced the communist Chinese government for its "war on faith," which includes brutally repressive measures against Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, members of the Falun Gong and Christian house churches.

 

As a Trump appointee to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), I had the honor of participating in the historic ministerial events at the State Department to advance religious liberty. It was from these efforts that the Religious Freedom Alliance emerged.

 

I speak frequently with Ambassador Brownback, and my USCIRF portfolio includes China.  Ambassador Brownback and I agree that communist China is the greatest security threat to the United States and to religious liberty around the world as Beijing is exporting its persecution to other nations.

 

 

 

Trump Was Right

 

For months, President Trump has argued that even as the nation battles the coronavirus, we must reopen our schools. Children are not at high risk and they are not "super spreaders" of the disease. 

 

That's what the science tells us. That's what the experience of every other nation around the world tells us. And the president was right – our schools should reopen.

 

You don't have to take my word for it. There's a column in today's New York Times headlined, "When Trump Was Right And Many Democrats Were Wrong." It's written by Nicholas Kristof who argues that "children have suffered because too many mayors and governors were too willing to close public schools." He's right.

 

The evidence is clear: Remote learning is failing far too many children, and educators are warning of "a lifetime of consequences."

 

Economic research firms have estimated that the pandemic school closures may result in as many as one million additional high school dropouts. Kristof writes, "Dropouts live shorter lives, so while the virus kills, so do school closures."