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Posts tagged ‘Biden administration’

Scoop: HHS is reviewing all doctors’ orders for monoclonal antibodies. Rep. Chip Roy wants to know why.

Reported by CHRIS PANDOLFO | September 13, 2021

A Republican lawmaker is demanding to know why the Biden administration appears to be limiting the ability of doctors to order early treatment medications for COVID-19 patients. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Monday sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra inquiring about a recent change in HHS policy that limits orders and shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments to HHS-approved administration sites.

“As you know, antibody treatments such as bamlanivimab, bamlanivimab/etesevimab, and casirivimab/imdevimab were approved under Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) and have been shown to be effective in treating COVID-19 patients,” Roy wrote to Becerra.
“Providers across the country, including providers in Texas, have utilized these treatments, aiding in effective treatment of COVID-19 patients. Unfortunately, numerous doctors and healthcare professionals who serve COVID-19 patients are reportedly being denied or limited orders for these treatments by HHS,” he wrote.

Monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy is a treatment for COVID-19 that studies have shown is effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for patients with mild to moderate illness who receive early treatment. The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for mAb therapies to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and children older than 12, and the treatment has been promoted across the ideological spectrum by figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

On Sept. 3, HHS announced that because of a “substantial surge” in the demand for and use of mAb treatments, the federal government would make changes to “help promote optimal and equitable use of the available supply of monoclonal antibodies.”

HHS acted to temporarily limit immediate orders and shipment of mAb treatments “only to administration sites with HHS Protect accounts and current utilization reporting.” The agency also announced that it would review “all orders” by doctors for “alignment with utilization.”

Roy wrote that these changes appear “appeared to have an immediate effect on the ability to expeditiously care for and treat COVID-19 patients.”

Roy’s letter asks the department to clarify whether there is a current or expected shortage of monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S. noting that HHS said the change was “temporary,” Roy also asked, “When does HHS plan to revert to normal procedures for ordering these antibody treatments?”

In a statement to TheBlaze, Roy slammed the Biden administration for “impeding on providers’ ability to best serve their patients.”

“The last thing HHS should be doing is impeding on providers’ ability to best serve their patients, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Roy. “This recent HHS order will further prevent doctors from being able to treat their patients and prevent their patients from receiving the care they need when they need it. The federal government should not be in the business of dictating healthcare; the American people deserve answers on why and under which authority HHS made this decision.”

Read the letter:

Roy Letter to Becerra – Antibody Treatment 9.13.21.pdf

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Health, Political

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Michael Austin Op-ed: Taliban Thrilled: Psaki Confirms Biden Will Not Speak on 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Commentary By Michael Austin September 9, 2021

There’s little doubt President Joe Biden has been planning his 9/11 anniversary speech for some time now. After all, the main cause of the entire Afghanistan withdrawal disaster was Biden’s insistence on an artificial deadline — Aug. 31 — so that, when the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rolled around, he could presumably boast all about how he did what no other post-9/11 president before him could. He could say he ended the war in Afghanistan.

Things didn’t work out quite as Biden hoped — the overly hasty nature of the withdrawal resulted in a terrorist takeover of the country, a result that many intelligence officials predicted and warned the president would happen, despite his assurances to the American people.

And now, as his approval rating plummets, the president will not address the nation live on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

“[White House press secretary] Jen Psaki confirms Joe Biden will not deliver a live speech on 20th anniversary of 9/11,” Breitbart News’ White House correspondent Charlie Spiering revealed on Twitter on Thursday.

Spiering then quoted Psaki as saying “You will hear from [Biden] in the form of a video in advance — or if that will be available that day, I should say.”

Reuters reported the president, instead of addressing the nation live on Saturday, plans to visit the three memorial sites of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, ignoring the family members of 9/11 victims who have asked Biden not to show his face.

In a prerecorded video, should he choose to film one, there’s still a good chance Biden will use the opportunity to brag about his “success” in Afghanistan.

He may do so, despite leaving hundreds of Americans stranded in the terrorist-controlled country, despite handing over billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban and despite the fact that his actions indirectly led to the deaths of 13 service members in Afghanistan.

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Americans will be mourning the devastating loss of those brave men and women, some of whom weren’t even old enough to buy alcohol.

And also on 9/11, thanks directly to Biden’s actions, the Taliban will be celebrating. In fact, the terrorist group reportedly plans to have an inauguration ceremony for its new government on that very day.

“Speaking about the symbolism of the War on Terror, the Taliban are planning to have their interim government inauguration ceremony on Saturday, September 11th, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” former U.S. State Department adviser and Afghan native Arash Yaqin revealed on Tuesday.

If Biden does release a video on Saturday in honor of the 9/11 anniversary, it is likely he will ignore all the facts, as he usually does. He’s too cowardly to face up to the consequences of his actions. Otherwise, he’d be addressing the nation live.

Michael Austin

Michael Austin joined The Western Journal as a staff reporter in 2020. Since then, he has authored hundreds of stories, including several original reports. He also co-hosts the outlet’s video podcast, “WJ Live.”

@mikeswriting

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Jacob Gurney Op-ed: Biden Head Scratcher: By 2020, We Will Make Sure All Our Electricity Is Zero Emissions

Commentary by By Jacob Gurney September 7, 2021

President Joe Biden added yet another blunder to his ever-growing list on Tuesday. The president was giving a speech about his administration’s response to Hurricane Ida on Tuesday when he made the questionable remarks. As expected, Biden made numerous other head-scratching statements throughout the briefing. Also as expected, and per the Democrats’ playbook, he had to infuse apocalyptic, climate-change fearmongering into the mix. His biggest problem was that some of his remarks did not quite line up with reality.

“We are determined, we are determined that we are going to deal with climate change and, and have zero emissions, net emissions by 2050. By 2020, make sure all our electricity is zero emissions. We’re going to be able to do these things but we’ve got to move. We’ve got to move. And we’ve got to move the rest of the world. It is not just the United States of America,” Biden said in the speech.

President Biden says we need to "by 2020, make sure all our electricity is zero emissions."

It is 2021 pic.twitter.com/Agwqs4S3Vh
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 7, 2021

2020? OK.

This might not seem like a big deal. People often confuse what year it is for a period of time after the new year. That is not uncommon. Additionally, some people may be forgiving of the president’s remarks considering his age and all that has happened recently. These are all valid points.

However, it is now September, well into 2021. Not only that, but the president did not correct his mistake at all, or even seem to notice it, though he corrected some of his other slip-ups. It does not seem to register with him what he said or that what he said was incorrect.

Even Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared to note Biden’s flub.

It was just one more thing that Americans can wonder about concerning the president’s mental faculties. While the president did not correct himself during the speech, the official transcript of the speech released by the White House corrected these remarks to show the president meant to say “2050” where he stated 2020. Convenient — but it at least clarified what he supposedly meant.

As the video showed, Biden struggled with his following remarks as well, though he at least (unsuccessfully) tried to fix what he said in this instance.

“And so, folks, this summer alone, communities with over 100 million Americans, a hundred American, Americans call home, have been struck by extreme weather,” Biden said.

It appeared that the president attempted to reference the number of Americans effected negatively by weather events.

It is not unlike Biden to get his facts or words mixed up. He is known as a human gaffe machine. But the fact it did not even seem to register with him how wrong 2020 was, is really astounding. Nevertheless, with questions about the president’s mental state appearing sometimes even in the establishment media now, having him not blink an eye as he says we will reach a goal by last year is simply not a good look for Biden.

Americans are only going to keep questioning the president’s cognitive awareness and capabilities as a result.

Jacob Gurney

Jacob Gurney was a Western Journal contributor who started his writing career at his local daily newspaper. He has also written for various online media websites covering politics, sports and video games.

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Biden Tells Israeli Government He’s Reversing Trump’s Jerusalem Move Despite Its Strong Objections

Reported by By Andrew Jose September 8, 2021

President Joe Biden, right, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office at the White House on Aug. 27, 2021. (Sarahbeth Maney – Pool / Getty Images)

President Joe Biden is expected to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, in a reversal of a decision by former President Donald Trump. When the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy in 2019 from Tel Aviv to Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem, the consulate was merged with the new embassy — a move that led to worsening ties with the Palestinian Authority, NPR reported at the time.

However, according to a Wednesday report by Axios, the Biden administration has its eyes set on overturning the decision made by the Trump administration, despite Israeli objections.

“President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett during their White House meeting that he will not abandon his plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, setting up a major point of contention between the administrations,” Axios reported.

Citing unnamed Israeli and U.S. officials, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported that during Bennett’s bilateral meeting with Biden, the issue of the consulate in Jerusalem was raised multiple times by the U.S. president. Biden reportedly stressed that he had made a campaign pledge regarding the issue. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also already said the U.S. would go ahead with the decision. According to Axios, the Biden administration previously agreed to carry out the reopening after Nov. 4, which is the deadline for Bennett to get his budget passed in the Knesset, the unicameral Israeli equivalent of Congress.

Biden’s plans were criticized by several Israeli officials.

“We think it’s a bad idea,” Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, told journalists on Sept. 1, according to The Guardian.
“Jerusalem is the sovereign capital of Israel and Israel alone, and therefore we don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“We know that the [Biden] administration has a different way of looking at this, but since it is happening in Israel, we are sure they are listening to us very carefully,” Lapid said.
“Jerusalem is the capital of one country only: Israel. I don’t want to go into details, but this is my clear position,” Bennett told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Friday through a Zoom video conference.

Bennett, however, also mentioned that he desired a “no drama” relationship with the Biden administration, according to Axios. The outlet reported that many Israeli leaders, such as Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Justice Gideon Sa’ar, believe that reopening the consulate would be tantamount to Biden infringing on Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital. The Palestinians seek the eastern half of the city to be the capital of their desired Palestinian state.

“We have an interesting and yet delicate structure of our government and we think this might destabilize this government and I don’t think the American administration wants this to happen,” Lapid told reporters at the Sept. 1 news conference, The Guardian reported.
“If the Biden administration wants to see Netanyahu abandoning his Pilates classes and going back to the prime minister’s office, this is the best way to do it,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.

Andrew Jose, Contributor

Andrew Jose is a journalist covering business and finance, foreign policy and the aviation industry, among other beats.

@realAndrewJose

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Ann Coulter Op-ed” 9/11

Commentary by Ann Coulter | Posted: Sep 08, 2021

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com., and WhatDidYouSay.org.

9/11

Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

In honor of the 20-year marker of the 9/11 attacks, I thought I’d run excerpts from a few of my post-9/11 columns.

One point I politely refrained from making 20 years ago: Why was the president of the United States reading “The Pet Goat” to a class of second-graders at the moment our nation was attacked?

I think the “Attack France” column (Dec. 20, 2001) holds up well, mostly because I’d rather be bringing in hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen right now than hundreds of thousands of Afghans. (Who knew the golden ticket to U.S. citizenship was being the country that hosted Osama bin Laden?)

But that column didn’t make the cut. In 2007, the magnificent Gallic made Nicolas Sarkozy the new president of France, and now we’re friends again.

Finally, for the sub-literate: After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, leader of the occupation, put out a call to American Christians: “Send missionaries and Bibles!” Thousands of missionaries poured in. The same thing happened after the Korean War, with greater success than in Japan.

On this point, there was surprising unanimity. Even President Truman agreed with his nemesis MacArthur, who said: “[Democracy] will endure when it rests firmly on the Christian conception of the individual and society.”

Today, not even a Republican would say that. Good luck, America!

— “This Is War,” Sept. 12, 2001

[T]he nation has been invaded by a fanatical, murderous cult. And we welcome them. We are so good and so pure we would never engage in discriminatory racial or “religious” profiling. People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty.

“All of our lives” don’t need to change, as they keep prattling on TV. Every single time there is a terrorist attack — or a plane crashes because of pilot error — Americans allow their rights to be contracted for no purpose whatsoever.

The airport kabuki theater of magnetometers, asinine questions about whether passengers “packed their own bags” … somehow allowed over a dozen armed hijackers to board four American planes almost simultaneously on Bloody Tuesday. Did those fabulous security procedures stop a single hijacker anyplace in America that day?

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac.

We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.

— “Future Widows of America: Write Your Congressman,” Sept. 27, 2001

After the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamic fundamentalists in 1993, the country quickly chalked it up to a zany one-time attack and five minutes later decided we were all safe again. We weren’t. We aren’t now …

Congress has authority to pass a law tomorrow requiring aliens from suspect countries to leave. As far as the Constitution is concerned, aliens, which is to say non-citizens, are here at this country’s pleasure …

[T]he very nature of the enemy is that they have infiltrated this country and pass themselves off as law-abiding, peaceful immigrants. Their modus operandi is to smuggle mass murderers to our shores. But the country refuses to respond rationally. Rather, Congress is busily contemplating a series of “anti-terrorism” measures most notable for their utter irrelevance to the threat. …

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has proposed that we take the aggressive step of asking aliens in the country to register periodically with the government so we know where they are. That’s already the law in Germany. Several of the hijackers in this attack lived in Hamburg, and they obediently complied.

The mastermind of the most vicious terrorist attack in the history of the world, Mohamed Atta, was in Florida on a “vocational status” visa — in order to attend flight school. Let’s say Atta had registered. Now what, Joe?

— “Build Them Back,” June 7, 2002

The reason liberals prefer a park to luminous skyscrapers [on the site of the World Trade Center] is that they are not angry. Liberals express sympathy for the victims, but they’re not angry. Instead of longing to crush and humiliate the enemy, they believe true patriotism consists of redoubled efforts to expand the welfare state.https://a7dc841daceec5d9069484a50746f032.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-3&p=https%3A//townhall.com

Sen. Hillary Clinton proposed a school for the World Trade Center site and Sen. Charles Schumer, a park. Yeah, that’ll show ’em!

Meanwhile, the construction workers clearing away the rubble vowed they would work without pay to rebuild the World Trade Center. Of course, now that we have 14 cows, that shouldn’t be necessary. (In a genuinely touching story, a tiny cow-herding village in Kenya only recently got word of the attack on America and, this week, made a special present of 14 cows to the United States.)

The attack on the World Trade Center ripped America’s soul not only for the thousands of lives it snuffed out. Even if the towers had been empty, the destruction of those buildings would have been heart-wrenching. Skyscrapers are the hallmark of civilization, monuments to human brilliance and creativity. …

Mohamed Atta loathed skyscrapers. Newsweek reported that he viewed the emergence of tall buildings in Egypt as an odious surrender to Western values. The most fitting memorial to the victims of the World Trade Center attack is to build the most breathtaking skyscraper in the world on top of Mohamed Atta’s corpse.https://a7dc841daceec5d9069484a50746f032.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-4&p=https%3A//townhall.com

— “This Whistleblower They Like,” June 13, 2002

In their enthusiasm to bash the Bush administration for its handling of the war — which Democrats consider an annoying distraction from the real business of government, which is redistributing income — the left has embraced FBI agent Coleen Rowley as a modern Joan of Arc …

[T]he gravamen of Rowley’s 13-page memo is essentially that FBI headquarters botched the Zacarias Moussaoui case (the 20th hijacker) by refusing to racially profile Muslims. …

[Specifically] she condemned FBI brass for refusing to authorize a search warrant for Moussaoui based on the following information: 1) he refused to consent to a search of his computer; 2) he was in flight school; 3) he had overstayed his visa; and 4) he was a Muslim.

Let’s see, which of these factors constitutes probable cause?

— Refusal to consent to a search? It is your right to refuse. Any other rule would allow cops to bootstrap their way into a warrant. “Hi, Zacarias, may we search your computer? No? That’s suspicious! Grounds for a warrant!” I don’t think so.

— In flight school? NO.

— Overstayed visa? NO.

— Is a Muslim? NOT ALLOWED. …

I happen to agree with her, but liberals don’t. So how did Rowley become the left’s new Norma Rae? … FBI headquarters rebuffed Rowley’s callous insensitivity to Muslims and denied a warrant request to search Moussaoui’s computer — and thus failed to uncover the Sept. 11 plot.

The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more could liberals ask for?

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How Private Citizens Stepped Up To Get Americans Out Of Kabul When The US Government Failed

Reported by VARUN HUKERI | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER | September 02, 2021

Hamid Karzai International Airport in KabulEvacuated — **(Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)**

The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks has left Americans stranded in the capital city of Kabul, and in response, a disparate group of private citizens has stepped up to get people out of the country. President Joe Biden stuck to his plan to withdraw the remaining U.S. military forces from Afghanistan even as thousands of American citizens, legal permanent residents and Afghan Special Immigration Visa applicants remained at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Biden defended the evacuation in an address Tuesday by claiming 90% of Americans who wanted to leave the country were evacuated successfully. His remarks came one day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that between 100 and 200 Americans had been left behind after the U.S. military completed its withdrawal.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline approached, a number of private citizens with former military or intelligence experience began to organize evacuations to get both Americans and Afghans out of the country. Among them is former Force Recon Marine Chad Robichaux, who was deployed to Afghanistan eight times and has rescued more than 5,300 people from the country. He told the Daily Caller News Foundation about his efforts to rescue orphaned children and other vulnerable people in an Aug. 28 interview.

“We worked a relationship with a foreign government and their military to allow us to work with them and build a plan to clandestinely go in and get certain groups of people, move them onto the airport in Kabul and then utilize charter planes and some of the military aircraft [to get them out],” he said.

A volunteer group of U.S. Special Operations veterans also launched a mission last week to move people in small groups to the Kabul airport and evacuate them from the country. The mission, called the “Pineapple Express,” has reportedly rescued more than 500 people including vulnerable Afghans, according to ABC News.

In many of the private operations conducted by veterans and others, rescuers have used digital communications and other technology to act as emergency dispatchers, call in favors with guards, share intelligence about the Taliban and move families to the right runway to get on a flight, according to The Washington Post.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 21: In this handout provided by the U.S. Air Force, an air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

An air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan (Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

A number of operations have used encrypted messaging apps like Slack and Signal to share sensitive information and send photos to the people being evacuated from Afghanistan. These efforts to communicate across thousands of miles are now being called “Digital Dunkirk” in reference to the evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from the beaches of northern France during World War II.

Members of Congress have also scrambled in recent weeks to provide information to constituents trapped in Afghanistan and aid in evacuation efforts. Several lawmakers told the Daily Caller or other outlets that the State Department had refused to guarantee protection for Americans and Afghans at the airport in Kabul.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was among the first members to encourage Americans trapped in Afghanistan to call his office, setting up an email address to help disseminate information. One Afghan American couple, who had been unable to get to the Kabul airport, made it past Taliban and U.S. security checkpoints with the help of Cotton, who gave them a military contact at the airport.

The Biden administration has taken fire from all sides amid the fallout of a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. As expected, Republicans have ripped the administration for leaving Americans behind, but corporate media outlets and even officials who served under former President Barack Obama have gone off on the administration.

Republicans lambasted the administration President Joe Biden is taking fire from all sides amid the fallout, as the Taliban moves to consolidate its power in Afghanistan and thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies remain trapped in the country.

“The fact that ‘Digital Dunkirk’ exists, it’s a wonderful tribute to the people doing it, obviously the people on the ground in Kabul are awesome, and I’m not talking about them, but the fact that it exists is a — there’s a failure here of the government,” Tapper said.
“My contention is that there is probably no way for the Afghan security forces and the government to collapse overnight and there not to have been a corresponding chaos on the ground and the scenes that you are seeing,” Murphy responded.
“But the idea that this is being done as efficiently as could be done just flies in the face of everything I’m sure you’re hearing behind the scenes, certainly everything I’m hearing,” Tapper shot back.

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International Politics, Military, Political

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Wasn’t Trump Impeached Over a Call? Biden Coerced Afghan Pres to Lie About Taliban Winning in Leaked Call: Report

By Taylor Penley | September 1, 2021

Remember when House Democrats accused former President Donald Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden while leveraging military aid as collateral during a phone call with Ukraine’s president in 2019? I do. The accusation prompted Trump’s first impeachment on the grounds of “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress” that December, according to the U.S. Sun.

Now, two years later, it’s President Joe Biden who’s responsible for talks with world leaders, talks like the one House Democrats used to attack Trump. And, to afford Biden similar scrutiny to what Trump received, one particular aspect of Biden’s last call with now-former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani seems especially interesting.

Biden’s final call with Ghani came on July 23 — three weeks before Kabul fell to Taliban forces and Islamic extremism toppled 20 years of democratic progress in the country. The two discussed “military aid, political strategy and messaging” for approximately 14 minutes, Reuters reported on Tuesday after reviewing what it said was a transcript and audio of the exchange provided by an anonymous source. One particular aspect of the leaked transcript appears especially damning for Biden, as the New York Post pointed out.

The Post noted the transcript shows Biden “pressured” Ghani to “‘create the perception’ that the Taliban weren’t winning, ‘whether it is true or not.’”
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said during the call, according to Reuters.
“And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

Biden’s pressuring went a step further, however, according to Reuters.

If Ghani could successfully fool the public into thinking the Afghan government had plans to control what Reuters called the “spiraling situation” of the Taliban’s resurgence, Biden would offer aid.

“We will continue to provide close air support, if we know what the plan is,” Biden said, according to Reuters.

The outlet added that, just days before the call, the U.S. supported Afghan security forces with air strikes against the Taliban. The Taliban maintained that these air strikes violated the Doha peace agreement signed under the Trump administration.

To provide some context, the Taliban had already advanced into approximately half of Afghanistan’s district centers at the time of the phone call, the Post noted. Just three weeks later, the nation’s capital would be directly threatened by Taliban forces. Ghani fled just before the city fell. But before that would happen, Biden advised Ghani during their exchange to employ prominent Afghan political and military figures — including former Afghan President Hamid Karzai — to further generate the sense of security, the Post added.

“That will change perception, and that will change an awful lot, I think,” Biden said, according to Reuters.

At another point in the conversation, Biden said a change in the Afghan government’s strategy would do more than help “on the ground,” Reuters reported. It would generate support for the Ghani regime internationally.

“I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change,” he said, according to Reuters.

It was never OK to give Afghans or our allies a false sense of security in light of the danger steadily progressing across the country.

Afghan civilians and U.S. allies alike (particularly those in Europe) have since succumbed to a grim reality in one way or another — either being forced to flee their homes, scramble to return to their home countries (if residing there on behalf of another nation) or stay behind in the Taliban’s wake.

And it makes our president look like a liar.

Now, as September begins, the aftermath of the U.S.’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan seems clearer every day.

Our allies are furious with us, Gold Star families mourn the loss of our 13 heroes killed in action during an ISIS suicide bombing outside of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and several Americans and U.S. allies have since been left behind in the region.

We can only expect things to get worse from here.

Amid the bombshell leaked transcript of Biden and Ghani’s exchange that’s likely to make headway in the news, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Biden’s coercion and deception will stick to his image or roll off his shoulders as if he’s covered in Teflon.

Considering the establishment media’s — and our elected officials’ — histories of handling Biden with kid gloves, the likely answer is already clear.

Taylor Penley, Contributor

Taylor Penley is a political commentator residing in Northwest Georgia. She holds a BA in English with minors in rhetoric/writing and global studies from Dalton State College. As a student, she worked in government relations and interned for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She previously published an article with Future Female Leaders and published her rhetorical analysis of President Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech in a collegiate journal. She seeks to study journalism or communication in graduate school.

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International Politics, Political

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China: Police arrest 10 kids, 18 adults in raid on worship gathering

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Thursday, August 26, 2021

early rain covenant church — Early Rain Covenant Church in China | Facebook/Early Rain Covenant Church

Police in China raided a small group of Christian worshipers from a heavily-persecuted house church in southwestern China’s Sichuan province and arrested almost everyone, including an infant less than 1 year old, nine children and 18 adults. Officers from Chenghua District Mengzhuiwang office forcibly entered the home of a church member, He Shan, where the small group of Early Rain Covenant Church was meeting for worship on Sunday, CBN News said.

“The police claimed to have received a call reporting an illegal gathering there,” the church wrote on its Facebook page, persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported, identifying the gathering as the “Treading Water” small group and the preacher as Dai Zhichao. (SEE: “Chinese authorities paying citizens to spy on neighbors, report ‘illegal’ Christian activities” https://wordpress.com/post/whatdidyousay.org/57336)

Preacher Dai asked the officers to show proper documents but the police ignored him and forcibly entered brother He’s home. In the process, the preacher was injured on his arm, as were other men who tried to help. Dai’s phone was also confiscated, ICC said. A church member told ICC that many people were beaten by the police after being held in detention. “When the children were rowdy, the police officers threatened to hit them on their heads,” ICC said.

Police later released most of them, but Preacher Dai and brother He were put under administrative detention for 14 days. Brother He also received a fine of 1,000 RMB ($154).

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be “illegal” and unregistered underground house churches.

Over two years ago, authorities shuttered the 5,000-member church ERCC, broke down the doors of church members’ and leaders’ homes, and arrested more than 100 people. Police continue to harass and track church members, according to a recent report from the U.S.-based group China Aid.

ERCC, led by Pastor Wang Yi, has not been able to gather in person since it was shut down in 2018 when its pastor and other leaders were arrested. Wang was later sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of subversion of power and illegal business operations.

Gina Goh, ICC’s regional manager for Southeast Asia, commented: “The latest raid against ERCC, though nothing novel, shows a worrying trend that house churches are frequently subjected to harassment like this in the name of ‘law enforcement,’ where legally flawed Revised Regulations on Religious Affairs have been employed by Beijing to crack down on house churches around the country.”
Goh added that the Chinese Communist Party’s constant fear of unregistered churches “is both pathetic and preposterous, as it underscores President Xi [Jinping]’s insecurity toward any critical mass. There is absolutely no regard for religious freedom.”
Goh previously said, “Beijing seeks to intimidate the leaders in hopes that the churches will dissolve due to fear. Their plot will not succeed, thanks to the resiliency of the Chinese house church. They survived the Cultural Revolution, and they will survive Xi’s era as well.”

Under the direction of President Xi, officials from the CCP have been enforcing strict controls on religion, according to a report released in March by China Aid. Authorities in China are also cracking down on Christianity by removing Bible apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect this year.

China is ranked on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians. The U.S. State Department has also labeled China as a “country of particular concern” for “continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

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Afghan Christians ‘Panicking’ as They’re Turned Away from US Evacuation Flights: Report

Reported By Jack Davis | August 26, 2021

In what conservative commentator Glenn Beck slammed succinctly in an Instagram message as “Afghanistan betrayal,” Afghan Christians are being turned away from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as time ticks away for them to escape the Taliban, according to new reports.

A report by the Catholic News Agency said that although the Taliban have made no secret of the group’s antipathy to Christianity, Christians were not given priority status by the Biden administration, which bestowed it upon women, journalists, academics and other populations the administration considered important. And that means Christians will be left behind when the frenzied flight to find safety ends before the Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan.

“I was told by contacts from various groups working to rescue those still in danger in Afghanistan — who must remain anonymous — that the State Department, at least at a certain point, was not implementing the lists that they require the organizations to compile — even though they have sent them multiple times,” said Faith McDonnell, director of advocacy at Katartismos Global, an Anglican nonprofit group, according to CNA.
“It seems at present as if no one is getting any priority unless they have some sort of special connection inside the airport.”

Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia said Tuesday that Christians are in danger, according to Townhall.

“The environment, obviously, under Sharia law, creates an extremely dangerous situation for anyone who is of any other faith, probably, the top of which, is Christians. And of course, not only us but many offices have been in contact with many Christians who are being literally hunted by the Taliban right now. Every effort possible is underway to try to evacuate those individuals and I’m sure those efforts will continue with unceasing resolve until we get those people to safety,” Hice said. “[T]heir lives are our biggest concern.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said priority for fleeing Afghanistan should go to “Afghan religious minorities, in recognition of the severe risks they already face, which will only heighten after the end of the U.S. evacuation,” according to a statement by USCIRF Commissioner Frederick A. Davie.

According to CNA, McDonnell said that in the rush to pack planes, lists prepared in advance amount to just so much confetti.

“Several organizations have reported that even though these organizations‘ aircraft have passenger manifests, the airport personnel are loading different people [from] those on the manifest onto all the aircraft that are departing,” she said.
“Others have reported that at times, one government agency is rejecting people that another government agency has approved and tried to bring into the airport,” she said.

Amid the chaos and cross purposes, Beck’s nonprofit group, The Nazarene Fund, is working independently of the Biden administration to rescue Afghan civilians. Beck, who posted a moving message about the crisis on Instagram Wednesday, has said that based on the more than $25 million received, he hopes to get 7,000 people out of Afghanistan by Friday

The Biden administration is NOT telling you the truth about what's going on in Afghanistan. TONIGHT on GlennTV, I join you from the Middle East as the Nazarene Fund's rescue mission continues. pic.twitter.com/YZi8bFPcqI
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 26, 2021

“I’ve started receiving panicked emails from Afghan Christians through their Western contacts. They are not being allowed to board USG [U.S. government] flights in Kabul. I’m advising them to try to board Glenn Beck’s flights instead,” Shea said, according to CNA.
“Kabul is falling apart and our people are panicking. The next 72 hours are going to be very dark,” Jason Jones, a podcaster who runs a nonprofit humanitarian organization called The Vulnerable People Project, wrote in an email to CNA.
“Kabul has descended into chaos and confusion and our citizens and friends are collapsing into despair. People are being contacted by the State Department and told to go to the airport only to be sent away,” he wrote.

Jack Davis, Contributor

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Watch: Harris’ Face During Biden’s Afghanistan Presser Tells Us Everything We Need to Know About State of USA

By Isa Cox August 20, 2021 at 4:40pm

Earlier this week, as President Joe Biden’s administration scrambled to spin its disastrously botched withdrawal from Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces, Vice President Kamala Harris was suspiciously absent from the public eye. Suddenly, the “Harris” part of “Biden-Harris” was nowhere to be found and poor old Joe was forced to face the nation alone.

They apparently managed to briefly get Harris out of hiding on Friday, however, and she appeared loyally by Biden’s side as he addressed the nation for a second time on the crisis in Afghanistan and vowed to evacuate the untold number of Americans who are still stranded in the now-fallen nation. As it turns out, the administration may have done better to just let Harris remain in hiding.

Twitter users were quick to notice that while they may have convinced her to show her face in public with the president to demonstrate unity, it was her face that said it all.

“[L]et me be clear,” Biden said at the White House on Friday, flanked by his clearly uncomfortable vice president. “Any American [who] wants to come home, we will get you home.”
Biden said his administration has been in “constant contact with the Taliban, working to ensure civilians have safe passage to the airport” amid reports the insurgent forces are beating Americans who try to enter the Kabul airport.
“[W]e’ve made clear to the Taliban that any attack — any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with a swift and forceful response,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript.
“We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get — in Kabul — through the airport,” he added. “We’ve made an agreement with the — with the Taliban. Thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through. It’s in their interest for them to go through.’
“So, we know of no circumstance where American citizens are — carrying an American passport — are trying to get through to the airport. But we will do whatever needs to be done to see to it they get to the airport.”

Harris, who was wearing a face mask, probably should have worn sunglasses — because her eyes alone spoke louder than any words could have.

She knows he’s lying… pic.twitter.com/LP4QfF7F3F
— The Cocaína (@MrNukemCocaine) August 20, 2021

Before a clutch of journalists and Biden’s own defense secretary later refuted his lies about the situation at the Kabul airport, Harris’ face betrayed the falsehood outright.

After Biden’s address, Harris promptly departed the country on a pre-planned trip to Asia to visit Singapore and Vietnam (the latter visit couldn’t have been more poorly nor ironically timed considering the parallels between the fall of Kabul on Sunday and the 1975 fall of Saigon).

Amazingly, she’s just about the only person who isn’t calling out Biden’s lies, and by the look on her face on Friday, it appears even that was a struggle for her.

Biden’s claim that the administration knows of “no circumstance ” in which Americans are having a difficult time getting to the airport in Kabul was hotly contested by establishment media reporters.

.@DavidMuir: "The president said he has no intelligence that the Americans have not been able to get [to the Kabul airport]. The question, obviously—does that square with reporting on ground?"@IanPannell: "I mean—just totally not."

Read more: https://t.co/6U5QW2IOjc pic.twitter.com/DTuyOZBmmn
— ABC News (@ABC) August 20, 2021

Meanwhile, Politico reported Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told House lawmakers during a call on Friday that indeed, multiple Americans had been beaten by Taliban fighters as they tried to reach the airport.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1428463602948784138

“We’re also aware that some people including Americans have been harassed; even beaten by the Taliban,” Austin said, according to multiple sources on the call. “This is unacceptable and [we] made it clear to the designated Taliban leader.”

Considering how horribly Biden is bungling this thing as our countrymen are subjected to violent assault at the hands of Islamic extremist fighters who just made him look like a fool, one certainly understands why Harris had such a hard time appearing the least bit confident in our commander-in-chief. It’s her job to have his back, and she seemingly couldn’t even do that. Our country is in the hands of these people.

Does anyone in the administration have faith in Biden right now? Or anyone anywhere for that matter?

Isa Cox, Contributor

Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.@crunchyconmama

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Taliban Frees Thousands of Terrorist Prisoners from Facility US Forces Recently Handed Over to Afghanistan

Reported By Jack Davis August 16, 2021

Terrorists who had been rounded up across Afghanistan are now on the loose.

One prize in the total collapse of the former government and military of Afghanistan was that the Taliban were able to overrun Bagram Air Base on Sunday, where, according to the BBC, occupying forces began to set free inmates there at Pul-e-Charkhi prison.

In early July, when the U.S. handed control of the base to Afghan forces, CNN reported that between 5,000 and 7,000 prisoners were housed there, including “senior al Qaeda and Taliban figures.”

100s of Pakistani Taliban – TTP – fighters including key commanders were freed in various Prison breaks in Afghanistan during recent advances of Taliban especially from Bagram Prison & Pul-e-Charkhi Prison. Fate of Daesh IS-K prisoners probably be decided by Taliban's courts. pic.twitter.com/0OHoet2eVw
— Saleem Mehsud (@SaleemMehsud) August 15, 2021

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley noted Sunday in a call with senators that instead of the original estimate] that terrorist groups could use Afghanistan as a base to rebuild within the next two years, the new timeline could be sooner.

TO READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT, PLEASE GO TO https://www.westernjournal.com/taliban-frees-thousands-terrorist-prisoners-facility-us-forces-recently-handed-afghanistan/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly&ats_es=1703275f97009d3a9c3cbb1a34025de5

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Taliban Tells Joe Biden to Withdraw All US Troops from Afghanistan by September 11 – The 20th Anniversary of the 9-11 Attacks

Reported By Jim Hoft | Published August 17, 2021

This is what victory looks like — You get to call the shots. The Taliban is now telling Joe Biden and Democrats what the new rulers expect in the next four weeks. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen says the US should “withdraw all their forces” by 11 September. The 9-11 Anniversary out to be a special day this year for the Biden regime, globalists, New York liberals, and Taliban leadership.

A senior spokesperson for the Taliban has warned that the US military personnel in Afghanistan must be gone by September 11, after Washington redeployed soldiers to watch over the evacuation. The US must remove all its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, Suhail Shaheen, a member of the Taliban’s political office and negotiation team in Qatar, told Sky News.

Shaheen said the militants remain committed to not attacking US servicemen, and their immediate goal is to maintain security and prevent incidents around Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen says the US should "withdraw all their forces" by 11 September, but adds "we are committed not to attack them"

Read the latest on the situation in Afghanistan here: https://t.co/qPs0VmYVd5 pic.twitter.com/5NX1MrqzXg
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 17, 2021

The group’s spokesperson previously said that foreign diplomats and aid workers will not be harmed.

The US planned to withdraw its troops by August 31, but was forced to dispatch around 5,000 additional soldiers to facilitate the evacuation of American diplomatic personnel and their allies from Kabul, as Afghanistan’s capital and largest city was swiftly seized by the Taliban on Sunday.

The sudden arrival of the militants sparked panic, with locals swarming the airport in the hope of catching a flight from Afghanistan. According to reports, several people died during the ensuing chaos and US troops reportedly fired in the air to prevent desperate Afghans from flooding the runway.

Jim Hoft

Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

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George W. Bush Sends Message to Afghanistan War Veterans, Calls on Biden Admin to Take Action

Reported By Jack Davis August 17, 2021

Former President George W. Bush issued a statement Monday expressing “deep sadness” over the debacle in Afghanistan. Bush was president when America launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to hunt down those responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Last month, in a rare display of comment on the policies of a successor, he said he disagreed with President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all military troops from Afghanistan, according to The Washington Post. Bush said he was “afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm” as a result of the withdrawal.

“I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad. And I’m sad. Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women. And they’re scared,” he said,
“I think about all the interpreters and people that helped — not only U.S. troops, but NATO troops — and they’re just, it seems like they’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people,” Bush said.
“And it breaks my heart.”

On Monday, he said in his statement that he and former first lady Laura Bush “have been watching the tragic events unfolding in Afghanistan with deep sadness. Our hearts are heavy for both the Afghan people who have suffered so much and for the Americans and NATO allies who have sacrificed so much,” he said, according to a statement sent by the Bush Center.

Bush said no ally should be left behind.

“The Afghans now at the greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation. President Biden has promised to evacuate these Afghans, along with American citizens and our allies,” he said.
“The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay. Our most stalwart allies, along with private NGOs, are ready to help,” Bush added.

Amid scenes of panic from Kabul, Bush said that with the American military in charge, there is hope for the best possible outcome.

“Laura and I are confident that the evacuation efforts will be effective because they are being carried out by the remarkable men and women of the United States Armed Forces, diplomatic corps, and intelligence community,” the statement said.

Bush then added a statement to veterans and service members.

“Many of you deal with wounds of war, both visible and invisible. And some of your brothers and sisters in arms made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror. Each day, we have been humbled by your commitment and your courage,” he said.

Bush sought to validate the sacrifice of the more than 2,000 Americans who died and the more than 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan.

“You took out a brutal enemy and denied Al Qaeda a safe haven while building schools, sending supplies, and providing medical care. You kept America safe from further terror attacks, provided two decades of security and opportunity for millions, and made America proud. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and will always honor your contributions,” he said.

Bush, who was president in America’s dark days of adversity, said hope always endures.

“In times like these, it can be hard to remain optimistic. Laura and I will steadfastly remain so. Like our country, Afghanistan is also made up of resilient, vibrant people. Nearly 65 percent of the population is under twenty-five years old. The choices they will make for opportunity, education, and liberty will also determine Afghanistan’s future,” he said.

The former president then quoted Sakena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning, who helped open schools for girls, as saying, “The Taliban cannot crush a dream. We will prevail, even if it takes longer than we wanted it to.”

“Laura and I, along with the team at the Bush Center, stand ready as Americans to lend our support and assistance in this time of need. Let us all resolve to be united in saving lives and praying for the people of Afghanistan,” the statement said in closing.

Jack Davis, Contributor

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Federal judge blocks Biden admin. rule forcing doctors to perform sex-change surgeries

Reported By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter | Tuesday, August 10, 2021

doctors, hospital — Getty Images/Science Photo Library

A federal judge in Texas blocked an Obama-era mandate reinstated by the Biden administration requiring medical facilities and health insurers to cover or provide gender transition procedures and abortions. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas granted a permanent injunction on Monday against the regulation in the case of Franciscan Alliance, Inc. et al. v. Xavier Becerra.

O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, concluded that the mandate issued through the Department of Health and Human Services violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by unjustly harming the plaintiffs’ religious practices.

“No party disputes that the [Transgender Mandate] threatens to burden Christian Plaintiffs’ religious exercise … by placing substantial pressure on Christian Plaintiffs, in the form of fines and civil liability, to perform and provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures and abortions,” wrote the judge.
“When the RFRA violation is clear and the threat of irreparable harm is present, a permanent injunction exempting Christian Plaintiffs from that religion-burdening conduct is the appropriate relief.”

Luke Goodrich, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, a legal nonprofit representing a religious hospital and a group of over 20,000 healthcare professionals, said in a statement that the ruling is a “victory for compassion, conscience, and common sense.”

“No doctor should be forced to perform controversial, medically unsupported procedures that are contrary to their conscience and could be deeply harmful to their patients,”

In 2016, the Obama administration implemented the regulation via Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The controversial regulation required healthcare providers to perform gender transition procedures, including on minors, even if the providers held sincere religious objections. Violators of the rule could have faced penalties for unlawful discrimination based on “termination of pregnancy” and “gender identity.”

To justify the rule, the Obama administration interpreted federal discrimination code that bans sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, although neither of those terms are found in federal civil rights law passed by Congress. The mandate was the subject of much litigation, with various religious entities that provide medical services filing lawsuits against the Obama administration.

Although the Trump administration finalized a new rule repealing the 2016 mandate, multiple courts moved to restore portions of the 2016 mandate. In May, the Biden administration pledged to revive the policy. The justification for the restoration was the U.S. Supreme Court decision Bostock v. Clayton County. The nation’s high court concluded that federal Title VII protections against sex discrimination applied to gender identity and sexual orientation.

The Franciscan Alliance lawsuit is one of multiple legal challenges against the mandate, with the district court initially ruling in its favor but not giving a permanent injunction. Taking office in January, the Biden administration has worked to defend the Obama-era mandate in court, appealing a similar ruling against the mandate to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

O’Conner also ruled against the mandate in 2019. But in April, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a per curiam decision sending a case back to the district court level for further consideration, though it did not rule on the lawsuit’s merits.

Follow Michael Gryboski on Twitter or Facebook

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Hidden on Page 508 of the Infrastructure Bill Is a Plan to Make It Too Expensive to Drive a Car

Reported by Taylor Penley | August 4, 2021

The cost of living is on the rise, calls for yet another wave of pandemic restrictions have begun and now, buried deep in the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill, the left has laid out yet another idea to bring Americans to their knees. Make no mistake: The suffering is intentional, goal-oriented and not bound to stop anytime soon. Still, one proposal in the 2,702 page infrastructure bill seems especially cruel — cruel enough to make it too expensive for many Americans to even drive a car.

Nick Short of the Claremont Institute highlighted an item on Pages 508-519 of the bill that would introduce a national per-mile motor vehicle user fee on a trial basis.

“Buried on page 508 of the 2,702 page infrastructure bill is a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee (MBUF) which is basically a long-term plan to make it too expensive to drive a car,” Short said Tuesday on Twitter.

The pilot program is set up “to test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee, to address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee” and “to provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee,” the bill says.

An article from The Lid Blog attached to Short’s tweet detailed the proposal even further, breaking down each component, from the program’s objectives to its proposal that “volunteers” from each state should discover different ways to collect data on miles driven by “both commercial and private vehicle operators.”

On Page 513, the proposal says that the “Secretary of the Treasury shall establish, on an annual basis, per-mile user fees for passenger motor vehicles, light trucks, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks.” In theory, these per-mile user fees would vary by vehicle contingent upon several factors, including — you guessed it — environmental impact.

To ease any apprehension about participating in the pilot program, the measure indicates that participants’ identities will be protected, perhaps, as The Lid said, to prevent ostracization “if this happens and achieves the desired result.”

The left can chalk up this test run of what eventually might turn into a full-blown measure to make owning a vehicle next-to-impossible as an effort to be “environmentally conscious,” but is it instead another way to cripple our existing ways of life?

We might dismiss it now, but imagine telling yourself five years ago that the government would order small business closures, codify when and how Americans could worship and adopt an increasingly draconian “do as I say, not as I do” policy to address a global pandemic.

From the way we work to the way we breathe, so many aspects of our lives have already changed — albeit willingly, for some. What’s so different about changing how we get to one place from another?

With $10 million dedicated to this program for each year from 2022 to 2026, it’s easy to see how the government doles out what it acquires from hardworking Americans.

Any Republican lawmakers who vote in favor of this “bipartisan” bill have no right to label themselves “conservative.”

This proposal is the antithesis of conservatism.

Taylor PenleyContributor,

Taylor Penley is a political commentator residing in Northwest Georgia. She holds a BA in English with minors in rhetoric/writing and global studies from Dalton State College. As a student, she worked in government relations and interned for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She previously published an article with Future Female Leaders and published a rhetorical analysis of President Reagan’s Brandenburg Gate Address in a collegiate journal. She aspires to earn an MA and a PhD in journalism in the near future.

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Judge orders Biden administration to respond to lawsuit against CDC’s new eviction ban by Friday

Reported by NEWS CHRIS PANDOLFO | August 05, 2021

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Biden administration to respond to a lawsuit from a coalition of housing groups challenging a new eviction moratorium enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich gave the Department of Justice a 9 a.m. ET deadline on Friday to respond to an emergency legal challenge filed by the Alabama Association of Realtors late Wednesday, Reuters reports. The emergency motion accuses the CDC of issuing the new ban on evictions “for nakedly political reasons — to ease the political pressure, shift the blame to the courts for ending the moratorium, and use litigation delays to achieve a policy objective.”

“[T]he CDC caved to the political pressure by extending the moratorium, without providing any legal basis,” the motion says. “In substance and effect, the CDC’s latest action is an extension of the same unlawful ban on evictions that has been in effect since September 2020.”

In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act, a coronavirus relief bill that created a 120-day ban on evictions that applied to rental properties receiving federal assistance. At the end of that period, the Trump administration Department of Health and Human Services issued a second eviction moratorium through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that unlike the CARES Act applied to all rental properties nationwide. President Joe Biden renewed that order several times and the realtor groups challenged it in court.

In May, Friedrich declared the CDC’s order unlawful and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ultimately agreed with the lower court’s decision but permitted the order to remain in effect until it finally expired on July 31.

Writing in a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the CDC could not extend the moratorium past July 31 without specific authorization from Congress. Progressive lawmakers sought to pass a bill creating a new moratorium to ensure that the more than 15 million people in 6.5 million U.S. households who are currently behind on rent payments would not be evicted, but Congress failed to pass new legislation before the CDC’s moratorium expired.

Facing pressure from Democrats, Biden’s CDC took action Tuesday to create a new federal eviction ban that applies to “counties experiencing substantial and high levels of community transmission levels” of COVID-19. The White House has defended the new moratorium, which appears to be in direct violation of the law and the Supreme Court’s opinion, as a “new, targeted eviction moratorium — focused on counties with High or Substantial (coronavirus) case rates.” The new eviction moratorium is set to expire on Oct. 3 and is estimated to apply to 82% of U.S. counties and more than 90% of the population.

Facing questions from reporters on the legality of the CDC’s new order, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the Biden administration doesn’t believe most Americans care whether the order is legal or not.

“I’m not sure there are Americans evaluating it to that degree, maybe there are some you’ve talked to,” Psaki told a reporter who asked about the constitutionality of the order. “[Biden]’s gonna do everything in his power to make sure they can stay in their homes as long as possible.”

FANTASTIC question from @CBSNewsRadio's @StevenPortnoy about the legality of extending the eviction moratorium: "What's the White House's message, then, to Americans who…are now disappointed the President is signaling that he doesn't respect the rule of law." pic.twitter.com/ymci5wkWVl
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 4, 2021

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Border Crisis Goes Into Overdrive as Cameras Catch 1,000 Immigrants Being Held Under a Bridge

Reported by Dillon Burroughs | August 2, 2021

A new video shows up to 1,000 illegal immigrants were held for processing outdoors under a bridge near the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday as the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas continues to experience a surge of people crossing the border.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted, “This is the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX. Looks like it could be up to 1,000 people. We can only get a look at the area with our drone. There’s a popular Rio Grande crossing area nearby.”

NEW: This is the largest group of migrants we’ve ever seen being held by Border Patrol under Anzalduas Bridge in Mission, TX. Looks like it could be up to 1,000 people. We can only get a look at the area with our drone. There’s a popular Rio Grande crossing area nearby. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/AsAygsO966
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 1, 2021

Townhall.com reporter Julio Rosas also shared photos of the scene on Twitter, saying, “I’ve seen Border Patrol’s processing site underneath the Anzalduas International Bridge in Mission, TX off and on since March.

“I can say this is the most illegal immigrants I’ve seen at the site at one time. It’s close to 100 degrees out right now.”
Rosas also shared a video from Sunday night of another group, saying, “Another night in La Joya, TX another large group of illegal immigrants turning themselves over to Border Patrol. There are well over 150 people here. There is also a lot of sneezing and coughing among the group.”

Another night in La Joya, TX another large group of illegal immigrants turning themselves over to Border Patrol. There are well over 150 people here. There is also a lot of sneezing and coughing among the group. pic.twitter.com/cFkwdD8qnT
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 2, 2021

“Can’t stress enough that I’ve never seen such a large group at one time who have as many individuals who appear/sound to be sick,” he said.

The report comes as the delta variant of the coronavirus has led to a spike in new cases in recent weeks while President Joe Biden’s administration welcomes illegal immigrants into the country. Last week, authorities said a charity in the border town of La Joya had rented an entire hotel to house illegal immigrants who have tested positive for COVID-19, giving no notification to the local community.

“Police in La Joya, TX, a Border town, announce a charity has rented an entire hotel here for COVID-positive migrants,” Fox News State Department Correspondent Rich Edson tweeted Wednesday night. “They say they only found out when a family, showing symptoms and staying there, ate at a restaurant next door. A customer flagged down a police officer.”

A later post added, “They’re advising La Joya to mask up and distance.”

“The La Joya Police Department said a patrol officer was waved down Monday by someone concerned about a group that appeared to be sick at a Whataburger fast food restaurant,” Fox News reported late Wednesday night.
“The officer found a family inside who were coughing and sneezing and not adhering to health guidelines, including the wearing of masks, authorities said during a news conference,” the report said.

La Joya Police Sgt. Manuel Casas said his department and the city had not been notified of the situation.

“We did not know this,” he said. “No one told the city of La Joya. No one told the police department that these people were here, and no one told us that these people were possibly ill.”

The reported individuals were staying at Texas Inn & Suites after being released by Border Patrol.

Dillon Burroughs, Breaking News/Media Reporter

Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.@dillonburroughs

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Photos Show What US Admiral Meant When He Warned of China’s ‘Breathtaking’ Nuclear Expansion

Reported by Isa Cox July 3, 2021 at 1:41pm

In April, U.S. Navy Adm. Charles Richard, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, warned a congressional panel that China’s nuclear program was in the midst of a “breathtaking expansion,” including the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, mobile missile launchers and nuclear-capable submarines. Now, satellite imagery has confirmed that Richard was by no means exaggerating.

Researchers from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California, obtained the images which were initially captured by commercial satellites. The images depict the construction of over 100 new silos for ICBMs in the desert outside the city of Yumen, which is in northwestern China, The Washington Post reported.

Should these 119 near-identical construction sites be completed, it would mark a significant expansion in the country’s relatively meager stock of nuclear weapons. The Post noted that the number of silos doesn’t necessarily indicate the number of weapons intended to be stored within them, as China has been known to use decoy silos in the past in a similar fashion to a strategy used by the U.S. during the Cold War to mislead Soviet intelligence forces.

“The reported silo construction project could provide China with yet another means of concealing its most powerful weapons. The construction sites spotted on satellite photos are arrayed in two huge swaths, covering parts of a desert basin stretching to the west and southwest of Yumen, a city of 170,000 people along China’s ancient Silk Road,” The Post explained.
“Each site is separated from its neighbors by about two miles, and many of the sites are concealed by a large, dome-like covering, following a practice observed at known construction sites for missile silos in other parts of China. At sites where the dome is not in place, construction crews can be seen excavating a characteristic circular-shaped pit in the desert floor. Another construction site appears to be a partially built control center.”

Jeffrey Lewis, who was part of the team that reviewed the satellite images, explained in a summary of his analysis on the findings as provided to The Post that, when added to similar construction projects, these silos would bring the total count to 145 across the Chinese mainland.

“We believe China is expanding its nuclear forces in part to maintain a deterrent that can survive a U.S. first strike in sufficient numbers to defeat U.S. missile defenses,” he explained.

This intelligence underscores the urgency with which China is bolstering its defenses in likely anticipation of any attempt at foreign intervention in its aggressive expansion of power both at home and abroad.

Lewis, who described the sheer scale of the construction projects as “incredible,” believes the silos are likely intended for a Chinese ICBM known as the DF-41, which is capable of carrying multiple warheads and can strike targets as far off as 9,300 miles. Yes — that means they could, potentially, have the capacity to reach the U.S. mainland.

Although the U.S. Department of Defense declined to comment on the satellite images or discuss any of its own intelligence on China’s nuclear capabilities, a spokesperson pointed to previous warnings that any such concern is likely justified.

“Defense Department leaders have testified and publicly spoken about China’s growing nuclear capabilities, which we expect to double or more over the next decade,” spox John Supple said.

Lewis believes that China, which boasts a significantly smaller nuclear arsenal than those in the U.S. and Russia, has engaged a “limited deterrence” doctrine that simply prioritizes its ability to retaliate if attacked.

Yet while he believes that the satellite images could be indicative of a “shell game” on the part of China, i.e. that they’re simply designed to give the appearance that they’re more nuclear-capable than they really are, the sheer multitude of so many potential launch sites could serve as a warning to U.S. officials to modernize our own arsenal.

While Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in February that the Biden administration plans to “pursue arms control to reduce the dangers from China’s modern and growing nuclear arsenal,” he offered no specifics on what this would look like, merely vowing to pursue “effective arms control that enhances stability, transparency and predictability while reducing the risks of costly, dangerous arms races.”

It appears that we’re in an arms race with China whether we like it or not, however, and that’s exactly where the nation wants us to be.

In 2019, China unveiled new nuclear warheads amid massive pomp and circumstance reminiscent of Soviet and Mao-era military parades as the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China was being celebrated. This came as a trade war with the United States loomed thanks to former President Donald Trump’s tough stance on the aspiring global superpower. That was when the DF-41 made its public debut amid the tightly synchronized goose-stepping and Cold War-style theatrics of the celebratory parade.

Now that President Joe Biden is in office, Beijing has made clear it’s hardly afraid of Trump’s successor — a fact made embarrassingly plain in the first diplomatic talks between his administration and China when the nation’s diplomatic team publicly humiliated Blinken — on U.S. soil, no less. The Biden administration has publicly condemned China’s human rights abuses among the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang province and its authoritarian crackdown in the previously liberal and autonomous Hong Kong, but has stopped short of taking any action against the antagonistic communist nation.

During his remarks on the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party this week, President Xi Jinping vowed “broken heads and bloodshed” to any foreign adversaries which provoke or enrage China, a message which is entirely consistent with the notorious “wolf warrior” diplomacy exercised by his regime.

China may be doing its best to fluff up its feathers and appear more powerful than it is on the world stage — but it’s determined to increase its power by any means necessary, and it is this fierce determination and fearless provocation of foreign powers that we have to be concerned about.

As long as Biden continues to take a weak and soft stance on China and President Xi, a man he once described as a “friend,” China will take every single advantage such leniency affords it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Isa Cox, Contributor, Commentary

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Biden Releases New Domestic Terrorism Strategy that Names White Supremacists and Anti-Government Activists as Biggest Threats

Reported by Jack Davis | June 15, 2021

The Biden administration has announced a domestic terrorism strategy that it says will focus on white supremacists and anti-government extremists who use violence to achieve their goals. President Joe Biden came into office vowing to revamp America’s domestic terrorism rules in the aftermath of the Capitol incursion. But the result, announced Tuesday, has some concerned.

Stewart Baker, a Homeland Security lawyer in the administration of former President George W. Bush, said Biden’s approach has him “deeply uneasy.”

“The administration intends to deploy the language and tools of counterterrorism against people on the far right of the U.S. political spectrum,” he told NBC News.
“Those people are certainly not all innocents. Some of them have committed mass murder, killings of federal officers and the like. But it’s hard to say that such violence has been the signature of an organization or, really, of more than one or two individuals whose beliefs border on mental illness. Preventing and punishing such violence is what law enforcement tools are for,” he said.
Counterterrorism strategies, he said, should focus on the “much more dangerous forms of terrorism we’ve seen from ISIS and al-Qaida.”

Biden’s strategy is based on his administration’s assessment that “the two most lethal elements of today’s domestic terrorism threat are (1) racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the white race and (2) anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists, such as militia violent extremists,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The strategy calls for spending millions to beef up the ability of local governments to prevent or respond to domestic terrorism. Some groups will come in for extra attention.

“The Department of Defense (DOD) is incorporating training for servicemembers separating or retiring from the military on potential targeting of those with military training by violent extremist actors,” the fact sheet said.

The fact sheet also said that the federal government “is improving employee screening to enhance methods for identifying domestic terrorists who might pose insider threats. The Office of Personnel Management will consider updates to the forms used to apply for sensitive roles in the Federal Government that could assist investigators in identifying potential domestic terrorism threats.”

YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT AT https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-releases-new-domestic-terrorism-strategy-names-white-supremacists-anti-government-activists-biggest-threats/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly

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COMMENTARY: Lindsey Graham Says Unemployment Benefits Are So High People in His Own Family Aren’t Working

Commentary by C. Douglas Golden June 9, 2021

When the disastrous April jobs report came out, President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter whether or not the Democratic push to keep expanded $300 weekly federal unemployment checks contributed to the historic miss.

“No, nothing measurable,” Biden said during a media briefing on May 7, according to a transcript.
“I know some employers are having trouble filling jobs. But what this report shows is that there’s a much bigger problem. … It is that our economy still has 8 million fewer jobs than when this pandemic started. The data shows that more — more workers — more workers are looking for jobs, and many can’t find them. While jobs are coming back, there are still millions of people out there looking for work.”

That’s still the official administration line after two months of disappointing jobs numbers. The fact that the federal government is paying people not to work has nothing to do with the promised economic rebound falling flat, at least when it comes to jobs.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wasn’t having it. As he questioned Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, he said he had relatives who weren’t working because unemployment benefits were so high. Graham was arguing that the benefits should be killed before they’re set to expire in September.

“There’s a lot of jobs out there that are unfilled and will never be filled until you change the benefit structure. Does that logic make sense to you, given where we’re at in our economy?” Graham asked Young.
“I understand the logic, but I’ve also not met Americans who would prefer not to work,” Young replied. “There’s a dignity to work in this country.”

A chuckling Graham used his relatives to show why this is problematic. “I got a lot of people in my family that ain’t working because they’re getting — I’ll show you some of my family,” Graham said.

“Bottom line is I think there are people out there, they’re not bad people, but they’re not going to work for $15 an hour if they make $23 unemployed,” he added.
“That doesn’t make you a bad person. If you’re working for $15 an hour, that makes you almost a chump.”

The expanded benefits have been part of a tug-of-war between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill and in governor’s mansions. As part of the American Rescue Plan, Biden kept the $300-a-week checks going through Sept. 6. As The New York Times reported last week, the administration has promised not to renew them, but has no plans to cancel the additional aid early.

However, many Republicans have seen enough, with 25 states having already ended the benefits starting this month.

In a Friday media briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said “that’s OK,” although the Biden administration still sees the $300 payments as an “extra helping hand.”
“Every governor is going to make their own decision,” Psaki told reporters.

That decision should become markedly easier when staring down two months of dreadful jobs reports. April is the month that sticks out; that’s when economists were expecting a million new jobs and the total was 278,000. And let’s not forget May. The 559,000 jobs added still came in below expectations of 675,000 jobs. Let’s also not forget that a roaring economy was set to be a Democratic talking point going into 2022.

Even though the Biden administration inherited a strong economy before lockdowns shuttered businesses, and even though the beginning of mass vaccinations was felicitously timed with Biden’s inauguration, the massive bounceback the White House was counting on hasn’t quite happened yet. But the weekly $300 checks have nothing to do with it, they swear. After all, who wouldn’t choose the dignity of work over getting paid to sit on the couch?

It isn’t just Shalanda Young making this argument — during the May 7 media briefing on the April jobs numbers, Biden claimed “most middle-class, working-class people that I know think the way my dad did.
“He used to say — and I know I’m repeating myself, but I’m going to continue to because I think it’s critical. ‘A job is a lot more than a paycheck,’ he’d say. ‘Joey, it’s about your respect, your dignity, your place in the community.’ More than a paycheck. It’s people’s pride. It’s about being able to look at your child in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be OK.’”

I know, empurpled prose like that makes the tears well up in your eyes. However, if you stay at home for $23 an hour instead of working for $15 an hour, it’s a lot easier to look your child in the eye and say, “Honey, it’s going to be OK.” Yes, a job might be “people’s pride.” It’s not the kind of pride that goeth before the fall, but it’s the kind of pride that, in this case, goeth before making considerably less money for doing actual work.

Now, was Graham making a rhetorical point, throwing his family under the bus, or both? Whatever the case, one hopes they — as well as millions of other Americans — get off the dole with all due rapidity.

In a country where anyone over 12 can get a vaccine with ease and employers are desperately looking for workers, the federal government needn’t be throwing $300 a week at the unemployed in the name of recovery.

ABOUT THE COMMENTATOR:

C. Douglas Golden, Contributor,

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.@CillianZeal

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Biden’s G-7 Trip Gets Off to Bad Start as Lawmaker Says He’s ‘Senile,’ ‘Won’t Remember’ What He’s Told

Reported by Kipp Jones | June 10, 2021

Remember when the establishment media told us that our friends and foes across the world were collectively laughing at us when former President Donald Trump was running the show? Some of those people are certainly laughing now — if they aren’t fuming.

One British politician reportedly called President Joe Biden “senile” this week as he makes his first trip abroad as commander in chief to attend a G-7 summit in the U.K. The Sun reported that the globalist Democrat has already ruffled some feathers in Britain, sticking his nose into a dispute involving Brexit, the European Union and sausage.

Basically, the EU does not allow chilled meats to be imported into member nations, and Britain is no longer a member of the EU. The U.K. is unwilling to enforce a sausage blockade on Northern Ireland, so multiple parties find themselves at odds over pork.

Enter Biden, who can’t even manage an international border on this side of the pond. The president expressed “great concern” over Britain’s handling of the trade disagreement, according to The Times, and ordered the top American diplomat in the U.K. to essentially censure London — siding with the EU in doing so.

One member of Parliament — described by Politico only as a “conservative Brexiteer” — had harsh words for Biden on Thursday.

“America should remember who their allies are,” the MP said. “Unfortunately he’s so senile that he probably won’t remember what we tell him anyway. Unless an aide is listening I’m not sure he’s going to remember for very long.”

Trump ally and Brexit leader Nigel Farage also ripped Biden.

“We now have an anti-British US President in the White House. I hope all those who condemned Trump see their stupidity,” Farage tweeted.

If our friends have such nice things to say about Biden, imagine what our enemies are saying about him behind closed doors. In a matter of months, Biden has mismanaged this country’s affairs to the point where our southern border is the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis, inflation is skyrocketing and unemployed Americans are being paid to sit at home while businesses face a labor shortage.

One could make the compelling case that Biden isn’t qualified to weigh in on an overseas sausage dispute. The Brits certainly don’t need any input from a 78-year-old Democrat from Delaware.

The president’s bumbling, combined with Vice President Kamala Harris’ disastrous visit to Mexico and Central America earlier this week, makes the Biden administration 0 for 2 on international trips. The pair should cut their losses while they still have a shred of credibility left at home and abroad.

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Flashback: Gerald Ford’s Eerie Prediction Could Soon Come True for Kamala Harris

Commentary by Brett Kershaw | June 9, 2021

If any former president had access to an operational time machine, it may have been former President Gerald Ford.

But his foresight would not focus on the degradation of America’s international standing or the fiscal ramifications of stagflation and untethered federal spending. Rather, it would deal with how America would elect, or more precisely, promote the first female president.

When Ford visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, on Oct. 18, 1989 — approximately a decade after leaving office — he was given the special chance to share with the nation’s youth the role that former presidents played in American society, after they departed from the presidency.

In this setting, the former president did not have to worry about ditching and dodging around the biting journalistic questions of the day. Instead, he was asked by one young girl, “What advice would you give a young lady wanting to become president of the United States?”

With a smile, the former president opened with, “Well I hope we do have a young lady at some point become president of the United States.” His following description would appear as if the 38th president was a part-time Nostradamus.

“I can tell you how I think it will happen because it won’t happen in the normal course of events.”

“Either the Republican or Democrat political party will nominate a man for president and a woman for vice president. And the woman and man will win, so you’ll end up with a president — a male — and a vice president — a female,” he said.

“In that term of office of the president, the president will die and the woman will become president under the law or Constitution,” Ford said, in an unknowingly foreboding sense.

Taking a quick look at the current administration, it may appear Ford was onto something.

At various times, President Joe Biden has slipped up — as he is known to do on occasion — and indicate that Vice President Kamala Harris is, in fact, his “president-elect” or “President Harris.”

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Could Ford’s fortune-telling be correct?

There are a few pathways by which the vice president could become president. In the case of an assassination or resignation, the 25th Amendment gives the vice president the authority to take the role of the executive. In other cases, the mechanism of impeachment and removal gives Congress the means to check a president’s bad behavior.

Absent a popularly held election, however, it would be interesting to see how the American people would react to a Harris presidency, as conservatives, libertarians and even some progressives and liberals have voiced their concerns over her authoritarian record.

After former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii highlighted Harris’ record as attorney general and prosecutor at a Democratic presidential debate in 2019, much of the country recoiled upon hearing that she forced prisoners to stay past their sentences and purposely hid evidence of innocence for a man sitting on death row.

As a Washington grifter, Harris’ actions do not often win the hearts and minds of the American people.

President Ford, nonetheless, left those young visitors with one last message.

“Once that barrier is broken, from then on men better be careful because they’ll have a hard, hard time ever even getting a nomination in the future.”

With everyone’s eyes set on 2024, it may be time for the guys to watch out.

Brett Kershaw, Associate Staff Writer

Brett Kershaw is an associate staff writer for The Western Journal. A graduate of Virginia Tech with bachelor of arts degrees in political science and history, he is a published author who often studies political philosophy and political history.

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Watch Biden’s Transgender Assistant Health Sec: I’m Here to Improve Americans’ Mental Well-Being

Reported by Andrew Thornebrooke June 4, 2021 at 2:20pm

An obese man who claims to be a woman was tasked by President Joe Biden to tend to the mental and physical health of all Americans.

This is not satire.

In a video from March 26 that went viral on Twitter this week when it was shared by talk show host Chris Stigall, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a woman, expressed a commitment to promoting physical and mental health in America.

“Throughout my career, I have focused on the intersection between medical, mental and behavioral health,” Levine said. “And as your ASH, I will continue that focus and support policy initiatives to improve Americans’ physical and mental well-being.”

Just to be clear, despite the watering down of “gender identity disorder” into “gender dysphoria” to protect people’s feelings in recent years, transgenderism certainly represents a mental health crisis in anyone desperate enough to pursue it.

Also to be clear, obesity significantly increases the risk of literally all natural causes of death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Plainly, no one on earth should be taking health advice from this man.

Of course, Levine’s appointment and subsequent health advice were never actually about the health of Americans, nor even were they about Levine’s qualifications. Rather, they were about the Biden administration’s steadfast dedication to proliferating transgender ideology by any means necessary, up to and including redefining the legal definition of sex to include whatever so-called gender identity a person calls themselves at any given moment.

Indeed, if there were any question as to this administration’s priorities, Biden’s Proclamation on Pride Month was longer than his Proclamation on Memorial Day, and the president has made no secret of his belief that the nation should expand and normalize trans experimentation on children.

So what is one to do with this administration’s sham of a statement on mental health and its relentless propagation of harmful falsehoods? What is one to do with the continuous droning on of Levine who, despite everything, seems to legitimately want to help Americans while also lacking the personal fortitude to help himself?

Levine clearly needs help.

While all Americans should wish him well in that endeavor, however, the nation cannot sit around and wait for the assistant secretary of health to return to mental and physical health. As such, Americans ought to deal with this nonsense the same way they’ve had to deal with all of the administration’s other failures: Ignore it, step up and handle crises locally.

Welcome to the Biden era.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andrew Thornebrooke

Andrew Thornebrooke is a writer specializing in foreign policy and national security. He is the executive editor of The Rearguard and a MA candidate in military history at Norwich University.@AThornebrooke

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‘Their Legacy Is Immortal’: Trump Delivers Stirring Memorial Day Statement

Reported by Dillon Burroughs | May 31, 2021

In contrast with brief comments from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris prior to Memorial Day, former President Donald Trump released a statement on Monday to remind Americans of the reasons behind the holiday.

“On this Memorial Day, we remember the fallen heroes who took their last breaths in defense of our Nation, our families, our citizens, and our sacred freedoms,” Trump wrote in a statement.
“The depth of their devotion, the steel of their resolve, and the purity of their patriotism has no equal in human history. On distant battlefields, in far-off oceans, and high in the skies above, they faced down our enemies and gave their lives so that America would prevail,” the former president added.

Trump also highlighted the “supreme sacrifice” given by many armed forces personnel who have served the nation.

“They made the supreme sacrifice so that our people can live in safety and our Nation can thrive in peace. It is because of their gallantry that we can together, as one people, continue our pursuit of America’s glorious destiny,” he said.

Trump referred to the service of America’s fallen heroes as “immortal,” highlighting loyalty to those who have paid the ultimate price with their lives on the battlefield.

“We owe all that we are, and everything we ever hope to be, to these unrivaled heroes. Their memory and their legacy is immortal. Our loyalty to them and to their families is eternal and everlasting,” he said.

In contrast to the “woke” promotions highlighted in recent military ads, Trump referred to the nation’s military personnel as warriors.

“America’s warriors are the single greatest force for justice, peace, liberty, and security among all the nations ever to exist on earth. God bless our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen, Airmen, and Marines. We honor them today, forever, and always,” Trump said.

The former president’s statement serves as a follow-up to his Thursday attacks on the Biden administration before Memorial Day.

“With Memorial Day Weekend coming up, tomorrow people start driving in the biggest automobile days of the year,” Trump said in the statement.
“I’m sorry to say the gasoline prices that you will be confronted with are far higher than they were just a short number of months ago where we had gasoline under $2 a gallon.”

Trump’s statement also strongly contrasted Twitter posts by both Biden and Harris entering the holiday weekend.

Biden tweeted, “Stay cool this weekend, folks.” He later added a more traditional Memorial Day statement.

Harris simply posted Friday, “Enjoy the long weekend.”

The vice president’s initial post angered many on social media who found her whimsical words offensive, as Memorial Day commemorates Americans who have died in the armed forces.

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Ashli Babbitt’s Legal Team Releases Statement After DOJ Abruptly Closes Investigation into Her Murder inside the US Capitol

Reported By Tayler Hansen | Published April 14, 2021

As reported earlier — The Biden Justice Department announced Wednesday it has closed the investigation into the homicide death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt that took place inside the Capitol during the January 6 riot. This was while Congress was meeting in joint session to certify the November presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.

Babbitt, who was unarmed, was shot and killed without apparent warning by a plainclothes Capitol Police officer as she climbed through a broken window in a door at the Speaker’s Lobby. The name of the officer was not released. he DOJ stated that shooting her dead without warning was appropriate. Evidently, this is the new standard for murder in our country.

Display at funeral service for Ashli Babbitt, February 21, 2021, photo by Taylor Hansen

Ashli Babbitt was a 35-year-old Air Force veteran who left behind a husband, Aaron Babbitt. The couple ran a pool service business in Spring Valley, California. On Wednesday afternoon the lead attorney representing the Babbit family, Terry Roberts, issued a press release following the DOJ’s earlier announcement.

Roberts explained, “A press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office declared that “(t)he investigation revealed no evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer willfully committed a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 242… This double-negative is an odd way of explaining the basis for not bringing charges. It plainly glosses over the obvious problems of squaring the decision not to prosecute with the known facts. The actual evidence is this: the officer shot an unarmed woman who was not an immediate threat to him or any Member of Congress. This is inconsistent with any claim of self-defense.”

Roberts then ended his statement by stating the legal team’s decision to proceed with their goal of true justice, “We strongly disagree with the U.S. Attorney’s decision. But we are not dissuaded from our goal of ultimately vindicating Ashli Babbitt’s constitutional rights in the civil arena.”

The shooting death of US Veteran Ashli Babbit was murder, plain and simple. Babbit did not represent a threat. The officer did not warn Babbit and disappeared after he shot her in cold blood. This case is far from over.

Tayler Hansen

Writer/Journalist, Founder of Baby Lives Matter / Investigative Journalist and Riot Reporter @TaylerUSA

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Op-ed: Former Obama WH Doc: Biden ‘Hiding’ from Public Is ‘Major Red Flag,’ Something Isn’t Right

Commentary by By Samantha Chang | Published March 22, 2021

Manuel Balce Ceneta / APThen-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington Jan. 16, 2018. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP)

Ronny Jackson, who was the White House physician to former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, has joined a growing legion of Americans (and medical experts) who are gravely concerned about the physical and mental health of President Joe Biden.

Jackson — a retired Navy rear admiral who now represents Texas as a Republican congressman — sounded the alarm on Sunday when he said Biden’s lack of public appearances is a “MAJOR red flag” signaling that something is seriously wrong with the 78-year-old career politician. Biden has yet to hold a formal news conference as president.

“I served as White House physician under THREE Presidents,” Jackson tweeted. “I’ve seen what it takes physically AND mentally to do the job.’

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“I can tell you right now that the way Biden is hiding from the public is a MAJOR red flag. Something’s not right!”

Jackson made the remarks two days after Biden tripped three times while walking up the staircase of Air Force One. Keep in mind that he was previously vice president for eight years, so he has walked up those same steps numerous times before. It’s not as if he’s unfamiliar with those stairs.

The White House comically blamed the wind for Biden’s blunder, but the sad imagery of a septuagenarian stumbling helplessly as cameras rolled ignited a worldwide feeding frenzy.

While the liberal American media tried to downplay Biden’s epic stumble, the British and other international press headlined it (as they should, since he’s supposed to be the “leader of the free world”).

Jackson is not the only physician who has expressed concern about Biden’s mental and physical fitness.

YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE BY GOING TO https://www.westernjournal.com/former-obama-wh-doc-biden-hiding-public-major-red-flag-something-isnt-right/

Samantha Chang

Contributor, Commentary

Samantha Chang is a politics writer, lawyer and financial editor based in New York City.

@Samantha_Chang

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New photos show ‘terrible conditions’ inside border facility as hundreds of migrant children are packed into small makeshift rooms

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | March 22, 2021

New photos inside one of the Biden administration’s surge facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border show the awful conditions under which migrant children are being kept amid the ongoing illegal immigration crisis. The photos, shared with Axios by Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), were taken inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary surge facility in Donna, Texas, and show hundreds of children packed into tiny, makeshift rooms as they await transfer to longer-term facilities operated by the Department of Health and Humans Services. Conditions inside such facilities have previously been described as “grim,” cage-like, and “akin to jails.”

Due to the rapid influx of migrants and the unpreparedness of the administration, many of the migrant children are being kept in surge facilities for longer than is legally permitted.

The photos provide a rare look inside the facilities, as the Biden administration has to this point blocked access to media organizations and placed an unofficial “gag order” on Border Patrol agents, restricting their ability to share information with journalists.

Axios reported that each of the eight “pods” inside the so-called “soft-sided facility” has a maximum occupancy of 260 people. But Cuellar told the outlet that as of Sunday, one of the pods contained more than 400 unaccompanied male minors.

The Democratic lawmaker described the setting as “terrible conditions for the children.” He added that Border Patrol agents are “doing the best they can under the circumstances” but are “not equipped to care for kids” and “need help from the administration.”

“We have to stop kids and families from making the dangerous trek across Mexico to come to the United States,” he continued. “We have to work with Mexico and Central American countries to have them apply for asylum in their countries.”

Cuellar noted that he did not tour the facility or take the photos himself, but confirmed that the photos were taken over the weekend. The lawmaker has been outspoken about the ongoing crisis since the start of Biden’s presidency. He warned earlier this month that the new administration’s open-borders policies would ultimately lead to dangerous consequences for both migrants and American communities along the southern border.

“You just can’t say, ‘Yeah, yeah, let everybody in’ — because then we’re affected down there at the border,” he told Axios in an interview, adding, “The bad guys know how to market this.”

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Female Athlete Shreds Biden Administration To Withdraw Lawsuit: We Deserve To Be The Best, Biological Males Are Taking It Away

Reported By The Scoop | Published February 25, 2021

The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice decided to withdraw its support of a lawsuit this week, pushed by three high school female athletes that would block biological males (transgender females) from competing in girls’ sports in Connecticut. Former Attorney General Bill Barr supported the lawsuit because he said Connecticut’s law allowing this to happen does violate the Title IX protections in place.

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in 2020, “by three high school girls and their mothers against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which has permitted boys to compete in events and win awards that would otherwise have gone to girls,” Daily Wire reported.

“Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), were denied opportunities to compete at higher levels as boys took home the prizes. CIAC’s policy allowed two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions beginning in the 2017 track season. Those boys have taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.”

Two Races from 2018 made headlines when ‘Two Transgenders Blow Out Girls In State Meet” Connecticut had its State Open track and field where one person broke the State Open records for girls in both the 100 and 200-meter runs.

Attorney Christiana Holcomb appeared Wednesday night with Alanna Smith, who is one of the three girls pushing the lawsuit on Fox News to discuss the Biden Administration’s reversal. Smith said people need to realize that many biological females are taking things away from them and how fairness needs to be restored in her sport as well as all other women’s sports.

Smith said she filed this lawsuit because, ““I got involved after I ran against the biological males at the New England meet because in the 200 meter I took third place when I should have gotten runner-up, and it’s not really about placement but it’s all about knowing that I work so many hours a week to be able to get runner-up in New England’s [championships] as a freshman. And I am really disappointed in the news, because me and the other girls, Selina and Chelsea, have worked really hard to get our stories out there, to get people to realize that fairness needs to be restored in our sport and all other women’s sports.”

Fox News host Katie Pavlich called out the administration, “The left claims to always stand up for women, they’re the party of women, and yet here we are with policies that disenfranchise female athletes.”

Pavlich asked Smith’s attorney, “And I have serious questions abut what this means in terms of harassment of female athletes. Does this mean that biological males are not allowed to go into the locker room as well as compete against them and take away scholarships and placement in state championships? I know that the lawsuit is going to move forward despite DOJ pulling their support for it? So where are you going from here?”

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Holcomb answered, ““Well, the lawsuit absolutely moves forward, but as you mentioned, this was clearly a politically motivated decision to side with radical activists over female athletes like Alanna, but what’ s even more concerning is this effort to gut legal protection for women is not just isolated to what we see in Connecticut. Even now, the Biden administration is pushing the so-called Equality Act, which ignores the real physical differences between men and women and threatens women’s privacy, women’s homeless shelters, and yes, even women’s sports on a national level for female athletes like Alanna.”

Pavlich asked Smith to elaborate more, “But in terms of athletics, Alanna, when it comes to the things that you’ve missed out on, people say ‘it’s only fair’ to allow biological males to compete against you, What is your response to that?”

Smith stated, “That people should realize that a lot of biological females have missed out on making it to meets that really matter, like states and regionals, and the transgender athletes have taken spots on the podium that belong to biological females,” Smith stated. “We train for so many days a week, so many hours to be able to be the best in our state and the best in our region, and these biological males are just taking it away from us and we really deserve it.”

Smith’s attorney shared, “Title IX was designed to ensure that girls like Alanna have a fair and level playing field, have a chance to showcase their talents, to be champions, and frankly, to earn those college scholarships. So we want to move forward and we want to see women’s sports protected across the country.”

The Scoop

The Scoop is a news company that makes short, easy to understand videos about the top conservative news stories of the day. We were founded in 2017 by Steeve Strange, CEO, and Cameron Schnittger, Content Strategy Director. Our mission is to give conservative Americans a voice on the far-left social media platforms. We only report on real news; we will never spin a story to push an untrue agenda. Check out our website http://www.thescoop.us for more articles and videos.

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Biden administration reopens Trump-era migrant children housing facility

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | February 23, 2021

Despite excoriating former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail over immigration policies affecting children separated from their families at the border, President Joe Biden appears to be adopting the same approach to the issue as his predecessor. According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration has officially reopened a housing facility for migrant children along the U.S.-Mexico border in Carrizo Springs, Texas, capable of holding hundreds of children.

“Dozens of migrant teens boarded vans Monday for the trip down a dusty road to a former man camp for oil field workers here, the first migrant child facility opened under the Biden administration,” the Post reported on Monday. “The emergency facility — a vestige of the Trump administration that was open for only a month in summer 2019 — is being reactivated to hold up to 700 children ages 13 to 17.”

The move has been in the works since earlier this month, CNN reported, characterized by an administration spokesperson to the outlet as a necessary evil as immigration officials grapple with an overflow of illegal crossings taking place at the country’s southern border.

“Fully remedying [Trump’s] actions will take time and require a full government approach,” a senior administration official said, urging patience.

Government officials similarly told the Post that the camp is needed to temporarily house children amid the coronavirus pandemic and the current surge of border crossings. Never mind the fact that Biden’s lax immigration policies instigated the border surge in the first place. In both cases, Biden administration officials are attempting to put a nice spin on the move. But what’s happening in this case is obvious, at least to CNN reporter Priscilla Alvarez, who acknowledged, “While administration officials have condemned Trump’s actions, they’re still relying on them as they sort out next steps.”

Despite the administration’s best efforts to cast the move in a positive light, progressive immigration lawyers and advocates are also calling it out for what it is.

“It’s unnecessary, it’s costly, and it goes absolutely against everything Biden promised he was going to do,” Linda Brandmiller, a San Antonio-based immigration lawyer who represents unaccompanied minors, told the Post. “It’s a step backward, is what it is. It’s a huge step backward.”

“When I read they were opening again, I cried,” said Rosey Abuabara, a San Antonio immigration activist. “I consoled myself with the fact that it was considered the Cadillac of [migrant child] centers, but I don’t have any hope that Biden is going to make it better.”

Mark Weber, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that handles migrant children, also made clear that the good care given to the children at such facilities has been consistent between administrations, though the Trump administration got a particularly bad rap from left-wing media.

That fact is especially pertinent given the Post’s coverage of the new development under Biden. In its report this week, the facility is described in delicate terms, a far cry from the “kids in cages” language used by the Post during Trump’s presidency, as noted by Fox News.

“Headlines from 2018 include, ‘The American tradition of caging children,’ and ‘The real reason we’re locking children in cages,'” Fox News recalled.

Kids in Cages: Biden Opens Gated Compound for Illegal Immigrant Children — Democrats and AOC Silent

Reported By Jim Hoft | Published February 23, 2021

It’s just like the good ol’ days under Barack Obama.

The Biden administration opened a gated migrant facility for illegal immigrant children this past weekend in Carrizo Springs, Texas. The camp will hold up to 700 illegal immigrant children. The facility was open for one month during the Trump years and then it was shut down. Democrats were very, very upset about caged kids during Trump’s tenure. They completely ignored it under Obama.

The need to hold illegal alien children in compounds is the direct result of reversing President Trump’s highly successful border policies, which they described as “hardline.” And now, here we are again.

USA Today has more on the facility.

The facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, will house up to 700 migrant children within the next two weeks, according to a statement Tuesday from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for migrant children. The temporary Influx Care Facility will be used for children ages 13 and older who have been medically cleared of COVID-19, the statement said.

The move came after President Joe Biden signed a raft of executive orders aimed at unwinding the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies, including establishing a task force to reunify children separated from their parents or guardians at the border under former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.

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As he seeks to fulfill his campaign promise to swiftly undo Trump’s immigration actions, Biden is facing hurdles because of the rise in migrant apprehensions at the Southwest border and reduced capacity at facilities over COVID-19 concerns.

Democrats lied over and over about the kids in cages meme during the Trump years.
Now they’ll just ignore it.

More…

Dummy AOC took the lie to new heights.

It’s not an issue when Democrats are in charge.

Jim Hoft

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Biden’s HHS nominee Xavier Becerra is ‘worse-case scenario’ for people of faith, pro-life groups warn

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., November 12, 2019. | SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Republican senators and pro-life groups have raised concerns about President Joe Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Xavier Becerra, who they warn has a record of using his power to go after his enemies, including people of faith and pro-lifers.

Over 60 pro-life advocates sent a letter to ranking members of the U.S. Senate HELP and Finance Committees urging them to reject Becerra, calling him an “enemy to every pro-life policy and law” who “has demonstrated complete disregard for the religious and moral convictions of those opposed to the brutal act of abortion.”

The letter was spearheaded by the pro-life lobbying group Susan B. Anthony List and signed by leaders such as Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan Anderson and the heads of other pro-life organizations.

“On the issue of abortion, Xavier Becerra has a decades-old track record of siding with the abortion lobby whenever possible and using the power of whatever office he is in to try and force others to share his enthusiastic support of abortion up until the moment of birth,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of the pro-life campus organization Students for Life of America.

Hawkins, who signed the letter, moderated a panel last Wednesday that featured Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Steve Daines, R-Mont., and SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. Hawkins maintained that the confirmation of Becerra to the position of secretary of HHS was something that “every single pro-lifer should be concerned about.”

Becerra, who formerly served as a congressman in the U.S. House from California, currently serves as the state’s attorney general and must be confirmed by the Senate before he can serve as Biden’s HHS secretary. Hawkins said that as secretary of HHS, Becerra would oversee “over $87 billion of our taxpayer funds and discretionary budget authority and over $1.2 trillion in mandatory funding.”

Dannenfelser added that when “every other state that did something bold” by passing pro-life measures, “he would lead all the other AGs in trying to shut down every pro-life measure that every other state was doing.” She also recalled how Becerra prosecuted David Daleiden, the pro-life activist journalist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s selling of aborted baby body parts.

“When he was told just very recently … by the Trump administration that we’ll take $200 million away of Medicaid funding unless you comply with the Weldon Amendment that would require you to obey the consciences of Californians and … not force health care workers and taxpayers to pay for abortion, he (Becerra) said I’d rather give up that funding … for California than to enforce the Weldon Amendment,” she continued.

“He was the one who was spearheading all of the amicus briefs to the … courts to make sure that during COVID, that there could continue to be mail-order abortions, chemical abortions,” Dannenfelser added.

Hawkins expressed disgust that Becerra “was uniting 20 other attorney generals across the country to sue the FDA to dispense the abortion pills without a doctor ever seeing a woman, without a woman ever getting a blood test because that was his number one priority amidst the COVID pandemic.”

Cotton, who previously served in the House with Becerra, said he “knew what a far-left radical he was,” but “only once he became California’s top law enforcement officer did he have the power to act unilaterally on those radical ideas.”

“The common thread of Xavier Becerra’s tenure as attorney general of California is that he abuses the law to target his enemies, which curiously enough always seem to be people of faith and pro-lifers and other social conservatives. If he’s done it with the power he has as attorney general of California, of course he will do it with the vastly greater power he would have as the Secretary for Health and Human Services,” Cotton warned.

While “any nominee to HHS by this president is going to be bad,” according to Dannenfelser, Becerra is the “worst-case scenario.”

“I do think it’s important to put a marker down and say there is some line that we must draw, that an advocate, an extreme abortion absolutist advocate as the head of HHS, is a bridge too far even for an administration like this. … We choose this nominee to say … no and send a message when the Senate is so close, the House is so close, that whoever is heading HHS needs to be closer to those margins than this person is,” she said.

Cotton agreed with Dannenfelser that “we’re not going to get a great secretary of Health and Human Services out of Joe Biden.” He predicted that if efforts to stop Becerra’s confirmation to the post are successful, Biden’s subsequent nominee “will have watched what happened to Xavier Becerra though and recognize that if he crosses these far-left radical lines, that he is apt to face political blowback as well.”

Much of the panel’s conversation focused on outlining a strategy that pro-life Americans can use to persuade elected officials to oppose Becerra’s confirmation in light of the balance of power in Washington.

Democrats hold a narrow 50-50 majority in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote. Any effort to block Becerra’s confirmation would require the support of all 50 Senate Republicans and at least one Senate Democrat.

According to Cotton, “Some Democrats may be troubled by some of the most extreme steps he’s taken or the most extreme ideas of the far-left when it comes to advocating for abortion, but there’s a whole host of reasons to oppose Xavier Becerra in addition to his extreme views on abortion.”

He cited Becerra’s lack of experience in the health care industry as well as his support for Medicare for All as reasons that might lead some of the more moderate Democrats in the Senate to oppose his confirmation.

“So there are ample grounds to oppose Xavier Becerra’s nomination. We don’t need 51 senators to all agree on why they say no; we just need 51 senators to say no,” Cotton said.

Dannenfelser mentioned pro-life Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., as the most important senator that pro-lifers should contact and urge him to oppose Becerra’s confirmation. She also highlighted the importance of contacting Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, pro-abortion Republicans who might be more disposed to support Becerra’s confirmation than the rest of their Republican colleagues.

She also listed Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., as lawmakers who pro-lifers should try to convince to vote against Becerra’s confirmation. Tester represents a state that routinely votes Republican in presidential elections, while Sinema represents a swing state that narrowly voted Democratic in the 2020 presidential election.

Daines, the other senator on the panel, suggested that Sen. Bob Casey, R-Pa., could be receptive to arguments against Becerra because “he has sided with us in the past on some critical pro-life votes.”

Casey serves on the Senate Finance Committee, which, owing to the close margin in the Senate, has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Should Casey vote with all Republicans to oppose Becerra’s confirmation, that would be enough to prevent his nomination from going to the full Senate.

Becerra will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education and Pensions on Tuesday and an additional hearing will take place in the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. While Casey also serves on the Senate Committee on Health, Labor, Education and Pensions, so do Murkowski and Collins, the two Republicans most likely to support his confirmation.

During the Trump administration, a small number of former president’s cabinet nominees were opposed by all members of the opposing political party and at least one member of his own party. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was opposed by all 48 Senate Democrats as well as Collins and Murkowski.

DeVos was confirmed to the position, but Vice President Mike Pence had to cast the tie-breaking vote. Trump’s first nominee to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, was opposed by all 48 Democrats and Collins.

So far, Biden’s cabinet nominees have been confirmed with varying degrees of bipartisan support. With several confirmation votes pending, the cabinet member who received the slimmest margin of support was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was supported by all 50 Senate Democrats and six Senate Republicans.

With Becerra’s confirmation hearings expected to take place this week, Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan T. Anderson issued a statement warning about the consequences of Becerra’s confirmation: “Xavier Becerra is simply unqualified to be Secretary of HHS. He has no relevant medical expertise, rendering him particularly unsuited to assume this position amid a pandemic.

“Indeed, his only health care qualifications seem to be his attacks on pro-life medicine, his persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and his defense of an unlawful California abortion mandate. President Biden promised to heal and unify the country, but his nomination of an ideological culture warrior like Becerra will only drive us further apart,” he added.

EPPC Senior Fellow Roger Severino, who previously headed the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the Trump administration, recalled, “When I was head of Civil Rights at HHS, I twice held Becerra in violation of laws protecting conscience in health care resulting in a $200 million disallowance of HHS funds to California.”

He called the idea of Becerra leading the HHS “the very agency that investigated him and found he broke the law” an “astounding conflict of interest.”

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Don’t say ‘aliens’: Biden admin instructs officials to use ‘inclusive language’ to describe people in the country illegally

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | February 17, 2021

The Biden administration has instructed Department of Homeland Security officials to use more “inclusive language” to describe people residing in the country illegally, such as dropping the word “alien” and replacing it with “noncitizen,” according to a memo recently issued by immigration authorities.

The changes are reportedly part of an effort by the Biden administration to portray itself as more welcoming on immigration than the previous administration under President Trump, which would use terms such as “illegal aliens” to describe people who bypassed U.S. laws and security perimeters to enter and remain in the country.

According to Axios, an email sent Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials described how the agency’s acting director, Tracy Renaud, had signed a memo encouraging “more inclusive language in the agency’s outreach efforts, internal documents and in overall communication with stakeholders, partners and the general public.”

The memo, obtained by BuzzFeed News, instructed officials to stop referring to people as “illegal alien,” “alien,” or “undocumented alien” in internal and external communications, but instead use the terms “noncitizen,” “undocumented noncitizen,” or “undocumented individual.”

It also urged USCIS officials to discontinue their use of the term “assimilation” in exchange for “integration” and begin referring to those who apply for benefits like green cards as “customers,” BuzzFeed reported. USCIS is a subsidiary agency which operates within the DHS.

Interestingly, besides planned use in the agency’s internal communications and any communications it has with the public, the wording changes are not set to affect forms or operational documents where using the previous terminology is deemed most appropriate. That fact indicates the changes are nothing more than a messaging makeover. Though, by continuing to soften language associated with illegal immigration, the administration undoubtedly hopes to move public opinion on the matter toward greater acceptance of illegal entry and favor for open borders.

The words being replaced in the agency’s messaging are in fact the most accurate technical terms to describe issues at hand. Even BuzzFeed acknowledges that the term “alien” is routinely found within U.S. Code and is “regularly referenced in the immigration system and in court rulings to describe everyone who is not a US citizen.”

Speaking with Axios, Robert Law, a former Trump administration official who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, noted, “By statute, ‘alien’ literally means a person not a U.S. citizen or national.”

“That is not offensive, and neither is ‘assimilation,'” he said.

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Former White House interpreter says Biden administration canceled, humiliated her after she was outed as a Trump supporter

Reported by SARAH TAYLOR | February 09, 2021

Heather Mewshaw, a former White House sign language interpreter who served in both the Trump and Biden administrations, says the Biden administration humiliated and canceled her after reports emerged that she is a Trump supporter who formerly translated speeches for conservative social media groups.

Mewshaw, a 41-year-old married mom of four from Glen Burnie, Maryland, says she hasn’t been offered a return engagement at the White House after Time published an “exposé” on her personal politics titled “Joe Biden’s Sign Language Interpreter Has Ties to Far Right,” according to a Monday report from the New York Post.

Mewshaw said that she has been the subject of harassment and threats following the release of the Time report, prompting her to fear for her own and her family’s safety. The Post reported that the harassment is because she provided “American Sign Language translation for the Hands of Liberty Facebook group and its defunct predecessor, Right Side ASL.”

“Those videos include one featuring former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani that’s titled ‘What Really Happened on January 6th?’ — the day of the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters — and another, since removed, that features controversial Dr. Stella Immanuel, who has prompted treating COVID-19 with hydroxychloroquine, which the FDA has banned for that purpose,” the Post said.

In a statement to the outlet, Mewshaw said, “The goal of my activity — at the White House or with Hands of Liberty — is that it’s all about access. The thing is, I was cancelled and humiliated publicly and it was unjust and unfair.”

Mewshaw insisted that while she is a Trump supporter, she simply translates to provide information access for deaf people, and said that her critics “don’t want this content to be interpreted because they don’t believe in it.”

“Deaf people just want a chance to decide for themselves what information is out there,” she said according to the outlet.

A spokesperson for the Biden White House declined to comment on the reports and referred the Post to a previous statement that said, “The President and this administration have made a commitment to having an ASL interpreter at every press briefing and are working to follow through on that commitment every single day.”

A portion of Mewshaw’s full statement says:

My role as a Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) certified American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter is to facilitate communication between Deaf and non-signing parties in an effective, accurate and impartial way. The Deaf community, along with their allies, continue to fight for the right to have equal access to information that the general public enjoys without hardship.

Regarding my interpreting at The White House. I worked there as an independent contractor. I interpreted five (5) briefings for The Trump Administration in November and December 2020. On January 25, 2021, I interpreted for The Biden Administration at a press briefing. Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that all future daily White House press briefings would have an ASL interpreter and she even introduced me to the world. That announcement is a huge advancement for the rights of the Deaf community and is to be commended. I was honored to be the interpreter that day.

To my surprise, the remarkable win of having an ASL interpreter at every White House press briefing has been overshadowed, by a few who, without evidence or merit, chose to cast aspersions against my ability to be objective and impartial because of my involvement in a conservative social media group. These unfounded claims about me were picked up by the media and numerous articles were written about this erroneous conclusion.

As a child of Deaf parents, abbreviated as CODA in the Deaf community (child of a Deaf adult), I have spent my whole life participating in the fight for the rights of Deaf people to have access to the same information as hearing people. In fact, my first language was ASL as it was my primary form of communication with my parents. As a CODA, I am in-between two worlds, the Deaf and the hearing, and I am in a unique position to unite those two worlds together.

Many videos on social media are not interpreted nor captioned. The ability for anyone to upload a video from their devices instantly brings an increased access challenge in this digital age. Groups formed on social media to interpret this video content for the Deaf community, however conservative content was generally not interpreted. Therefore, Michael Thompson, who is Deaf, created Hands of Liberty (HOL), formerly known as Right Side ASL, to fill the gap. HOL is an all-volunteer group, providing ASL access to videos requested by the Deaf community for free. The group has received over 2,000 video requests to date, since its inception in June 2020. The videos requested are of a variety of topics including but not limited to; speeches from the Presidential candidates, White House press briefings, Congressional hearings, television news segments and viral content. These interpreted videos support the Deaf community’s right to participate in all aspects of society and the right to informed choice. For me personally, my interpreting of a video requested through HOL does not necessarily equal an endorsement of the content of that video.

The mostly negative media coverage of me in recent weeks has been a disservice to the ASL interpreting profession. The message being conveyed is that ASL interpreters must have a certain set of beliefs or values that align completely with the consumers. We must remember that an ASL interpreter is relaying the message of another person and not their own. ASL interpreters are to be respected as objective professionals, irrespective of their own belief systems. There are examples of a double standard when it comes to ASL interpreters who openly identify as liberal activists working at events for conservative figureheads/politicians. These ASL interpreters are lauded by the media and their peers for having the ability to be objective and impartial. However, despite my undisputed professional work on January 25, 2021, I have been targeted and defamed by some in the Deaf community and the media because I worked as a Deaf advocate with HOL.

My work as an ASL interpreter has been, is and always will be effective, accurate and impartial. That is a core tenant of my certifications with the RID. My past work, my credentials, my unvarnished reputation, and 21 years of working as an RID certified ASL interpreter speaks for itself.

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CBO: Biden’s $15 Minimum Wage Would Result in a Loss of 1.4 Million Jobs

Reported By Grant Atkinson, The Western Journal | Published February 8, 2021

President Joe Biden has already cost America plenty of jobs with his radical climate policies. Now, his proposal to raise the minimum wage is set to add even more job losses. According to the Washington Examiner, a Congressional Budget Office report found that increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour would cause a net loss of 1.4 million jobs in just four years.

“Higher wages would increase the cost to employers of producing goods and services,” the report said.

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“Employers would pass some of those increased costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices, and those higher prices, in turn, would lead consumers to purchase fewer goods and services. Employers would consequently produce fewer goods and services, and as a result, they would tend to reduce their employment of workers at all wage levels.”

One of the reasons Democrats have been pushing for a higher minimum wage is because they argue that the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is not enough to live off of.

There are three problems with applying this argument in order to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

First, most minimum wage jobs were not meant to be full-time careers. On the contrary, their purpose was often to create opportunities for younger people to get into the workforce before they start a full-time career.My parents, myself and many of my friends started minimum wage jobs in our teenage years in order to get work experience. While working those jobs, I received an education in an effort to one day start a full-time career.

Some people do attempt to live off of minimum wage jobs, which is fine. But the idea that minimum wage jobs must be enough to comfortably live off of was never a rule, but rather a talking point for the left.

Second, increasing the minimum wage to $15 will cost 1.4 million jobs. Part of the reason for that is the fact that $15 is almost double the current amount.

If the Biden administration were to propose increasing the minimum wage to $9 or $10, that would be more practical. Yet even at the current rate, it’s likely that those 1.4 million people would rather make $7.25 an hour than none at all.

Lastly, the report said that raising the minimum wage would encourage companies to begin “accelerating investments in automation and machine labor.” The premise here is pretty simple. If the minimum wage gets too high, it will eventually be cheaper for companies to invest in machines that can do everyday tasks that humans once did. The fast-food industry, one of the main minimum wage job providers, has already begun this process with electronic ordering kiosks that require no interaction with employees.

Again, this results in minimum wage employees losing more jobs. In an attempt to try and help minimum wage workers, Biden’s policy would instead send many to unemployment lines.

In addition to the job losses, raising the minimum wage to $15 would cost the U.S. a whole lot of money.

“The incremental wage hike would also contribute an additional $54 billion to the federal deficit because of anticipated increases in the costs of goods and services and increased spending on unemployment insurance,” the Washington Examiner said.

Instead of addressing that problem, progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders decided to just dismiss it altogether.

“I find it hard to understand how the CBO concluded that raising the minimum wage would increase the deficit by $54 billion,” Sanders said in a statement.

“Two years ago, CBO concluded that a $15 minimum wage would increase the deficit by less than $1 million over ten years.”

Never mind the fact that the CBO is non-partisan or that Sanders has no counter-evidence. He just doesn’t believe it. In fact, he went so far as to argue that the CBO’s report was a win for Democrats because it showed evidence that they could raise the minimum wage via budget reconciliation rules.

“The CBO has demonstrated that increasing the minimum wage would have a direct and substantial impact on the federal budget,” he tweeted.

“What that means is that we can clearly raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour under the rules of budget reconciliation.”

It apparently does not matter to him that the direct impact is a negative one, only that it gives progressives a right to pass the measure using budget reconciliation. For people that claim to care so much about others’ well-being, the left is showing a blatant disregard for the livelihoods of 1.4 million Americans.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

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Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘Biden administration’

Reported by CHRIS PANDOLFO | September 13, 2021

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Commentary By Michael Austin September 9, 2021

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Commentary by By Jacob Gurney September 7, 2021

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Reported by By Andrew Jose September 8, 2021

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Commentary by Ann Coulter | Posted: Sep 08, 2021

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Reported by VARUN HUKERI | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER | September 02, 2021

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By Taylor Penley | September 1, 2021

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Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Thursday, August 26, 2021

Over two years ago, authorities shuttered the 5,000-member church ERCC, broke down the doors of church members’ and leaders’ homes, and arrested more than 100 people. Police continue to harass and track church members, according to a recent report from the U.S.-based group China Aid.

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Reported By Jack Davis | August 26, 2021

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Watch: Harris’ Face During Biden’s Afghanistan Presser Tells Us Everything We Need to Know About State of USA

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Reported By Jack Davis August 16, 2021

TO READ THE REST OF THIS REPORT, PLEASE GO TO https://www.westernjournal.com/taliban-frees-thousands-terrorist-prisoners-facility-us-forces-recently-handed-afghanistan/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=aa-breaking&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=firefly&ats_es=1703275f97009d3a9c3cbb1a34025de5

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Reported By Jim Hoft | Published August 17, 2021

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Reported By Jack Davis August 17, 2021

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Reported By Michael Gryboski, Christian Post Reporter | Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Follow Michael Gryboski on Twitter or Facebook

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Reported by Taylor Penley | August 4, 2021

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Reported by NEWSCHRIS PANDOLFO | August 05, 2021

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Reported by Dillon Burroughs | August 2, 2021

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Reported by Isa Cox July 3, 2021 at 1:41pm

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Reported by Jack Davis | June 15, 2021

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Commentary by C. Douglas Golden June 9, 2021

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Reported by Kipp Jones | June 10, 2021

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Commentary by Brett Kershaw | June 9, 2021

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Reported by Andrew Thornebrooke June 4, 2021 at 2:20pm

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Reported by Dillon Burroughs | May 31, 2021

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Reported By Tayler Hansen | Published April 14, 2021

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YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE BY GOING TO https://www.westernjournal.com/former-obama-wh-doc-biden-hiding-public-major-red-flag-something-isnt-right/

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Reported by PHIL SHIVER | March 22, 2021

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Reported by PHIL SHIVER | February 23, 2021

As he seeks to fulfill his campaign promise to swiftly undo Trump’s immigration actions, Biden is facing hurdles because of the rise in migrant apprehensions at the Southwest border and reduced capacity at facilities over COVID-19 concerns.

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Republican senators and pro-life groups have raised concerns about President Joe Biden’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, Xavier Becerra, who they warn has a record of using his power to go after his enemies, including people of faith and pro-lifers.

“He was the one who was spearheading all of the amicus briefs to the … courts to make sure that during COVID, that there could continue to be mail-order abortions, chemical abortions,” Dannenfelser added.

Hawkins expressed disgust that Becerra “was uniting 20 other attorney generals across the country to sue the FDA to dispense the abortion pills without a doctor ever seeing a woman, without a woman ever getting a blood test because that was his number one priority amidst the COVID pandemic.”

While “any nominee to HHS by this president is going to be bad,” according to Dannenfelser, Becerra is the “worst-case scenario.”

According to Cotton, “Some Democrats may be troubled by some of the most extreme steps he’s taken or the most extreme ideas of the far-left when it comes to advocating for abortion, but there’s a whole host of reasons to oppose Xavier Becerra in addition to his extreme views on abortion.”

“So there are ample grounds to oppose Xavier Becerra’s nomination. We don’t need 51 senators to all agree on why they say no; we just need 51 senators to say no,” Cotton said.

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Reported by PHIL SHIVER | February 17, 2021

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Reported by SARAH TAYLOR | February 09, 2021

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Reported by NEWS CHRIS PANDOLFO | August 05, 2021