NC County Defies Democrat Governor; Reopens Businesses Amid Shutdown

Ben Sellers
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‘I would be derelict in my duty and continue to support something that the data … doesn’t lend itself to…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A North Carolina county has voted to re-open Wednesday, in defiance of Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper‘s recent decree to extend business-wrecking shelter-in-place orders into May with no timetable for returning to normal.

Gaston County Commissioner Tracy Philbeck confirmed the county’s decision on Wednesday morning, citing the less-than-projected impact of the coronavirus pandemic, paired with the potential for economic disaster.

In a news conference, Philbeck said that allowing the shut-down to continue would mean “we will not have anything to come back to,” reported WSOC.

Philbeck said he was encouraged to see many other counties following suit by openly opposing the order to extend lock-downs through May 8 at the earliest.

Even Cooper’s fellow party-members criticized the governor for moving too slow.

“We have had hurricane after hurricane. And this is not going away after six months,” said Robeson Commissioner Tom Taylor, a Democrat, according to the Civitas Institute. “I just don’t know how much more we can take.”

But underscoring the level of uncertainty that the virus had brought with it, one of the state’s most prominent Republicans, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, whose own re-election is at stake in November, urged a more cautious approach.

Tillis said that Cooper’s order had been consistent with the federal guidelines established by President Donald Trump for a gradual reopening.

“While families and small businesses are hurting, the worst thing that could happen is for us to have a significantly worse second spike that results in more loss of life and forces another shutdown of our economy,” he said, according to the Civitas Institute.

Roy Cooper / IMAGE: MSNBC via YouTube

Cooper has faced several protests, most notably by a Facebook-driven group called ReOpen NC, which staged its third anti-shut-down rally on Tuesday in the state capital of Raleigh.

Speakers at the event emphasized that the time had come to resist the governor’s unconstitutional mandates.

“Defy him. ’Cause I happen to know some lawyers who have kicked Roy Cooper’s ass before, and we will kick his ass again,” said University of North Carolina-Wilmington professor Mike Adams, an outspoken civil-liberties advocate, during the event.

GOP leaders including US Rep. Dan Bishop, whose district includes areas just east of Gaston County, have criticized Cooper for lacking transparency in detailing how he arrived at his decision to extend the order.

“He doesn’t give us data or the models that are underlying his evaluation,” Bishop told Newsmax TV on Friday in response to Cooper’s announcement.

Bishop noted that the order “doesn’t really say that we’re reopening on May 8,” but only that Cooper would reassess the situation then before determining whether to gradually phase the state into economic recovery.

“The invasiveness, the sort of lack of a clear plan … is very troubling,” Bishop said.

Philbeck said the current numbers not only fail to justify, but contradict Cooper’s supposed rationale for taking the drastic action.

“I would be derelict in my duty and continue to support something that the data … doesn’t lend itself to,” he said. “We can protect the health of our citizens while at the same time putting our citizens back to work.”

Both Gaston County and Bishop’s 9th Congressional District are part of the greater Charlotte metropolitan area, which is slated to host the Republican National Convention in August.

Charlotte’s Spectrum Center, planned site of the 2020 Republican National Convention / PHOTO: Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines

Partisan rifts over the virus response simmered below the surface during a Charlotte city council debate Monday over whether to accept a $50 million federal grant to provide RNC convention security, reported Charlotte Business Journal.

Democrats on the council who opposed the grant suggested that the refusal would make a statement that the city was reneging on its commitment to host the convention.

But others argued that the city had no authority to decide whether to cancel the event due to the pandemic and would wind up being on the hook itself if it refused the funding.

The council voted 6-5 to accept the grant.

The debate raging in the Tarheel State mirrors that taking place nationwide as shutdown fatigue grows and tensions build.

Even in far-left California, one of the leading voices of the GOP opposition predicted that Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s lock-down orders may soon backfire reported Fox News.

Tom Del Beccaro, former chair of California’s state Republican Party, said Newsom’s orders were being applied inconsistently at the local level, resulting in a spate of lawsuits.

“The district attorneys and certain sheriffs aren’t enforcing Gavin Newsom’s rules, so I think things are going to unravel for him,” Beccaro said.

Judge Shoots Down Va. Gov. Northam’s Order to Close Gun Range

Contributing Writer
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‘The governor appears to argue that, when he declares a state of emergency, he can ignore any law … even laws designed to limit his power during a state of emergency…’

Judge Shoots Down Va. Gov. Northam’s Order to Close Gun Range
Ralph Northam / IMAGE: Washington Post

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) A Virginia judge has exempted an indoor gun range from Gov. Ralph Northam’s strict executive order that closed all “non-essential” businesses statewide.

Northam is one of the most activist Democratic governors in the country and has a history of pursuing—and losing—controversial gun-grab  policies.

Despite having faced massive protests over his gun proposals in January and February, he used the occasion of the coronavirus pandemic to sign a portion of his radical gun-control into law while gun-rights demonstrators would have been prohibited from gathering.

State Democrats already had sought in January to prohibit gun ranges—a move seen as a slap to the National Rifle Association, which is headquartered in Fairfax County and maintains a 15-booth shooting range at the facility.

Failing to get traction on that job-killing measure, though, Northam was quick to shutter gun-range facilities as part of his shelter-in-place orders.

On Friday, he lost again when a Lynchburg Circuit Court checked his latest Second Amendment overreach.

The court ruling stated that proper firearm training and practice at a range is “fundamental” to the right to keep and bear arms.

“The governor appears to argue that, when he declares a state of emergency, he can ignore any law that limits his power, even laws designed to limit his power during a state of emergency,” wrote Judge Frank Patrick Yeatts.

“The court cannot agree with such an expansive interpretation of the governor’s authority,” he said.

A gun-rights group called the Virginia Citizens Defense League brought the case on behalf of SafeSide Tactical, a Lynchburg indoor shooting range.

The group argued that Northam’s mandatory closure violated the state constitution, which incorporates the federal constitutional right to bear arms. Accordingly, Northam had no authority to infringe on the protected rights of Virginians even under a state of emergency.

The state attorney general’s office, led by AG Mark Herring, responded by saying that shooting ranges are separate from the Second Amendment and the closures were a matter of public safety. But the judge had no patience for the state’s justification.

After the embarrassing loss, Herring, another controversial Virginia Democrat, fired-off an angry statement.

“Governor Northam’s efforts to save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19 are necessary and proving to be effective, but unfortunately, the gun lobby believes the ability to shoot a gun indoors during this pandemic is worth risking further spread of the virus and making Virginia communities and families less safe,” said Herring.

Contrary to Herring’s media statement, the Citizens Defense League’s lawsuit asked the court to allow shooting ranges to reopen as long as they maintain social distancing and limit patrons to 10 or fewer, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A lawyer for the gun-rights group said, “We’re not seeking to permit indoor ranges to engage in business in a matter that creates any more risk of transmission than operating an electronic store or a liquor store or a Walmart.”

While the ruling was limited to SafeSide Tactical, it opens the door for other gun ranges to sue the Northam administration.

In addition to Second Amendment advocacy, some First Amendment groups also have fought back against Virginia’s order.

A small church on remote Chincoteague Island filed a religious-freedom suit after its service of 16 members, all of whom were practicing safe social-distancing, was forcibly shut down during pre-Easter services.

Northam was forced to issue a firm denial last week after rumors circulated on social media that he had been riding out the quarantine at his second home, a vacation property on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

He said photos showing vehicles parked at his beach house in the posh Pirate’s Cove resort community were likely neighbors who had permission to park there.

“These rumors are absolutely false. Gov. Northam has been working on behalf of Virginians seven days a week and has not left the Commonwealth since the stay-home order went into place,” said a statement.

” Anything else is a lie,” it continued. “People spread lies all the time for political gain, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

NYC Tailor Ignores Shelter Order: ‘I’m Opening Come Hell or High Water’

Contributing Author
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‘I spray my Lysol like I spray my Chanel cologne for men…’

NYC Tailor Reopens Despite Shelter-in-Place Order: 'I'm Opening Come Hell or High Water'
Eliot Rabin / IMAGE: Fox News via YouTube

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) A tailor in New York City opened his shop for business last week despite the city’s shelter-in-place order, arguing that the government doesn’t have the right to decide which businesses are essential, and which ones aren’t.

“I’m opening my doors come hell or high water,” 78-year-old Eliot Rabin, who owns an Upper East Side boutique, called Peter Elliot. “Why is a liquor store essential and I’m not?” Rabin told the New York Post.

Rabin said he’s laid off 12 employees from his 21-member staff, some of whom have been with him for 35 years—yet he hasn’t received a dime of financial assistance.

“We’ve applied for every loan, every break … to no avail. We got bubkes,” he said.

Now he needs to do what’s right for his business and employees, Rabin explained, adding that his store will adhere to the federal government’s health guidelines and that the health of his employees will continue to be his top priority.

He only has two employees in the store at a time, and each is expected to wear a medical mask while working.

Rabin also plans to limit how many customers he has in the store at a time, according to the Post.

“I spray my Lysol like I spray my Chanel cologne for men,” Rabin said.

Several customers have returned to Rabin’s store since he reopened, he told the Post, and Rabin has already begun to receive requests for large social gatherings in the near future, such as bar mitzvahs and weddings.

Some of his clients are still worried that they’ll get in trouble, but Rabin said he isn’t worried.

“If I do get in trouble, it will be for the right reasons. What are they going to do? Yell and scream at me? Fine me $500?” Rabin said.

“It would be worth it, for me to be able to open my mouth and say this is not equitable,” he continued. “If they try to arrest me, I’ll say, ‘Am I in a police state now?’ They’re not going to arrest me.”

Rabin said the only thing he’s worried about is doing what’s right for his business and his employees.

“I’m fighting for the soul of my company and my people,” he said. “I’m doing what I think is right to protect my business and employees from this disaster.”

Bill Gates Defends China, Downplays ‘Unfair’ COVID Criticism

Contributing Author
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‘This is all a lie…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates defended communist China’s response to the coronavirus and called criticism of the regime “incorrect” and “unfair.”

China “did a lot of things right at the beginning,” Gates claimed during an interview with CNN, while the U.S. response was “particularly poor.”

And when asked how he’d respond to charges that China hid COVID-19 from the world and then lied about the virus’s seriousness repeatedly, Gates said that these charges are just a “distraction.”

“Like any country where a virus first shows up, they can look back and see where they missed some things,” Gates said of the Chinese Communist Party. “I think there’s a lot of incorrect and unfair things said.”

There is a great deal of evidence that Chinese authorities have been lying about the virus since the start of the outbreak late last year in Wuhan. They then censored and reprimanded Chinese whistleblowers who tried to alert the rest of the world, and expelled all U.S. journalists from the country when they began asking questions.

Gates’s defense of China, however, has been very popular among one group of people: Chinese state propagandists. Chen Weihua, China Daily’s European Union bureau chief, shared a clip of Gates’s CNN interview on Twitter and praised Gates for blasting “Trump’s blame game.”

CUOMO: NY Has Been ‘Bailing Out’ Other States ‘For Decades’

Contributing Author
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‘It’s not about money, but if you want to make it about money, you’re making a mistake because you’re going to lose…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) New York’s Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo responded to President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the federal government should withhold bail-outs from fiscally irresponsible, “Democrat run” states by claiming the state of New York has been “bailing out” other states “for decades.”

Cuomo said it’s “repugnant” to compare the “dollars and cents” contributions of individual states, but added that an actual tally would show New York repeatedly contributing more than the federal government or any other state.

“It’s not the time to be saying ‘Well you put in a dollar more than I did, or I put in $5 more than you did.’ … But if you want to go to who’s getting bailed out and who paid what, nobody would be bailing out New York state,” Cuomo said during Tuesday’s press briefing.

“New York state has been bailing them out every year for decades,” he continued. “If you want to do an analysis of who is a giver and who is a taker, we are the No. 1 giver.”

Cuomo went on to claim that for every $1 New York state gives to the federal government, it receives 91 cents back.

The other “giver states” include New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and California, according to Cuomo, while the “taker states” include Kentucky and the “southeast part of the country,” he said.

“It’s not about money, but if you want to make it about money, you’re making a mistake because you’re going to lose on a tally sheet,” Cuomo added. “And it’s not even going to be close.”

Trump suggested on Monday that the federal government should not be responsible for bailing out liberal states that continuously mismanage federal funds.

This idea is similar to one proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., last week, when he argued that states should be able to declare bankruptcy in order to prevent the federal government from sinking further into debt.

UNC Prof. Tells Protesters to RESIST Dem. Governor’s Shut-Down Order

Ben Sellers
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‘I’ve got news for you: It is time to disobey the governor en masse…’

Note: Article contains mild profanity

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Civil-liberties advocate Mike Adams told a crowd at Tuesday’s ReOpen NC rally that the time for civil disobedience against North Carolina’s Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper had arrived.

“I’ve got news for you: It is time to disobey the governor en masse,” he said at the anti-lockdown protest in downtown Raleigh, the state capital.

“Open up your business. Defy him,” Adams continued. “Open up your church. Defy him. ’Cause I happen to know some lawyers who have kicked Roy Cooper’s ass before, and we will kick his ass again.”

Adams, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, is also a contributor to right-wing media outlets like Townhall and the Daily Wire.

He opened with a personal story about his fight against then-state Attorney General Cooper, who astoundingly chose to defend UNCW after it tried to deny Adams a promotion due to his public advocacy.

“He decided to defend the university’s unconstitutional attacks on my point of view,” Adams recalled. “And he went to the extreme of saying that the university could engage in viewpoint discrimination against professors who wrote private columns on their own time.”

Eventually, with the support of watchdog groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, Adams prevailed in his lawsuit, taking his case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“After seven years of fighting Roy Cooper, I went in front of a federal jury … and it took that jury less than two hours for us to kick Roy Cooper’s ass,” he said.

Adams said he spent most of the $50,000 in back pay he received buying handguns and shotguns at Bass Pro Shops “cause I love the Second Amendment as much as I love the First.”

The state-funded school also paid more than $700,000 in legal fees to Adams’ attorneys, he said.

“And somehow, after kicking Roy Cooper’s ass, that son of a bitch got elected governor,” he added. “How did that happen?”

A Growing Movement

Tuesday’s event went on with an enthusiastic turnout despite an announcement from one of the group organizers, Audrey Whitlock, that she had just completed a two-week quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Whitlock noted that she was asymptomatic during her entire bout with the virus and that she had not attended any of the prior rallies.

Increasingly, scientific consensus—based on random testing in New York, Boston and other areas—has embraced the theory that a far larger swath of the population than initially projected may already have contracted the contagious virus and may be helping the natural process of developing “herd immunity” against it.

Nonetheless, Whitlock’s announcement became a focal point for left-wing media, dripping with schadenfreude—including the newly left-wing Drudge Report, which prominently placed the item at the top of its home page Monday night.

The ReOpen NC group has organized at least two prior events, one of which resulted in the arrest of a demonstrator, prompting Raleigh police to offer a tweeted explanation that went viral, helping fuel the growing resistance movement.

Cooper and the law-enforcement authorities appear to have since dialed back their suppression of the demonstrations. Last week’s event was attended by prominent US Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican who represents the state’s 9th District.

Other states have followed suit, adding pressure to both red- and blue-state governors to start dialing back their shelter-in-place restriction as economic fallout in most parts of the country threatens to eclipse the suffering caused by the pandemic itself.

Sen. Rick Scott Bashes COVID Bailouts for Reckless Blue-State Spending

Contributing Writer
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‘American families make responsible budgetary decisions every day…’

FL Gov. Rick Scott Calls on FBI Chief to Resign for Ignoring Shooter Warnings
Rick Scott/photo by MyFWCmedia (CC)

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Congress is spending trillions of taxpayer dollars to combat mass unemployment and economic losses caused by the Wuhan coronavirus.

But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a self-made multimillionaire businessman, is warning about efforts to use new funding to bailout financially incompetent states.

“One thing we absolutely shouldn’t do is shield states from the consequences of their own bad budgetary decisions over the past few decades,” Scott wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Scott alluded to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s recent line in the sand regarding vastly over-committed state pension programs designed to enrich government workers and public-sector labor unions.

“Democrats predictably expressed outrage,” said Scott.

But the outrage is a fig leaf for a blatant cash-grab, he said.

In Illinois, Moody’s Investors Service calculated the state’s pension debt is in excess of 500 percent of its 2018 fiscal year revenues. California and New York face similar pension time-bombs.

But ignoring the source of the problem—spending on misguided priorities like generous public benefits for illegal immigrants—New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose characterized the call for fiscal restraint as telling police officers and firefighters to “drop dead.”

“Leader McConnell said to our cities and states, to our cops and firemen and teachers, he told them to drop dead,” Rose said on the House floor. “Well, why don’t we put politics aside, rise up, and tell him that we put the country first.”

House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were able to divert billions of dollars for special interests allies and donors by holding up the emergency $2.2-trillion CARES Act, also known as the Wuhan virus stimulus package.

Now that the small-business portion called the Paycheck Protection Program has exhausted its allotted funding, Democrats are once again holding up badly needed support for selfish reasons.

“That kind of rhetoric only distracts from Democrats’ true aim: using federal taxpayer dollars to bail out poorly run states—typically, states controlled by Democrats,” said Scott.

As the former governor of Florida, Scott resisted pressure from labor unions, political opponents and the news media to accumulate unaffordable public-pension debt. Instead, he presided over one of the nation’s most solvent public-pension funds during his two terms in office.

“American families make responsible budgetary decisions every day,” he said. “Well-managed states like Florida have done it for years. It’s time for New York, Illinois and California to do the same.”

Lib. Media Face Backlash for Defending Biden over Rape Accusation

Ben Sellers
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‘It’s not clear whether or not Biden’s personal silence is being rethought amid the ongoing Reade controversy. But here’s what is clear: It should be…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) The backlash against left-wing media who have been complicit in the cover-up of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden‘s rape scandal is starting to take hold.

The Washington Post faced sharp criticism for its recent attempt to discredit rape victim Tara Reade by suggesting her accusations against Biden related to a 1993 assault were being “amplified” by “Trump allies” for political purposes.

According to Fox News, the paper falsely claimed that recent scoops were being promulgated by supporters of President Donald Trump when, in fact, they had hailed from two journalists with notable left-wing ties.

Leading the way were The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald, most famous for his reporting on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden; and Business Insider’s Rich McHugh, who had worked with Ronan Farrow on the stories that brought down Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein.

Joe Biden poses with Stephanie Carter and her husband, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter. / IMAGE: Wochit News via YouTube

The Post‘s lopsided coverage, largely sympathetic to Biden, echoed an earlier “investigative” effort at the New York Times, which also was severely scorned for its lackluster attempt to downplay the charges.

Both stories insisted on painting a false equivalency with allegations against Trump, while glossing over the double-standards that they applied in their own aggressive coverage of uncorroborated accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Times later was caught stealth-editing its piece to omit references to prior Biden accusations of sexual misconduct. The paper admitted that the Biden campaign had pressured it to do so.

Breaking Rank

Meanwhile, some liberals, realizing their position vis-a-vis Biden and the earlier #MeToo movement is unsupportable, have spoken out against media outlets, politicians and celebrities for maintaining radio silence even as several different sources have corroborated Reade’s credible account.

CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza was the latest to disavow his own network’s editorial policy of selective outrage.

“[O]ver the last few days, Reade’s claim appears to have jumped to a new level,” Cillizza wrote in a opinion piece, making reference to a newly revealed archival tape of Reade’s now-deceased mother calling in to Larry King Live for advice.

“It’s not clear whether or not Biden’s personal silence is being rethought amid the ongoing Reade controversy,” Cillizza went on to say. “But here’s what is clear: It should be.”

Cillizza managed to work in yet another reference to the unsubstantiated claims against Trump. Unlike with Reade’s accusation against Biden, none of those against Trump appear to have been reported at the time, complicating efforts to prove that the alleged incidents, if true, were non-consensual.

But Cillizza recognized that regardless of whether the Left could gain any moral high ground by attacking Trump’s conduct, the decision to reject their own set of newly fashioned standards made the entire effort seem disingenuous and politically motivated.

Further complicating matters, he added, was Biden’s own past grandstanding on the issue of sexual assault, which threatened to expose him as either a liar or a hypocrite, regardless of whether Reade’s account withstood scrutiny.

Cillizza noted that Biden had pledged to set a higher bar for leadership, despite the longstanding evidence that he has repeatedly engaged in corrupt business practices throughout his five decades in Washington, D.C.

“We need presidential leadership that’s honest, trusted, truthful and steady,” Cillizza quoted Biden as saying. “If I’m given the honor of becoming your president, I promise you I’ll strive to give the nation that leadership every day.”

That, Cillizza insisted, meant doing more than just meeting the bar set by Trump—who, in turn, was meeting the bar set by Bill and Hillary Clinton and other past Democrat elites.

“At the core of Biden’s messaging in this campaign is the need to bring respect and dignity back into the White House and the country,” Cillizza claimed, “to rid America off the cynicism and hypocrisy of Trump’s presidency, to expunge the idea that the President doesn’t have to follow the rules.”

A Troubling Track Record

CNN, NYT, Propagand
Hunter and Joe Biden / IMAGE: Donald J Trump via Youtube

In addition to his rape accusation, Biden has been criticized repeatedly for his inappropriate touching of women and girls, often in plain sight.

And he has been implicated in several personal scandals involving his family members who have used their status for personal gain or to avoid serious accountability.

Among them, most notably, is his son Hunter, who even while dealing with a serious drug and sex addiction, was offered millions of dollars to serve on the board of a corrupt Ukrainian energy company.

Hunter has been involved in at least two police episodes, including a serious car crash while under the influence, that he avoided consequences for. He has admitted to having bought crack in Los Angeles’s skid row while being held at gunpoint by a homeless man. And he was forced to settle with a former Washington, D.C., stripper who sued him for child support after Hunter denied the love-child was his.

Meanwhile, Biden has helped his brother Frank avoid paying a million-dollar wrongful death verdict to two girls whose father was killed while Frank and a young companion were speeding under the influence on a dark, unmarked California road.

Frank, who was in his 40s at the time, picked up a 25-year-old grocery clerk named Jason Turton, whom he had just met, as well as two female companions. Turton was behind the wheel of Frank’s rented Jaguar going more than 80 mph in a 35 zone. After Frank told him to “punch it,” they hit Michael Albano, a single parent with two teenage daughters. Both men were heavily intoxicated at the time.

Joe Biden has refused to involve himself in the legal settlement, claiming when confronted that Frank does not have the financial means to pay. However, Frank—now a Florida attorney—has been involved in several other profitable business ventures using his brother’s name and political ties to cash in. He is believed to keep his assets in offshore accounts.

While Cillizza conveniently ignored these problematic episodes, he did acknowledge that the presumptive Democratic nominee himself had faced prior serious accusations from other women about his creepy behavior.

“Given both his pledge to do better than Trump—in every aspect of being president—and accusations of improper touching that have surfaced in the past, the allegations by Reade are not the sort of thing Biden can or should be allowed to deny via a senior female campaign staffer,” Cillizza said.

Lawmakers, Scholars Offer Ways to Seize China’s Assets to Pay for COVID

Contributing Writer
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‘We should engage our allies to isolate China economically and make them pay for their deadly bad-faith actions in the world arena…’

Sen. Rick Scott Wants WHO Investigated for Parroting China's Coronavirus Lies
Xi Jinping / IMAGE: Sky News Australia via Youtube

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) China lied, Americans died. Now it’s time to pay for it.

That’s the view of a growing consensus of lawmakers, conservative scholars and diverse voting blocs as the nation continues to grapple with the incredible costs of the Wuhan coronavirus.

President Donald Trump also has broached the idea in his recent coronavirus press briefings.

Making China pay wouldn’t be that difficult, according to a number of recently published op-eds and legislative proposals. With a few keystrokes, vast sums of Chinese assets could be electronically seized. The question is whether the U.S. government has the will to do it.

New Mexico U.S. Senate candidate Gavin Clarkson recently offered a blueprint.

“Based on China’s culpability, President Trump and Secretary Steven Mnuchin should immediately extract reimbursement, starting with the $1.1 trillion in U.S. Treasury Department bonds Communist China currently holds,” Clarkson wrote in the Washington Examiner.

The approach would be especially convenient given treasury bonds are no longer paper assets but are recorded digitally at the Depository Trust Corporation.

The plan calls for making it illegal for China to buy, hold or sell any U.S. treasuries, including any subsidiary entities or agents acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Treasury Department could then confiscate Chinese-owned bonds, resell them and still require China to pay its remaining debt obligations from the bonds.

The proceeds from an immediate resale could be redirected to “reimburse U.S. taxpayers for the unprecedented and catastrophic costs of this pandemic,” said Clarkson, who formerly served as the deputy assistant secretary for policy and economic development in the Trump administration.

President Trump could unilaterally enforce the Wuhan virus reimbursement proposal by virtue of his national emergency declaration on March 13.

“Pursuant to that statute, seized assets can then be liquidated and the proceeds used to further the interests of the United States,” said Clarkson.

Using alliances and foreign policy leverage to multiply U.S. efforts to hold China accountable would deal a crushing blow to the Chinese economy if they resisted paying up. In a separate op-ed, Clarkson recommended invoking NATO’s Article V to rally support.

The “collective defense” provision was established to combat communist threats emanating from the Soviet Union after World War II. But modern threats from communist China should also apply, he argued.

“We should engage our [European] allies to isolate China economically and make them pay for their deadly bad-faith actions in the world arena. This effect would be even more devastating than going it alone,” he wrote.

Conservative scholar John Yoo also sees an opportunity to seize Chinese assets. In a National Review article, republished at the American Enterprise Institute, Yoo asserted that the Trump administration “could also seize the assets of Chinese state-owned companies.”

As part of its global “Belt and Road Initiative,” China has invested and loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to poor countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America for infrastructure projects through Chinese-backed companies.

Since 2013, the initiative has allowed China to gain a foothold in Third-World countries around the world and take over their strategic foreign ports and facilities once Belt and Road debts are due.

“The U.S. could turn this strategy on its head by supporting the expropriation of these assets by legal process and the cancellation of these debts as compensation for coronavirus losses,” Yoo wrote.

Seizing the Chinese-owned property would allow the U.S. to use international law to its advantage, he said.

“Let the Chinese Communist Party try to claim, outside its own borders, just as it does within them, that it can deny common sense and blame the very victims of its wrongdoing for the worst public-health catastrophe in a century,” Yoo wrote.

Striking while the iron is hot may be the best course of action for the Trump administration.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans blame China for the Wuhan virus, and 54 percent want China to pay for the damage its caused. Fifty-two percent of Americans even agree with the president’s characterization of the “China virus.”

Only Democrats are standing in the way, according to polls. Democrats and the mainstream anti-Trump news media have also sided with the World Health Organization, which continues to parrot Chinese disinformation about the origins of the Wuhan virus and its spread.

But that shouldn’t deter the Trump administration from seizing China’s assets, proponents say.

“There should be a heavy price to pay when your negligence harms the entire world,” said Clarkson.

Trump Suggests Withholding Aid From Fiscally Irresponsible, ‘Democrat Run’ States

Contributing Author
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‘There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump suggested via Twitter on Monday that the federal government should not bail out fiscally irresponsible states and cities run by Democrats.

Trump’s suggestion comes amid an ongoing battle between congressional leaders over how much aid Congress should give to the states as they begin to reopen.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called for a “pause” on further aid, and suggested that the federal government should let cash-strapped states go bankrupt.

“I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” McConnell told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last week.

“There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations,” he said.

States cannot technically declare bankruptcy to avoid their financial obligations, but McConnell suggested creating a way for them to do so rather than driving the federal government further into debt to bail them out.

“I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route,” he said. “It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available.”

Trump Suggests Withholding Federal Aid From Fiscally Irresponsible, 'Democrat Run' States
California Gov. Gavin Newsom shakes hands with President Donald Trump while surveying California’s wildfire damage. / IMAGE: FOX 11 Los Angeles via YouTube

McConnell’s remarks drew condemnation from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said forcing states to declare bankruptcy would be “one of the saddest, really dumb” policies ever adopted.

“OK, let’s have all the states declare bankruptcy—that’s the way to bring the national economy back,” Cuomo said sarcastically during a press briefing last week.

Cuomo, whose state has been the epicenter of the U.S. pandemic, has been particularly generous with federal resources, offering his supply of thousands of ventilators to other states after previously demanding 30,000 from Trump.

He also is one of several sanctuary-state governors, along with Democrat Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Phil Murphy of New Jersey who, in spite of the critical need to address health spending, have pledged to provide financial support to illegal immigrants.

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