WaPo Repeatedly Calls Out Biden’s Coronavirus Lies

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‘The blatant way the Biden camp isolated [Trump’s] remarks about the American Dream pushed us to Four Pinocchios…’

Kamala Harris Awarded 'Four Pinocchios' For Dishonest Claim About Trump's Tax Cut(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Joe Biden has a problem telling the truth about the Wuhan virus and President Donald Trump.

But it’s not the Trump administration, Fox News, or the president’s reelection campaign that’s confronting him about it.

It’s the Washington Post.

The Jeff Bezos-owned “resistance” newspaper has been an intense critic of Trump, even publishing leaked classified information over the past three years to advance the false notion that Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

But not even the Post can abide Biden’s disinformation.

The former vice president and presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee has been mostly missing in action during the Wuhan virus emergency. His public appearances have been limited to one online press conference a week where he answers only a few selected questions, and occasional media appearances from his home.

First, Biden received “Four Pinocchios” from Post fact-checkers, the highest dishonesty rating, for a video purporting to show Trump calling the coronavirus a hoax.

“The video shows a montage of intentionally unflattering clips of President Trump,” the fact-check says, adding, “At the 10-second mark, the camera shows a tight shot of the president saying ‘coronavirus’ and then cuts to a wide shot where he says, ‘this is their new hoax.’”

In truth, the video was intentionally spliced to put the words “coronavirus” and “hoax” together.

“Ultimately, the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, the fact that Trump had clarified his comments on the matter before the ad was released, and the blatant way the Biden camp isolated his remarks about the American Dream pushed us to Four Pinocchios,” the Post said.

Separately, Biden received “Three Pinocchios” for claiming the Trump administration failed to even try to get U.S. infectious disease experts into China during the initial Wuhan outbreak.

“Early on in this crisis, I said, among others, that you know you should get into China and get our experts there,” Biden told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “There was no effort to do that.”

But that was also false. White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien was on record saying that the administration had tried multiple times to send CDC and other US medical and public health officials to China, but they were stonewalled.

The Post explained that the effort came from “the presidential level.”

Biden received yet another “Four Pinocchios” when a top Biden advisor, speaking on his behalf, said that President Trump had “silenced” a senior CDC official from talking about the virus.

“Far from being silenced, [the CDC official] kept doing her telephone briefings with reporters — on Feb. 28, Feb. 29, March 3 and March 9,” the paper reported. “She also appeared in four videos shared on social media, such as this one from March 14.”

Attention-Starved Dem. Candidate Seeks COVID Policy Meeting w/ Trump
Joe Biden / IMAGE: Biden for President via AP

Biden has also said that the Trump administration eliminated the “Obama-Biden administration” National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense, which would have helped prepare for the coronavirus pandemic.

“Donald Trump eliminated it — and now we’re paying the price,” he said.

But that’s also false.

“The office — as set up by Obama — was folded into another office,” the Post reported. “The staff slots did not disappear.

Even PolitiFact has confronted Biden. The normally anti-Trump “fact-checker” recently took issue with Biden’s claim that the Trump administration rejected WHO coronavirus test kits.

“We refused them. We did not want to buy them,” he told CNN.

However, a WHO spokesperson said, “No discussions have occurred between WHO and CDC about WHO providing COVID-19 tests to the United States.”

More & More Congress Members Want China Punished Over Virus

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‘Since day one, the Chinese Communist Party intentionally lied to the world about the origin of this pandemic…’

Another Public Official Calls for China to be Held Accountable for Wuhan Virus
John Curtis/IMAGE: YouTube

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) U.S. Rep. John Curtis has joined a growing list of elected officials calling for China to be held accountable for the Wuhan virus catastrophe.

The Utah Republican introduced legislation last week that would sanction any senior foreign official responsible for deliberately concealing health data regarding a pandemic.

The legislation would also sanction any official who profited off of the concealment of health information, and anyone acting on their behalf, including revoking their visas and seizing assets.

Curtis named the bill after Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan physician who was punished by the Chinese Communist Party for alerting others about the deadly super virus in the earliest days of the outbreak.

“The Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act—named after the heroic Chinese doctor whistleblower—will ensure that dictators and their cronies think twice before once allowing a local health crisis spiral out of control into a pandemic that endangers the globe,” said Curtis.

Curtis now joins GOP Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas in filing legislation aimed at holding China responsible.

Hawley has introduced a bicameral resolution calling for an “international investigation” into the Chinese government’s devious cover-up of the disease, and for China to reimburse all nations impacted by the CCP’s lies and corruption.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, filed companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“Since day one, the Chinese Communist Party intentionally lied to the world about the origin of this pandemic,” Hawley said in a statement.

Cotton, a decorated Afghan War veteran, has filed legislation to bring America’s pharmaceutical supply chain home and was first to rip the CCP for its handling of the Wuhan virus.

“If they had acted quickly, rather than lying to their own people, suppressing the whistleblowers and lying to the world, then not only China, but U.S. and other scientists and researchers and epidemiologists and other experts from around the world could have helped them contain this in Wuhan or in Hubei province,” said Cotton.

And Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned the Chinese Communist Party that the U.S. trade relationship with China  will “change” if the nation does not ban wet markets, the New York Post reported.

“I don’t think this came from a Chinese military lab, but these wet markets are gross, they’re just absolutely disgusting, selling exotic animals that transmit viruses from animals to human beings,” he said on “Fox and Friends” last week. “Those things need to shut down.”

Curtis said his sanctions bill will “ensure that dictators and their cronies think twice before allowing a local health crisis spiral out of control.”

Ky. Judges Order Citizens to Wear Ankle Monitors to Force Social Distancing

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‘We can monitor activity…to make sure they’re not further affecting the community…’

Kentucky Judges Ordering Citizens to Wear Ankle Monitors to Force Social Distancing
ankle monitor/IMAGE: YouTube

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) A Kentucky judge has ordered all Louisville residents who have been exposed to the Wuhan virus to wear ankle monitors, even if they have not tested positive.

Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Angela Bisig issued the ruling in response to one Louisville resident’s refusal to self-quarantine, according to CNN.

The resident, identified as D.L. in the court order, is living with “someone who has tested positive for the illness and another person who is a presumptive case,” according to Dr. Sarah Moyer, director of the state’s health department.

Because D.L. continued to move about in the community, Bisig ordered the Department of Corrections to assign D.L. a global positioning device for the next two weeks. If D.L. leaves isolation, he or she could be criminally charged, according to the order.

It is unclear whether D.L. has tested positive for COVID-19.

There are at least three other Louisville residents who have been similarly fitted with ankle monitors, according to Fox News.

Two of these residents live in the same home, and one tested positive for COVID-19 while the other person tested negative. And another man was put under house arrest for going to the store after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s administration justified these orders as a public safety necessity.

“The home incarceration program is well-suited for this,” said Amy Hess, the city’s chief of public services, in a Facebook live stream. “It provides us with the proper amount of distancing. We can monitor activity after [the monitoring device] gets affixed to them … to make sure they’re not further affecting the community. We would prefer not to have to do it at all.”

Jefferson County’s courts now have an on-call judge for these types of cases, according to WDRB, which means more residents could be forced to wear ankle monitors over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, the state of Kentucky plans to release close to 200 prisoners over the next few weeks, according to Michael Brown, the secretary of the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

Tracy Dotson, spokesman for a Louisville police union, questioned the ethics of tracking Louisville residents with ankle monitors — especially since they have not been charged with a crime.

“Our mandate is once people are charged with a crime, we’re to do whatever it is we do with them,” he told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “These people aren’t charged with a crime. For my people on the ground, that’s a concern for them.”

NC Gov. Closes Breweries But Keeps ‘Essential’ Gov’t-Run Liquor Stores Open

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‘Bars and restaurants are closed so there’s no other real place to get alcohol and people are stuck at home…’

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Roy Cooper/Photo by NCDOTcommunications (CC)

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper ordered “non-essential” businesses to close on Friday, as part of a statewide stay-at-home executive action intended to stop the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus.

“This pandemic is a war,” he said.

But while private breweries—and the restaurants and bars they serve—have to shutter their doors, government-run liquor stores curiously fall into the “essential” category and will remain open for business.

Why? Because Cooper says so.

North Carolina is one of 17 alcohol “control” states. It has an Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission that keeps a tight grip on the sale, purchase, transportation, manufacture, consumption and possession of all alcoholic beverages in the state.

The ABC Commission is also housed within the Department of Public Safety, and that agency reports directly to the governor’s office.

Closing private breweries and their clients while keeping government-backed liquors stores open makes a lot more sense when considering Cooper’s ability to crush competition.

Especially since alcohol sales are through the roof.

“Bars and restaurants are closed so there’s no other real place to get alcohol and people are stuck at home,” reported Newsweek.

According to a new Neilson’s report, sales are up 55 percent from this time last year and online orders are up 243 percent.

But “non-essential” businesses like the Sugar Creek Brewing Company in Charlotte are getting cut out of the coronavirus boom. And with no customers, and little ability to sell their inventory, the business is in serious jeopardy.

“I was blown away by the amount of beer we had. Death row is immediately what popped up into my head cause I knew there’s no possible way to get rid of all this beer,” co-owner Eric Flanigan told WCNC, a Charlotte NBC affiliate.

“Definitely scary you take it one day at a time,” co-owner Joe Vogelbacher said.

Now, Sugar Creek is trying to survive.

“It means so much to me; it represents my livelihood, the livelihood of all our employees and our craft,” said Vogelbacher.

Student Pro-Life Group Sues Ga. Tech for Refusing to Fund Speech by MLK’s Niece

Joshua Paladino
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‘Under such a standard, MLK himself would not be welcome on campus…’

Students for Life Chapter Sues Georgia Tech after Funding Denied for Alveda King Speech
Alveda King / Fox News via Youtube

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Georgia Tech’s campus pro-life group sued the university because the student government refused to fund a speech by Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece and a civil rights activist.
In the lawsuit, Students for Life said the student government rejected its request because King is “inherently religious,” like her uncle, reported Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that represents Students for Life.
“Public universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, but that marketplace can’t function if a university grants funding only to student groups whose views the university favors,” said ADF Legal Counsel Caleb Dalton in a press release.
“Under such a standard, MLK himself would not be welcome on campus,” Dalton said.
Members of Students for Life, like all other college students, pay fees for on-campus events, but they cannot choose what events the money supports.
“The Supreme Court made it clear 20 years ago that if public universities wish to force students to pay student activity fees, then those universities have a duty to ensure that the funds are distributed in a viewpoint-neutral manner,” Dalton said.
King, a former representative in Georgia’s state legislature, still spoke at the event. She talked about how students can defend civil rights, particularly the rights of the unborn, today.
ADF reported that Georgia Tech’s Student Government Association normally approves funding requests without debate, but the student association grilled Students for Life member Brian Cochran when he appealed for money.
The SGA said King’s message may offend students.
“The student government discriminated against the viewpoints of Students for Life and Ms. King in favor of the views of students the SGA members were afraid to offend,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom.
“Rather than exemplify this sort of hostility toward the First Amendment, universities should exemplify the importance of those freedoms,” he said. “When they don’t, they communicate to an entire generation that the Constitution doesn’t matter.”

GRAHAM: China Must Shut Down Wet Markets or Trade Relationship Will ‘Change’

Joshua Paladino
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‘It boggles my mind how, when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we just don’t shut it down…’

Graham Tells Republicans: 'We're Not Gonna Let You Down' on Dem. Accountability
Lindsey Graham / Fox News via YouTube

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned the Chinese Communist Party that the U.S. trade relationship with China  will “change” if the nation does not ban wet markets, the New York Post reported.
Graham said Tuesday on “Fox and Friends” that he planned to write a letter communicating the ultimatum to Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S.
Anthony Fauci, one of the leading disease experts on the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, echoed Graham’s concerns on Friday, saying the Chinese government should shut down wet markets, where vendors slaughter and sell wild animals, including bats, Fox News reported.
“It boggles my mind how, when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we just don’t shut it down,” Fauci said Friday on “Fox & Friends. “I don’t know what else has to happen to get us to appreciate that.”
Health officials suspect that the novel coronavirus, the source of the current pandemic crisis, originated in Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market from a bat that was carrying the disease.
But the Washington Times revealed on Monday that the Wuhan wet market is about three miles away from the world’s largest bat virus research facility.
The head researcher, Tian Junhua, said the facility has discovered and isolated about 2,000 virus strains in the past 12 years.
Graham dismissed the claim that the virus came from the nearby bat-research laboratory.
“I don’t think this came from a Chinese military lab, but these wet markets are gross, they’re just absolutely disgusting, selling exotic animals that transmit viruses from animals to human beings,” he said. “Those things need to shut down.”
Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, a wildlife and public health organization, described wet markets in more graphic detail: “You’ve got live animals, so there’s feces everywhere. There’s blood because of people chopping them up.”

Ah-Nold Not Happy His Liberal Successors in Calif. Cut His Emergency Pandemic Supplies Stockpile

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‘We have to be prepared, because we are the fifth largest economy in the world…’

Schwarzenegger to Sue Oil Companies for 'First-Degree Murder'
Arnold Schwarzenegger/Photo by Zero Emission Resource Organisation (CC)

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once built a $200-million stockpile of emergency pandemic equipment and supplies.

But the Republican “governator’s” progressive successor, Gov. Jerry Brown, terminated it.

Now, California is suffering from a sprawling Wuhan coronavirus outbreak without Schwarzenegger’s pandemic infrastructure, and state hospitals are facing the grim prospect of rationing care.

Worse, Brown and current Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have thrown their weight behind tens of billions of dollars in wasteful “green” energy programs while the cost of maintaining the state’s lifesaving breathing ventilators was a mere $5.8 million a year.

As public servants, “our ultimate responsibility is not just to make a budget balance, but to save lives,’’ Schwarzenegger told Politico on Tuesday.

The Hollywood mega-star turned GOP politician was referring to budget cuts Brown pushed on the Democratic-controlled state legislature in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

Why he chose to cut millions in pandemic preparedness programs while spearheading billions in literal train-to-nowhere projects is a question that should haunt Californians.

As of Thursday afternoon, California had 9,816 reported infections and 212 deaths. And health officials believe the worst is yet to come.

Between Brown and Newsom, $77 billion was wasted on an environmentally friendly bullet train that was supposed to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles. Except, it was never built and not a single passenger ever boarded the green transit boondoggle.

The average cost of a 90-minute shuttle flight is $149.

Schwarzenegger said the dismantling of his pandemic programs was “shortsighted,” which is perhaps a bipartisan euphemism given the seriousness of the times.

“I thought, ‘We have to be prepared, because we are the fifth largest economy in the world,’” he said.

Schwarzenegger’s pandemic proposals included three 200-bed mobile hospitals that could be rapidly deployed to virus hot-zones and provide advanced health care.

“Each hospital would be the size of a football field, with a surgery ward, intensive care unit and X-ray equipment,” wrote the Los Angeles Times.

Stockpiled supplies also included kits for an extra 21,000 critical-care beds and 2,400 portable breathing ventilators.

But those lifesaving ventilators are long gone, and the state is now in desperate need of them.

“The one treatment we know works are ventilators… so we need more,” Newsom said to Trump last week with hat-in-hand.

In light of the state leadership failures, Schwarzenegger urged Californians to stay home.

“Government can only do so much,” he said. “At the end of the day… it goes back to people power.”

LIB PUNDITS: Biden in ‘Terrible’ Position as Trump’s Leadership Stands Out

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‘You look at the economic situation and say, ‘How can an incumbent win in that?’ But, you know, no one’s blaming Trump for the damage…’

Progressive Left Alarmed at Biden’s Cognitive Decline
Joe Biden / IMAGE: MSNBC

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The coronavirus pandemic has left presidential candidate Joe Biden in a “terrible” electoral position, according to MSNBC’s John Heilemann.

“Frustration levels are super high there,” Heilemann said of the Biden campaign.

“The reality is that the former vice president is in a terrible position in the sense that he doesn’t have a platform,” Heilemann continued. “He doesn’t have real standing in this crisis.”

While Biden—whose health and cognitive functions already had registered concern before the pandemic spread—has spent the past several weeks in voluntary quarantine, voters are looking to President Donald Trump more than ever for leadership in the midst of this crisis.

So you look at, obviously, Donald Trump, who has the ability to dominate, for good or bad, has the ability to dominate coverage,” Heilemann explained. “He’s in the middle of the entire thing and will have this big platform and megaphone, bigger than ever.”

This big platform could result in a massive Republican voter turnout in November, said David Plouffe, a former Obama adviser.

“You look at the economic situation and say, ‘How can an incumbent win in that?’ But, you know, no one’s blaming Trump for the damage,” Plouffe told Fox News.

President Barack Obama, likewise, succeeded in his 2012 re-election by leveraging his incumbent bully pulpit to out-message GOP opponent Mitt Romney, despite having presided over a still-sputtering economy with double-digit unemployment.

Even if the Democrats were able to convince voters—as many have attempted—that Trump’s delayed response to the coronavirus was to blame for the crisis, the president will still pull large numbers of voters in important swing states, such as Michigan and Ohio, Plouffe said.

“Almost no matter what happens, [the question is] can Donald Trump win Wisconsin? Can he win Michigan? Can he win Pennsylvania? Can he win Florida?’ Sure, because his base is so solid,” Plouffe continued. “And I think he’s going to turn out voters almost at a historical level on his behalf, so that makes him very dangerous if you’re Joe Biden.”

Plouffe added that there’s nothing Biden can do to halt Trump’s momentum right now.

“He’s not a governor. He’s not the president. And truthfully, [New York Gov.] Andrew Cuomo, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom … Donald Trump — citizens want to hear from those folks because they’re the folks making decisions,” he said.

Some, in fact, have begun clamoring online for Democrat elites to “draft Cuomo” as the nominee by forcing a brokered party convention in defiance of the primary results.

Although his state has been the epicenter of the US pandemic spread, Cuomo has used regular press conferences to effectively rally the left-wing base and provide a much-needed counter-punch to Trump’s daily briefings.

Meanwhile, backing for Biden’s campaign has been lagging as of late. A March 31 survey revealed that 74% of Biden voters support him enthusiastically, while more than 86% of Trump’s supporters say they back the president enthusiastically.

This drop has left many Democrats nervous about Biden’s prospects.

“It’s the perfect cocktail of s**tstorm,” one Democratic strategist told The Hill.

“A pandemic no one expected, a horrible president at the helm, and a repeat of the 2016 primary with a candidate doing damage to his own party—no one wants to be the a**hole that sounds the alarm, but it’s pretty bad,” said the source.

In an attempt to stay in the national spotlight, Biden recently asked to speak with Trump about the federal government’s coronavirus response with the hope that Trump would “learn” a thing or two.

“We’ve been through this in a slightly different way in the past, and I hope they can learn some lessons from what [the Obama administration] did right and maybe what we did wrong,” Biden said during a virtual press briefing this week.

Schumer ‘Appalled’ By Trump Letter Calling Him a ‘Bad’ Senator

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‘No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was “appalled” over a letter from President Donald Trump, in which the president slammed Schumer as a “bad” senator who will soon be ousted by the left.

“If you spent less time on your ridiculous impeachment hoax, which went haplessly on forever and ended up going nowhere (except increasing my poll numbers), and instead focused on helping the people of New York, then New York would not have been so completely unprepared for the ‘invisible enemy,’” Trump said in the letter.

“No wonder AOC and others are thinking about running against you in the primary,” he continued. “If they did, they would likely win.”

Trump sent Schumer the letter on Thursday after Schumer had asked the president to invoke the Defense Production Act and appoint a military leader to oversee the production and disbursement of equipment to New York hospitals.

Trump responded by reminding Schumer that he had already used the Defense Production Act, and that there already is a “senior military officer” in charge of distributing the supplies.

The president has made public declarations about his invocation of the act, including a requirement that General Motors adapt some of its plants to produce ventilators and an expected mandate forcing 3M to make face masks.

The act also provided the basis for a new Justice Department task force that will confiscate and redistribute medical supplies that price-gouging hoarders are attempting to sell at a hefty markup.

Schumer Warns Intelligence Community to Protect Whistleblower In Case Trump Exposes Him
Chuck Schumer / IMAGE: Maddow Blog via Twitter

While scrambling to meet New York’s emergency needs with ramped-up production,  Trump did not let its left-wing leaders off the hook for being caught unprepared.

“As you are aware, the federal government is merely a back-up for state governments,” he wrote in the letter to Schumer. “Unfortunately, your state needed far more of a back-up than most others.”

Reports last week indicated that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had ignored a 2015 audit warning about a critical shortage of ventilators.

The president also accused Schumer of letting politics and personal grudges get in the way of his public obligations.

“While you have stated that you do not like Andrew Cuomo, you ought to start working alongside him for the good of all New Yorkers,” Trump wrote.

After Schumer received the letter, he told MSNBC that Trump needs to “stop the pettiness.”

“I’m just appalled,” Schumer said. “I say to the president, ‘Just stop the pettiness. People are dying. And so, President Trump, we need leadership, we need to get the job done. Stop the pettiness. Let’s get it done. Let’s roll up our sleeves. I sent the letter with the best of intentions, trying to improve a very bad situation.”

Schumer then doubled-down on his accusation that Trump’s administration is leaving New York to fend for itself in the fight against the coronavirus.

He admitted that Trump did indeed appoint a “senior military official” to oversee the distribution of medical supplies, but then said that he was “concerned” about Trump’s choice, Rear Adm. John Polowczyk. Schumer also said that Peter Navarro, who has been tapped to enforce the Defense Production Act, “was not up to the job.”

All of this proves that Schumer would rather spread “incorrect sound bites” and criticize the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force, Trump said, than work together to get things done.

“Fortunately, we have been working with your state and city governments, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, to get the job done,” Trump continued. “You have been missing in action, except when it comes to the ‘press.’ … I’ve known you for many years, but I never knew how bad a Senator you are for the state of New York until I became president.”

Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

NRA Sues Cuomo For Closing ‘Nonessential’ Gun Stores

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‘These shameless partisans are recklessly promoting a gun-control agenda that suffocates your self-defense rights when you need them most…’

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Andrew Cuomo / IMAGE: MSNBC via Youtube

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) The National Rifle Association sued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week for deeming gun shops “nonessential” and forcing them to close during the coronavirus outbreak.

As part of the statewide shutdown, Cuomo declared that only grocery stores, liquor stores, pharmacies and restaurants that do takeout are essential businesses that can remain open.

This designation is a “pointless and arbitrary attack on the constitutional rights of New York citizens and residents,” the NRA said in its complaint, according to the New York Post.

Cuomo does not have the right to “indefinitely” suspend “a key component of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the group added.

The NRA also filed a lawsuit against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who issued a similar order.

“Municipalities who target lawful gun stores for closure aren’t promoting safety—by weaponizing their politics to disarm you and your loved ones, these shameless partisans are recklessly promoting a gun-control agenda that suffocates your self-defense rights when you need them most,” Jason Ouimet, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement at the time.

The Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory earlier this week urging state governors to allow firearms dealers to remain open. The ruling isn’t a mandate, but it is a guidance that government officials should at the very least consider, the department said.

Gun-control groups immediately slammed the advisory as a “threat to the public health.”

“The gun lobby is not willing to stand for a few days or a few weeks of less profit in order to protect public health, and it’s outrageous and definitely not required by the Second Amendment,” said Jonathan Lowy, chief counsel for the anti-gun advocacy group Brady.

“It’s a public health issue, not a Second Amendment issue,” Lowy claimed. “The fact is that guns, the nature of guns, require that they be sold with a lot of close interaction. They can’t be sold from vending machines, can’t be sold with curbside pickup.”

Gun sales and background checks have skyrocketed throughout the pandemic crisis. Background checks were up 300% on March 16, compared with the same date a year ago, according to federal data shared with the NSSF, which represents gunmakers. And multiple gun shops have reported long lines and runs on firearms and ammunition.

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