Biden Goes All-In on Radical Leftist Policies at Debate w/ Bernie

Ben Sellers
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‘It’s a good idea, and after consideration, I am proud to add it to my platform…’

Biden Drifts FARTHER Left in Two-Person Debate w/ Bernie
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders / IMAGE: CNN via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) It was expected that Sen. Bernie Sanders would seek to draw a defining line between himself and current front-runner Joe Biden during Sunday’s Democratic primary debate in Arizona, setting up a progressive vs. “moderate” discussion within the Democratic Party.

Despite their awkward “social distancing” elbow-bump however, Biden, whose positions have been notoriously fluid  throughout his career—left Bernie no room for distancing in his policies.

Rather, Biden, who is also notorious for getting uncomfortably close to violating people’s personal space, did the political equivalent of sniffing Sanders’ hair by coming out the gate in support of two of his signature policies, reported the conservative America Rising PAC.

“Before the debate even began, Biden announced his support for two radical proposals that are completely at odds with his own record,” said the watchdog.

The first of these was his advocacy of free college tuition:

A second, lesser-known but no less socialist-influenced program would make people less accountable for their own financial recklessness by embracing Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s bankruptcy-reform plan.

Both, of course, would put tremendous new burdens on both taxpayers and the industries that drive the economies, such as lenders will face the brunt of the losses by those who default. That, in turn, will no doubt have a ripple effect on borrowing.

The two radical pivots Left did, however, give supporters of President Donald Trump, including America Rising, the opportunity to further delineate their vision of the country from Biden’s socialist policies.

Another conservative watchdog, Americans for Tax Reform, last week noted that he was on the record promising extreme tax increases and radical anti-energy measures that would resemble pro-socialism Democrats’ Green New Deal.

Biden promised to dial back the energy-independence achieved under Trump, which has helped keep prices low despite ongoing tensions in the Middle East, by imposing a new moratorium on drilling.

During a rally in Michigan last week, Biden lost his temper after a union auto-worker questioned him about his past statements advocating for gun-confiscation measures related to so-called assault rifles.

After Biden hurled profanities at Jerry Wayne and threatened to take him outside, the NRA member responded with a viral video of his own.

For true moderates or conservatives who may be diffident over Trump’s leadership, Biden’s leftward lurch may be a bit more disheartening, however.

Also during Sunday’s debate, Biden finally nailed down his long-discussed pledge to select a female running mate. His shortlist thus far has included several controversial figures, such as failed Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams, disgraced former deputy attorney general Sally Yates (whom leftists have dubbed a hero of the anti-Trump “resistance”) and even former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Warren would be another possibility to help further woo the Sanders faction of the party and shore up the Left under a unified banner.

But given Biden’s health and advanced age, few in the middle may be willing to risk the chance of letting an extreme-progressive radical into the Oval Office through the back door.

Biden’s pledge also rules out the hopes of some that he might select a centrist, NeverTrump Republican like former Ohio Gov. John Kasich or current Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, both of whom are men.

Such a decision to court voters from the Right might have threatened to cut into Trump’s base of support, although the president’s approval has been remarkably consistent throughout the first term tumult that Democrats largely wrought upon him.

Instead, Biden seems to be banking on the gambit that he can win without the center by generating higher turnout among leftists—or that Trump has alienated enough of his former voters in battleground states that they will actively turn against him.

Even former Obama campaign advisers, such as Dan Pfeiffer, have called it foolhardy to challenge the incumbent by making the election a mandate on Trump without a clearly defined vision of ones own.

It remains to be seen if Biden is seeking to do that with his embrace of Sanders’s platform or is simply—as he himself has described it—“prostituting” his policies to the audience in the room at the moment.

And time will also be the sole arbiter as to whether voters reward or punish Biden’s decision to abandon the “moderate” middle in favor of the socialist wave.

Biden Under Siege for Calling Illegal Immigrants ‘Aliens’

Contributing Author
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‘There are certain things you cannot deport an undocumented alien for…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Former Vice President Joe Biden used the world “aliens” to refer to illegal immigrants during Sunday’s debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders, but quickly backtracked and called them “persons.”

“Anyone who shows up to be tested for coronavirus or gets coronavirus and is treated would be held harmless,” Biden said when asked how he would address the roughly 11 million people who are in the country illegally, who might seek treatment as the virus spreads.

“Just like I have argued all along: Any woman who crosses the border or is here and being beaten by her husband, but she’s an undocumented, she cannot be deported because she reports,” Biden continued. “There are certain things you cannot deport an undocumented alien for — an undocumented person for…”

Biden’s attempted walk back was not enough for some on the left, though.

Democratic critics have argued the words “alien” and “illegal” are dehumanizing, despite the fact that both are legal terms used in the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, introduced legislation last year that would force the government to do away with the words “alien” and “illegal alien” and instead use “foreign national” and “undocumented foreign national.”

Progressive Left Alarmed at Biden’s Cognitive Decline

Contributing Writer
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‘Lots of people are talking about the undeniable decline in his speech & memory. But Joe Biden has a history of lying—A LOT…’

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

(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) How are we going to beat Trump when Joe Biden doesn’t know what state he’s in, the office he’s running for, or the difference between his wife and sister?

That’s the widely shared alarm on the progressive Left as Biden nears closing out his Democratic presidential primary front-runner status to outright general election nominee. Biden has been gaffe-prone throughout his career, but his cognitive decline is something new and existentially threatening in the eyes of the political Left.

Nevertheless, the Democratic establishment has pinned its hopes of defeating President Donald Trump on the 77-year-old, a six-term U.S. senator and two-term vice president who once bragged about helping segregationists thwart school integration and spearheading Clinton-era legislation that led to the mass incarceration of black citizens.

Throw in Biden’s support for the Iraq War and recent revelations of massive corruption—where “Uncle Joe” leveraged his position as a senior government official to steer untold sums to family members like his son Hunter, daughter Ashley, and brothers Frank and James—and Biden’s as unattractive a primary candidate imaginable to the modern, politically-correct Left.

But short of his vast political deficiencies, Biden’s clear mental deficiencies are a screaming red flag, according to outspoken progressives.

“Why does Joe Biden make so much stuff up? Why is he so incoherent? Will it hurt him in the election? Lots of people are talking about the undeniable decline in his speech & memory,” tweeted Jill Stein, a left-wing activist and 2016 Green Party nominee for president.

“Let’s hope DNC doesn’t cancel the debate & Bernie Sanders exposes Biden for all America to see: his empty corporate platform, lies, corruption, warmongering, record of prostituting himself to donors, and yes, #BidensCognitiveDecline. Otherwise buckle up for a likely Trump term 2,” Stein continued.

The Twitter hashtag “#BidensCognitiveDecline” is a seemingly endless list of video clips and angry sentiments about the Democratic establishment’s backing of the near octogenarian Biden.

Robert Lawton, a progressive running for a California congressional seat, cited a tweet with a clip showing Biden telling mothers of victims of gun violence to buy shotguns. “Pause for a moment to enjoy that THIS is who the entire Dem establishment has bet everything on,” Lawton wrote.

Many others are expressing similar concerns. “I’m not willing to lose to Trump twice. If you vote for [Biden] it’s your fault,” reads one anonymous account. Another account includes a recent campaign video of Biden rambling and shuffling off camera before he’s finished speaking; the video fades out before a confused Biden further sinks the promo. “This makes me sad. This needs to be discussed. WHY isn’t the press talking about this?!? Why does it feel like we are shouting into an empty void?!?!” the commenter said.

Not only has the media been silent about Biden’s cognitive issues, but according to left-leaning libertarian journalist Glenn Greenwald, the mainstream press has gone on the offensive. Along with Democratic Party attack-dogs, the Left’s media cohorts have sought to punish anyone with influence who dares admit the obvious.

Writing for the Intercept, Greenwald asserted that “those who now raise these concerns instantly come under a withering assault of insults and attacks from Democratic Party operatives along with their crucial media allies,” who he describes as “thinly disguised pro-Biden reporters who continue to insist on wearing the unconvincing and fraudulent costume of neutrality.”

Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for publishing a series of controversial reports in the left-wing Guardian newspaper that revealed Edward Snowden’s stolen trove of classified documents, also decried the Democratic establishment’s ruthless gamesmanship when it comes to stopping genuine progressives from threatening the party’s Wall Street and foreign war interests.

He cited Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign practice of poisoning the electorate with nefarious misinformation and the media obediently blaming Republicans.

“In February, 2008, Clinton campaign officials widely circulated a photo of Obama meeting with tribal elders while dressed in Somali garb on a trip to rural Kenya, an act which Obama’s campaign chief David Plouffe angrily denounced as ‘the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election,’” Greenwald wrote.

“In December, 2007, the Clinton campaign—weeks before the Iowa caucus—was forced to “request” one of its volunteer county coordinators leave the campaign when it was revealed that the official, along with numerous other Clinton supporters, were forwarding and posting emails claiming Obama was Muslim and sent by ‘madrassas’ to infiltrate the U.S. on behalf of radical Islam,” he continued.

As with the current election, Sanders was the Democratic machine’s progressive smear-campaign target in 2016. His supporters believe it’s happening again in 2020.

A few short weeks ago, Sanders was the primary front-runner after Biden finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire. Then, the DNC and mainstream media closed ranks and set about destroying the Castro-praising, Soviet apologist from Vermont.

Just prior to the Super Tuesday elections, when roughly one-third of primary delegates were at stake, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar both unexpectedly dropped out, thus eliminating moderate-lane competition for Biden.

Meanwhile, the hyper-progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren waited until after Super Tuesday to quit, and not before dividing Sanders’ left-wing electoral support. Bernie supporters not unrealistically suspected the fix was in.

Now, Biden is politically ascendant while his mental faculties are deteriorating in plain sight. It’s a dilemma that has not gone unnoticed, in spite of media efforts to convince the public otherwise. As the radical left-wing Jacobin puts it, “Joe Biden Is Not All There Mentally. Running Him for President Is Incredibly Dangerous.”

Another Broken Promise: Bloomberg Will Not Spend to 'Turn Texas Blue'

Joshua Paladino
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‘I am disappointed. I do wish he had followed up on that commitment…’

Bloomberg's Move Reveals Distaste for Biden, 2020 Democrats
Michael Bloomberg/Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC)

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told Democrats that he would “help turn Texas blue” with his fat checkbook, but now that his own campaign has failed, he’s reneging, The Texas Tribune reported.
Before announcing his candidacy, Bloomberg told staffers that they would have a job through November as part of his ultimate goal: unseating President Donald Trump.
But right after Bloomberg bowed out of the Democratic presidential primary and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, he broke his promise, and his campaign told staffers that they were out of a job.
Regarding Texas, Bloomberg has broken yet another promise.
“Unlike New Yorkers, Texans have a Democratic cry: Texas is the biggest [battleground] state,” Bloomberg said at an event in Austin, Texas.
But he’s not treating it like a battleground state, and the Democrats’ blue-Texas dreams appear to be falling through.
Instead, his campaign will focus on six swing states: Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Elected Texas Democrats are disappointed with the news that Bloomberg has abandoned their hopes.
“Bloomberg was promising a long-term commitment to Texas regardless of who won the primary,” said state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, who attended Bloomberg’s speech in Austin. “It’s disappointing that with his defeat in the primary, the campaign has decided to reverse course and not maintain a Texas presence.”
The Democratic National Committee still plans to vie for Texas in 2020 as well as Republican-leaning Ohio and Georgia.
“I am disappointed. I do wish he had followed up on that commitment,” said state Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, who saw Bloomberg speak in Austin. “I personally know people who accepted jobs within the Bloomberg campaign because they were so excited about the way he was investing in Texas.”

Washington Post Gives Biden 'Four Pinocchios' for Doctoring Trump's Coronavirus Comments

Joshua Paladino
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‘Campaigns must be willing to make their case without resorting to video manipulation….’

(Joshua Paladino, Liberty Headlines) The Washington Post‘s fact-checkers awarded Joe Biden‘s campaign “Four Pinocchios” for manipulating videos of President Donald Trump talking about the coronavirus and the American Dream.
Biden tweeted the video on March 3, before the Super Tuesday primary elections, The Post reported.


The Post examined only two portions of the advertisement, despite multiple parts of the video being manipulated.
In the video, Trump says, “Coronavirus—this is their new hoax.”
The newspaper admits that Trump “never said, ‘coronavirus—this is their new hoax.’ Rather, Biden’s ad clipped a large part of Trump’s speech to make it seem as though he had.”
Trump was referring to the Democratic Party and the news media’s coverage of the coronavirus, not the virus itself.
At a press briefing on Feb. 29, Trump further clarified his remarks.
“Hoax’ referring to the action that [Democrats] take to try and pin this on somebody, because we’ve done such a good job,” Trump said. “The hoax is on them, not—I’m not talking about what’s happening here [the virus]; I’m talking what they’re doing. That’s the hoax.”
Right after the distorted comments about the coronavirus, the ad shows Trump hugging an American flag and then a close-up shot of his face as he says, “The American Dream is dead.”
As Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, he said “the American Dream is dead,” but he always followed up that sad remark with a hopeful message.
“If I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before, and we will make America great again,” Trump said while declaring his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president.
By failing to include all of his message, The Washington Post said, the ad is “Missing Context.”

“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 Washington Post reported. “Campaigns must be willing to make their case without resorting to video manipulation.”

Trump campaign officials had expressed outrage at the double-standard earlier in the week when Twitter labeled a video as “manipulated media” for cutting off the end of a Biden clip to make it appear that he was saying “we can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

China Tries to Blame US for Virus, Threatens to Cut Off Life-Saving Pharmaceuticals

Ben Sellers
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‘They could trigger a domestic problem here that would make it difficult for us to confront them…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Chinese officials appeared to use coronavirus antibiotics and other supplise as leverage in a recent war of words with the U.S. while attempting to push conspiracies that the U.S. was, in fact, responsible for the spread of the pandemic.

Some in the U.S. previously speculated that the virus, which originated in China’s Wuhan region, might have been a lab-engineered attempt at biological warfare.

Many others, including President Donald Trump and conservative leaders, have criticized China’s failure to contain the spread in its early days.

However, a spokesperson for the Chinese state department, Zhao Lijian, countered in a tweet that “it might be the US army.”

China’s state-run Xinhua media agency, meanwhile, commended the communist country’s handling of the crisis while threatening to control its pharmaceutical exports while subjecting America to “the mighty sea of coronavirus,” reported Fox News.

In response to the alarming threat, paired with an announcement from the Food and Drug Administration that there was concern over a drug shortage, Sen. Marco Rubio and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote an op-ed laying out their concerns.

“For years, China has enticed American multinational corporations with access to its markets in exchange for off-shoring and sharing intellectual property,” they wrote. “Americans watched as Beijing captured critical portions of global supply chains, including in pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment.”

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A patient seeks treatment for coronavirus. / IMAGE: ABC News via Youtube

As a result, the U.S. ability to manufacture such supplies in time of critical need has been crippled, they said.

“The inability to quickly increase the production of key supplies, such as surgical masks, medical gowns, respirators and pharmaceutical drugs limits our ability to mitigate the worst effects of the disease in this emerging crisis and in any future pandemic.”

On Thursday, Rubio followed up by telling Fox News that the U.S. was “dangerously reliant” on Chinese manufacturers for its pharmaceutical supplies and other essentials.

However, he encouraged to fight the urge to escalate the rhetorical standoff, which could prove costly in the midst of the pandemic crisis.

“What it tells you is that they realize that in a moment of crisis—let’s say the U.S. and China have a showdown over something and they threaten to cut us off of our pharmaceutical supplies, they could trigger a domestic problem here that would make it difficult for us to confront them,” Rubio said. “That’s a tremendous amount of leverage.”

AOC Blames ‘Voter Suppression’ for Bernie’s Loss in Dem.-Controlled Michigan

Contributing Author
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‘At a time when Democrats correctly attack Republicans for voter suppression, it is disappointing to see people standing in long lines for hours today waiting to vote in Michigan…’

Top Environmentalist Groups Aren’t Backing Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/IMAGE: screenshot via Twitter

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., blamed “rampant voter suppression” for Bernie Sanders’s loss in Michigan, despite the fact that the state and most of its populated counties are run by Democrats.

During her first-ever interview on Fox News, Ocasio–Cortez was asked how she could argue that leftism is winning when Joe Biden, who is running on a more moderate platform, has won many of the important swing states, such as Michigan.

She claimed that there was an intentional effort to suppress the progressive vote.

“I think one thing that isn’t being talked about is the rampant voter suppression in this country,” she told Fox News’s Bret Baier.

“Right there in Ann Arbor, where we had that rally, those kids were waiting three hours in line to vote in Michigan,” she continued. “And so when we talk about who’s turning out and who’s not turning out, we absolutely—“

“So, just to be clear,” Baier interrupted, “you’re saying that you think voters didn’t get to vote that wanted to vote in Michigan?”

“Absolutely,” Ocasio–Cortez declared. “You know, obviously, there’s also more that we need to do in terms of turning out youth voters. We need to make sure that we’re inspiring young people to turn out. But when you do turn out, you should not be waiting three, four, seven hours in order to vote.”

Ann Arbor is one of Michigan’s most liberal cities and has been under Democratic control for years. But that didn’t stop Ocasio–Cortez or Sanders from attacking county election officials.

“At a time when Democrats correctly attack Republicans for voter suppression, it is disappointing to see people standing in long lines for hours today waiting to vote in Michigan and around the country,” Sanders said in a press release on Tuesday after it became clear he had lost Michigan.

“People should not have to miss a day of work to exercise their right to vote. This is an outrage. Election officials must address these problems immediately, and if necessary, keep polling places open longer.”

Trump Helps GOP Sens. Stall Renewal of USA Freedom Act, Derail FBI’s Domestic Spying

Ben Sellers
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‘While the House tells us to trust government to police itself, I prefer instead to trust the Founders’ guidance in the Bill of Rights…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) At the behest of two libertarian-leaning GOP senators, President Donald Trump said he would consider vetoing a bill that would renew the authority of the federal investigators to legally spy on U.S. citizens—and even rival presidential campaigns.

The lingering questions and opposition made it likely that the bill would not meet its March 15 sunset deadline, presumably leaving intelligence agencies without some of the domestic surveillance protections that they have ostensibly used in the war against terrorism and other threats to U.S. security.

While Republicans have been largely unified in staving off congressional Democrats’ attacks, they have been at loggerheads over the passage of the USA Freedom Reauthorization Act, a post-Sept.-11 update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that is set to expire on Sunday.

Powerful Senate GOP leaders such as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Intelligence Chair Richard Burr of North Carolina have supported the bill’s renewal, despite major concerns raised by a report from the Justice Department inspector general last December.

The House passed its version of the bill on Wednesday, reported The Hill, with a 278-136 vote garnering bipartisan support after extensive negotiations involving House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The bill was touted by the likes of Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Adam Schiff of California as an acceptable “compromise.”

But critics said the calls from Attorney General William Barr for a “clean renewal”—or even a compromise that doesn’t offer substantive reforms—carried echoes of the demands from the same corrupt intelligence leaders who abused it to begin with.

Justice Deparment Let Mueller Be Special Counsel Despite 'Conflict of Interest'
Robert Mueller, James Comey and Barack Obama / IMAGE: The Obama White House via Youtube

Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney who also worked as counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, argued in a recent op-ed for the Washington Examiner that former FBI directors Robert Mueller and James Comey (then deputy attorney general) had made similar cases during a 2005 renewal.

Although privacy advocates secured a unanimous Senate vote for additional safeguards and accountability, the 2005 legislation failed to gain traction in the House, where “Comey’s and Mueller’s efforts … prevailed in preventing meaningful reforms,” Tolman said.

“I was one of very few in the room when Comey represented that U.S. citizens need not worry about being surveilled and that internal safeguards were sufficient,” Tolman continued. “Mueller would take a similar position, reassuring us that privacy concerns were overstated, and a ‘clean’ reauthorization was vital.

Among those who now remain firmly opposed to the current renewal are key members of the House Freedom Caucus, as well as Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, all of whom say respecting citizens’ privacy is paramount.

Lee, along with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., had sought to promote a strong reform bill, but without the support of GOP leadership, that effort seemed unlikely to go far.

On Wednesday, Lee assured concerned citizens that “there are a lot of procedural tools at our disposal” which could be used to slow the House bill’s progress before Sunday’s deadline.

He sought to offer several amendments to the bill during a House floor debate on Thursday but was repeatedly shut down by Burr, noted FreedomWorks in a statement supporting Lee’s effort.

“Sen. Lee made an amazing, impassioned case for defending Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights against intrusive government surveillance authorities that have often been abused,” said the statement.

Rand Paul and Mike Lee / IMAGE: CSPAN via Youtube

“All he asked for was the ability to have an actual debate to amend a bill that falls woefully short of upholding those rights,” it continued. “In contrast, not only did Sen. Burr block Sen. Lee’s every attempt to secure votes on common-sense, bi-partisan amendments to the FISA reauthorization, he willfully mischaracterized Lee’s own positions and falsely accused him of holding the bill ‘hostage’.”

FreedomWorks said that the lawmakers themselves may be misreading what the provisions of the House bill actually say—effectively arguing, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., notoriously said of Obamacare that Congress has to pass it to know what’s in it.

“Sen. Burr further made the dangerous claim that if the expiring provisions of FISA sunset this weekend as scheduled, the executive branch would be able to continue their surveillance activities unabated,” said FreedomWorks. “This raises serious new questions about how these laws are being interpreted that lawmakers must follow-up on as soon as possible.”

However, Trump’s threat of a veto two days before the sunset—as Congress eyes a spring recess and the threat of the coronavirus leaving some members in quarantine—presents yet another hurdle to the bill’s timely passage.

As the Senate appeared set to adjourn without passage, Paul issued a statement on Friday reaffirming his position.

“As President Trump has repeatedly stated, we should not reauthorize these expiring surveillance powers without real reform,” said the statement.

“After all we have learned about how government has abused its authority, including spying on President Trump’s 2016 campaign, neither a clean extension nor the window dressing offered by the U.S. House, which will not stop future abuses, are acceptable,” he continued. “While the House tells us to trust government to police itself, I prefer instead to trust the Founders’ guidance in the Bill of Rights.”

Pelosi Tried to Sneak Abortion Funding into Coronavirus Bill

Contributing Author
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‘One is reminded of the famous comment from President Obama’s first chief of staff: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”…’

Pelosi Predicts Blue Wave: 'We Will Win'
Nancy Pelosi/IMAGE: CBS via YouTube

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Democrats reportedly tried to sneak abortion funding and paid parental-leave into the House’s coronavirus relief package, according to senior White House officials.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., attempted to include a loophole that would guarantee federal funding for abortion services, according to the Daily Caller.

She wanted a provision of $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims, which would essentially allow Democrats to circumvent the Hyde Amendment in the future, officials explained. The Hyde Amendment ensures that federal taxpayer dollars do not fund abortions.

“A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented,” a White House official said. “Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion—which is not only backwards, but goes against historical norms.”

Democrats eventually agreed to vote on the provision separately, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced he will not support it.

“The country is looking to the government to come together and meet these challenges, but the bill that we saw that just came forth last night at 11 p.m. comes up short,” he said on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted Pelosi for attempting to force Republicans to accept an “ideological wish list” stacked with “various areas of policy that are barely related, if at all, to the issue before us.”

“Unfortunately, it appears at this hour that the Speaker and House Democrats instead chose to produce an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “One is reminded of the famous comment from President Obama’s first chief of staff: ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’”

REPORT: Border Wall Has Blocked 90% of Border Crossings

Contributing Author
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‘There is a huge return on investment…’

(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump’s southern border wall is working, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The new chief of Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, revealed that recently constructed parts of the “wall system” have blocked 90% of border crossings over the past year. Before it was built, the border stopped less than 10% of illegal crossings.

“It changes everything,” Scott said in a statement, according to the Washington Examiner. “There is a huge return on investment.”

The border wall is just one of many steps the Trump administration has taken to effectively reduce the number of illegal border crossings.

In Yuma, Ariz., one of the regions known for its high level of crossings, border agents have noticed a significant decrease in the flow of migrant family units.

Border crossings in the Yuma sector surpassed 144,000 in May, one month after the city first declared a state of emergency. But since then, the numbers have sharply declined. As of November, border crossings had decreased by 71 percent, according to Fox News.

The border wall has also reduced the influx of crime in certain areas. Drug cartels have had to change tactics, Scott said, and now they are building expensive tunnels to sneak drug-laden vehicles into the U.S. This has not been effective, though, according to Scott.

“It shut down that entire threat. Anywhere we built the border wall system, the first thing it does is shut off those drive-throughs,” he said.

“The second thing is, it shuts off massive amounts of people coming through at the same time,” he added. “So, it’s forced the drug cartels, especially El Chapo’s group, Sinaloa, to shift tactics.”

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