We Cannot Allow China To Engage In A COVID Coverup

By Dave Seminara for RealClearPolitics

China is testing President Biden, but his party is still preoccupied with Donald Trump. Chinese authorities refused to provide World Health Organization investigators with raw data on early COVID-19 cases that could help them determine how and when the coronavirus spread in China.

The stakes in learning as much as we can from this pandemic couldn’t be higher. But it’s unclear if our new leaders are ready to confront China’s increasingly intransigent leaders, who are keen to promote unlikely theories on the origins of the virus that absolve them of culpability.

The virus has killed nearly 2.5 million people worldwide and the International Monetary Fund has estimated that the global cost of the pandemic is $28 trillion. A paper published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, put the total cost in the U.S. at more than $16 trillion, or nearly $200,000 for a family of four.

With case counts declining and vaccines here, we now see a light at the end of the tunnel, but this is no time for complacency.

This should be a “never again” moment where we steadfastly resolve to do everything in our power to ensure that we never experience another catastrophic plague like this one again.

RELATED: Democrats’ Coronavirus Bill Spends ‘At Least $312 Billion’ On Policies Unrelated To COVID-19 Pandemic

President Biden has yet to speak publicly about China’s refusal to hand over raw data on early cases, but Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, issued a statement. “At this critical moment, protecting the WHO’s credibility is a paramount priority,” he said. “We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them.”

The statement was better than nothing, but there was no call to action or mention of potential consequences if China fails to comply, which is exceedingly likely given Beijing’s track record on transparency and COVID-19.

Sullivan merely said that “[a]ll countries, including China, should participate in a transparent and robust process for preventing and responding to health emergencies — so that the world learns as much as possible as soon as possible.”

Since the news broke on Feb. 12, other top Democrats have been silent regarding China’s failure to fully cooperate with WHO investigators.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sent multiple tweets about impeachment but none about China. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also been silent, but has sent a half dozen tweets about the impeachment.

There’s also been nary a peep on China’s attempted coverup from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has more Twitter followers than Schumer and Pelosi put together, or Sen. Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee who has sent a dozen tweets about impeachment in recent days while remaining silent on China.

RELATED: Meghan McCain Says Dr. Fauci Should Be Fired And Replaced By Someone Who ‘Understands Science’

Vice President Kamala Harris has made no mention of the WHO team’s China mission, but the day after the news broke, she sent a tweet warning of xenophobia. “Hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have skyrocketed during the pandemic. That’s why our Administration has taken actions to address these xenophobic attacks.”

Combating xenophobic attacks is a laudable goal, but my fear is that the too-woke, too-cozy-to-China Democratic Party may not act forcefully for fear of stoking xenophobia. Remember, for example, how then candidate Joe Biden called Trump’s China travel ban “xenophobic,” and how Democrats like Pelosi and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio urged Americans to visit Chinatowns at the start of the pandemic.

For years, the Putin-obsessed Democratic Party has acted as though Russia is still our primary geopolitical adversary when China is clearly our biggest threat.

We can demand accountability from China without inflaming anti-Asian sentiment. President Biden must use forceful diplomacy to bring other world leaders around to force China’s hand. Finding consensus will be difficult, but issuing statements of concern is clearly not enough.

The Chinese government should be given a deadline to turn early COVID-19 case data over to the WHO and there must be clear consequences for failure to comply.

Any number of sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans for China’s leaders, should be on the table. We should also strongly encourage the WHO to immediately send its team of investigators back to China. They should remain there until China’s leaders fully cooperate, and if they don’t, team members should hold daily press conferences to shame them.

RELATED: Public Schools Are Ignoring Science And Harming Special Needs Students

Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced a bill, the COVID-19 Accountability Act, last May calling for sanctions on China if it failed to fully cooperate with the U.S. and international organizations conducting investigations. The bill never received a vote but now is the time to reignite talks of how to respond to China’s dangerous lack of transparency.

China doves and free-trade-at-all-costs types will insist that we can’t afford to confront China, which is our third largest trading partner.

But when you stack up the economic cost that may arise from rising tensions with China against the potential cost of enduring another pandemic, the choice is clear.

It’s time for Joe Biden and other world leaders to send a clear, united message to China that the world will not allow them to persist in what looks like a COVID-19 coverup.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

Dave Seminara is a former diplomat and author of “Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts,” forthcoming on March 2.

The post We Cannot Allow China To Engage In A COVID Coverup appeared first on The Political Insider.

What’s Actually In the Biden-Democrat $1.9 Trillion ‘COVID Relief’ Bill

As the Biden administration and Democratic Congress release plans for the massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, otherwise known as the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” the Republican Study Committee (RSC) last week warned about some of items in the bill.

Some of the generalities that President Biden has made no secret of wanting in the bill, such as raising the minimum wage and financial aid to illegal immigrants are of course included, but what are some of the other tidbits conservatives are warning about?

Here’s what the RSC is opposing in the bill – the one that was pushed aside so Democrats could pursue a second impeachment of President Donald Trump.

RELATED: Trump Set To Deliver Speech Claiming ‘I’m Still In Charge’ Of GOP

Highlights In The $1.9 Trillion COVID Relief Bill

As previously stated, some of the items in the bill are no surprise. They have been part of a liberal Democrat wish list for quite a while, and have nothing to do with relief for those hardest hit by the pandemic or economic shutdowns.

One of the top items – a new federal mandatory minimum wage – instead has everything to do with essentially paying people to be a new voting bloc.

According to the RSC and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the result could be 1.4 million jobs lost, or even more. Most of those effected would be younger people with less formal education. 

The irony is clearly lost on Democrats for this one. There is an entire section, “TITLE VI COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS” in this 591 page behemoth, that covers such things as modifications to the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), support for restaurants, and something entitled “direct appropriations.”

Yet the best way to help these struggling businesses is to allow them to first open for business if they haven’t already, and allow them to pay their employees what they can afford to pay and still operate. 

Anyone who knows anything about economics knows that if you cannot afford to pay all of your employees that brand new federal minimum wage, somebody’s got to go. 

Unemployment would come with an extra $400 per week in addition to regular payments. This would last up to a year and a half.

In the words of the RSC, “Under this plan, 53% of Americans would effectively receive a raise for being unemployed.”

And it would not just be Americans who would be paid to sit and watch Netflix all day. If you enter the U.S. illegally, it is payday for you as well, my friend.

The $1,400 stimulus checks that are still being debated would also go to those families in which at least one parent is an illegal immigrant. 

RELATED: Dr. Fauci Says ‘Possible’ Americans Might Have To Wear Masks Into 2020

Making Sure Teachers Unions Are Happy

America’s school children are not faring much better than America’s small businesses. Many parents do not feel as though their kids are getting a quality education sitting in front of a computer screen all day. 

But the Biden administration’s priority seems to be not with American kids getting a proper education, but making sure that America’s teachers unions keep donating to the Democrat Party.

Apparently hidden in the section entitled, “PART 1 DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION”, is the additional provision of $130 billion, on top of the $110 billion they already receive, even if they remain closed.

If large numbers of American parents whose children are not included in a special classification feel their child’s education is suffering permanent consequences, imagine the feeling if your child is deemed “at risk,” “low income,” or “special needs.”

RELATED: Psaki Refuses To Answer If Biden Still Thinks Gov. Cuomo Is ‘Gold Standard For Leadership’

Covering Other Parts Of The Biden Agenda

The bill would crowd out those who need PPP funding the most and expand the qualifications to large nonprofits, labor unions, country clubs, fraternities and sororities, and publicly-traded internet news organizations. 

In other words, to already wealthy, well-positioned firms. 

With the majority of large donations going to the Democrat Party, is that why Joe Biden and the Democrats want to keep their country club buddies happy?

Social justice is absolutely included in the Democrats’ handouts. There is a $50 million funding provision for EPA “environmental justice grants.”

Has anyone ever figured out just what exactly environmental justice is? 

The RSC report calls this “a thinly-veiled kickback to leftist environmental groups.” Also included, $800 million in foreign food aid. 

Americans are going hungry right now. How about keeping that $800 million for American food aid?

And what Democrat stimulus package would be complete without a little identity politics thrown in? The bill allows for loan forgiveness worth 120% of debt to farmers and ranchers on the basis of race and ethnicity. 

In a report in “Successful Farming”, Georgia Republican Austin Scott said that the debt relief proposal “has no requirement of any proof of discrimination.” He also said that “payments of 120% could easily be challenged as reverse discrimination and unconstitutional.”

As was expected, Joe Biden, his administration, and a Democrat Congress is attempting to pander to every group they think they can turn into permanent Democrat voters by funding their pet causes. 

Too bad the American people are not a pet cause. 

The post What’s Actually In the Biden-Democrat $1.9 Trillion ‘COVID Relief’ Bill appeared first on The Political Insider.

The Trump Impeachment Trial Is A Monsoon Of Manure – Why I Refuse To Watch It

By J. Peder Zane for RealClearPolitics

I refuse to watch the impeachment trial as a matter of principle. To devote any attention to this charade would legitimize the corruption of our Constitution.

Tuning in would be a tacit acceptance of the blizzard of BS that has buried the national discourse.

RELATED: Democrats Are The Party Of Make Believe

At least since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Democrats and their media allies have demanded that we view their smears and lies as high-minded pursuits of the truth. Consider:

  • When they insisted that Trump was a Russian asset, we were told to believe they were safeguarding national security.
  • When they accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and even gang rape, we were told to believe they were protecting the Supreme Court.
  • When in 2019 they made Trump only the third president in history to be impeached – and the only one not accused of committing a high crime or misdemeanor – we were told to believe they were defending the rule of law.
  • When scores of BLM protests turned violent last summer, they told us to believe that the gatherings were mostly peaceful.
  • When antifa thugs destroyed property, beat citizens and occupied public lands, they told us to believe that the group didn’t even exist.
  • When some undefined, unaffiliated people online appeared to subscribe to crazy conspiracy theories involving Satan and pedophiles, they told us to believe it was a vast and highly organized group called QAnon that was intent on overthrowing the government. 
  • When they argued that “whiteness” and “white privilege” are the underlying source of America’s problems, they told us to believe they were trying to heal the nation.
  • When they censored allegations of the Biden family’s corruption, they told us to believe they were fighting disinformation.
  • When they allowed Twitter mobs to destroy people who had once said something they didn’t agree with or like, they told us to believe that they were seeking justice.
  • And, when they demonize and silence the tens of millions of people who oppose their quest for domination, they tell us to believe they are seeking unity.

Those are just 10 examples; there are scores of others.

From their position of power in Washington, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and academia, progressives continually manufacture false narratives that insult reason and decency and demand that we accept them as virtuous.

They are a most dangerous type – unserious people who are deadly serious. I refuse to submit. 

RELATED: Constitutional Professor: Why Senate Cannot Bar Trump From Being President Again

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

J. Peder Zane is an editor for RealClearInvestigations and a columnist for RealClearPolitics.

The post The Trump Impeachment Trial Is A Monsoon Of Manure – Why I Refuse To Watch It appeared first on The Political Insider.

Impeachment 2.0 – What Does It Really Mean For America And Our Future?

On Tuesday of last week, the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump began in the Senate. We have heard tearful harrowing tales of marauding bands of Trump supporters “hunting down” Congress members and Senators.

We have seen video footage of rioters scaling the walls of the Capitol building.

It is becoming clear that the Democrats, and some Republicans, many of whom, because of their impeachment-related voting records, already have primary challengers for 2022, not only want to blame Donald Trump for the Capitol Hill riot, but prevent him from ever running for office again.

But this time, something is different. It almost seems as if they want to blame anyone who might have an iota of support for Trump

That means you, America. 

RELATED: Joe Biden Wants To Make America Energy Dependent Again

Language Meant To Inflame

As usual, the Constitution is getting in the way of the Democrat agenda. The process of impeachment was never meant to be used as a club to disable politicians we don’t like.

During the first full day of impeachment hearings, House Managers played video and audio recordings of the events of January 6.

But instead of putting context to audio and visual aids, they used phrases like this, from House Prosecutor Stacey Plaskett, Democrat Delegate representing the U. S. Virgin Islands: “They did it because Donald Trump sent them on a mission.” 

Another from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX): “On Jan. 6, Donald Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead.”   

And just in case inflammatory rhetoric wasn’t enough, Democrats are now being accused of selective editing of the video of Trump telling supporters to protest at the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.”

Trump defense lawyers claim the video has been manipulated. 

Sources say that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has told fellow Senators that their vote on whether or not to convict Trump would be “a matter of conscience,” and that Senators who disputed the constitutionality of the trial could still vote to convict Trump. 

RELATED: WH Deputy Press Secretary TJ Duclo Suspended For Reportedly Threatening, Demeaning Female Reporter

How have We Gotten Here?

Anyone can go online and google, “Trump impeachment,” and find out what what the mainstream media is saying, what the talking heads, both liberal and conservative are saying, and you can even find a schedule of events, which must come in handy when planning a watch party.

You know when to break out the chips and beer!

What you cannot find is the answer to the most important question: what does this mean, and how dangerous is it for America?

Americans have always argued and debated. It is in our collective DNA.

But ask anyone from any walk of life in America, “when did we become so divided?”

No one seems to have a good answer. 

There have always been political parties with different ideas about how to do things, but only recently did a member of one party accuse another of attempted murder.

Political parties always been wary of each others’ candidates, but only recently did we accuse them of being evil, not just because we disagreed with them, but because they merely exist.

Even in our darkest times, Americans have come together. But will that even be possible?

Democrats insist that Trump supporters, and that encompasses at least 74 million people who at the very least, cast a vote for Donald Trump must somehow be erased from modern politics.

RELATED: Schiff Claims GOP Is A Trump Cult-Says They Have No Ideology Or Principles

How Are We Harming America?

In his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden spoke of unity, and even as recently as Friday, talked about treating people with respect. It remains to be seen if Americans will respect each other.

But is this impeachment of a president who left office three weeks ago, and is at least of dubious constitutional provenance, disrespecting America? Is it harming America?

The Constitution is a tough document. It has been tugged on in every way imaginable in the last 245 years. It will likely survive, but we have taken its instruction and twisted it into something it was never intended for. 

The way in which impeachment has been used may well be used as a weapon on existing parties or any future parties to come.

Granted, the Founding Fathers did not specify what “high crimes and misdemeanors” were. We were left to figure that out on our own. Maybe they were too optimistic about the intelligence of future Americans.

But if the impeachment process is misused, a precedent is set that is hard to come back from. They impeach ours, we impeach theirs, and America is caught in a dangerous game of tug-o-war.

The post Impeachment 2.0 – What Does It Really Mean For America And Our Future? appeared first on The Political Insider.

Van Der Veen Owns Impeachment Trial Fourth Day

In the senate impeachment trial the Democrats have generally won the show and tell with video, as the Republicans will win the case. Although, the Republican lawyers were better on Friday. This is likely due to the advice of Senators Cruz, Lee, and Graham.

Friday’s Standouts

Standouts on Friday were the performances of Trump lawyer David Schoen and Michael van der Veen. Bruce Castor was better on Friday, but continues to disappoint, as when he referred to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as Ben Roethlisberger, an NFL quarterback.

The Republicans did suffer, as has been widely noted, from a disadvantage on comms. The Democrats have had a slick and persuasive media presentation, albeit a tad redundant, while Republicans have relied on one short video clip, produced with bizarrely inappropriate music in the background, that they played over and over again without respite.

Perhaps it is because Democrats enjoy broad support amongst entertainment types that they were able to put together a superior show. As someone who produced and directed GOP media for twenty years I can tell you, Republicans really need to up their game in this department.

The Democrats proved Friday they are good reading presentations but are horrible extemporaneously, as van der Veen ripped them apart piece by piece and Schoen nailed them on hypocrisy, as did van der Veen, numerous times. Democrats Plaskett and Castro especially were more than once the victims of their own missteps, savagely pounced upon by van der Veen.

Related: Lindsey Graham Predicts ‘Not Guilty’ Impeachment Votes Are Growing After ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Democrats

Republicans Get Aggressive 

As for the chronology, the Republicans opened up the day aggressively.

They challenged Democrats on every point of law and common sense and got surprisingly personal with the Democrat House managers, showing them engaged in exactly the same type of behavior they accuse Trump of, hence the accurate charge of hypocrisy. But the fun really didn’t start until the question and answer period.

Senators sent one sided questions to the advocates on their side of the aisle, some senators sending a question to both sides to try and illustrate a point or trip up the opposition.

One thing must be said at this juncture. Despite earlier concerns, Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont played it right down the middle as judge. He has behaved honorably and professionally.

Related: Lindsey Graham Rips Impeachment – ‘We’re Doing A Lot Of Damage To The Country Because People Hate Trump’

Republicans Win Q&A

The Republicans overwhelmingly won the Q&A, as Democrats lied, stumbled, and tried to spin their way out of trouble, to no avail. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, interestingly sent a question up that helped the Democrats. He’s probably a solid vote for conviction, though he may just be protecting his moderate flank.

Van der Veen, taking a major page out of the message control handbook, responded to Democrat questions by going back to his own script and almost ignoring the questions. Well played.

So while the Democrats win on comms points, the Republicans ate their lunch during question and answer. On to Saturday and the conclusion of the trial. Our guess? 56-44 for conviction. 11 short of the vote needed to convict. That’s give or take a Republican surprise or two.

That gives the immediately former president two senate impeachment exonerations in about 13 months. There could also be later votes on censure and disqualification for office. Those are simple majority votes and Trump could be in trouble there.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on February 13, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

Read more at LifeZette:
James Clyburn Issues Brutal Warning To Trump – ‘This Is Just The Beginning’
Lindsey Graham Predicts ‘Not Guilty’ Impeachment Votes Are Growing After ‘Absurd’ Arguments From Democrats
Gowdy Takes On House Impeachment Managers, Trump Livid

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We Don’t Need A New Party, This Is Our Party Now

In January, there were rumblings that President Trump was considering starting his own political party.

This week, a new CBS News/YouGov poll shows that a whopping 70% of Republicans would consider joining a new party formed by Trump (with 33% of Republicans saying yes and an additional 37% saying maybe).

The poll additionally showed that 71% of Republicans said that Republican members of Congress who voted to impeach or convict Trump are “disloyal” while on 29% viewed these members as “principled.”

The talk of forming a new party should be left to losers like Evan McMullin and Miles Taylor (who hilariously said this week they were considering forming one).

RELATED: ‘Never-Trump’ Republicans Looking To Form Their Own Party

Do We Need A New Party?

Trump supporters don’t need a new party, we already have one – it called the Republican Party.

Is the GOP perfect? Hell no. Is it great? Nope. Is it a lost cause? Not by a long shot.

The truth is that pro-Trump Republicans aren’t fighting for control of the party, poll after poll makes it clear we are 100% in charge.

We don’t need a new party, what we need to do is clean up the party we already have.

Most conservatives are disenfranchised with the Republican Party – not because of anything the GOP’s grassroots have done – but because of what is being done by Republican-elected officials in Washington, DC (and in state capitols around the country).

I join my fellow conservatives in being angry at what the Liz Cheneys and Adam Kinzingers of the world are doing, but you want to know what?

We are responsible for them being there in the first place and we can remove them.

I know plenty of conservatives who feel completely and totally disillusioned with the party and who believe that it doesn’t matter who we vote for.

The Establishment

While I understand the frustration, this is exactly what the establishment wants you to feel.

They want you to feel powerless, they want you to simply shrug your shoulders and accept whatever crap sandwich they will serve you.

The establishment will tell you that we need to bury the hatchet and focus on winning back Republican majorities in the House and Senate in 2022.

Ignore them.

They want you to bury the hatchet they just shoved in your back, they want you to be the good little foot soldiers that voted for Bush and McCain and Romney, and most of all they want you to let them get back to doing things the way they used to do things before Trump showed up.

The establishment is right, winning back the majority in the House and Senate in 2022 is important, but not until we as conservatives win back our own party.

It is time to clean house. We don’t have to guess which Republicans we can trust, they have exposed themselves over the two months.

Every single member of the House who voted for the sham impeachment of President Trump should be primaried.

Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and the rest of the Vichy wing of the GOP should pay the political price for their absolute disdain and disgust for their own constituents.

New Contract With America

We need a new Contract with America, except this time it needs to be a Contract for America First.

Every single Republican running for office should be asked to sign this Contract for America First and pledge to fight for their constituents.

They should pledge to fight to end illegal immigration, to fight for fair trade, to end foreign adventurism, to protect the middle class, to break the power of big business and big tech, to stand for working class Americans and to stand up to the media, Hollywood, and the left wing culture warriors.

RELATED: Biden Rescinds Trump’s National Emergency Proclamation At The Southern Border

This isn’t an effort that should be limited to Washington, DC.

The truth is that we need to defeat the establishment from sea to shining sea.

Every candidate for State House or State Senate or Governor should be asked to sign this Contract for America First.

Pro-Trump conservatives make up the vast majority of the Republican Party and its time we start acting like it.

If the establishment doesn’t like it then they can be the ones to start their own party. This is our party now.

The post We Don’t Need A New Party, This Is Our Party Now appeared first on The Political Insider.

Journalist: Covering Trump Was ‘Our Omaha Beach,’ Compares Experience To D-Day

In a new piece in The Atlantic, author and national correspondent for Yahoo! News Alexander Nazaryan compared the thrill of covering the Trump administration to the thrill “storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year old fresh from the plains of Kansas.” 

In the piece, titled, “I Was an Enemy of the People,” Nazaryan recounts how he misses the action of covering Trump. 

He accuses of Trump Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany of lying “relentlessly for months on end.”

Ominously, he reminds readers that frequently had to figure out whether or not Trump was on the verge of starting a “nuclear war.” 

Overall, the intrepid journalists of America, in their brave coverage of Trump, were “merely going where he led. This was our Omaha Beach.”

The liberal media, in its Trump-era way of portraying itself as the victim, has taken that self-proclaimed victimhood to a new level.

RELATED: ‘Never-Trump’ Republicans Looking To Form Their Own Party

Trump Is History Repeating Itself

So covering Trump was a thrill.

Take a look at Nazaryan’s full accounting of his feelings on covering Trump:

Covering the administration was thrilling for many journalists, in the way that I imagine storming Omaha Beach must have been for a 20-year-old fresh from the plains of Kansas. He hadn’t signed up for battle, but there he was, liberating France. France, by the way, is where Trump called American soldiers who’d fallen in combat “suckers” and “losers.” When this magazine first reported those comments, Trump’s supporters denounced the Atlantic story as preposterous and offensive, even as outlet after outlet confirmed the reporting. They failed to realize that the preposterous and the offensive were the twin beacons of the Trump presidency.

Who is this story about? Trump, or the media?

I wonder how many Millennial journalists have asked their older colleagues about how “thrilling” it was for them to cover Ronald Reagan. People of an age remember how Reagan was treated by the media. 

The media’s relationship with Republicans is nothing new – and might go as far back as 1968 when a book entitled, “News Twisters” by Edith Ephron, talked about liberal media bias.

The media would have you believe that this Trump-era was all a first for them, and that is why they all have some sort of weird post-Trump PTSD going on.

Oh no, the media has dated outside its group before, there have been other Republican presidents. They were merely the warm-up act for what would be done to Donald Trump.

Every Republican in recent memory, Bush 41, Bush 43, even presidential candidates, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and especially Sarah Palin, all dealt with media bias.

The difference was, the media wasn’t usually playing an active role. Look at some of the commentary from Democrats about these past figures:

In 2012, then Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden told a crowd that consisted of a large number of African-Americans that the Republican ticket led by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney would, “put you all back in chains.” 

In 2008, the late Congressman John Lewis accused Republican presidential candidate John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin of “playing with fire.” He went on to say that,”Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.”

Billionaire Democrat contributor George Soros said of George W. Bush that, “(he displays the) supremacist ideology of Nazi Germany.”

Actor and Activist Harry Belafonte also called Bush a racist, and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond once said that, “The Republican party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.”

The things that Democrats once said of Republicans, are now things the allegedly objective media now say of Trump.

That is a fundamental difference between how past presidents were covered, and how Trump was covered, in my view.

To even insinuate that covering politics is in any way comparable to storming the beach at Normandy tells you how comfortable the media had become in their role as Trump’s adversary.

Indeed, Nazaryan says, “Without quite meaning to, Trump reminded journalists that their relationship to power should be adversarial.”

They needed to be reminded? After eight years of kid gloves with “no scandals” Obama?

The media set its sights on Donald Trump from the time he hit the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015, and then promptly moved on to those that worked for him, specifically former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. 

As a Journalism student, this writer is learning all the mechanics like the “inverted pyramid” process, but I am also learning about sources, checking and rechecking those sources, not making up “facts” of the story, or not making oneself the story.

I am learning that truth and integrity still matter. 

The problem is, I’m not seeing that out of those who are already in the profession.

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Claims Trump Could Be Acquitted Because His ‘Co-Conspirators’ Are On The Jury  

RELATED: ABC News Correspondent Terry Moran Claims Trump Is A ‘Fuhrer’ To Republicans

Everything That Is Wrong With The Media

Message to the media: the problem is, there is simply not enough room here to tell you all the ways your hubris and arrogance is on full display and is doing none of you any favors.

Can we all agree as adults that no one in American history is comparable to the Nazis, for God’s sake?

Can we at least pretend the talking points don’t go out first thing in the morning?

The media says that, “by far the most difficult challenge was reporting that Trump had gotten something right.” Can they point out for us uneducated boobs in flyover country when exactly that was?

How much coverage was given to all the peace deals made in the Middle East? 

Will Biden get any harsh scrutiny? Any scrutiny? Or will the media spend the next four years asking what his favorite flavor of milkshake is?

MSNBC’S Kasie Hunt gushed about how, “I’m just struck by the reality that we’ll now have a president who, as a rule, doesn’t lie, even when it might be easier.”

That kind of gives up the game, doesn’t it?

Alas, Mr. Nazaryan is absolutely right about one thing: journalists’ relationship to power should be adversarial.

But that only goes one way for the media. 

From my perspective, the reason for all this is clear.

Trump finally fought back.

They hate Donald Trump because he exposed the fact that the media lies on a consistent basis, and has decided that they are the arbiters of what the American people can and cannot know. 

Having the audacity to fight back is, in the final analysis, the ultimate crime.

The post Journalist: Covering Trump Was ‘Our Omaha Beach,’ Compares Experience To D-Day appeared first on The Political Insider.

Sen. Ben Sasse Joins List Of Anti-Trump Republicans Censured By Their Own Party

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), a vocal critic of former President Trump, was censured on Sunday by the Lincoln County, Nebraska Republican Party. Chairwoman Carol Friesen said that the vote on the measure was unanimous. 

The resolution to censure Sen. Sasse chastises him for “dismissing the legitimate concerns of Nebraska’s Secretary of State, Attorney General, and a huge majority of Republican voters regarding allegations of fraud in November’s presidential election.”

In addition to Lincoln county, other Nebraska counties who have passed similar resolutions include Hitchcock, Scotts Bluff, and Sarpy.

The Nebraska State Republican Central Committee will meet on Saturday to consider a resolution to censure.  

Sasse had been among a handful of GOP Senators who had objected to the challenges of electoral votes by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO and Ted Cruz (R-TX). He went as far as to call Hawley’s actions “really dumbass.”

RELATED: Here Are The 6 Republicans Who Voted That Trump’s Impeachment Trial Is Constitutional 

The Beginning Of A Trend?

Ben Sasse is not the first Republican to face censure from the home crowd.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has also been censured by several county Republican committees and her state party in her home state of Wyoming for her vote to impeach former President Trump.

Also coming under fire at home, for his vote that the Senate is constitutionally allowed to hear the impeachment trial against a former President Trump is Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who was one of six Republican Senators to vote for hearing impeachment, even after he voted against it last week. 

Of the 10 House members that voted for impeachment, seven of them, including Cheney, already have primary challengers.

Could average Americans be trying to tell the folks they sent to Washington D.C. something?

Could be.

There has been much speculation over what Donald Trump may decide to do in his post-presidential life. Starting a third party has been on that list. 

In a report from The Hill, a new Hill/HarrisX poll finds that 64% of registered Republican voters would join a new political party started by Donald Trump. 

RELATED: Jim Jordan Claims Democrats Are ‘Scared’ Of Trump

A View From The Swamp

There are a lot of people on both the left and the right who are quick to talk about things that Donald Trump did as president.

“He lied, he started a riot,” and on and on.

Whether you agree with those accusations is not the point. What he did do, that even more people don’t like, is that he exposed the system that is really exists in Washington D.C.

And the people who don’t like it are exactly the same ones Americans sent to represent them in the nation’s capitol, Democrat and Republican alike.

Call it the old guard, call it the establishment, whatever it is, it is a group that not only seems aligned with each other regardless of party, but they are also aligned with each other against average Americans.

RELATED: Trump ‘Not Happy’ With His Legal Team’s First Appearance In Impeachment Trial 

Are Americans Waking Up?

Donald Trump exposed Democrats and Republicans for being one and the same, a “uniparty.” We send them to Washington, they go into the House or Senate and pretend to argue, then they all go out for drinks.

What’s missing? Carrying out the will of their constituents.

More Americans of all political stripes are seeing a clear split between the Ben Sasse, Liz Cheney, and Mitt Romney types who delight in telling us, the great unwashed, how wrong we are for supporting an ogre like Donald Trump.

After all, they know better, and they are less and less afraid to convey that.

We already knew a long time ago that our representatives are no longer going to Washington to cast votes on behalf of we the people. They are casting votes for themselves. 

Liz Cheney said on a recent appearance on “Fox News Sunday” that Donald Trump “does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.”

Newsflash Rep. Cheney: that is not for you to decide.

Ben Sasse put out a video addressing his fellow Nebraska Republicans. In it he said, “Personality cults aren’t conservative, conspiracy theories aren’t conservative, lying that an election has been stolen isn’t conservative, acting like politics is a religion isn’t conservative.”

Presuming to give people a litmus test on what is conservative isn’t conservative.

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Ingraham Slams DC Swamp Over Impeachment Trial

Fox News Host Laura Ingraham is perhaps the toughest and best of the Fox lineup. Extremely telegenic, articulate, poised.

The level of vituperation she draws from the Left only attests to her ability to hit them hard and effectively. As has been said, you get flak when you’re over the target..

However, her most impressive talent is cutting through the morass and getting to the center of an issue. Her recent comments on impeachment bear that out.

Ingraham Discusses Impeachment

Ingraham:

“President Biden is the figurehead of the left-wing ‘insurrection’ against the American people… The Democrats and the media that serve them are like addicts looking for their next fix, and their drug of choice over the past five years has been Donald Trump.

If you’re conservative and you voted for Trump, they want you demoralized by the impeachment proceedings and the January 6th riot and they want you to believe things will never get better.”

She said the Senate impeachment trial is a “shiny object” to sidetrack voters.

“Why? Because if you keep your eye on what’s really happening out there, you’re going to realize Biden isn’t running anything. He’s barely awake,” said Ingraham.

Related: Ingraham Speaks For Conservatives: No Justice, No Healing

She went on to add that the Biden administration is “populated by snotty, entitled, overeducated, underperforming goofballs who are slowly but surely dismantling our economy, attacking our prosperity and opening the door to an endless stream of illegal aliens and gang members.”

But gee, what does she really mean?

Ingraham Doubles Down

Ingraham explained: 

“If we had a Congress that was focused on protecting American jobs, safety, healthcare, and education, they would immediately tighten the asylum laws…

At a time when we’re seeing more crime, fewer jobs, and millions of kids stuck in Zoom hell and not in school, Biden’s team is focusing on shielding illegals from deportation because he doesn’t want to put them through too much stress…

If that’s not enough to make your blood boil, ICE agents seeking to arrest fugitives outside jail and prisons will need prior approval from the agency’s director in Washington. Gang tattoos or records showing loose affiliation with gang activity would also not meet the narrower criteria.

“Biden’s open-borders zealots have what they want. Big business, they get their slave labor, and the social justice warriors, the far-left ‘Squad’ types, they have their new population that can be molded and formed into socialist party faithful…There is an insurrection taking place against America, all right. It’s been going on for years in the deepest depths of the D.C. swamp. And now its figurehead resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

As usual, she nails it.

Read Next: Laura Ingraham to Mitt Romney: If I Have to Move to Utah to Beat You I Will

This piece was written by David Kamioner on February 10, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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The post Ingraham Slams DC Swamp Over Impeachment Trial appeared first on The Political Insider.

Dems Took Way More Dark Money Than The GOP – Will They Now Swear It Off?

By Susan Crabtree for RealClearPolitics

Nearly a decade ago, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold warned that his party would “lose its soul” if it began taking unlimited corporate money with plans to wean itself off the addiction later –  especially if the funds helped Democrats gain control of the White House and Congress.

Fast-forward to 2021 and that warning is facing its first big test.

Anonymous “dark money” donors provided $145 million to pro-Biden groups during the 2020 election, helping pave his way to the White House and dwarfing the $28.4 million spent on behalf of Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported in late January.

When it comes to control of the Senate, Stacey Abrams’ voter-registration groups, Fair Fight and its dark-money arm, Fair Fight Action, also are widely credited with helping Democrats win the Georgia runoffs.

Liberal dark-money groups, which (like conservative ones) don’t disclose the source of their funds, started out-spending their counterparts in 2018, according to a report by Issue One, an advocacy group calling for more restrictions on campaign fundraising.

RELATED: Report: Biden Received Over $145 Million In ‘Dark Money’ Campaign Cash

The Center for Responsive Politics, a group that closely tracks campaign spending, found that liberal dark-money groups outspent conservatives ones in 2020 as well.

Despite benefiting from the anonymous largesse, Democrats have seemed uneasy – at least publicly — cozying up to these big donors whose identities are obscured.

During his presidential primary campaign last spring, Joe Biden said one of his first priorities would be signing a comprehensive campaign-finance reform bill that, among other things, would force dark-money groups to disclose their donors.

But in the first few weeks of the new administration, passing a COVID relief bill to help struggling Americans, along with impeaching Trump, have become the two main priorities set before Congress.

For now at least, the reform bills have been shunted aside despite Democrats giving them top legislative billing – dubbing them HR 1 and S 1 to signify their importance. 

Instead of prominent Democrats, including Biden, aggressively pressing for more campaign-finance disclosure, there’s been a proliferation of news about plans by liberal groups to spend more dark-money to help congressional Democrats keep their majorities and push the party’s agenda to the left.

Just last week, American Bridge, which spent $62 million in 2020 on ads aimed at defeating Trump, announced it would relaunch next month with a nine-figure ad budget to defend Biden’s record and maintain Democrats’ congressional majorities in 2022.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez will serve as a co-chair of the initiative, along with former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

RELATED: Biden’s COVID Team Warns There Might Not Be Herd Immunity Until Thanksgiving Or Even Later

Sixty-two liberal groups, including Demand Justice and Fix Our Senate (a trade name for the Sixteen Thirty Fund) — both organizations that hide their donors’ identities — sent a letter Friday to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling on him to abolish the Senate filibuster to help break any gridlock and advance a liberal agenda.

Demand Justice and several other dark-money liberal groups are also leading a separate effort called “Unrig Our Courts,” a push to undo Trump’s judicial legacy by pressing Congress to add seats to the Supreme Court, impose term limits on high court justices, and improve judiciary “ethics and transparency requirements.”

The hypocrisy of a group that obscures its donors calling for more disclosure wasn’t lost on conservatives who oppose campaign finance disclosure mandates.

“We now know that many of these dark-money groups are part of a massive operation on the left,” Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general who serves as an outside counsel for Americans for Public Trust, a conservative watchdog group, said in a statement.

“It’s not surprising that these and other progressive groups have set their sights on our courts, the last obstacle to complete power.”

Even though Democrats insist they are fighting fire with fire and will not “unilaterally disarm,” with their majority in both chambers of Congress they now have the power to advance the reforms they have long advocated, notes Michael Beckel, Issue One’s research director.

RELATED: Texas Sheriff Claims Biden Admin Releasing Illegal Immigrants Into U.S. Without COVID Testing

“The increased dark-money spending by liberal groups in recent years should make it clear to all members of Congress that neither party is immune from being pummeled by attack ads funded by anonymous donors,” Beckel told RealClearPolitics.

“Democrats and Republicans alike should be motivated to end secret spending in our elections. Lawmakers in both parties should be taking dark money seriously and working to bring more transparency to campaigns.”

Yet, as Feingold predicted, ending the addiction to big money is proving difficult for Democrats now that they’re playing the game better than Republicans.

Democrats always opposed Citizens United, the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision that allowed virtually unlimited money in politics.

They said opening the floodgates to unlimited donations flew in the face of their commitment to helping average Americans and those struggling to get by.

But Democrats also opposed Citizens United because they thought Republicans and their deep-pocketed corporate allies would benefit the most from the ruling.

“Their mantra of not ‘unliterally disarming’ was really their justification for learning how to master super PACs and dark money and all that, and they’re doing a better job of it right now than the Republicans,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the group Public Citizen, which advocates for stricter campaign-finance laws, told NBC News last fall. Holman went a step further, predicting more Democratic complacence on the issue if they were to win the Senate and the White House.

RELATED: Report: Democrats Have A Back-Up Plan That Might Still Bar Trump From Running Again If Impeachment Fails

Under such a scenario — which became political reality — Holman said his group would have to “hold their word over their head.”

Now, Senate Democrats who sponsored S 1 are not pushing for prompt consideration of the bill. Sen. Jeff Merkley (pictured), an Oregon Democrat and the lead sponsor, did not respond to repeated requests for comment from RCP.

A spokesman for Schumer also did not respond to an RCP inquiry. Schumer is up for reelection in 2022 and could face a primary challenge from his left flank, perhaps from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Majority Forward, a nonprofit with ties to Schumer’s Senate Majority Pac, channeled $57.4 million into super PACs that helped Democrats regain the majority in the upper chamber.

The group received $76 million in anonymous donations from mid-2018 to mid-2019, the same year it passed tens of millions of dollars to other left-wing nonprofit groups devoted to funding “voter engagement” efforts.

The Senate Majority PAC sent its largest donation — $14.8 million — to America Votes, a group that Georgia election officials investigated for allegations it sent ballot applications to non-residents.

A spokesperson for America Votes has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that it sent absentee ballot applications to registered voters across Georgia, using an official list from the secretary of state’s office along with postal address data.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a vocal proponent of ending dark-money groups, also did not respond to an RCP request for comment. The Rhode Island Democrat has repeatedly described the impact of these “shadowy” groups as a “rot on our American democracy.”

RELATED: ‘Squad’ Member Rep. Cori Bush Defends Prison Riot After Condemning Capitol Riot

Last fall Whitehouse testified during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing that conservative dark-money organizations unduly influenced the confirmation of conservative judges during Trump’s time in office.

But Whitehouse also has said he would accept campaign donations from dark-money groups and has delivered speeches to liberal groups that accept money from secret donors.

Last summer, the longtime senator trashed the judicial nominating process during Trump’s time in office as “rigged.”

He argued that Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh won confirmation because they were backed by a sophisticated dark-money advertising “scheme” funded by corporations and deep-pocketed GOP donors.

Whitehouse spokesman Rich Davidson told RCP at the time that the donor disclosure his boss is seeking should apply to all groups “regardless of ideological bent.”

Davidson made the comment the same day Whitehouse spoke about the evils of conservative dark-money groups at an event hosted by the American Constitution Society, a liberal dark-money group that doesn’t disclose many of its donors.

Over the last week, RCP reached out to numerous groups (or their political arms) that don’t disclose their donors, including Demand Justice and Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Only one, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which Politico labeled a “dark-money behemoth” after it raised $137 million from anonymous donors in 2019, came forward to say it supports efforts to force it and other groups that amass these “shadowy” funds to disclose their donors. 

“We have lobbied in favor of reform to the current campaign finance system,” Amy Kurtz, the fund’s executive director, told RCP in an emailed statement. “But we remain equally committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives.”

Kurtz referred to that statement when asked whether she supports passage of the disclosure mandates in HR 1 and S 1, considering the success that dark-money groups such as hers had this cycle in helping Biden win the White House and Democrats gain the Senate majority.

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ White House/national political correspondent.

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