VIDEO COPY (NO AUDIO) Donald Trump releases statement After acquittal 2.13.2021~After voting to acquit Trump, McConnell says there’s ‘no question’ he provoked Capitol attack

Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate, ending his second impeachment trial

After voting to acquit Trump, McConnell says there’s ‘no question’ he provoked Capitol attack

 

 

American Thought Leaders: Democrats May Try 14th Amendment to Disqualify Trump With Simple Majority~Rick Green on Impeachment

Rumble — What does the U.S. Constitution have to say about the current impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate? What does historical precedent say?

In this episode, we sit down with constitutional attorney Rick Green, a former Texas state representative and co-founder of the Patriot Academy.

It’s unlikely that the impeachment managers will persuade sixty-seven senators to convict former president Donald Trump. But separate from the attempt to convict, Rick Green expects they are exploring other means to disqualify Trump from running for office again.

“By raising the 14th Amendment issue, they are looking for an opportunity to get a vote that does not require two-thirds,” Green argues. How would this scenario work exactly?

This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

70% of GOP Would JOIN TRUMP PARTY as Calls for Gov Cuomo to LEAVE Office SURGE!!!

★★★ THE POPULIST REVOLT HAS JUST BEGUN ★★★

A new poll shows that 70% of Republicans Would JOIN a new TRUMP PARTY as Calls for New York Gov Andrew Cuomo to be REMOVED from office SURGE! In this video, we’re going to look at the latest poll that shows that the vast majority of Republican voters are ready to bolt the party, what’s REALLY behind the rise of third-party sentiments not just here in the States but around the world, and how the latest cover-up scandal surrounding the real number of deaths in New York nursing homes may take down one of the Democrats’ rising stars; you are NOT going to want to miss this!

Talk of ‘Deprogramming’ Trump Supporters is Giving Refugees from Communism ‘Flashbacks’

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

BY DALE HURD

SEE: https://www.faithwire.com/2021/02/10/talk-of-deprogramming-trump-supporters-is-giving-refugees-from-communism-flashbacks/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

An attorney for PBS was caught on camera by Project Veritas saying the children of Trump supporters should be taken away from their parents and put in reeducation camps.

He was later fired, but voices in the media are still calling for Trump supporters to be deprogrammed.

Trump Supporters ‘Mentally Ill’ Members of a ‘Cult’

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post said on MSNBC, “There are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed.”

Journalist Katie Couric said on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, “The question is: how are we going to really almost deprogram these people who have signed up for the cult of Trump?”

Trump supporters are also being called mentally ill and are being censored, doxed, de-platformed, backlisted, or demonetized.

***As certain voices are censored and free speech platforms shut down, be sure to sign up for Faithwire’s newsletter as well our parent company CBN News emails and the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving news from a Christian Perspective.***

Disturbing Parallels to Communist Dictatorships

It’s giving some who have lived in communist countries, flashbacks.

For those who lived under communist dictatorships, what’s happening in America has disturbing parallels.

Chinese Pastor Bob Fu of China Aid was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989. He was also a proud attendee of the January 6th Trump rally on the National Mall. 

Fu says the call for “re-education” and “deprogramming” for Trump supporters is straight out of the Chinese communist party playbook. 

“Absolutely,” was Fu’s response when asked about the similarities, “These kinds of tactics, they all require forced conformity and if you don’t comply, then you will be punished. They want to make every American conform one way of ideology and a one way of thinking.” 

Hugo Chavez Also Called His Opponents ‘Terrorists’ and ‘Fascists’

Elizabeth Rogliani’s family had to flee Venezuela when Hugo Chavez took power. She made a video warning last year about the similarities between the Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioting in America and what happened in Venezuela, that went viral. She told her Instagram followers, “I have already lived through this thing when I was living in Venezuela.”

Rogliani says the labeling of Trump supporters as potential domestic terrorists was a tactic Hugo Chavez used to stigmatize his political opposition.

“This calling out the opposition or Republicans as terrorist or fascist, that is the kind of language I saw a lot,” Rogliani said, “The late president Hugo Chavez used to call us fascist and terrorist as well.”

Rogliani believes one ominous sign for America has been all the conservatives flocking to more secure messaging platforms like Telegram because that is exactly what happened in Venezuela when the democratic opposition was de-platformed and opposition leaders began to be arrested. 

“We jumped into Telegram really early on,” Rogliani said, “So I find that very interesting how it’s happening so fast here.”

MORE:  Bill Maher Mocks the Bible and Christians as Secular Dems Say ‘Religious Right’ Is a Threat to America

Jason Poblete’s grandfather had to flee Cuba when Fidel Castro took power. Poblete, an attorney who has worked in Congress and now heads the Global Liberty Alliance, says what happened in Cuba is replaying in the United States.

“It’s painful to watch,” Poblete told us, “It’s not something that I ever thought I would see in the United States. In Cuba, the communists and the socialist facilitators had been laying the groundwork. And by the time Fidel Castro rolled in, they had already laid that framework in place to take the government over.”

East German ‘Democrats’ Ended Careers, Took Away Children

German Evangelist Heidi Mund, author of The Brave German Woman, grew up in former communist East Germany, which called itself the “German Democratic Republic,” and she has harsh words for America’s Democrat party today:

“Your Democrats remind me of the German Democratic Republic,” Mund said. “They also called themselves ‘democrats,’ but they were socialists and communists.” 

When Heidi as a young woman began to speak out against the East German government, she paid the price. “My career stopped. They broke my career, so I could not find a job anymore,” Mund said.

Dissidents in the old Soviet bloc were also called mentally ill and sent to hospitals, as they are today in China. Children were also taken away from dissidents.

Mund said, “They really took away children. They put them in orphanages and the parents did not get them back.”

Polish Prime Minister Compares Treatment of Trump to Communism

These voices warning Americans are not alone. Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki has compared the treatment of President Trump to Poland’s Communist era.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, sentenced last week to two years in Penal Colony by the Russian government, calls Donald trump’s Twitter ban “an unacceptable act of censorship.”

Former Chinese dissident Fu said, “All this de-platforming, stopping you from even having a platform to speak up, this kind of thing is exactly happening in China. They’re using similar tactics with the same playbook.”

Jason Poblete believes if his grandfather, who loved America deeply, was alive today to see how Trump supporters are being demonized, he’d be scared. 

“And then he would tell me, ‘Hey, Jason, what are you doing about it, because you can’t go anywhere. I mean, this is it. There’s nowhere for us to go.'”

This story was first published on CBN.com

American Thought Leaders: Gordon Chang-Cooperation With Communist China Impossible~It Seeks to Overthrow America

Rumble — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated the United States will work with allies to hold the Chinese regime accountable. But at the same time, the Biden administration seeks to cooperate with the Chinese leadership in areas like the pandemic and climate change. But does this really make sense? In this episode, we sit down with China analyst Gordon Chang, author of “The Coming Collapse of China,” to discuss President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders and the future of US-China relations.

Biden Takes ‘Death to America’ Terrorists Off Terror List, Replaces Them With Republicans

Democrats say Muslim terrorists aren’t terrorists, but their political opponents are.

BY DANIEL GREENFIELD

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/biden-takes-death-america-terrorists-terror-list-daniel-greenfield/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

The Biden administration responded to protests against its stolen election by embedding a domestic extremism office into the National Security Council. The man in charge of making it happen, Joshua Geltzer, had previously denied that Black Lives Matter was a terrorist threat and had attacked the Trump administration’s response to Antifa and BLM violence in Portland.

That means that the only domestic extremists the NSC will be fighting are Republicans.

Even while the Biden administration is preparing to double down on Obama’s abuse of the national security state to target his political opponents, it’s also giving real terrorists a pass.

Joe Biden, whose biggest bundlers included the Iran Lobby, announced he was ending support for American allies fighting the Houthis, and then went even further by preparing to remove the terrorist organization whose motto is, “Death to America”, which took American hostages and tried to kill American sailors, from the list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.

The motto of Iran’s Houthi Jihadis is, "Allahu Akbar, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam." The Houthis took over parts of Yemen as a result of the chaos unleashed by Obama’s pro-Islamist Arab Spring. Since then they’ve been engaged in a protracted war while causing a local famine by confiscating food from the local population.

Last year, the Trump administration had finally secured the release of three American hostages, Sandra Loli, an American aid worker who had been held for 3 years, another American who had been held for a year, and the body of a third American, in exchange for 240 Houthis, including three dozen Islamic terrorists who had been trained in the use of missiles and drones by Iran.

Like those launched at the USS Mason.

The Houthis lived up to their “Death to America” slogan by repeatedly launching cruise missiles at the USS Mason which had been protecting shipping in the area. And they lived up to the second half of their slogan by ethnically cleansing the remaining local Jewish population, locking them up, and confiscating their homes and land. Local reports stated that the Houthis were “cutting off water & electricity to Jewish homes and preventing Jews from purchasing food."

“No Jew would be allowed to stay here,” one of the Jewish refugees said.

The Iran-backed Islamic terrorists fight using 18,000 child soldiers. The soldiers, many abducted, some as young as 10, are taught to hate America and to kill enemies of Iran.

None of this stopped Biden’s State Department from taking the Houthis off the terror list.

“Secretary Blinken has been clear about undertaking an expeditious review of the designations of Ansarallah,” the State Department claimed. “After a comprehensive review, we can confirm that the Secretary intends to revoke the Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist designations of Ansarallah.”

‘Ansarallah’ or ‘Defenders of Allah’ is what the Houthis call themselves. Blinken had only been confirmed on Tuesday. By next Friday, he had already somehow completed the “comprehensive review”, amid all the other minor business like China, Russia, and a global pandemic, and decided that the Islamic terrorists whose motto is “Death to America” aren’t really terrorists.

How can the Biden administration deny that Islamic Jihadis backed by Iran who attacked Americans are terrorists? The State Department claimed that this, “has nothing to do with our view of the Houthis and their reprehensible conduct, including attacks against civilians and the kidnapping of American citizens." Not to mention the attacks on the USS Mason.

But the Biden administration isn’t even going to pretend to care about attacks on our military.

The Bidenites are claiming that they're taking the Houthis, whom they don't deny are terrorists, off the list of designated terrorist groups because of the "humanitarian consequences".

That’s a lie, no matter how often you hear it in the media because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would be providing licenses to “humanitarian activities conducted by non-governmental organizations in Yemen and to certain transactions and activities related to exports to Yemen of critical commodities like food and medicine.”

That’s despite the fact that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was caused by the Houthis.

Nevertheless, the media, echoing propaganda from the Iran Lobby and Qatar, a close terrorist ally of Iran, has falsely claimed that the Houthis are the victims of the Yemen famine. A number of politicians, mostly Democrats, but some Republicans, as well as various aid groups, have pushed this same disinformation campaign about the causes of the Yemen famine.

America and its allies have spent billions providing food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid to Yemen. That aid has been seized by the Houthis who have used it for their own troops or to resell on the black market. This is a familiar problem from Syria to Somalia, and aid groups have refused to honestly address their complicity in aiding the terrorists who caused the crisis.

There’s no money in admitting that the aid an organization is providing is being seized by the terrorists, prolonging the conflict and worsening the humanitarian crisis. Some aid organizations share the same goal as the Houthis of worsening the crisis because it boosts their donations.

That’s why international aid organizations don’t want to talk about the Houthis taking their food donations, or about their use of child soldiers. “It’s a taboo,” an anonymous aid official had said.

When Secretary Pompeo announced that the United States was finally designating the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization, the United Nations took the lead in claiming that it would cause a humanitarian crisis. But the UN's World Food Program had already admitted that its food shipments weren't getting to the starving people because the Houthis were intercepting them.

The Middle East director for UNICEF also admitted that the Houthis were seizing food.

An Associated Press investigation found entire stores selling "cooking oil and flour displaying the U.N. food program’s WFP logo." The former Houthi education minister said that 15,000 food baskets that were supposed to go to hungry families instead went to the Houthi terrorists whom the Biden administration is defending. Massive amounts of aid have been pumped into Yemen, and the famine has only grown worse because the Houthis have used starvation as a weapon.

The only way to end the famine is to end Iran’s grip on Yemen through its Houthi terrorists.

That’s obviously not what Biden or the Democrats have in mind. The loudest Democrat voices against designating the Houthis as a terrorist group have a troubling history with Iran.

"Reversing the designation is an important decision that will save lives and, combined with the appointment of a Special Envoy, offers hope that President Biden is committed to bringing the war to an end,” Senator Chris Murphy tweeted.

Murphy had been among the loudest voices against the designation.

And Murphy had met with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last year. That same year, he had advocated lowering sanctions on Iran for “humanitarian reasons”. Biden had also joined the push to use the pandemic as a pretext for reducing sanctions on the terror state.

That same year, the Left succeeded in forcing out Rep. Elliot Engel, one of the few remaining pro-Israel Democrats, and replaced him with the militantly anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman, whose election was backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and her antisemitic ‘Squad’.

Engel, who had served as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was replaced by Rep. Gregory Meeks, a strong backer of the Iran Deal. Meeks’ position was cheered by Iran Lobby groups. As far back as 2009, Meeks had declared at a hearing, “I have developed a tremendous appreciation for the work of the National Iranian American Council. I am pleased that we will hear the perspective of NIAC’s President, Mr. Trita Parsi.”

Emails released allegedly showed Parsi telling Iran's Foreign Minister, "I am having a meeting with Gilchrest and Meeks, and they asked for our assistance in getting some communication going between the parliamentarians."

Speaking to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the official state news agency of the Islamic terrorist state, Chairman Meeks allegedly stated that he was willing to travel to Iran and had been engaged in dialogue with Iranian legislators.

Meeks took the lead in attacking the designation of the Houthi Islamic terrorists as terrorists, arguing that, “No solution in Yemen will be sustainable unless the Houthis are involved.”

And that gets at the real reason why Biden and Democrats oppose the designation.

It’s not about humanitarian aid, which would have kept on going anyway, only to be stolen by the Houthis. It’s about supporting Iran’s bid to take over parts of Yemen in order to control shipping and tighten the grip of the Islamic terrorist regime over the entire region.

The ‘diplomatic’ solution advocated by Biden and the Democrats would finalize Iran’s grip over parts of Yemen. Designating the Houthis as terrorists would get in the way of another in a series of Islamist dirty deals with Iran that began with Obama and that will continue on under Biden.

Even while the Democrats insist loudly that the Houthis must be part of the solution in Yemen, they just as vocally cry that the Republicans must be isolated and eliminated in America.

The Democrats militarized D.C. with an armed occupation and are criminalizing political dissent. They have claimed that one riot, after a year full of them by their own activist wing, requires a permanent state of emergency that will be run through the National Security Council.

The Biden administration is not only taking the Houthis, and likely other Islamic terrorist groups, off the terror list, it’s putting the domestic political opposition on its terror list. This is an extension of the same Obama policy that illegally shipped foreign cash to Iran even while it was using the NSA to spy on pro-Israel members of Congress and on the Trump campaign.

The Democrats are happy to fight terrorism by designating their domestic political opponents as terrorists while removing the “Death to America” Houthis who have kidnapped and killed Americans, who fired on the USS Mason, and ethnically cleansed Jews, from the terror list.

And what do the Houthis plan to do with their newfound support from the Biden administration?

In addition to sanctioning the Houthis, the Trump administration sanctioned three of their leaders, beginning with Abdul Malik al-Houthi. The Houthi leader has made it clear that he intends to build up the same missile program that was used to attack the USS Mason.

“To have rockets that could reach far beyond Riyadh, this is a great achievement,” he said, referring to the Saudi capital.

He also promised to send terrorists to fight against Israel.

“Many of Yemen's tribesmen are ambitious to fight against Israel, and they are looking for the day to participate along with the freemen of the Islamic nation against the Israeli enemy,"

This is the terrorist group that the Biden administration and the Democrats are bailing out even while they’re criminalizing the Republican political opposition as terrorists.

“Death to America” is something that the Houthis and their Democrat supporters can agree on.

Biden says he’ll return to nuke deal if Iran reverses ‘nuclear steps’~Khamenei demands immediate end of sanctions

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/biden-says-hell-return-to-nuke-deal-if-iran-reverses-nuclear-steps-khamenei-demands-immediate-end-of-sanctions;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Biden says he “will seek to revive the nuclear deal, but insists that Iran must first reverse its nuclear steps.” But he’s in a standoff with Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei, who said: “If they want Iran to return to its JCPOA commitments, the US must completely lift sanctions. And not just verbally on the paper. They must revoke the sanctions in action.”

Biden is deluding himself if he thinks that any nuke deal with Iran will be authentic. He is following in the disastrous steps of Barack Obama, who enabled Iran to increase its nuclear capabilities and deceive naïve infidel countries. And still Biden’s willingness to return to the deal isn’t enough for Khamenei, who knows exactly what Iran is planning.

Iran-based dissidents — many who have been imprisoned by the regime — are not so easily fooled. They are urging Biden to maintain sanctions, knowing all too well about the nature of the deceitful, jihadist regime which aims to build a nuclear bomb.

In late January, Israel announced that attack plans against Iran were being revised in light of Biden’s return to the nuclear deal. This was a prudent move in light of  Iran’s violation of the previous nuclear deal under the Obama administration, and its own admission to having violated the deal, as well as its boastful, repeated threats and provocations regarding its military capabilities.

“Biden will not lift sanctions to get Iran back to negotiating table,” Guardian, February 7, 2021:

President has said he will seek to revive the nuclear deal, but insists that Iran must first reverse its nuclear steps.

oe Biden has said the United States will not lift its economic sanctions on Iran in order to get Tehran back to the negotiating table to discuss how to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

Asked if the United States will lift sanctions first to get Iran back to the negotiating table, Biden replied: “no” in an interview with CBS News, which was recorded on Friday but released on Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl.

Donald Trump, the former president, unilaterally withdrew the US in 2018 from the atomic deal, which saw Iran agree to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Biden has said he will seek to revive the deal, but insisted that Iranmust first reverse its nuclear steps, creating a contest of wills between the nations.

Asked if Iran had to stop enriching uranium first, Biden nodded. It was not clear exactly what he meant, as Iran is permitted to enrich uranium under the 2015 nuclear deal within certain limits.

“Will the US lift sanctions first in order to get Iran back to the negotiating table?” CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell asked.

“No,” Biden responded.

“They have to stop enriching uranium first?” O’Donnell asked. Biden nodded.

Earlier on Sunday Iran’s supreme leader urged the US to lift all sanctions if it wants the country to live up to commitments under its nuclear deal with world powers, according to state TV.

In his first comments on the matter since Biden took office, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying: “If (the US) wants Iran to return to its commitments, it must lift all sanctions in practice, then we will do verification then we will return to our commitments.”

“This is the definitive and irreversible policy of the Islamic Republic, and all of the country’s officials are unanimous on this, and no one will deviate from it,” Khamenei added Sunday, reiterating Iranian leaders’ previous remarks that the US must ease its sanctions before Iran comes back into compliance….

Where’s the Outrage? Biden Fires 56 Trump U.S. Attorneys

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/10/wheres-the-outrage-biden-fires-56-trump-appointed-u-s-attorneys-n1424466;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

In what most of the media is characterizing as “a routine” event, Joe Biden has asked 56 U.S. attorneys appointed by Donald Trump to resign.

Indeed, it used to be a routine announcement. It’s part of the transition and shouldn’t draw any scrutiny. In with the new, out with the old, farewell, and good luck.

Except when Trump did it in 2016, you’d think it was the end of democracy. This was the headline story on the MSNBC website after Trump asked for the resignations on March 13, 2017.

Trump sparks new controversy with U.S. Attorney dismissals. Ten years after the last Republican White House had a U.S. Attorney scandal, Donald Trump has one of his own.

What “scandal”? The U.S. attorney for New York, Preet Bharara, threw a tantrum because he says Trump promised he could stay. He refused to resign and was promptly fired. The media blew this tantrum into a clash between the executive branch and the judicial branch.

But when Biden does it, it’s “routine.”

Federalist:

And then there was CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who complained of Trump, “one would have thought they’d have handled it better.” Blitzer’s colleague, Jim Acosta, complained, “They’re off to a very slow start… So it’s not surprising they’d do it in this fashion.”

The New York Times headlined its coverage, “Trump Abruptly Orders 46 Obama-Era Prosecutors to Resign.” One can still be looking for the Biden announcement on the Times’s website.

The media misconduct remained consistent with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Routine practices were always criminal for the big bad orange man, while remaining admissible for Democrats.

In Biden’s “routine” firing of U.S. attorneys, he allowed two of them to stay on.

Fox News:

The U.S. attorneys will begin transitioning out of their roles, with the exception of the prosecutor overseeing the federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden, David Weiss for Delaware. John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, will resign from his position as U.S. attorney but will stay on as special counsel to continue his now years-long investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday was asked about Weiss and Durham, and said that those “decisions were made in order to fulfill his promise of maintaining independence.”

It was politically smart for Biden to continue the Hunter Biden probe. He really didn’t have any choice because it may eventually lead back to him. But he could have taken the risk and asked for Weiss’s resignation too. That he didn’t is significant in that he wants to keep the focus on Trump impeachment and his pandemic relief bill.

For all the machinations of the media to destroy Trump’s presidency, none of it mattered in the end. All they ended up doing was destroying what was left of their credibility with the vast majority of the American people. And it’s things like this that sealed their fate.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Biden Purging DOJ: Trump-appointed U.S. Attorneys Must Resign by End of Month

BY LUIS MIGUEL

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/biden-purging-doj-trump-appointed-u-s-attorneys-must-resign-by-end-of-month/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

The Left’s march through the institutions continues. 

As a further part of Joe Biden’s effort to purge the executive branch of any vestige of Trumpism, his Department of Justice has now asked U.S. attorneys appointed by Donald Trump to step down from their posts by the end of the month.

According to a senior Biden administration official who spoke to Fox News, 56 U.S. attorneys have been given until February 28 to resign.

“We are committed to ensuring a seamless transition,” said Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson in a statement. “Until U.S. Attorney nominees are confirmed, the interim and acting leaders in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices will make sure that the department continues to accomplish its critical law enforcement mission, vigorously defend the rule of law, and pursue the fair and impartial administration of justice for all.”

Earlier this year, the Biden Justice Department said that “nearly all presidential appointees from the previous administration offered their resignations, though U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals were asked to temporarily remain in place.”

The DOJ also said that before the start of the transition process, approximately a third of the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices were being directed by acting or interim leadership.

The department further stated that Biden will make an announcement related to nominations to be confirmed by the Senate “as that information becomes available.” 

Current U.S. attorneys will begin transitioning out of their roles. This does not include David Weiss, the prosecutor in charge of the Hunter Biden federal tax investigation.

John Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, will step down from his U.S. attorney role but remain in the DOJ as special counsel to continue his investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

Asked about Weiss and Durham on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that those “decisions were made in order to fulfill his promise of maintaining independence.”

Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, is reportedly a subject/target of a grand jury investigation. Per a source, a “target” who has a high probability of having committed a crime, whereas a “subject” is someone who is, as yet, unknown to have committed a crime.

Suspicious foreign transactions (from “China and other foreign nations,” according to one source) were reportedly what gave rise to the investigation of Hunter Biden, which apparently began in 2018.

In another pending change-up, the Biden Justice Department wants Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to leave his current post but remain as some sort of special prosecutor to continue his work overseeing the prosecution of those involved in the January 6 Capitol breach. Sherwin has vowed to “bring the most maximum charges we can based upon the conduct.”

The feds have thus far charged over 150 people in the Capitol siege.

The news of the DOJ’s “de-Trumpization” should serve as a reminder to Americans that Democrats are playing for keeps; they want to leave no available avenue for citizens to turn to have their constitutional liberties protected against growing usurpations by the Left.

If President Trump vowed to drain the swamp, Joe Biden is filling it back up.

Sadly, when Democrats are in power, they tend to be much more effective than Republicans in ensuring that the government is staffed by people who share their vision and will not attempt to sabotage their program from within. 

While President Trump achieved much during his time in office, he would have done well to take a few more pages out of the leftist playbook and purge the executive branch more completely of establishment hacks appointed by past presidents.

Of course, the mainstream media always plays a role. The major outlets hardly bat an eyelash as Biden seeks to totally transform the Justice Department. Meanwhile, anytime President Trump attempted to fire a holdover from the previous administration, the media screamed bloody murder.

This writer has regularly noted the importance of working at the state and local level now that the Marxist Left has a growing stranglehold on the federal government. The recent case of Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt nullifying a Biden executive order with an order of his own is one example of the model to follow.

 

Mega Compilation: Democrats Call For Violence Against Trump Supporters

As Democrats prepare to impeach Trump for "inciting an insurrection", it's important to step back and recall the hundreds of times they themselves called for violence and insurrections in recent years.
Political violence has been baked into the Democrat playbook from the beginning of the Trump Era and beyond.
BY JAMIE WHITE
EXCERPTS: 

Democrats are preparing to impeach President Donald Trump again, this time claiming he “incited an insurrection” at the Capitol last month.

But for the entirety of Trump’s term in office, Democrats and their media allies have been deploying extreme rhetoric, calling for violence against the president and his supporters and even inciting insurrections themselves.

Pelosi called for “uprisings” across the country in 2018:

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) threatened mob violence against Trump officials and supporters in 2018:

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said there “needs to be unrest in the streets”:

 

 

 

DR. STEVE TURLEY: Greta Thunberg Faces CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY Probe as India STRIKES BACK Against Big Tech!!!

Greta Thunberg Faces a CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY Probe as the Nation of India STRIKE BACK Against Big Tech! In this video, we’re going to take a look at the international mess the teenage Swedish activist has gotten herself into, how Twitter is finding itself also in hot water, and how the nation of India is part of an international backlash against Big Tech that promises to end Silicon Valley censorship once and for all! You are NOT going to want to miss this!

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell Releases Documentary on Election Steal~”PROGRESSIVE” NEWSMAX INTERVIEWER ABUSES HIM, ABRUPTLY LEAVES

BOB SELLERS WALKS OUT INSISTING NEWSMAX HAS NOT SEEN ANY PROOF OF ELECTION FRAUD

"RIGHT OF CENTER" PROGRESSIVE LEANING NEWSMAX EXPOSED FOR THEIR LEFTIST "JOURNALISM" WHICH PURPORTS TO BE CONSERVATIVE-SOMETIMES!

WATCH: My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell Releases Documentary on Election Steal

BY WILLIAM F. JASPER

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/watch-today-my-pillow-ceo-mike-lindell-releases-documentary-on-election-steal;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Unstoppable. Irrepressible. On-fire. Passionate. Mike Lindell is on a mission and he’s not going to let the cancel culture censors at Big Tech, Big Media, or Big Business — or even his “friends” at Newsmax and Fox — stop him. Today, Friday, February 5, he has released his two-hour documentary, “Absolute Proof,” which he says shows “100 percent” the theft of our election by China and other countries.

In a rousing promotion for the new documentary aired over The Revival Channel of the Word Broadcasting Network (WBN) on Tuesday, the millionaire entrepreneur and enthusiastic Trump supporter repeatedly stressed that he has assembled damning evidence that conclusively shows the election was stolen from President Trump and the American people.

The documentary is available to view on his own website, MichaelJLindell.com, and, reportedly, on the One America News Network (OANN), and other sites to be announced. The New American has posted Lindell’s “Absolute Proof” video here for your convenience:

“Thou Shalt Not!” – Big Tech’s Censorious Commandments

The Orwellian censors at Twitter banned Lindell on January 26 for promoting what the Fake News Media repeatedly refer to as “baseless claims” of voter fraud. “Twitter has permanently banned My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell’s account after he continually perpetuated the baseless claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” the Associated Press reported on January 26.

Of course, Twitter’s Ministry of Truth had already banned President Donald Trump a couple of weeks earlier — along with tens of thousands of other Americans who had one way or another stepped over Big Tech’s arbitrary and ever-changing political correctness line-in-the-sand. Among the “Thou shalt not” absolutes now being ruthlessly enforced by the Big Tech oligarchy: any mention of election fraud; any mention of COVID-19 fraud; any opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns; any opposition to COVID-19 mask mandates; any questioning or challenging of COVID-19 vaccines; any opposition to mandatory vaccines; any challenge to LGBTQ political correctness; etc., etc., etc.

But political correctness is not in Mike Lindell’s DNA. The outspoken businessman is a fervent evangelical Christian whose drug addict-to-CEO life story is a remarkable and inspiring example of the power of grace, prayer, and heroic perseverance. After years of alcohol and drug abuse, he invented the “My Pillow” pillow in 2004, and has grown it into a bedding company with over 100 products and hundreds of employees.

In 2020, Mr. Lindell served as the state chairman of President Trump’s campaign in Lindell’s home state of Minnesota, and he is a staunch supporter of the president’s efforts to expose massive voter fraud and election cyber warfare by China.

Lindell is an ardent pro-life, pro-family advocate and reportedly contributed $1 million for the movie Unplanned, the true biopic about Abby Johnson, the director of a large Planned Parenthood abortion center who converted to Christianity and has become a pro-life crusader. At the end of the movie, Lindell has a cameo role as the driver of the bulldozer that knocks down the Planned Parenthood sign.

All Not Well at Newsmax

Now he is fighting an even bigger battle against even bigger odds, while being censored and de-platformed by the liberal-left media and social media companies. As if all that isn’t bad enough, Lindell also faced a hostile “interview” and censorship on the conservative network Newsmax on February 2, during which anchor Bob Sellers repeatedly interrupted Lindell, then got up out of his chair and stormed off the set. Sellers insisted that Newsmax was not going to allow Lindell to discuss election fraud, asserting that the election had been certified and settled. Sellers’ outrageous treatment of Lindell and his insistence on adopting the Big Media/Big Tech party line of unquestioning acceptance of the official election results reportedly caused considerable blowback from Newsmax viewers. In a subsequent episode, Sellers apologized for his over-the-top reaction and referred to Lindell as “a friend of the network.”

The Sellers escapade adds to other concerns that Newsmax may be drifting the way of Fox. The hiring of disgraced former ABC/NBC pundit Mark Halperin has been cause for concern. As the result of charges of sexual harassment by multiple women, Halperin was bounced from NBC in 2017. Although he denied some of the particular charges, he apologized for “inappropriate” behavior and said he was going to “properly deal with this situation.” However, aside from Halperin’s status as “damaged goods,” there is his left-wing persuasion and pedigree. His father, Morton Halperin, is a notorious far-left/pro-communist activist who has worked for the ACLU, the Carnegie Endowment, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the Center for American Progress. Morton Halperin is currently a senior advisor to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and has been closely involved with the subversive Institute for Policy Studies and the pro-communist National Lawyers Guild.

Mark Halperin’s father, Morton Halperin, and his brother, David Halperin, are members of the globalist Council on Foreign Relations. In 2019, Mark Halperin came out with a campaign-themed book entitled How To Beat Trump: America’s Top Political Strategists On What It Will Take. A gaggle of left-wing Democrats assisted him in this effort to rehabilitate his career: Donna Brazile, James Carville, David Axelrod, Jennifer Granholm, Kathleen Sebelius, Bob Shrum, Anita Dunn, Karen Dunn — and others.

Then there’s the troubling political “evolution” of Newsmax founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy. Not only has he given $1 million to the Clinton Foundation, but has also become something of a buddy of and cheerleader for Bill Clinton, opining that Clinton “was a pretty good president in a lot of ways.” Ruddy the executive has come a long way since his investigative journalism days tracking Bill and Hillary Clinton’s crime spree. His 1997 book The Strange Death of Vincent Foster was a damning indictment of the Clintons — and of the media and government cover-up of the Foster murder, which (like the Jeffrey Epstein death) has been officially ruled a suicide. Now Ruddy calls himself a “moderate conservative” and has adopted Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s modus operandi of cozying up to both political parties.

Are the Bob Sellers/Mike Lindell dust-up, the Mark Halperin hiring, and Chris Ruddy’s political “mellowing” signs that Newsmax may be drifting in the same leftward direction as Fox, even while staking out a conservative-sounding agenda to lure in Fox defectors? Something to think about.

Related videos and articles:

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“Unplanned” Ordeal Again Highlights Big Media & Big Tech’s Leftwing Bias & Censorship

Exploiting COVID19, Big Tech Censors Become Big Brother

Is “Statistics Shadowbanning” the Latest Big-Tech Salvo Against Conservatives?

Big Tech’s Iron Boot: Trump Moved to Parler; Now It’s Set to Go Dark at Midnight After Big Tech Attack

As Trump Confronts Censorship Big Tech Targets The New American

Big Tech Censors Alex Jones. Who’s Next?

ChiComs Buying Up U.S. Political System

Twitter Permanently Bans Trump; Why Do Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Harry Reid Get a Pass?

Project Veritas Video Exposes Twitter as Part of “American Pravda”

National Review, CNN, WSJ: Backstabber Liz Cheney Is New “Hero,” “Conscience of GOP”

FULL EXPOSURE: NeverTrump Neocons Kristol and Schmidt Reach Out to Biden, AOC

The Great Wakeup Call for Fox Loyalists

National Review’s Neocons and The Bulwark’s Bidenistas: Reviling Trump, Rejoicing in Biden

Expelling MAGA from Government & Military, Election Fraud Latest, 2nd Amendment DEATH BILL!

In this episode of The Silent War, The Marxist Democrats seek to MAGA & wrong-think Whites in Federal Government & Military. No joke! 2nd Amendment death bill is being introduced!  Updates on the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020-2021

Trump’s Attorneys Shred Democrats’ Impeachment Claims

Trump’s Attorneys Shred Democrats’ Impeachment Claims

BY BOB ADELMANN

SEE: https://thenewamerican.com/trumps-attorneys-shred-democrats-impeachment-claims;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

It took President Trump’s attorneys just 14 pages to refute, rebut, and obliterate the House Democrats’ 80-page article of impeachment.

They made short shrift of the implicit argument that the effort to impeach the former president was somehow valid:

The Constitution provides that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment” and that the President “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”….

It is denied that [this] provision currently applies to the 45th President of the United States since he is no longer “President”….

Since the 45th President is no longer “President”, the clause “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for …” is impossible for the Senate to accomplish….

Thus the current proceeding before the Senate is void ab initio [void from the beginning; never legitimate or valid] as a legal nullity that runs patently contrary to the plain language of the Constitution.

Trump’s attorneys, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, tossed aside the House Democrats’ claim that Trump engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States by issuing false statements about the results of the election:

The 45th President exercised his First Amendment right under the Constitution to express his belief that the election results were suspect, since … under the convenient guise of Covid-19 pandemic … states’ election laws and procedures were changed by local politicians or judges without the necessary approvals from state legislatures.

They likewise annihilated the House Democrats’ claim that, in his speech on January 6, he incited the crowd to violence:

It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior. It is denied that [his words] “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore” had anything to do with the action at the Capitol.

They failed to mention that the crowd, infiltrated by Antifa, had been planning the attack days, if not weeks, in advance. They failed to mention that the crowd had been gathering long before the president made his allegedly incendiary remarks that allegedly touched off the attack.

They failed to mention the “pretty compelling evidence,” declared Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), “from a facial-recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol … were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.”

They emphasized the illegality of the impeachment move in the Senate when it was learned that Chief Justice John Roberts would not be presiding, as required by the Constitution:

Once the 45th President’s term expired … the constitutional mandate for the Chief Justice to preside … evidently disappeared, and he was replaced by a partisan Senator [vicious anti-Trump Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy] who will purportedly also act as a juror….

[This] effectively creates the additional appearance of bias with [his] long history of public remarks adverse to the 45th President.

The impeachment hearings, scheduled to begin on Monday, are a farce. It’s an exercise in projection, with the accusers charging President Trump with the very crimes of which they are guilty.

There is no chance whatsoever that the Senate will vote to impeach Donald Trump. Forty-five Republicans already voted in favor of a resolution that called the trial unconstitutional. The Senate Democrats, holding 50 votes with Kamala Harris providing the deciding vote, need two-thirds of the Senate to convict. That means they must somehow muscle 17 Republicans in joining them in this façade and charade.

It’s a show trial, designed to sully the person and record of Donald Trump as retribution for his efforts to expose the Deep State’s infestation of the halls of power.

Related article:

The Capitol Violence Wasn’t Surprising — and VERY Convenient for the Left

Former CIA top dog Robert Grenier: We should hunt down pro-Trump Americans as we hunted down al-Qaeda members

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/02/former-cia-top-dog-robert-grenier-we-should-hunt-down-trump-supporting-americans-as-we-hunted-down-al-qaeda-members;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

“Yes. And that is that, you know, even at the seeming height of the crisis immediately after 9/11, there really weren’t that many members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan. And the thrust of our campaign there was, yes, to hunt down al-Qaida, but primarily to remove the supportive environment in which they were able to live and to flourish.”

That means Grenier doesn’t just want to destroy Trump (as he explains in the section not reproduced below) and hunt down those who actually committed crimes at the Capitol. He wants to crush legitimate political dissent and hunt down Americans who oppose the far-Left agenda as if they were terrorists. This has been a long time coming. But only now is it being repeated at the highest levels by people with power and influence.

“Former CIA Officer: Treat Domestic Extremism As An Insurgency,” by Mary Louise Kelly, NPR, February 2, 2021:

When it comes to domestic extremists such as those who stormed the Capitol, a longtime CIA officer argues that the U.S. should treat them as an insurgency.

That means using counterinsurgency tactics — similar in some ways to those used in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Robert Grenier served as the CIA’s station chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001. He went on to become the CIA’s Iraq mission manager and then director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.

“We may be witnessing the dawn of a sustained wave of violent insurgency within our own country, perpetrated by our own countrymen,” Grenier wrote in The New York Times last week. And without national action, he argues, “extremists who seek a social apocalypse … are capable of producing endemic political violence of a sort not seen in this country since Reconstruction.”

In an interview with All Things Considered, Grenier discusses what that national action would mean.

As someone who has watched many violent insurgencies unfold in various countries around the world, what felt the same to you? What felt different?

I don’t want to be one to suggest that somehow the United States is going to in any way resemble Iraq or Afghanistan at the height of violence. But what I think is useful is to have some way of thinking about the problem and thinking through the elements of the solution. So I think as in any insurgency situation, you have committed insurgents who are typically a relatively small proportion of the affected population. But what enables them to carry forward their program is a large number of people from whom they can draw tacit support. And that’s what I’m primarily concerned with here. I think what is most important is that we drive a wedge between those violent individuals and the people who may otherwise see them as reflecting their interests and fighting on their behalf….

You were station chief in Islamabad on 9/11, which meant it suddenly became your problem to find and kill or capture Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida leaders. Without comparing American citizens to al-Qaida, are there lessons that you take from that?

Yes. And that is that, you know, even at the seeming height of the crisis immediately after 9/11, there really weren’t that many members of al-Qaida in Afghanistan. And the thrust of our campaign there was, yes, to hunt down al-Qaida, but primarily to remove the supportive environment in which they were able to live and to flourish. And that meant fighting the Taliban. And I think that is the heart of what we need to deal with here. Hunting down people who are criminals, that is something that which U.S. law enforcement is very well capable of doing and doing while preserving fundamental civil rights. That’s in some ways the easiest part of the problem. The difficult part of the problem is affecting the environment within which violent elements otherwise would be able to thrive.

Senator Tester Destroys Biden’s Keystone Pipeline Executive Order

BY MATT MARGOLIS

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/02/03/watch-democrat-senator-destroys-bidens-executive-order-axing-the-keystone-pipeline-n1422774;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Senator Jon Tester, the Democrat from Montana, ripped Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday.

“I’ve been a supporter of the Keystone pipeline. There have been two caveats and they’ve been basic caveats: you do it to the safety standards and you respect private property rights. I think the Keystone pipeline folks could have done a better job getting the Fort Peck Tribe on board and they need to continue working to do that. But, in the end I think it’s a good project,” Tester explained. “I believe in climate change but I also think this one pipeline isn’t going to turn it around—isn’t going to turn our climate around. It’s not going to make it a markedly worse situation.”

Tester insists that his belief in man-made climate change and his support for the pipeline do not contradict each other. “These might sound like two different philosophies butting heads but I’ll tell you, in my real life, I’m a farmer,” he said. “And we’re not where we need to be in this country for, you know, replacing diesel fuel with something else, in a tractor, for example, or a semi that’s going down the road. We will get there, but it’s going to take some good policies from Washington, D.C., and it’s going to take some money invested in R&D.”

Still waiting for the middle-of-the-road governance from Biden that we were promised.

Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trumpand the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on TwitterFacebookParlerGabMeWeHeroesRumble, and CloutHub.

Impeachment Officially BACKFIRES as the Trump COMEBACK Begins!!!

★★★ THE POPULIST REVOLT HAS JUST BEGUN ★★★

The Impeachment Officially BACKFIRES as the Trump COMEBACK Begins! In this video, we’re going to look at the latest polls from battleground states that show that impeachment has become an albatross for the Democrats, how those RINO Republicans that supported it are already virtually all getting primaried, and why many believe that President Trump’s political comeback has already begun; you are NOT going to want to miss this!

Trump Presents a Powerful Impeachment Defense

Trump impeachment attorney speaks out against 'bias and prejudgment'

Trump Eviscerates Democrats' Impeachment Charges

BY TYLER O'NEIL

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/02/02/trump-lawyers-claim-impeachment-is-a-legal-nullity-n1422577;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s lawyers Bruce L. Castor Jr., and David Schoen released Trump’s answer to the Democrats’ article of impeachment accusing him of “incitement of insurrection.” Trump’s response breaks the Democrats’ impeachment article into eight separate allegations and responds to each claim. In a nutshell, the former president argues that it is unconstitutional for the Senate to remove a president when he has already left office and that he is innocent of the Democrats’ charges.

Trump asks the Senate to “dismiss Article I: Incitement of Insurrection against him as moot, and thus in violation of the Constitution because the Senate lacks jurisdiction to remove from office a man who does not hold office. In the alternative, the 45th President respectfully requests the Senate acquit him on the merits of the allegations raised in the article of impeachment.”

The Senate already voted to take up the impeachment, with five Republican senators joining 50 Democratic senators in holding the matter constitutional. However, 45 Republican senators voted not to hold the trial, given constitutional concerns. This vote signified that the Senate is not likely to convict Trump.

The former president makes a few extremely salient arguments against the Democrats’ impeachment article. In addition to the claim that the Senate cannot convict a former president on impeachment, Trump argues that the Democrats violated his free speech and due process rights in rushing to impeach him and that the article of impeachment is deceptively drafted in an unfair manner. Trump also claims that disqualifying him from office would constitute a “bill of attainder,” which has been broadly interpreted to mean a legislative act against a class of people that inflicts punishment on them without a judicial trial.

Trump argues the article of impeachment is “facially and substantively flawed, and otherwise unconstitutional, and must be dismissed with prejudice.”

The president’s responses

Trump splits the article of impeachment into eight claims, providing a response to each one.

His first response claims that the impeachment power does not apply to him because he is no longer president. “The constitutional provision requires that a person actually hold office to be impeached. Since the 45th President is no longer ‘President,’ the clause ‘shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for…’ is impossible for the Senate to accomplish, and thus the current proceeding before the Senate is void ab initio as a legal nullity that runs patently contrary to the plain language of the Constitution.”

Trump also argues that the Constitution does not allow the Senate to disqualify a president from future office unless that president has first been removed from office due to impeachment. “Since removal from office by the Senate of the President is a condition precedent which must occur before, and jointly with, ‘disqualification’ to hold future office, the fact that the Senate presently is unable to remove from office the 45th President whose term has expired, means that Averment 1 is therefore irrelevant to any matter before the Senate.”

Importantly, Trump denies ever having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.” He also denies ever having “engaged in a violation of his oath of office.”

While the article of impeachment condemns Trump’s statements challenging the 2020 election results as “false,” Trump defends those statements. He claims he exercised his First Amendment right “to express his belief that the election results were suspect, since with very few exceptions, under the convenient guise of Covid-19 pandemic ‘safeguards’ states election laws and procedures were changed by local politicians or judges without the necessary approvals from state legislatures.”

“Insufficient evidence exists upon which a reasonable jurist could conclude that the 45th President’s statements were accurate or not, and he, therefore, denies they were false,” Trump argues. “Like all Americans, the 45th President is protected by the First Amendment. …. the Constitution and Bill of Rights, specifically and intentionally protect unpopular speech from government retaliation.” [Emphasis added]

Trump acknowledged that he spoke at the Ellipse on January 6 before the Capitol riot, but he insisted that Democrats twisted his words in claiming that he had incited an insurrection.

“It is denied that President Trump incited the crowd to engage in destructive behavior. It is denied that the phrase ‘if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore’ had anything to do with the action at the Capitol as it was clearly about the need to fight for election security in general, as evidenced by the recording of the speech,” the legal defense reads.

Trump claims that he did not intend to interfere with the counting of Electoral College votes. He notes that Democrats in Congress challenged Electoral College votes in 2017 and that Republicans did so in 2021, in each case to no avail. He argues that Congress’s duty “was not just to certify the presidential election” but also “to first determine whether certification of the presidential election vote was warranted.”

Trump does not mention the fact that he encouraged Vice President Mike Pence to overstep his constitutional bounds in rejecting Electoral College votes, a move that undermines his claim that he did not intend to interfere.

Trump also denies having made “any effort to subvert” the 2020 election in asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R-Ga.) to “find” votes. Trump claims that the word “find” was appropriate in context because he was expressing his opinion that an accurate count would “find” the votes required to put Trump over the top.

Finally, Trump denied having “ever endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government.” He denied having “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch Government.”

Veteran Trial Lawyers Join Trump’s Impeachment Trial Defense Team

Trump’s defenses

After addressing the article of impeachment, Trump presents arguments in his defense.

He claims the Senate lacks jurisdiction to try a removed president for impeachment “because he holds no public office from which he can be removed, and the Constitution limits the authority of the Senate in cases of impeachment to removal from office as the prerequisite active remedy allowed the Senate under our Constitution.”

He argues that if the Senate acts on this impeachment, “it will have passed a Bill of Attainder in violation of Article 1, Sec. 9. Cl. 3 of the United States Constitution.”

He argues that the article of impeachment violates his right to free speech under the First Amendment and that the House deprived him of the due process of law “in rushing to issue the Article of Impeachment by ignoring it own procedures and precedents going back to the mid-19th century.”

“The lack of due process included, but was not limited to, [the House’s] failure to conduct any meaningful committee review or other investigation, engage in any full and fair consideration of evidence in support of the Article, as well as the failure to conduct any full and fair discussion by allowing the 45th President’s positions to be heard in the House Chamber.”

Trump warns that if the Senate does not rule in his favor, it would set a precedent that “such persons as the 45th President similarly situated no longer enjoy the rights of all American citizens guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.”

“There was no exigency [requiring a fast impeachment], as evidenced by the fact that the House waited until after the end of the President’s term to even send the articles over and there was thus no legal or moral reason for the House to act as it did,” Trump argues. “Political hatred has no place in the administration of justice anywhere in America, especially in the Congress of the United States.”

Trump also claims that “by charging multiple alleged wrongs in one article, the House of Representatives has made it impossible to guarantee compliance with the Constitutional mandate in Article 1, Sec. 3, Cl. 6 that permits a conviction only by at least two-thirds of the members.”

By “interweaving different allegations rather than breaking them into counts of alleged individual instances of misconduct,” the article of impeachment muddies the waters in debate. If the Senate votes to convict Trump, “it would be impossible to know if two-thirds of the members agreed on the entire article, or just on parts, as the basis for a vote to convict.”

Finally, Trump notes that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has announced that he would not to preside over the impeachment trial, and Democrats picked Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) to preside. “Once the 45th President’s term expired, and the House chose to allow jurisdiction to lapse on the Article of Impeachment, the constitutional mandate for the Chief Justice to preside at all impeachments involving the President evidently disappeared, and he was replaced by a partisan Senator who will purportedly also act as a juror while ruling on certain issues,” Trump argues.

The former president presents a very strong case in his defense. Not only does he make salient arguments for his innocence of the specific charge of “incitement of insurrection,” but he also warns against the dangerous precedent this impeachment would set for free speech and for due process.

The impeachment trial is scheduled to begin next Monday, February 8.

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

Tom Cotton Suggests It’s Unconstitutional to Impeach Trump After January 20
Trump Responds to Second Impeachment With Strong Condemnation of Political Violence
House Votes to Impeach Trump a Second Time
Democrats Move to Impeach Trump for ‘Incitement of Insurrection’

High-Powered Lawyers Join Trump Impeachment Defense Team

Veteran Trial Lawyers Join Trump's Impeachment Trial Defense Team

BY TYLER O'NEIL

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/01/31/veteran-trial-lawyers-join-trumps-impeachment-trial-defense-team-n1421474;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

On Sunday, hours after the news first broke that former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial defense team had left him high and dry, Trump announced that two veteran trial lawyers had stepped up to the plate.

David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr. will lead Trump’s defense team. The former president announced that “Schoen has already been working with the 45th President and other advisors to prepare for the upcoming trial, and both Schoen and Castor agree that this impeachment is unconstitutional – a fact 45 Senators voted in agreement with last week.”

“It is an honor to represent the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, and the United States Constitution,” Schoen said in a statement.

“I consider it a privilege to represent the 45th President. The strength of our Constitution is about to be tested like never before in our history. It is strong and resilient. A document written for the ages, and it will triumph over partisanship yet again, and always,” Castor added.

Schoen’s litigation has resulted in reform to prisons, jails, public education, foster care, defense of the indigent, and various institutions in the South. In 1995, the American Bar Association honored his work with the National Pro Bono Publico Award. More recently, Schoen represented victims of terrorism under the Anti-Terrorism Act, traveling overseas to take depositions from terrorists. He currently focuses on civil rights litigation in Alabama and federal criminal defense work in New York.

Schoen serves as the chair of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Civil Rights Litigation Committee. He holds an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School and has taught at Seton Hall Law School.

Bruce Castor served as district attorney of Montgomery County, Pa., from 2000 to 2008, commissioner of Montgomery County, solicitor general of Pennsylvania, and acting attorney general of Pennsylvania. The National Association of Government Attorneys gave him the Trial Advocacy Award in 1995, honoring his work investigating and prosecuting homicides.

Democrats Move to Impeach Trump for ‘Incitement of Insurrection’

Castor was inducted into the Pennsylvania Police Hall of Fame in 2007, among other honors. Castor earned his law degree from Washington and Lee University and received advanced education from the National College of District Attorneys and the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.

House Democrats — and 10 Republicans — voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” regarding the Capitol riot on January 6. While the president’s legal team has a short time to prepare, it seems Schoen has focused on the claim that it is unconstitutional to try an impeachment in the Senate after a president has left office.

The former president has many legal avenues for defense. His legal team may argue that the president never encouraged his supporters to engage in violent acts against the Capitol. The team may also point to Trump’s repeated calls for peace during the attack. Legally, “incitement” only involves direct calls to violence, due to the wide range of speech protected under the First Amendment.

As for “insurrection,” Democrats have argued that the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots over the summer of 2020 did not fit the legal definition of “insurrection.” Declaring the Capitol riot an “insurrection” would suggest the unrest of the summer also fits that definition.

Yet it seems Democrats chose the term “insurrection” in order to wield impeachment as a congressional declaration that January 6 was an insurrection under the terms of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies anyone who supported an insurrection from holding public office in the United States. This provision barred former officials of the Confederacy from serving in the federal government, but Democrats seem primed to use the impeachment as an excuse to try to oust any Republicans who supported Trump’s challenge of the 2020 election.

Finally, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) timing of impeachment proved suspect. After delaying a few days after the Capitol riot, Pelosi rushed the impeachment through the House — without a special counsel or any other kind of investigation and with very little debate — because waiting to hand the article of impeachment over to the Senate until Joe Biden had already become president.

Pelosi claimed that Congress needed to oust Trump immediately after the Capitol riot, yet she also waited days before rushing the impeachment, and she delayed the transmission of the article to the Senate.

Impeachment is a political process, not a legal one, but each of these factors undermines the Democrats’ case. It is extremely unlikely that enough Senate Republicans vote to convict and remove Trump, but the former president’s legal team still needs to make a powerful defense.

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

VIP: Will Kamala Harris Preside Over Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial?
Giuliani Explains Why He Won’t Be on Trump’s Impeachment Trial Team
Tom Cotton Suggests It’s Unconstitutional to Impeach Trump After January 20
Did Pelosi Just Reveal the Motive Behind Her Desperate Last-Minute Attacks on Donald Trump?

 

Trump’s Entire Impeachment Trial Defense Team Leaves Him High and Dry

BY RICK MORAN

SEE: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/01/31/trumps-entire-impeachment-trial-defense-team-leaves-him-high-and-dry-n1419777;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

A little more than a week before Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial is set to begin on February 8, all five attorneys who had been serving on his impeachment defense team have parted ways with the former president. The decision was said to have been mutually agreed upon.

Legal briefs are due this week before the trial begins a week from Monday. It’s hard to see how Trump could possibly mount an adequate defense before the trial, he just needs more time. Otherwise, Democrats risk the charge of not giving Trump a chance at any notion of a fair trial.

CNN:

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.

Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.

No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump’s impeachment defense.

While neither the attorneys nor Trump has yet to release a statement, speculation on the reason for the split has centered on Trump’s insistence on using the trial as an excuse to prove his election fraud case rather than addressing the articles of impeachment — which accuse the former president of inciting an insurrection — or the legality of convicting a president once he’s out of office.

“The Democrats’ efforts to impeach a president who has already left office is totally unconstitutional and so bad for our country. In fact, 45 Senators have already voted that it is unconstitutional. We have done much work, but have not made a final decision on our legal team, which will be made shortly,” former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told CNN.

Indeed, whether a former government official can be impeached or not remains an unresolved constitutional issue. But the vote has already been taken. There isn’t a senator sitting in the chamber who doesn’t know how he or she is going to vote and unless some new evidence emerges, Donald Trump will not be impeached by two-thirds of the Senate.

Democrats expect a political bonanza from impeaching Trump. They believe that by getting all the “facts” on the record, they will make the American people so disgusted by Republicans that the party will be virtually destroyed. However, anyone who contemplated leaving the Republican Party has left already. A trial of Trump won’t change anyone’s minds or lead to additional defections.

The real audience for impeachment will be the frothing, rabid anti-Trump hysterics in the Democratic Party who don’t think defeating Trump at the polls is enough. He must be publicly humiliated. They want a pound of flesh and will hold Democrat’s feet to the fire to make sure they wring every ounce of Trump-hate from the trial that’s possible.

Unity now. Unity forever!

Here’s Why Impeachment Will Backfire on Democrats and Make Trump Stronger
Giuliani Explains Why He Won’t Be on Trump’s Impeachment Trial Team
Tom Cotton Suggests It’s Unconstitutional to Impeach Trump After January 20
VIP: Will Kamala Harris Preside Over Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial?

Biden administration reverses Trump’s weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, UAE

BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/01/biden-administration-reverses-trumps-weapons-sales-to-saudi-arabia-uae;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy tweeted:

But he ignored Iran’s role in the Yemen civil war which started in 2014, “when Houthi insurgents—Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government—took control of Yemen’s capital and largest city.”

Weeks ago, Yemen pleaded for the UN, the international community and human rights organizations to “take a clear position on the war crimes and brutal violations committed by the Houthi militia in Yemen.”

Although Saudi Arabia is heavily engaged in the Yemen war, it does not take much insight to observe the Iranian regime’s trajectory if it is allowed to continue pursuing its objectives unimpeded. Iran is a perpetual menace and threat, which is why Trump took a stand against this common enemy by favoring Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Biden administration, on the other hand, is in the process of eroding Trump’s efforts as part of its very different “strategic objectives”; these include a re-engagement of the disastrous Iran deal while leaving Israel out of the talks. Iran is now waiting for the Biden Administration to lift sanctions.

The Biden administration has in effect continued along the same lines of the Obama administration, which strengthened Iran and weakened Israel and American interests.


Biden administration pauses arms sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE,” by Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN, January 27, 2021:

Washington (CNN)The Biden administration has paused arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it conducts a wider review of agreements worth billions of dollars made by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told CNN Wednesday.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken confirmed that pending arms sales are under review, as is typical at the start of a new administration, “to make sure that what is being considered is something that advances our strategic objectives, and advances our foreign policy.”

He did not reference any specific sales or countries in his remarks, which were made at his first State Department news conference as top US diplomat.

The move to freeze the pending sales to the Gulf allies could signal a change in approach by the Biden administration after the Trump administration approved major sales in the last months of its tenure.

Gulf nations that have sales in the pipeline had expected some sort of pause for the administration to review but the practical impact isn’t clear yet, a source familiar with Gulf nations’ thinking said.

A State Department official earlier described the pause as “a routine administrative action typical to most any transition, and demonstrates the administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring US arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners.”…

Democrats in Congress immediately came out in favor of the move.

“The weapons we sold to Saudi Arabia and UAE have been used to kill schoolchildren, transferred to extremist militias, and fueled a dangerous arms race in the Middle East,” tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy. “This is the right move. The time is now to reset our relationships with Gulf allies.”….

Biden Orders the End of Construction of U.S/Mexican Border Wall

One of many Executive Orders to reverse Trump’s successful immigration policies.

BY MICHAEL CUTLER

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/01/biden-orders-end-construction-usmexican-border-michael-cutler/;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

President Joe Biden is opposed to nearly everything that Trump stood for.  Biden’s dangerous immigration policies have been the focus of a number of my recent articles, for example,

Terror Arrest Highlights How Perilous Biden’s Immigration Plans Are and What Biden’s Immigration Policies Would Do To America.

During his run for the Presidency four years ago, Donald Trump made immigration law enforcement and border security key priorities for his campaign.

At numerous political rallies, the raucous and enthusiastic attendees would frequently chant, “Build that wall!”

The need to secure that border and address the myriad other vulnerabilities was made abundantly clear by the 9/11 Commission which determined that the 9/11 terror attacks and other such attacks were only possible because of multiple failures of the immigration system.

Furthermore, large-scale human trafficking and the flood of narcotics flowing into the United States across that dangerous border added to the demand for securing it.

As I have noted many times in previous articles, the preface of the official report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel begins with the following paragraph:

It is perhaps obvious to state that terrorists cannot plan and carry out attacks in the United States if they are unable to enter the country. Yet prior to September 11, while there were efforts to enhance border security, no agency of the U.S. government thought of border security as a tool in the counterterrorism arsenal. Indeed, even after 19 hijackers demonstrated the relative ease of obtaining a U.S. visa and gaining admission into the United States, border security still is not considered a cornerstone of national security policy. We believe, for reasons we discuss in the following pages, that it must be made one.

Let me be clear, the border wall, by itself, will not end the immigration crisis.  It is, however, an important element of what should be an integrated system.  I have come to compare the border wall with a wing on an airplane.  Without its wings an airplane will not fly, however, a wing by itself goes nowhere.

Opponents of the wall sometimes refer to it as a “Wall of Hate” allegedly designed to keep Mexicans out of the United States.  This is, of course, a bald-faced lie.  Every day the Border Patrol encounters illegal aliens seeking to enter the U.S. by evading the inspections process conducted at ports of entry to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence in the U.S. would threaten public health, public safety, national security, and the jobs and wages of Americans.

A review of a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S. Code § 1182 - Inadmissible aliens will quickly dispel the lies about the nature of our immigration laws that are utterly and totally blind as to race, religion or ethnicity.

Furthermore - and this may shock you - but the wall is not designed to keep anyone out of the United States! 

The wall does not block our ports of entry.  The wall is simply intended to make certain that all people and all commerce seeking entry into the U.S. are funneled through ports of entry so that they can be vetted in an orderly process and a record of entry is created.  To this point I also compare the border wall with the velvet rope at the bank that guides customers to the next available teller; or to the “cattle runs” at airports that guidelines of passengers to the inspections process conducted by the TSA to keep weapons and dangerous individuals off of airplanes.

This gives rise to an interesting question: do you know anyone who would get on board an airliner if he/she saw fellow passengers evading the TSA inspections process?  Why then is it reasonable for Americans and lawful immigrants to be forced to live among millions of illegal aliens who evaded a very similar inspection process conducted by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) at ports of entry for a very similar purpose?

Although the need to construct a secure border was clear to everyone, nothing of consequence was ever done to actually build a physical wall even after the terror attacks of 9/11.

Members of Congress said that we needed to find a “modern” and high-tech way of securing the border.  This gave rise to various high-tech proposals such as SBInet (Secure Border Initiative Network).

Many of these supposed high-tech “solutions” came to be referred as a “Virtual Fence.”

SBINet was ultimately abandoned after an expenditure of roughly one billion dollars that was reported on Washington Technology website in the January 14, 2011 article, Boeing's SBInet contract gets the axe that included a link to the DHS report, Report On The Assessment Of The Secure Border Initiative-Network (SBInet) Program.

Donald Trump, the builder, came along and promised that he would build a wall.  A real wall!  I addressed this in an article several years ago, Why Trump’s Wall Is A Must (And why a virtual fence” will stop no one.)

Even with Republicans controlling both the Senate and House of Representatives during Trump’s first two years, the money was never appropriated to construct the vital wall.  Lawsuits were filed to block the wall and President Trump decided to use money allocated to the military to secure the border and finally he succeeded.

On July 26, 2019 The Hill reported, Supreme Court rules Trump can use military funds for border wall construction. 

The bigger issue is why on earth would anyone be opposed to protecting America and Americans from the influx of huge numbers of illegal aliens whose backgrounds, identities, possible affiliations with criminal or terrorist organizations cannot be determined?  Why would anyone act to prevent the flood of dangerous narcotics into the United States - unless, perhaps, they were profiting from these deadly criminal enterprises of human trafficking and drug smuggling?

Trump’s tactic makes perfect sense.  The primary shared mission of the U.S. military is to keep America’s enemies as far from our shores as possible.  However, “up close and in person” that vital mission falls to the Border Patrol and ICE (Immigration and Customs enforcement).

Arrests along the border dropped as the wall’s construction began.  The wall certainly helped to deter illegal immigration, but so did the policies of the Trump administration that included the “Remain in Mexico Program” for political asylum applicants as was reported by NPR on March 11, 2020, U.S. Supreme Court Allows 'Remain In Mexico' Program To Continue.

What a difference a day or, an election makes!  Ever since Joe Biden appeared to have won the elections we have seen massive caravans of thousands of foreign nationals forming up in Central America, heading to the United States. 

Biden promised a 100 day moratorium in the deportation of illegal aliens - although that Executive Order was put on hold temporarily, on January 26, 2021. The Blaze reported,  Federal judge blocks Biden's deportation pause for two weeks,  Biden’s message is clear, any aliens who enter the U.S. by any means will not face consequences and will likely be granted lawful status via Biden’s legislative initiative to create a dangerous massive amnesty program.

These issues all fly in the face of not only the 9/11 Commission but the findings and recommendations of many experts who have testified before numerous House and Senate hearings.

I wrote about one such hearing in my article:

World-Wide Threat Assessment Makes Powerful Case For Border Security

I have testified before more than 15 such hearings and have often said I wish that they had “listenings” instead of “hearings!”

On April 17, 2018 the House Committee on Homeland Security, Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee conducted a hearing on the topic, State Sponsors Of Terrorism: An Examination Of Iran’s Global Terrorism Network.”

The prepared testimony of one of the witnesses, Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, included this excerpt that will serve as the final word for my commentary.  I want you remember his warning the next time you see coverage of the caravans of foreign nationals heading to the United States or when you hear the leaders of Iran threaten action against the United States:

In recent years, Hezbollahs Latin American networks have also increasingly cooperated with violent drug cartels and criminal syndicates, often with the assistance of local corrupt political elites. Cooperation includes laundering of drug money; arranging multi-ton shipments of cocaine to the United States and Europe; and directly distributing and selling illicit substances to distant markets. Proceeds from these activities finance Hezbollahs arms procurement; its terror activities overseas; its hold on Lebanons political system; and its efforts, both in Lebanon and overseas, to keep Shia communities loyal to its cause and complicit in its endeavors.

This toxic crime-terror nexus is fueling both the rising threat of global jihadism and the collapse of law and order across Latin America that is helping drive drugs and people northward into the United States. It is sustaining Hezbollahs growing financial needs. It is helping Iran and Hezbollah consolidate a local constituency in multiple countries across Latin America. It is thus facilitating their efforts to build safe havens for terrorists and a continent-wide terror infrastructure that they could use to strike U.S. targets.

Islamic Republic of Iran strengthening ties with Communist China, both denounce US sanctions

BY ROBERT SPENCER

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/01/islamic-republic-of-iran-strengthening-ties-with-communist-china-both-denounce-us-sanctions;

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:

And Old Joe’s handlers stand ready to give both whatever they want, paid for by American taxpayers.

Funny how every country acts in its own interests except the United States, where a large segment of the population thinks it is “racist” and “xenophobic” to put America first.

“Iran Seeks To Boost Ties With China,” Eurasia Review, January 26, 2021 (thanks to Henry):

Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China Li Zhanshu discussed ways for closer cooperation between Tehran and Beijing in various fields, reports Iran’s IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency.

According to Tasnim, in a video conference on Monday morning Qalibaf and Li explored avenues for the enhancement of cooperation between Iran and China, particularly the parliamentary ties, and discussed the prospect of the regional and international developments.

“The friendly relations between Tehran and Beijing have not been and would not be influenced by the ties with other countries and international conditions, but will go ahead in all fields on the basis of cooperation and common interests,” Qalibaf said in the webinar, reported Tasnim.

Qalibaf also praised China’s rejection of the sanctions against the Iranian nation, saying the strategically significant relations between Iran and China are not affected by developments in other states, the Iranian news agency said….

 
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