If the World Sees Us [with a] Lack of Resolve, ‘They Will Come with Guns Blazing,’ Johnson Warns

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Americans woke up to plenty of terrifying headlines Sunday after Iran lobbed more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel. “The world stands at the brink of an all-out war,” The Telegraph insisted. Columbian President Gustavo Petro publicly despaired, calling the weekend’s attack “a prelude to World War III.” Here at home, President Joe Biden continued to walk a political tightrope, declaring his “ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,” while privately urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to suck it up and take whatever Iran dishes out.

Like most people watching the scene unfold, the editors at National Review can’t believe the White House’s suggestion that the Jewish state sit on its hands. “Any effort to impede Israel’s retaliation would be morally disgraceful and strategically inane,” they wrote. “… No nation could live under a situation in which another nation vowing to destroy it can threaten its population in this manner, and rest on the hope that it can meet every future attack with the same amount of success in shooting down weapons.”

On the Hill, leaders saw right through Biden’s cheap political ploy. This is a country, Rubio said of Israel, that has faced “constant existential threats to their existence on a repeated basis. … What I don’t understand is why Joe Biden and the administration would leak to the media, the contents of a conversation which he tells Netanyahu he doesn’t think that Netanyahu should respond at all,” unless, as he suspects, it’s to placate their pro-Palestine, anti-Semitic base. “It is the continuing part of the public game they are playing which frankly encourages Iran and Hezbollah.”

But then, as plenty of experts have pointed out, Biden has already done more than his share to help the Islamist regime. “Within weeks of taking office, Biden removed the terrorist designation on Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthis,” NRO’s editors pointed out. “[H]e allowed the U.N. sanctions against the Iranian missile and drone program to expire. Those were the types of weapons not only that were used [Saturday] night but that Iran has sold to Russia for use against Ukraine.”

When pressed about the decision to relax sanctions — ultimately giving Iran five months to build up its missile capabilities and cash reserves — U.S. National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby defended Biden. Asked by Fox News’s Shannon Bream if the administration could’ve done more to deter Tehran, Kirby claimed that it was “hard to look at what President Biden has done with respect to Iran and say that he hasn’t been tough on Iran.”

That’s interesting, former National Security Council member Richard Goldberg said, since Biden hasn’t stopped the flow of money to Iran since the weekend’s attacks. The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting Sunday only to adjourn without taking “any meaningful action.” It’s unfathomable to Goldberg, who pointed out, “This was a massive, unprecedented, and unacceptable strategic attack on Israel. It would be a huge mistake to pull Israel back from a military retaliation — but it’s downright insanity to keep $10 billion accessible to Tehran in the aftermath. The president needs to lock down all the money he made available to Tehran these past months.”

Although American Ambassador Robert Wood made a tepid promise that Washington “will explore additional measures to hold Iran accountable,” no one is quite sure what that means. Meanwhile, Mark Dubowitz wanted people to know, there’s been a “massive increase in Iranian nuclear enrichment since President Biden [was] elected.” “Facts are stubborn things,” he warned. “So is [Ayatollah] Khamenei when he faces minimal American pressure and massive sanctions relief.”

At the very least, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told the press, Congress can finally finish the work of Israeli aid that he started more than five months ago. As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins pointed out on “This Week on the Hill,” the first substantive bill that the House passed after Johnson took the gavel was $14.5 billion in assistance for Israel — which the new speaker offset by cutting an IRS slush fund. Democrats voted against it. “And what has the Senate done with it?” Perkins asked Johnson.

“Well,” he replied, “nothing. It’s been sitting on [Schumer’s] desk. I tried again to do a clean Israel [bill] just a full unpaid for assistance. One hundred sixty-six House Democrats voted against it, and Joe Biden threatened to veto it. A clean Israel funding bill. They said no. That’s a pretty amazing thing.”

Even more incredible, Johnson invited Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress, and Schumer refuses to authorize it — despite being the highest-ranking, longest-serving Jewish member of Congress. “It’s stunning, it really is,” the speaker agreed. What happened to Israel being a bipartisan issue, Perkins wanted to know? “Right,” Johnson replied. “The Democrats are turning their back on Israel now [from] the president on down.”

It’s all “deeply concerning” to Netanyahu, the speaker relayed after multiple conversations with the prime minister. “It’s almost unbelievable that the president has turned his back since October 7th on Israel. They’re leaning into the pro-Hamas, pro-protestor branch of their party. … [T]hey’re fearful of that wing of the party. And it’s a rising number of young progressives who are screaming that Israel is the enemy somehow. … You had 50 House Democrats just a few days ago, sent a letter saying that we should no longer have arms transfers to Israel so they can defend their very existence,” he pointed out. “It’s incredible.”

This whole shift in the Democratic Party is alarming, Johnson agreed. “The reason we stand with Israel, for us, it’s a matter of faith, but it’s also a matter of geopolitical stability. They’re the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Before he was speaker, Johnson talked about a meeting with Netanyahu and his cabinet, where they told him, “We want to remind you all that the reason that Israel can stand is because they know that our brother America — the big brother — as it were, is standing behind them, looking over their shoulder.” In other words, he explained, “If the world ever sees that we lack that resolve, they will come with all guns blazing, literally, against Israel. It’s a dangerous, dangerous situation right now. We cannot show a lack of resolve.”

And “the idea that we would not roll out the red carpet and invite our close friend and ally to come and update the Congress on [the war], to me, is unconscionable,” he reiterated. But these issues are going to come home to roost, Johnson warned. If the Democratic Party continues to be held hostage by radical forces that want to abandon Israel, it spells trouble for Biden and company.

“I think they’ve got a very real political problem on their hands. But this should transcend politics. This is bigger than that. This is about safety and security, not just [for] Israel, but the American people. We have got to stand strong right now. They need to put politics aside. But, yes, they’ve got a real problem going into an election year when a rising number of their base is now turning against Israel.”

The Americans who care about this situation, who understand the importance of our ally Israel, need to “let their voices be heard,” Johnson urged. “They need to prevail upon members of Congress to get this job done. I’ve tried to get Israel funded [with] the supplemental, the defense package, that they need. It’s about $14 billion.”

The Middle East is a tough neighborhood, Perkins pointed out. Most of the surrounding nations have threatened to wipe Israel off the map — including Iran. And “you cannot fight to a draw. You have to fight to win. The prime minister understands that. But apparently, the Biden administration does not.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Elementary School Denies Request to Start Prayer Club, Approves ‘Pride Club’

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In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game. Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case. He was represented by a Christian nonprofit legal organization, First Liberty Institute (FLI), which took the position that “no teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public.” This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.

Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old girl who attends Creekside Elementary in Washington State, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school. But her request was denied.

When Laura and her mom approached the principal about the matter in February, they were informed that the school’s budget for clubs had been finalized in October. And according to a spokesperson for Issaquah School District, “[C]lubs offered are student-interest driven and meet outside of the school day. At the elementary level, participation in a club also requires parent permission. Once the school year begins, the building budget is set, and additional clubs are usually not added until the following school year.” But the story doesn’t end here.

Laura’s group, which she hoped to start with her friend, was meant to include people of all different religious backgrounds. She shared with Fox News that she was feeling alone, and that she thought this would be a good idea to bring students together. “I think that this is something that I am very passionate about,” she added. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really want to make this happen, if I didn’t think that it would be a great opportunity for everyone.” It was later discovered that an LGBT club was approved only a week prior to Laura’s club request being denied, which has caused spectators to raise their eyebrows.

As a result of this alleged hypocrisy, Laura filed a lawsuit on the grounds of religious discrimination with the help of FLI. Attorneys pointed out in a letter to the school, “The First Amendment ‘doubly protects religious speech.’ These First Amendment protections extend to elementary school students expressing their sincere religious beliefs through voluntary clubs. Yet the school district flouted its First Amendment obligations when they refused to allow a student-led interfaith prayer club. Its unlawful action violates both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause.”

Kayla Toney, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, explained, “Denying the formation of a religious student club while allowing other clubs violates the Constitution,” drawing attention to the fact that the similar case with Coach Kennedy occurred “just a short drive away” from Laura’s elementary school. And in comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, said, “The fact that Creekside Elementary denied a religious club the same month that it approved a Pride club reveals a lot about American culture right now.”

She continued, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized. It’s heartbreaking that Laura, a fifth-grade student, felt alone at school as a religious believer and that she knew other students who felt the same way. She reacted in exactly the right way by making an effort to build community with religious students.”

Del Turco went on to emphasize that, “Oftentimes, when people seek to prevent religious expression in government venues, they will use the excuse that they don’t want to imply that the government favors one religion over another.” However, when it comes to Laura’s case, she pointed out that “the school doesn’t even have that flimsy excuse because the students were seeking to start a … club that would be open to students of different faiths.”

Ultimately, “Any school that allows other clubs while specifically denying religious clubs is acting in a discriminatory manner and violating the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and the free exercise of religion.” Del Turco concluded, “Christian fifth graders shouldn’t face viewpoint discrimination from their school leadership. It shouldn’t have had to come to this, but I fully expect this injustice to be rectified in the courts.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘It’s Bullsh*t’: Marine At Center Of New Afghanistan Probe Accuses Pentagon Of Covering Up Evidence

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A Marine at the center of a supplemental probe into the deadly suicide bombing during the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan accused the Pentagon of concealing information showing it could have been prevented.

Former Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews caused a stir after he testified in March 2023 that he had sights on an individual he and others on the ground believed to be the suicide bomber while in the guard tower next to Abbey Gate, but was denied permission to engage. After CENTCOM opened up a new probe into the incident to address his allegations and found nothing to corroborate them, the former sniper told the Daily Caller News Foundation he agreed the bomber suspect at the time was a “separate individual” from the man the Pentagon just identified as the perpetrator but stood by his testimony.

“That is the truth. For anyone to say that this wasn’t preventable when we had on the ground intel passed to us stating the threat, it’s bullshit. We were told that the bomber was headed to Abbey Gate in real time, we all knew that,” he told the DCNF.

“I believe that a lot has been covered up,” he added.

Vargas-Andrews lost two of his limbs in the bombing, which took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and killed and wounded dozens of Afghan civilians.

Marines stationed in and around the watchtower near Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate may have confused formal intelligence with “spot reports” made by service members in real time that had not been vetted, the secondary review found, according to The Washington Post.

“Over the past two years, some service members have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights, and they could have prevented the attack,” a U.S. official on the supplemental review team said on Friday, according to CNN. “But we now know that is not correct.”

While Vargas-Andrews disputed the finding, he did not dispute that the person Marines at the time believed to be the prime threat was not the eventual bomber, he told the Post.

The first investigation completed in November 2021 concluded a lone suicide bomber managed to bypass Taliban checkpoints but contained nothing to suggest the perpetrator had been identified or that a request to shoot traveled up the chain of command, interview logs show.

Investigators, “although as thorough as they could be,” told Vargas-Andrews and his team during the course of the secondary probe that photos of the bomber, which were taken while the sniper team was tracking threats, could not be retrieved from any facility in the Pentagon or a U.S. intelligence agency.

“They stated they combed through everything high and low,” he told the DCNF. “So what happened to those hundreds of photos, which are potential intelligence? That is a failure.”

Many photos Vargas-Andrews’ sniper team collected, and photos taken by other units, vanished during the course of the chaotic evacuation in August 2021, a person familiar with the investigation told the Post. Those included two individuals the snipers requested to shoot.

One individual nicknamed the “man in black,” due to his black headscarf and shaved head, was thought to be the suicide bomber, CNN reported.

Vargas told the DCNF the photo of the suspect referenced in the report came from a cell phone and was taken from the display on his team’s camera

CENTCOM’s secondary report identified the bomber as Abdul Rahman Al-Logari, an Islamic State (ISIS) operative whom the Taliban had recently released from prison, according to CNN. Cross-comparison of the figures in each photo — CENTCOM obtained al-Logari’s prison mugshot — “received the strongest negative possible rating” they depicted the same person, officials said.

Vargas-Andrews maintained he still had an opportunity to engage the bomber.

“I will stand by my testimony and what we experienced till the day I die,” Vargas-Andrews told the DCNF.

CENTCOM did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

MICAELA BURROW

Investigative reporter, defense.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The Mullahs Ruling Iran Are Not Iranians

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I have repeatedly said that the mullahs ruling Iran are not Iranians. They truly despise Iran and its glorious past. Genetically, they are mostly Arabs. They even hate its name. There were never any questions about the Islamists denigrating Iran and exalting Muhammad. These creatures owe their very livelihood to the lucrative business that Muhammad launched for their parasitic, shameful existence. It is vital for these leeches to continue trumpeting the sainthood of the founder of their business and driving all the competition out of business.

Just recently, Sayyid Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami became a senior Iranian cleric, as well as a senior member of the Assembly of Experts, also Tehran’s Friday prayer leader. He once proved me right. Give this worm credit for paying homage to the source of his shameful livelihood.

“How dare the people of Iran even think of having a revolution or a referendum! This government belongs to Imam Zaman (The Lord of the Age), and if anyone considers himself an Iranian, he needs to get the hell out of here. This soil belongs to us, the followers of Imam Zaman and his tribe. Iran’s name was created by ignorant people, and incidentally, this name is very provocative. This ignorant name (Iran) must be changed to something like “Velayat” lest it provoke our enemies (Iranian people).”

The battle against these inhuman (subhuman) oppressors in Iran has been arduous and long. It is the battle of Iran’s true sons and daughters and the rest of mankind. It remains our duty to work our hardest to remove these leeches from power.

We recognize that the dysfunctional Islamic software is deeply ingrained in the minds of many Muslims, who opt to remain in mental bondage rather than purge their minds of this software and join the rest of the human family with a new emancipating program for life: liberty.

Islamic clergy, the parasitic prime beneficiaries of Islam, are master practitioners of the carrot-and-stick strategy. By drawing heavily from the Quran and the Hadith, the conniving mullahs and imams have assembled a potent arsenal of threats and promises to keep the faithful in line. They had little trouble in so doing since Islamic scripture is replete with descriptions of the graphic horrific punishment awaiting the wayward and the unbelievers, while the rewards for the obedient and docile if they are male, are described as an endless variety of sensual pleasures. Anyone daring to leave the corral of Islam is apostate and automatically condemned to death. And that’s just for starters. The punishment awaiting the ungrateful deserter of the one and only true path, Islam, is horrific eternal torment in Allah’s hell.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which holds in great contempt any non-Islamic belief or heritage, has embarked on destroying many pre-Islamic archeological sites in Iran, such as Pasargad and Persepolis — some of humanity’s most prized cultural heritage — on the pretext of building a dam. The heinous destruction of the two Bamiyan Buddha statues by Afghanistan’s Taliban pales in comparison to the present barbaric designs of the Islamic Republic. Pasargad and Persepolis are more than a mere collection of ancient structures. They are an embodiment of humanity’s historical respect for liberty and tolerance of diversity.

But the high clergy of Iran is not exactly living up to its brand. The mullah Mafia has a great scam going. They promise the ignorant Islamic devotees the phony “paradise” of the afterlife while they themselves enjoy their paradise of women, wealth, and wine on this earth. They are unrivaled in duplicity and heartlessness. So, in nearly perfect emulation of Muhammad and his leadership 1400 years ago, the pious mullahs go about plotting earthly destruction as they enrich themselves and enjoy earthly pleasures on the backs of their people.

Many Iranians are praying that help is on its way and that the ongoing protests now will not result in a repeat of 2009, when Obama threw a lifeline to the mullahs’ regime by not supporting the Iranian people, in effect siding with the genocidal mullahs. The turbaned thugs were taking their final breath, being completely broke, and the good old USA came to the rescue, releasing billions of dollars and easing other sanctions. I will never understand this.

My aspiration for my motherland is to see it freed from the evil that has been visited upon it ever since our people bought into a most depraved version of Islam. Whether people become Baha’is, Zoroastrians, or Christians, this should be a free choice for each person. Even if a person insists on remaining Muslim, that is his or her prerogative. Yet imposing the suffocating intolerance of Islam on an entire nation is something that neither I nor any person who lives in Iran can accept. Our beloved Iran deserves to be a country where, once again, we take pride in being its children instead of the present, when we often do all we can to conceal our nation of birth when visiting abroad.

©2024. Amil Imani. All rights reserved.

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ELECTION RIGGING: Corrupt Biden-Donor Judge Says He Will Arrest Trump If He Skips One Day of Months Long Trial

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If you can’t beat him, arrest him.

They banned him from attending his son’s graduation. And far more broadly, they are deliberately keeping him off the campaign trail.

Murderers, rapists, looters, illegal criminals roam our streets with impunity but Trump will be arrested.

Trump Judge Merchan Warns Of Arrest If Trump Disrupts Or Skips Hush Money Trial

Story by Brian Bushard, Forbes Staff

New York Judge Juan Merchan on Monday warned former President Donald Trump could be arrested if he disrupts proceedings or skips the trial in his hush money case in Manhattan, as prosecutors claim Trump violated his gag order.

Key Facts

Trump, who faces 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business documents stemming from hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, appeared in the Manhattan court Monday morning for a trial expected to last six weeks, despite Trump’s efforts to delay the proceedings.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche argued on Monday that Trump wants to be present for trial proceedings including sidebar conferences during the trial and voir dire—the initial examination of a witness or a juror…

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

NYC: Pro-Hamas protestors scream ‘Death to America,’ burn American flag

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No one will be deported. No one will even be investigated. It isn’t as if these were “insurrectionists” or some other group that is out of favor with the regime.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Supreme Court To Weigh Case That Could Upend Hundreds Of Jan. 6 Prosecutions

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The Supreme Court will hear a case Tuesday that could have major implications for hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants — as well as special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

The case, Fischer v. United States, asks the Supreme Court to weigh the scope of an obstruction statute, Section 1512(c)(2), which penalizes anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding” with up to 20 years in prison. Joseph Fischer, who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, argues that his prosecution under the law for obstructing Congress’ certification of the 2020 election was an “unprecedented expansion” of the statute.

The law, enacted as part of the Corporate Fraud and Accountability Act of 2002, was intended to target evidence tampering, focusing on “deterring fraud and abuse by corporate executives,” Fischer argues.

“Before the January 6 cases, no court had applied Section 1512(c)(2) to conduct not intended to affect the availability or integrity of evidence,” Fischer’s attorneys argued in a brief. “Nor had a defendant ever been convicted of an obstruction-of-Congress offense outside the context of a legislative inquiry or investigation.”

Fischer stated he was in the Capitol for less than four minutes —  after Congress had already recessed — and “was not part of the mob that forced the electoral certification to stop.” He was arrested in February 2021 on several charges, including assaulting Capitol police.

Should the Supreme Court agree with Fischer, it could impact not just his case, but hundreds of defendants the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged with a felony under the statute. Over 353 of the nearly 1,387 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding,” according to the DOJ.

Several defendants have already been granted early release ahead of the ruling, including Kevin Seefried, Alexander Sheppard and Thomas B. Adams Jr., according to The Washington Post.

“It takes four justices to grant certiorari and, although this court will not attempt to read tea leaves, the Supreme Court’s decision to review Fischer means, at a minimum, that this case poses a ‘close question,’” District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta wrote in the January decision granting Adams’ release.

The government argues that the text “is not limited to conduct that affects the integrity or availability of evidence.”

“Instead, Congress adopted a traditional catchall clause, reaching all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding,” it said in a brief.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals favored the government’s interpretation 2-1 in an April 2023 ruling, finding that the “meaning of the statute is unambiguous.”

“Under the most natural reading of the statute, §1512(c)(2) applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding,” Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, wrote in the majority opinion.

But Judge Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, wrote that the government’s interpretation was “mistaken,” making it “implausibly broad and unconstitutional in a significant number of applications.”

“Among other things, that construction would sweep in advocacy, lobbying, and protest—common mechanisms by which citizens attempt to influence official proceedings,” he wrote. “Historically, these activities did not constitute obstruction unless they directly impinged on a proceeding’s truth-seeking function through acts such as bribing a decisionmaker or falsifying evidence presented to it.”

“The government’s reading is also hard to reconcile with the structure and history of section 1512, and with decades of precedent applying section 1512(c) only to acts that affect the integrity or availability of evidence,” he wrote.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan and 21 other members of Congress wrote in an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court that the lower court’s ruling “will only reward and incentivize politically motivated uses of ill-fitting criminal statutes with harsh penalties.”

While the Supreme Court will weigh Trump’s bid to dismiss his election interference case based on presidential immunity in April, the Fischer case could also jeopardize part of the indictment.

Two of Trump’s charges in his election interference case are centered on the obstruction statute. Smith’s indictment alleges Trump used “knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified.”

New York University law professor Richard A. Epstein wrote for the Hoover Institution in March that a correct reading of the statute “torpedoes a key part of the Smith indictment.”

“Trump never entered the Capitol building, and he never made any statement urging rioters to enter the building,” he wrote. “His despicable conduct consisted of watching the proceedings before asking the rioters and trespassers to leave the premises, which does not count as obstruction under any legal authority of which I am aware.”

Smith addressed this in the footnote of his brief filed this week in Trump’s election interference, claiming the charges would still be valid regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision on how to read the text of Section 1512(c)(2). He wrote that the “use of falsehoods or creation of ‘false’ documents satisfies an evidence-impairment interpretation.”

Trump’s case is currently on hold at the district court pending the justices’ decision. Oral arguments will be held April 25 to consider Trump’s presidential immunity argument.

AUTHOR

KATELYNN RICHARDSON

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

‘Hammered From All Sides’: Minority Truckers Say California’s Green Regs Are Destroying Their American Dream

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Minority truckers are struggling to stay afloat as the state of California levies stringent green regulations on their businesses, according to some of those affected who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB), California’s environmental regulatory agency, will ban the sale of new diesel heavy-duty trucks starting in 2036, a policy partially motivated by a desire to improve health outcomes for minority populations. That requirement is the latest in a string of similar requirements imposed in recent years, all of which have made it excessively difficult for minorities to operate their own trucking enterprises and pursue the American dream, some of those small business owners told the DCNF.

“Many California neighborhoods, especially Black and Brown, low-income and vulnerable communities, live, work, play and attend schools adjacent to the ports, railyards, distribution centers and freight corridors and experience the heaviest truck traffic,” CARB said in 2020 after proposing its most recent “clean truck” rule. That particular rule for trucks was motivated in part to address the “disproportionate risks and health and pollution burdens affecting these communities,” the agency said at the time.

While bureaucrats writing the rules pitch them as a way to reduce respiratory and health ailments in minority communities that live in and around frequently-trafficked trucking routes, some minority truckers told the DCNF that the rules are squeezing them financially in ways that render any purported health benefits moot.

“A lot of our members are minority-owned small businesses,” Joe Rajkovacz, the director of governmental affairs and communications for the Western States Trucking Association, told the DCNF. “Here in California, there is a decided indifference to small business trucking by both politicians and bureaucrats.”

Randy Thomas, a black man, grew up in South Central Los Angeles as the son of a World War II veteran and a lifelong resident of California. He ran his trucking firm for many decades, growing his business from a one-man operation to a company that employed 15 drivers and provided enough income to send all of his children to college, making them the first in his family to get the chance to do so.

By 2009, the regulatory environment left him no choice to shut down his business, as it did not make financial sense for him to purchase new and expensive trucks to meet new mandates.

“I did my first trip when I was 20. Everything was going great from 1971 up until around the time that (former President Barack) Obama got into office,” Thomas told the DCNF. “By 2008, we come up with this clean truck program here. We were having all these meetings. I’m looking at the division between the environmentalists, telling us about CO2 and gases …  I’m looking at the charts of what our engines that we had at that time, which were made mainly mechanical diesel, and they had no idea what engine was gonna be the engine they were writing into prospective goals.”

“Guys are going out of business like you wouldn’t believe,” Thomas told the DCNF about other Californian truckers he knows.

After closing his business, Jackson moved on to a different company, and he still drives truck routes delivering medical supplies and other time-sensitive loads. But, as he explained to the DCNF, “it wasn’t my company anymore.”

Bill Aboudi, a Palestinian-American who still owns his own small trucking company operating out of the Port of Oakland, touched on some of the same themes in an interview with the DCNF.

Aboudi was born in 1966, and his father went missing in action during the Six Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states in 1967. Aboudi immigrated to the U.S. when he was 14 years old, and started helping his brother out with his trucking business in 1989 after he got out of the California National Guard and never left the industry.

“I live in the middle of getting hammered from all sides. One of the first things that CARB always makes it out to be, is if you’re in the trucking business, you’re a polluter. I always try and explain to them, I’ve got an organic garden, I have about three fruit trees in my backyard. I used to keep bees … I’ve got 12 chickens. I love the environment, and I want to get the best technology for my operation,” Aboudi told the DCNF. “It seems like the regulators have no clue. They want to be able to turn on a switch and have everybody switch directionally right away … They end up reducing our company size and stunting our growth.”

Assembly Bill 5, which reclassified California’s 70,000 independent owner-operators as employees of shipping companies rather than independent contractors, was another policy that hurt the workers politicians purported to help, Aboudi said.

“This kills the liberty of being a trucker and kills the American dream,” Miguel Ramirez, a Los Angeles-based trucker, told the DCNF in July 2022.

It’s not just truckers who are impacted by regulations and their impacts on California’s trucking operators, Aboudi explained to the DCNF. There are many thousands of blue-collar workers — including immigrants like him — whose jobs rely on California’s busy ports, providing parts for trucks and other closely-related trades.

“I am still paying for trucks that I upgraded on the last round, and I can’t use them,” Aboudi continued, referencing older regulations. “Now I’m paying for the newer trucks that I upgraded to. And I’m being told I’m gonna have to go to zero-emission trucks that are still in the first stage of development … We’ve already had to downsize our company from 13 trucks to eight trucks.”

While bureaucrats in Sacramento and the supporters of their political superiors in Los Angeles and San Francisco may think that their progressive approach to environmental policy is benefiting minority communities, the opposite is true in many cases, according to Donna Jackson, the director of membership development for the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Project 21.

“California leads the country in enacting climate change policies that are increasingly leading to tiered social classes, the rich and the poor,” Jackson told the DCNF. “Like the Biden administration, California has ignored the real needs of underserved communities. Its climate change policies are destroying minority businesses and creating needless barriers to upward economic mobility. The result of all of this is not just job losses, but lost role models, financially unstable families, declining home ownership rates and a loss of community pride.”

CARB did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

AUTHOR

NICK POPE

Contributor.

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The American Consumers are Funding Iran by Doing Business with Communist China

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The installed Marxist in the White House Joe Biden borrows money from Communist China with the approval of the Socialist controlled Republican Congress.

This money approved by the Republican controlled Congress has been used in the past to protect the borders of the corrupt nation of Ukraine.

We tax payers have also been funding the new homes and luxury SUVs purchased by corrupt Ukrainian government officials. All this while Biden and the Communist democrats and a group of socialist republicans ignore the immigration invasion of foreign nationals and terrorists on our southern border.

Communist China gets US currency and hard cash from our massive trade imbalance as Walmart etc. and the ignorant American consumer keeps buying and selling Communist Chinese products.

Communist China uses this cash from the US consumers and other nations and buys 83% of its oil from the terrorist state of Iran with a blind eye taken from the White House.

Iran then gets paid in cash for its oil from Communist China using US dollars in secure boxes on pallets offloaded at sea from ships flagged under the country of Panama.

This money is then used to help fund the Iranian military, to construct missiles and drones and fund proxy terror groups including Hezbollah. Russian also gets Iranian drones for its war in Ukraine.

This money also funds the death and destruction used against Israel and US military troops unconstitutionally stationed in Iraq and Syria.

We keep buying “stuff” from Communist China, we keep doing business with Communist China, we allow them to buy up real estate in our republic close to military bases and set up Chinese police stations to spy on Chinese Americans in the United States.

The new President of Argentina is the only world leader at this time who is blocking the import and export of goods from Communist China into Argentina.

Communist China keeps buying oil from Iran using US dollars and we keep doing business with China providing this dictatorship with the cash to buy Iranian oil thus funding the Iranian government indirectly.

Trump had this under control when he was president and we must return him to the White House to restore global security and to secure our borders and start dismantling the terror network of Iran with strongly enforced sanctions not military intervention.

Iran will crumble economically if we block 100% of its oil exports and other exports. In 2023 the Biden administration allowed over 2.2 million dollars worth of Iranian goods to enter the USA such as carpets, vegetables, antiques, coffee tea and spices. Not a huge sum but a significant chunk of change.

The Communists in our Congress and the White House are trying everything they can to destroy Trumps good name and financial strength. They will fail.

The American people are waking up to the Marxist regime embedded in our Congress and republic and the illegal immigrants currently claiming false asylum in the USA will all be deported by Trump. Start packing your bags.

Make sure you vote for Trump in November 2024 our children and grandchildren are depending on you.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: China Tells Iran Cooperation Will Last After Attack on Israel

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The Future Of Israel

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I have been ten times in Israel. There, I have visited the Holy places and the unholy places. I can tell you, that I know this country inside and out.

Israel has been the only place in the World, where the Jews could feel relatively safe.

But this is no longer so. There is a real threat from Hamas, Hizballah and Iran that Israel can be destroyed.

In Gaza the Israel Defense Forces are killing a lot of terrorists, but at the same time creating a whole new generation of terrorists.

Iran is not intimidated by the new recruits of the Israel Defense Forces, for many are infected with Woke ideology from America.

As the solution for the problem that the USA and my country Holland lie in a return to Christian traditions, the solution for Israel lies in a return to the Commands by Moses. That comes down to ending the crazy “Gay Parades”.

The USA-Israel alliance has also become fragile. There is an essential problem inside the Democrat Party: It has been infiltrated by radical Muslims. They can now be found in the higher echelons and they participate in determining the course of politics.

Without the diplomatic and military aid from America, Israel is doomed. In Israel, the Left is blind for this problem. The Israeli Left thinks that Republicans are deep inside all anti-Semites.

In short, I predict that we will see a mass exodus of Jews to France and Italy, perhaps also to America. But in these countries outside the Middle-East, there are now also a lot of radical Muslims.

You all know how I think about Islam: it can’t be reformed. Thus, the Jews are trapped again. Just like 100 years ago in Europe.

This whole dire situation for the Jews started to arise when they begun to wave the Rainbow flag instead of following the Commands by Moses. Is that a coincidence?

©2024. Matthys van Raalten. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: ‘Israel, Free Us From The Islamic regime’: Iranians Support The IDF

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NEW REPORT! Columbia’s Antisemitism Problem

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FEATURED CAMPAIGN

Columbia has become a hostile environment for Jews. Since Oct. 7, hundreds of Columbia students as well as faculty & staff have turned the campus into a bully pulpit in support of Hamas. The administration has done little to nothing about it.

SEE CAMPAIGN 

FEATURED VIDEOS

WATCH! The “banned” group Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine held an unauthorized protest on campus, shouting, “There is no safe place, DEATH to the Zionist State,” among other genocidal chants. Columbia professor Shai Davidai says Columbia KNEW about the protest in advance & did nothing to stop it.

SEE PROFESSOR DAVIDAI’S POST

Despite being under federal investigation for fostering an atmosphere of Jew hatred on campus, Columbia doubled down, hosting a pro-Hamas, terror-recruiting event on campus. WATCH this outrageous footage.

 

SEE ON X

FEATURED PROFILES

Mohamed Abdou

While already under scrutiny for the unabating antisemitism on campus, on January 16, 2024, Columbia University’s Middle East Institute welcomed Mohamed Abdou, whom they had just hired as a visiting professor.

Abou is on record as having declared his support for Hamas and “the resistance.” The terror group’s “dedicated few,” he said admiringly, worked in “stealth mode” on Oct. 7 to defeat a “larger enemy.”

SEE HIS PROFILE

Rashid Khalidi

Rashid Khalidi is a former spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and now a professor of modern Arab studies & faculty member of Columbia’s Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies.

Khalidi called terrorism against Israelis “acts of spontaneous resistance” and claimed the “occupation doesn’t have the right to call resistance ‘terrorists.’”

SEE HIS PROFILE

Aidan Parisi

Aidan Parisi, a student at Columbia School of Social Work, was suspended for participating in the unauthorized “Resistance 101” event. “Decolonization has, and always will be, returning land to indigenous peoples by any means necessary. Land back!…,” he says.

SEE ON X

SEE HIS PROFILE

EDITORS NOTE: This Canary Mission report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Israel, Free Us From The Islamic regime’: Iranians Support The IDF

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When news broke that Iran had directly attacked Israel, I wrote here that I believed the Iranian people will join Israel to throw off the murdering mullahcracy, something they have been fighting for and dying for years.

‘Israel, free us from the Islamic regime’ – Iranians support the IDF

By World Israel News Staff, April 15, 2-24:

Iranian citizens are praising the Israeli army and calling on the Jewish State to assassinate key ruling figures such as the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini, as Iran girds for a potential Israeli retaliation following an unprecedented missile and drone attack.

Residents of Iran are expressing those sentiments via social media posts and subversive street graffiti, with many asking Israel to bring down the government, which rules according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law.

“Israel, strike back. They don’t have the guts to take revenge,” read one message spray-painted on a Tehran street corner. An image of the writing quickly went viral on social media, along with another message that called on Israel to “eliminate the Supreme Leader.”

Continue reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Vicious Stabbing Attack at Church in Australia Targets Truth-Telling Orthodox Bishop

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One of my favorite preachers is Mar Mari Emmanuel, a native of Iraq who is a bishop in the Assyrian Orthodox Church, and he needs our prayers right now following a brutal attack suffered while preaching the Word of God on the evening of Monday, April 15.

Like many Assyrian Orthodox Christians, Bishop Emmanuel was forced to leave Iraq after the U.S. invasion resulted in mass persecution of Iraqi Christians, who were more than 3 million strong prior to that invasion in 2003. After the U.S. operation was completed there, the Shia militias were empowered and they cracked down hard on Christians. Many were killed, and many more were forced to flee. It’s a shameful reflection on U.S. foreign policy and for that reason it’s a story that was never told in the Western corporate media.

Bishop Emmanuel ended up in Australia, where he has developed an active internet ministry with many videos of his preaching on YouTube and TikTok.

On Monday in a suburban area on the western outskirts of Sidney, Australia, tragedy struck.

The New York Post, citing information from the Australian news outlet News.com.au, reports that Bishop Emmanuel was attacked while giving a sermon and stabbed multiple times in the face and neck. Two others were also injured during the Monday night church service, in a mass stabbing attack that came just days after six people were stabbed to death at a nearby mall and sparked massive riots throughout the area.

In a disturbing video of the attack, posted Monday to X, Bishop Emmanuel is shown speaking at Christ The Good Shepherd Church, an Assyrian Orthodox congregation in Wakeley, when a man in a black hoodie charges at him with a knife.

This is a level of violence targeted specifically against Christians that has not often been seen in Western-oriented “democratic” countries like Australia.

Below is a report from the crime scene with a brief example of some of Bishop Emmanuel’s preaching. As you will see, he has warned that the world is entering a period of tribulation where many Christians will die for their faith. He said, “For the sake of Christ I will face death and not deny my Savior.”

The bishop appeared to try to talk to his attacker, who then he stabbed the bishop’s face and neck just after 7 p.m. local time in Sidney on Monday.

Emmanuel fell to the floor as congregants moved quickly to his aid.

The bishop was promptly rushed to a local hospital, while the suspect was taken into custody, News.com.au reported. He is in stable condition, the church wrote in a statement posted to Instagram.

It noted that Father Isaac Rayel was also among the injured, and asked the public for their prayers for the wounded.

“It is the bishop and Father’s wishes that you also pray for the perpetrator,” the church said. “We also kindly ask anyone at the Church premises to leave in peace, as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, teaches us.”

At least two others were also treated at the scene for lacerations, according to News.com.au.

A motive for the stabbing is not immediately known, but the suspect reportedly told congregants at the scene Emmanuel “was getting involved in my religion so I came to get involved in his,” a politician posted online. We don’t know anything for sure yet, but an knife attack like this bears all the hallmarks of an Islamic jihad attack. Bishop Emmanuel has been very outspoken in his criticism of Islam and where the spirit of jihad emanates from. It comes from the pit of hell.

Thousands rioted in the streets outside the bishop’s church while they waited for the suspect to be marched outside.

“Bring him out, bring him out,” the angry mob could be heard shouting in a video posted to Twitter.

Other footage showed a large crowd rioting at the scene and apparently damaging local property, with dozens of people bashing in an ambulance window, according to News.com.au.

Please pray for Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel’s complete recovery, and that justice will be served against his attacker.

For more on his ministry, you can view his sermons on his YouTube Channel.

©2024. Leo Hohmann. All rights reserved.

LeoHohmann.com is 100 percent independent and not beholden to any corporate advertisers or sponsorships. If you appreciate my work and would like to support it, you may send a donation of any size c/o Leo Hohmann, P.O. Box 291, Newnan, GA 30264, or via credit card.

VIDEO: Reports indicate Israel is preparing to retaliate against Iran imminently, possibly within 24 hours

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Will Israel strike Iran? That is the big question.

The below video report says yes, and perhaps within the next 24 hours.

This journalist claims that a few hours ago now, American and Frenchy and German citizens have all been advised to immediately leave Iran. Qatar has diverted all flights away from Iranian airspace, and Netanyahu has called a meeting of ALL the leaders of the many parties in Israel to a meeting with the exception of the leaders of the Arabic and anti-Israel parties.

WATCH: Breaking News – Iran & Israel on Behold Israel with Amir Tsarfati [Start at 7.00 minutes mark.]

Took some time to find, but his quote is from the Times of Israel, paraphrasing the WSJ. It is close, but not exactly that.

Decades ago, I used to be friendly with a family, the patriarch of which was a General in a Western military. He was a brilliant, and very decent man, who has passed away some time ago now. So I think its okay to tell this story.

He was telling me about some of the RealPolitik of the Middle East. About how during the cold war, an ally of the Soviet Union, I think it was Iraq, was developing nuclear weapons by constructing a 40 MW nuclear reactor which has pretty much no practical use beyond making nukes. But neither the U.S. nor the Soviets wanted Iraq to have these weapons. So it was decided that the U.S. would ask Israel to fly a single sortie over the area and take out the reactor. The Soviets would stand up in the United Nations and condemn the action and demand a resolution of some kind against Israel. The U.S. was to veto it, and that would be the end of the issue. Everyone wins except maybe the one guy in Iraq that thought having nukes was a good idea. And that is exactly how it played out.

This tells us a lot about how things happen. The attack against Israel by Iran was clearly something along these lines. Calls where made, understandings where arrived at, and events took place in a way that would satisfy the honour of the Islamic regime in Tehran without any kind of actual war per se.

Let’s hope the Israeli response, if indeed it is real at all, has a similar trajectory.

DM Gallant to Pentagon: No choice but to retaliate against Iran

The Global Security Situation group

Axios reports that Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Sunday that Israel has no choice but to respond to the unprecedented missile and drone attack launched by Iran over the weekend, a U.S. official and another source briefed on the call told Axios.

The Israeli war cabinet convened on Monday to discuss Israel’s possible response.

Gallant told Austin in a phone call Sunday that Israel can’t allow ballistic missiles to be launched against its territory without a response, the U.S. official and the source briefed on the call said.

The report went on to say that Israel won’t accept an equation in which Iran responds with a direct attack every time Israel strikes targets in Syria, Gallant added.

The sources said Austin conveyed a similar message to the one President Biden gave Netanyahu on Saturday night, stressing the need to do everything possible to avoid further escalation.

The Pentagon and the Israeli ministry of defense said that Austin and Gallant also discussed efforts to establish an international and regional coalition against Iran.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column with video posted by Eeyore is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Florida Voters Back Abortion Amendment and Trump

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A new poll is reporting that nearly half of voters in the Sunshine State plan to support a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a “right” to abortion. An Emerson College survey released on Thursday found that 42% of Florida voters intend to vote “Yes” on a “Amendment 4” this November, enshrining a right to abortion into the state’s constitution. Twenty-five percent of voters intend to vote “No,” and 32% of voters are unsure which way they will vote. The ballot initiative requires at least 60% support in order to pass.

A majority (56%) of Democrats and a plurality (44%) of Independents plan to vote “Yes.” Following former President Donald Trump’s recently-announced opposition to federal pro-life protections, Florida Republicans are more divided on the issue: 36% plan to vote against the abortion amendment, 30% plan to support it, and 34% are unsure.

Additionally, nearly 60% of Florida voters reported that the pro-life law banning abortion after six weeks — slated to go into effect next month after the state’s Supreme Court upheld a related 15-week abortion ban — is “too strict,” 28% said the law is “about right,” and 15% said it’s “not strict enough.” The previous 15-week ban enjoyed marginally more support, with only 43% saying it’s “too strict,” 36% saying it’s “about right,” and 21% saying it’s “not strict enough.”

Election data analyst Michael Pruser posted on social media, “I don’t think a pro-Republican position has a chance of clearing 60% in Florida, let alone an anti-Republican one. What wouldn’t pass in Kansas and Ohio during off-year special turnout will almost assuredly not pass in Florida during a Presidential year [with] Trump on the top of the ticket.”

Anticipating nearly 11 million voters (4.5 million Republicans, 3.55 million Democrats, and 2.85 million Independents) to turn out in November, Pruser explained, “To make 60% work, you’ll need a share of about 23% Republican[s]/95% Democrat[s]/77% Independent[s] to vote YES (which is always harder than NO). This gives you a total of 6,554,500 votes and a winning percentage of 60.13%.” He added, “You can also bet that [Florida’s Republican governor Ron] DeSantis will do what [Democratic Kansas governor] Laura Kelly and [Republican Ohio governor] Mike DeWine didn’t — use his office’s full weight against the amendment.”

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, argued before the Florida Supreme Court in favor of pro-life laws. In comments to The Washington Stand, he warned that “Amendment 4” would be challenged even if passed, saying, “There are constitutional challenges that I think are available.”

In addition to questions of both fraudulent signatures in putting the proposed amendment on the ballot and fraudulent votes in potentially passing the amendment this November, Staver noted, “The Florida legislature has — for many, many years — used the terms ‘unborn child’ and ‘unborn person.’” For example, Florida law dictates that if a woman is killed and her unborn child dies as a result, the killer could be charged with double homicide. Similarly, if a will leaves an estate to the deceased’s children or grandchildren, Florida law understands that to include unborn children or grandchildren. “In all these other areas of law,” Staver said, “unborn children have been recognized as legal persons. Consequently, if this were to pass, we would bring a case to the Florida Supreme Court to recognize the rights of an unborn child which already exist in the constitution which supersede this abortion amendment.”

Referring to Republicans who have begun backing away from pro-life messaging in the wake of Trump’s announcement earlier this week, Staver said, “Politicians should stand for life, not run from it. The right to life is the right of all rights, without which there is no other right. Politicians need to stand for life, not run from it.” He continued, “There are some things that transcend geographical boundaries and political parties and time, and the right to life is fundamental among those.” Staver also compared the issue of abortion to the issue of slavery, saying that neither was a matter of “states’ rights” but of universal morality.

The Emerson College survey also found that a majority (51%) of Florida voters back Trump for president, while only 38% support incumbent Joe Biden, with 11% undecided. When undecided voters were asked which candidate they lean toward supporting, Trump’s support shot up to 56% and Biden’s to 44%. Emerson College explained, “Among Biden voters, 32% support him because they dislike Trump, 24% because they like Biden, 19% care about an issue, and 14% support their party’s candidate. Among Trump voters, 31% support him because they care about an issue, 28% because they like Trump, 16% because they dislike Biden, and 14% support their party’s candidate.”

Florida voters ranked the economy as their top issue of concern (27%), followed by housing (16%), immigration (14%), and abortion (10%). Emerson College noted, “The percentage of voters who marked abortion access as their top issue is four points higher in Florida than in the most recent national poll (6%).”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.