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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) said Friday on HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher" that he thought President Joe Biden was "the only Democrat" that could beat former President Donald Trump in November.
The post Fetterman: Biden Is ‘The Only Democrat’ Who Can Beat Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the White House for a rally on Saturday afternoon in protest of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The post Pro-Palestinian Protesters Gather Outside White House: ‘F*** Joe Biden’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The Biden administration called for Israel and Hamas to engage in ceasefire talks after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rescued four hostages.
The post Biden Administration Calls for Negotiations, Ceasefire After Israel Rescues 4 Hostages appeared first on Breitbart.
China's state-run Global Times propaganda newspaper accused leftist American President Joe Biden on Thursday of a "lack of confidence" in Ukraine's ability to defeat the two-year-old Russian invasion of its homeland, condemning him for skipping a global "peace summit" organized by Ukraine in Switzerland.
The post China Taunts Biden: ‘He Has No Faith in Ukraine’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Border Patrol chiefs in three sectors of the southwest border with Mexico report a daily apprehension rate of more than 2,600 per day during their most recent weekly recaps. The reports from these three of the nine southwest border sectors exceed President Joe Biden's new executive order imposing a cap of 2,500 migrants per day on a seven-day average.
The post Border Patrol Reports 2,600 Migrant Apprehensions per Day — Just in 3 Sectors appeared first on Breitbart.
BUDAPEST, Hungary -- President Joe Biden is "playing with fire" by letting Ukraine use U.S.-provided weapons to strike targets inside Russia, a top Hungarian foreign policy expert told Breitbart News in a recent interview.
The post Hungarian Foreign Policy Expert: Biden ‘Playing with Fire’ by Allowing Ukraine to Use U.S. Weapons in Russia appeared first on Breitbart.
Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) said Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room" that he believed the only way to move forward was to end the Israel-Hamas war and reach a two-state solution with Palestine.
The post Clyburn: I Don’t Believe Biden Lost Support with Black Voters — ‘It’s Faulty Polling’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Lunden Roberts, the mother of Hunter Biden’s daughter Navy Joan Roberts, told British host Piers Morgan on Thursday that President Joe Biden has never contacted his granddaughter.
Roberts formerly worked as Hunter’s assistant and has spoken out about dealing with him following their child’s birth in 2018, noting both the president and his son’s efforts to distance themselves from Navy. Roberts on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” said neither the president nor his son has ever met Navy in person and that the elder Biden has never even reached out to his granddaughter.
“Have you ever heard from either President Biden or the first lady directly?” Morgan asked.
“No. No, I have not,” Roberts answered.
Morgan followed up by asking if she thinks that’s “surprising,” with Roberts answering she does not.
Roberts also told Morgan that Hunter has never met his daughter “in person.”
“Hunter’s relationship with his daughter has been built through Zoom,” she said. “He was required to call once a month or something like that. Navy gets to pick out one of his paintings, and that’s how they would start building a relationship. However, Hunter went above and beyond. He not only called her once a month, but once they started building a relationship, he wanted to call weekly or sometimes a couple of times a week just to talk to her. When she goes into surgery, he wants to Zoom and talk to her. He calls to check on her at different times and things like that. He has gone above what the time frame required and has done that for her, which I appreciate tremendously.”
Morgan asked if there are any plans in place for them to meet in person.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Roberts answered. “Me and Hunter haven’t worked the details out with that. But, I mean, like, the world knows. Hunter has a lot on his plate right now. I think that that needs to be his main focus, and getting through this time and then the rest can come after. Navy is well aware. She knows that her father’s very busy right now, and he’s got a lot of things going on and she’s waited five years; she can wait a couple more months.”
Roberts and Hunter resolved their child support dispute in June 2023 and the Biden family finally acknowledged Navy in July 2023.
Roberts told Morgan that the “door is always open” for the president to meet his granddaughter and it “always will be.”
Hunter gave his daughter some of his paintings and he paid Roberts’ legal fees. She unsuccessfully attempted to grant her daughter the Biden last name as part of their child support dispute.
Hunter’s federal gun trial began Monday and he is facing three charges brought by special counsel David Weiss in September, which include providing false statements and knowingly possessing a gun while being addicted to drugs.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
The post Mother of Hunter Biden’s Daughter Says President Still Has Never Met or Contacted Granddaughter appeared first on The Daily Signal.
President Joe Biden's economic agenda is scoring foreign-born workers more jobs in the United States labor market as hundreds of thousands of native-born Americans have dropped out of the workforce over the last year.
The post Joe Biden Scores Migrants More Jobs While Americans Drop Out of Workforce appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump says record illegal immigration to the United States on President Joe Biden's watch has sent rents and housing costs skyrocketing for Americans.
The post Donald Trump in Arizona: Biden’s Mass Migration Is Skyrocketing Rents, Housing Costs for Americans appeared first on Breitbart.
Last week, a New York City jury, prompted by the legal coordination between Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan—both partisan actors—convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony counts having to do with falsification of business records. Or election fraud. Or more tax issues. Or … something. Nobody really knows, and apparently it was unnecessary for the jury to agree on the crime in order to find Trump guilty of one.
No matter.
Trump was convicted and may now face jail time. We’ll find out on July 11—just a few days before the Republican National Convention. Obviously, this represents opportune timing for the Biden campaign. And yet Trump remains firmly knotted with President Joe Biden in the race for the White House. There have been four polls taken since Trump’s conviction. In all of them, Biden and Trump are either tied or within two points either way.
But how? The question echoes throughout the media: How can a convicted felon be running even with the incumbent president? The answer is twofold: First, Biden is a truly awful president; second, Biden has no ground to stand on in labeling Trump a threat to law and order.
First, Biden’s terrible record. Americans have been slammed by inflation for three years. Our social fabric has continued to decay as Biden openly seeks “equity”—meaning discriminatory legal regimens designed at rectifying group disparities—in every area of the federal government. On the foreign front, Biden has hamstrung Ukraine in its defense against Russia, and openly manipulated on behalf of Iran and Hamas in Israel’s war against the terror group that performed Oct. 7. It is difficult to see an area of the world that is markedly better off since Biden took the White House.
Second, Biden’s hypocrisy. In the aftermath of the Trump conviction, Trump naturally condemned the justice system that targeted him. Biden then responded by doubling down on his narrative that Trump’s pushback represents a threat to our democracy and our institutions: Last week, Biden staggered out to the podium to claim that “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed.” He added that it was “dangerous” and “irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”
The problem is this: Biden as defender of our democracy and our institutions just doesn’t play. This is the same president who tried to use his Occupational Safety and Health Administration to illegally cram down vaccines on 80 million Americans; who attempted, in defiance of law, to relieve student loan debt—and then bragged about defying the Supreme Court; whose Justice Department even let him off the hook for mishandling of classified material by calling him a dotard. Biden’s party has spent years tut-tutting massive riots, appeasing pro-terrorist student trespassers, and calling for an end to parental autonomy. There isn’t an institution in the country Biden hasn’t weakened.
To hear Biden rail against Trump for undermining institutions, then, simply won’t play. But Biden doesn’t have much left in the playbook.
All of which means that Trump still—still—has the upper hand. Ironically, Trump being sent to jail might actually help him, given that most Americans will correctly see the jailing of Biden’s chief political opponent as an act of vicious partisanship unworthy of the most powerful republic in world history.
In 2020, Biden ran on the platform of stability and normalcy; he has exploded both. All he’s left with is slogans about Orange Hitler. And that’s unlikely to be enough come November if gas prices are high, groceries cost too much, and the world remains aflame.
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We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post Of ‘Convicted Felons’ and Lying Frauds appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Nearly 14 months after the first of four unprecedented criminal prosecutions against former President Donald Trump commenced in earnest, the Democrat-lawfare complex got its man: The Soviet show trial in “Justice” Juan Merchan’s dingy New York City courtroom produced its preordained “guilty” verdict.
It is perhaps hackneyed to observe that, in convicting and seeking to incarcerate a former president and current leading presidential candidate, we have “crossed the Rubicon.” Well …
The Rubicon, truthfully, is a shallow, inconsequential river in Italy. That it is so shallow helps explain why Julius Caesar was able to cross it so easily. At this juncture in American history, it no longer suffices to speak of crossing a Rubicon. We are now rapidly crossing great seas—perhaps even circumnavigating the globe. You might call President Joe Biden and the rest of the Democrat-lawfare complex our modern-day Magellans.
Ruinous or not, however, their precedent has now been set. And that raises the obvious question: For Democrats, will all of this, and especially their multifront anti-Trump lawfare, prove to be worth it?
That obvious question, in turn, has an equally obvious answer: absolutely, positively not.
First, Democrats do not seem to be getting much of a bump in the early polls after last week’s verdict. In each of the two major national polls that have been conducted exclusively after the verdict, from pollsters Emerson College and Morning Consult, Trump leads by one point. As even the liberal Washington Post conceded on Thursday, “Other polls conducted before and after the verdict suggest between no change and a two-point shift toward Biden. The shifts are quite a bit smaller than pretrial polls suggested they could be.”
Considering that Trump was already leading in most national horse race polling and that the Republican Party currently has a built-in Electoral College advantage wherein its presidential candidate can slightly lose the popular vote while still prevailing in the electoral vote, the Biden-Harris campaign ought to be worried.
Democrats’ lawfare isn’t winning over many swing voters.
Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom May 30 during his since-ended “hush money” trial in New York City. Democrats got their preordained “guilty” verdict, but there’s no evidence it gave them the polling bump they hoped for. (Photo: Michael Santiago/Getty Images)
Second, the damage the Democrat-lawfare complex has caused to the American public’s faith and trust in the justice system is simply astronomical—and likely irreparable. Even prior to the onslaught of Trump indictments filed last year, many of us “deplorables” were already convinced we have a two-tier system of justice in this country: Consider the wholly disparate prosecutorial treatment of the BLM-Antifa rioters and the “J6-ers” present during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol jamboree, for instance.
But the Democrat-lawfare complex’s serial overreaches have now removed any doubt as to the blatant impartiality and patent unfairness of our regnant legal order. It is impossible not to be jaded or cynical. Leviticus 19:15 commands: “You shall commit no injustice in judgment; you shall not favor a poor person or respect a great man; you shall judge your fellow with righteousness.”
Does anyone think this describes America today?
Third, the Right finally seems to be snapping out of its long lull and beginning to gear itself for pitched battle against a domestic foe that wants to punish us, prosecute us, subjugate us, and remove us from the entirety of American public life. That portends poorly for leftists.
My friend John Yoo, the Bush-era Justice Department official and law professor normally a bit less pugnacious than yours truly, opined: “Repairing this breach of constitutional norms will require Republicans to follow the age-old maxim: Do unto others as they have done unto you.”
Megyn Kelly, the influential broadcaster who has had a complex relationship with Trump going back to the 2016 GOP presidential primary, said after the verdict: “I’m going to utter words I never thought I would utter in my life: We need Steve Bannon.” The famously combative Bannon appears headed for an unjust four-month prison sentence in a few weeks, but her point stands.
Democrats have no idea what they have unleashed. Perhaps worse, they don’t even care.
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We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post Democrats’ Lawfare Proves Politically Impotent, Likely to Come Back to Haunt Them appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Former President Donald Trump said at a Silicon Valley fundraiser on Thursday that he would be a "crypto president," while the Biden administration has been staunchly anti-innovation.
The post Trump Vows to Be ‘Crypto President’ at Silicon Valley Fundraiser appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the key swing state of Michigan post-conviction, a survey found.
The post Poll: Donald Trump Leads Joe Biden in Michigan Post-Conviction appeared first on Breitbart.
The five criminal and civil prosecutions of former President Donald Trump all prompt heated denials from Democrats that President Joe Biden and Democrat operatives had a role in any of them.
But Biden has long let it be known that he was frustrated with his own Department of Justice’s federal prosecutors for their tardiness in indicting Trump.
Biden was upset because any delay might mean that his rival Trump would not be in federal court during the 2024 election cycle. And that would mean he could not be tagged as a “convicted felon” by the November election while being kept off the campaign trail.
Politico has long prided itself on its supposed insider knowledge of the workings of the Biden administration. Note that it was reported earlier this February that a frustrated Biden “has grumbled to aides and advisers that had [Attorney General Merrick] Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded…”
If there was any doubt about the Biden administration’s effort to force Trump into court before November, Politico further dispelled it—even as it blamed Trump for Biden’s anger at Garland: “That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.”
Note in passing how a presidential candidate’s legal right to oppose a politicized indictment months before an election by his opponent’s federal attorneys is smeared by Politico as “deliberate resistance.”
Given Politico was publicly reporting six months ago about Biden’s anger at the pace of his DOJ’s prosecution of Trump, does anyone believe his special counsel, Jack Smith, was not aware of such presidential displeasure and pressure?
Note Smith had petitioned and was denied an unusual request to the court to speed up the course of his Trump indictment.
And why would Biden’s own attorney general, Garland, select such an obvious partisan as Smith? Remember, in his last tenure as special counsel, Smith had previously gone after popular Republican and conservative Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.
Yet Smith’s politicized persecution of the innocent McDonnell was reversed by a unanimous verdict of the U.S. Supreme Court. That rare court unanimity normally should have raised a red flag to the Biden DOJ about both Smith’s partiality and his incompetence.
But then again, Smith’s wife had donated to the 2020 Biden campaign fund. And she was previously known for producing a hagiographic 2020 documentary (“Becoming”) about Michelle Obama.
Selecting a special counsel with a successful record of prior nonpartisan convictions was clearly not why the DOJ appointed Smith.
The White House’s involvement is not limited to the Smith federal indictments.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ paramour and erstwhile lead prosecutor in her indictment of Trump, Nathan Wade, met twice with the White House counsel’s office. On one occasion, Wade met inside the Biden White House.
Subpoenaed records reveal that the brazen Wade actually billed the federal government for his time spent with the White House counsel’s staff—although so far no one has disclosed under oath the nature of such meetings.
Of the tens of thousands of local prosecutions each year, in how many instances does a county prosecutor consult with the White House counsel’s office—and then bill it for his knowledge?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s just-completed felony convictions of Trump were spearheaded by former prominent federal prosecutor Matthew Colangelo. He is not just a well-known Democratic partisan who served as a political consultant to the Democratic National Committee.
Colangelo had also just left his prior position in the Biden Justice Department—reputedly as Garland’s third-ranking prosecutor—to join the local Bragg team.
Again, among all the multitudes of annual municipal indictments nationwide, how many local prosecutors manage to enlist one of the nation’s three top federal attorneys to head their case?
So, apparently, it was not enough for the shameless Bragg to campaign flagrantly on promises to go after Trump. In addition, Bragg brashly drafted a top Democratic operative and political appointee from inside Biden’s DOJ to head his prosecution.
Not surprisingly, it took only a few hours after the Colangelo-Bragg conviction of Trump for Biden on spec to start blasting his rival as a “convicted felon.” Biden is delighted that his own former prosecutor, a left-wing judge, and a Manhattan jury may well keep Trump off the campaign trail.
So, it is past time for the media and Democrats to drop this ridiculous ruse of Biden’s White House “neutrality.” Instead, they should admit that they are terrified of the will of the people in November and so are conniving to silence them.
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We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post The Myth That Biden Had Nothing to Do With the Prosecutions of Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.
While many legal experts say a jury should easily convict Hunter Biden, others say that jury nullification is a real risk for the prosecution.
The post Legal Experts: Hunter Biden Could Be Hoping for ‘Jury Nullification’ appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden used a speech at the Pointe du Hoc monument in Normandy, France, on Friday to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin — and to issue a veiled attack on his domestic political opposition in the upcoming election. As
The post Biden Uses Pointe du Hoc Speech to Blast Putin; Veiled Attack on Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
The prosecution rested on Friday in Hunter Biden's gun trial with the defense now scheduled to bring witnesses to the stand. The trial will likely conclude next week.
The post Prosecution Rests in Hunter Biden Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
The case could be a window into how Noreika might sentence Hunter if a jury finds him guilty of gun violations.
The post Hunter Biden’s Gun Trial Judge Recently Gave 1-Year Sentence in Similar Case appeared first on Breitbart.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel sent fundraising email this week asking people to donate to the Joe Biden campaign to defeat Trump in November.
The post Jimmy Kimmel Biden Fundraising Email Claims ‘Democracy May Not Survive Another Four Years of a Trump Presidency’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A contrite President Joe Biden publicly apologized for the first time Friday to Ukraine for delays in American military assistance as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for yet more and more U.S. support “like it was during World War II.”
The post Biden Publicly Apologizes to Zelensky for Slow Supply of U.S. Weaponry appeared first on Breitbart.
Migrant apprehensions in the Tucson Sector jumped for the third straight week. Agents in the Arizona border sector apprehended nearly 8,000 migrants shortly before President Joe Biden announced his newest immigration executive order.
The post Arizona Border Sector Migrant Arrests Jump for Third Straight Week as Biden Announces Immigration Executive Order appeared first on Breitbart.
Police arrested a Mexican national on Texas' Top 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Migrants List who was wanted for a parole violation on a murder charge. The arrest comes one day after Governor Greg Abbott announced the law enforcement tool on Wednesday.
The post Murderer on Texas Top 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List Arrested appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden will reportedly skip a peace summit hosted by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend a fundraiser hosted by Hollywood actor George Clooney.
The post Joe Biden to Skip Volodymyr Zelensky Peace Summit for George Clooney Fundraiser appeared first on Breitbart.
Chiefs star Travis Kelce says that he would visit the White House to celebrate a winning season no matter who is president at the time.
The post Chiefs Star Travis Kelce Would Visit White House ‘No Matter Who’ is President: ‘Always an Honor’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Does Time magazine really matter anymore?
It still has a circulation of more than 1 million, but that is one-third of what it was in 2012. Does anything it reports still resonate, or is it like a tree that collapses unheard in the solitude of the woods?
Time just secured an interview with President Joe Biden, when Biden has granted very few interviews to print news outlets. Time gained access to Donald Trump in April, and the first thing you notice when you compare the two interviews is the length.
At the top of the transcripts, Time claims the Biden transcript is a “28 minute read,” while Trump’s is listed as 83 minutes. Time’s “fact check” of the Trump interviews (“21 minute read”) is almost as long as the Biden interview.
Another noticeable tilt is the agenda of questions. Biden’s questions were overwhelmingly about foreign policy. There are three on inflation, three on immigration, and three on Biden’s age. There were zero questions on Hunter Biden and the Biden scandals. There were zero questions on the Trump trial or the Trump prosecutions.
Did Team Biden put any conditions on which questions could be asked? It’s a fair question, considering how selective they’ve been in handing out interviews.
By contrast, by my count, Time asked Trump 11 questions about the Trump prosecutions (and “revenge” for them), five questions about Jan. 6, two about potential political violence in 2025, four on fighting the “Deep State,” three on his “dictator for a day” joke, and four on whether he’d seek to overturn the 22nd Amendment and seek a third term.
On top of that, Trump drew 14 questions on abortion policy and six on crime. It’s obvious from the Time transcripts that they consider Trump’s opinions on domestic issues to be much more controversial—and even extremist—than anything Biden advocates.
The rest of the media picked up on Trump’s abortion answers, and Biden didn’t have to provide any abortion answers.
Even the age questions to Biden were timid softballs, and Biden’s answer—suggesting he could take his interviewer Massimo Calabresi in a fight—was taken as a joke. Calabresi told CNN’s Jake Tapper it was “lighthearted” and “quite funny.” Biden responded to a follow-up about voter concerns with his usual spin: “Watch me.” Calabresi confessed it might be a “stock answer.” So, why not push through it? Why not ask, “Everyone’s been watching you, that’s your problem”?
Time could have asked Biden why his team refuses to release audio of his interview with stolen-documents special counsel Robert Hur, with the fear Republicans will exploit the audio in advertising. But Time pretends Hur is a nobody and that Biden’s stolen documents should already be forgotten. Hur refused to prosecute Biden, and Jack Smith just keeps prosecuting Trump.
It looks a bit rigged.
By contrast, Trump’s interviewer Eric Cortellessa lectured him: “I just want to say for the record, there’s no evidence that President Biden directed this prosecution against you.” Trump rejected that: “I always hate the way a reporter will make those statements. They know it’s so wrong.” Time, like other slavishly pro-Biden outlets, refuses to acknowledge that Biden’s No. 3 Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo resigning to join Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team of Trump prosecutors shreds the “no evidence” lie.
The Democrats running Time are hyperbolically raising fear that a president using the Justice Department might go after his political opponents, while somehow being blind and deaf enough to ignore that Biden is using the Justice Department to go after his political opponents. They can’t believe anyone would object to their shamelessness.
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We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post Time Magazine Betrays Its Tilt in Biden, Trump Interviews appeared first on The Daily Signal.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—North Carolina election officials were perplexed about how to follow President Joe Biden’s directive to expand voting among convicted felons, according to emails obtained by The Daily Signal.
Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which put the power of federal agencies behind mobilizing voters, calls for the Justice Department to ensure that convicted felons know how to restore their voting rights. Those rules vary by state.
State election officials were set to have a Zoom conference June 25, 2021, with White House officials on implementing the president’s order, including questions and suggestions.
A day before the conference, Karen Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, emailed staff about what points they wanted to address.
“The main one I can think of ideas for is about felons and voting,” Katelyn Love, general counsel for the Board of Elections replied via email, before citing the U.S. Department of Justice. “We don’t get notice from DOJ when a felon completes their sentence. This would be helpful information for us to have, so we know that the person is eligible to register again.”
Love continued: “If they don’t already, DOJ could provide information to NC felons when they start probation or when they are placed on supervised release (it’s not called parole anymore) that they are not eligible to register and vote until they complete their sentence.”
Kelly Tornow, associate counsel for North Carolina’s election board, responded: “Those are great felon ideas.”
Tornow said she was primarily concerned with enlisted U.S. service members and the Defense Department, and wrote that “the military should provide information to the service member about registering to vote.”
The Daily Signal obtained 159 pages of documents from the North Carolina State Board of Elections regarding Biden’s order on voter mobilization through a public records request.
Critics use the term “Bidenbucks” to refer to the president’s controversial executive order, which they say is meant to use the force of government to tip the scales in elections.
Federal agencies have coordinated with transparently left-leaning advocacy groups to implement Biden’s order.
Further, several Republicans in Congress contend that Biden’s order on turning out the vote could violate the Antideficiency Act, a law that prohibits federal employees from obligating tax dollars not authorized by Congress.
The lawmakers also express concern about federal agencies’ engaging in partisan political activity in violation of laws such as the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using work time or resources for partisan political activities.
Last year, on March 13, Sarah Bolton, former policy director for North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, forwarded an email to Bell, the executive director of the state election board, who at the time was secretary-treasurer of the National Association of State Election Directors.
The email forwarded by Bolton was about paying college students to register voters. Students are viewed as a key constituency for Democrats.
Bolton told Bell to “let me know if this might be of interest. If it is, I can connect you directly.”
She forwarded a message from Michael Dannenberg, senior fellow for the College Promise and a consultant with the Foundation for Civic Leadership, in which he wrote:
We’re hoping Karen in her new role with the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED) might consider joining, maybe even leading, a non-partisan effort to get state and local officials to urge [U.S. Education Secretary Miguel] Cardona to make clear that government entities, notably offices that NASED members lead, and non party-affiliated, non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations like the League of Women Voters can pay work study students with Federal Work Study funds for non-partisan voter registration work just as colleges now can for identical work.
Mitchell D. Brown, equal justice work fellow for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, sent an email Aug. 17, 2021, to Damon Circosta, then chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, about the need to “target federal agencies and programs that we think would be good opportunities for voter registration.”
Copied on the email was Laura Williamson, then associate director of democracy at Demos, a liberal think tank that drafted Biden’s executive order. Demos also is working with several federal agencies to implement the order.
Brown’s email included an attachment with recommendations for using federal agencies to get out the vote. They included using U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services through its naturalization ceremonies; signing up voters on Healthcare.gov; and registering voters through the interagency Transition Assistance Program and the Labor Department’s Pathways Home program.
The documents released to The Daily Signal include a May 24, 2023, email from Doug R. Hess, a political scientist and consultant with the Institute for Responsive Governing. That organization is fiscally sponsored by the liberal Arabella Advisors’ New Venture Fund, which financially backs multiple left-leaning organizations.
Hess’ email, with a memo attached, isn’t addressed directly to North Carolina, but notes that targeting Medicaid recipients for voter registration could advance the goals of Biden’s executive order. Hess wrote:
Consider this concrete example: Six states and D.C. recently adopted automatic voter registration for Medicaid. Based on my exploratory analysis, I believe these reforms may result in an impressive number of voter registration applications, perhaps far more than social service agencies have produced in the past. Federal health and program participation surveys could advance our understanding of this reform in ways that state administrative data alone cannot. Data from these surveys would also substantially benefit the growing political science literature on policy feedback and health policy. Regarding the feasibility of this proposal, this expansion would further the goals of President Biden’s Executive Order 14019—Promoting Access to Voting.
The post ‘Great Felon Ideas’: Battleground State Struggles to Apply Biden’s Election Order appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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A Mexican pastor is currently jailed and awaiting sentencing following her conviction this week on forced labor charges. The conviction is tied to a migrant shelter she ran in Ciudad Juarez.
The post Pastor Convicted of Forced Labor Charges at Migrant Shelter in Mexican Border City appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden said Thursday on ABC's "World News Tonight" that he would not pardon his son Hunter if he is found guilty in his federal cases during an interview in Normandy, France, where the president is commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The post Biden Says He Has Ruled Out a Pardon for Son appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden said Thursday on ABC's "World News Tonight" that former President Donald Trump, his 2024 Republican opponent, got a "fair trial" when asked about Trump's guilty verdict by a Manhattan jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The post Biden: Donald Trump Got a ‘Fair Trial’ — ‘Stop Undermining the Rule of Law’ appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden's mass migration policy is "flat-out economic warfare" against many Americans, former President Donald Trump plans to tell Arizona voters in a speech Thursday.
The post Donald Trump: Biden’s Migration Is ‘Flat-Out Economic Warfare’ Against Americans appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden’s gun trial uncovered several more explosive pieces of information in the fourth day of proceedings.
The post Five Takeaways from Fourth Day of Hunter Biden’s Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden's executive order regarding the United States-Mexico border is unlikely to stop the administration's mass release of migrants into American communities, an analysis from the left-wing American Immigration Council states.
The post Analysis: Biden Order Unlikely to Stop Mass Release of Migrants into U.S. appeared first on Breitbart.
Russia is reportedly preparing to deploy combat vessels to the Caribbean Sea in the summer as part of combat exercises.
The post Report: Russia Planning Naval Exercises in Caribbean Sea appeared first on Breitbart.
Ex-stripper and Hunter Biden's ex-lover Lunden Roberts told Piers Morgan in an interview on Thursday that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have yet to meet their five-year-old granddaughter.
The post Hunter Biden’s Baby Mama Lunden Roberts: Joe and Jill Still Haven’t Reached Out to Meet Granddaughter appeared first on Breitbart.
The Taliban, the uncontested government of Afghanistan since 2021, used a stadium to stage a mass punishment event for 63 people on Tuesday, administering public floggings for crimes ranging from "fleeing from home" to "adultery."
The post Biden’s Afghanistan: Taliban Holds Mass Flogging Event for Crimes of ‘Fleeing from Home,’ ‘Disrespect’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump spoke with four D-Day veterans from his plane, he said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
The post WATCH: Donald Trump Speaks to D-Day Veterans from His Plane as Joe Biden Dodders in Normandy appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden exhibited awkward behavior during a D-Day ceremony in Normandy, France, on Thursday, appearing to try to sit on a nonexistent chair and seemingly departing precipitously, prompting speculation about why.
The post WATCH: Joe Biden Exhibits ‘Awkward’ Behavior at Normandy D-Day Ceremony appeared first on Breitbart.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel's "The Ingraham Angle," Rep. James Comer (R-KY) on Wednesday, House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) accused Hunter Biden of lying to Congress.
The post Comer: Hunter Biden Lied to Congress to Protect Joe Biden appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden smoked crack “every 20 minutes or so” from 2017-2018, his ex-girlfriend testified in his gun trial Wednesday, the timeframe Hunter was hired for and managing some of the family's most lucrative business deals with high level foreign actors.
The post Witness Says Hunter Did Crack ‘Every 20 Minutes’ While Managing Multimillion Dollar China, Ukraine, Russia Deals appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden used his speech at commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "tyrant," and to urge the world to "save democracy in our time."
The post Biden Uses D-Day 80th Anniversary Speech to Attack Putin, Defend Democracy appeared first on Breitbart.
In our modern political dumpster fire, there has never been an art so refined and illustrious as pointless pearl-clutching.
In this, the ninth year of 2016, most everyone is fairly desensitized to the political drama emanating from the Left’s ardent claims that any conservative policy or protest is an appeal to fascism as their own organizations and protesters set fire to cities (and sometimes themselves).
Republicans pass a bill banning sexually explicit content in public schools from kindergarten to third grade? Florida Democrats and media labeled it fascism.
A U.S. Supreme Court justice’s wife flies a Revolutionary War flag commissioned by George Washington? Salon’s senior writer described Justice Samuel Alito and his wife as “extremely invested in the semiotics of American fascism.”
The New Republic, The Guardian, taxpayer-funded PBS—any time a Republican so much as upholds parliamentary procedure, defends former President Donald Trump, or questions the surge of gang and cartel members amid waves of illegal immigrants—these outlets are ready in the wings to call any to the right of Chairman Mao a fascist.
The latest banner of fascism to be shouted down in a “Two Minutes Hate” session out of George Orwell’s “1984”: flying the flag of the United States upside down. The horror!
As ridiculous as it might sound—the group that has spent the past eight years defending those who burn, shred, and desecrate the U.S. flag is suddenly outraged over many in the nation who have flown the U.S. flag upside down in a symbol of distress over Trump’s political prosecution and conviction.
Many on the Left and precious few on the Right have taken to social media to lambast those who would fly the U.S. flag upside down as “disrespectful,” “treasonous,” and “idol-worshipers.”
Is this the case? Are those who reacted to Trump’s felony convictions in New York City simply bowing at his feet in a brutal backstabbing of the United States? Is this heinous, unspeakable act the very hallmark of fascism and the alleged “cult of personality” that the Left has predicted for almost a century?
Of course not, and you know that.
We needn’t walk down the halls of easily accessible history to discern how this wrist-shattering pearl clutch is both hypocritical and ignorant. But we’ll do so, not out of necessity but because heaping good data en masse against poorly constructed arguments is entertaining.
First and foremost: Flying the flag of the United States upside down is not disrespectful, illegal, treasonous, or even unprecedented.
Although 4 U.S. Code § 8, commonly referred to as the “Flag Code,” isn’t legally enforceable (because U.S. citizens retain First Amendment rights to do with their own flags whatever they wish), flying the flag upside down under appropriate circumstances wouldn’t violate the law.
The law clearly states: “The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” (The “union” refers to the patch of blue with 50 stars.)
Thousands in the U.S. have flown our flag upside down to express their “dire distress” in such instances over the past century.
Leftists consistently flew the U.S. flag upside down throughout Trump’s presidency to signal their deep disquiet and fear, from Washington state to Louisiana. Democrats in New Jersey resolutely flew the flag upside down in protest of Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. Some Republicans flew their flags upside down when Barack Obama was reelected in 2012.
The American flag has been flown upside down as “a tribute to veterans’ sacrifice,” and was one of the many symbols of protest against the Vietnam War used by leftist demonstrators in the 1960s.
The Flag Code doesn’t specify what “extreme danger to life or property” entails, nor does it restrict such interpretation to a physical danger or a political one. Might there be a situation today in which many Americans feel in deep distress over a perceived danger to the life and property of their republic?
Never before in American history has a former president, much less one running for office again, been charged and convicted in such a kangaroo-court fashion that even his political adversaries note the insanity of the circumstances.
In an extremely heated presidential election campaign, indicting one of the two frontrunners would be considered enough of an anathema—but the case of New York v. Trump was more than precarious, it was a circus.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, ran on the promise of doing anything he could to find something to indict Trump with. Outside his jurisdiction, Bragg used a federal election statute—which the Federal Election Commission already had stated Trump didn’t violate—as a convoluted lever to turn 34 counts of “falsifying business records,” misdemeanors that by this point were outside New York’s statute of limitations, into felonies.
As if that weren’t enough, Judge Juan Merchan refused to allow a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission to testify, refused to allow the defense to speak to the jury before deliberation, and informed jurors that to convict they didn’t have to reach a unanimous decision on what crime was committed.
Such actions by Merchan set a nation on fire even as trust in institutions already was wavering.
Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, wrote for New York magazine, an extremely liberal publication: “Prosecutors got Trump—but they contorted the law.” Honig pointed out that never before in U.S. history has there been a state prosecution using federal election law.
You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned Trump’s sex life, his character, or his business decisions—in fact, many of those expressing extreme distress at this forded Rubicon aren’t being protective of Trump like he was some kind of nonsensical religious idol.
Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who have spent the past few years as Trump’s chief opposition within the GOP, both called this case and conviction despicable.
When a reporter asks President Joe Biden whether he used this case to politically persecute Trump and he casts a wicked grin in her direction, how is the nation supposed to respond?
Reporter: "President Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What's your response to that, sir?"
— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) May 31, 2024
Biden: *smiles*pic.twitter.com/CZY8JUMvKO
Why is the left side of the aisle afforded the right to ride through towns and cities shouting about the impending doom of the republic like some bastardized caricature of Paul Revere, and the right side isn’t allowed to call out the very sham John Adams unpopularly fought in court to prevent?
Spare me your clutched pearls, neoconservatives. Your faux dignity and condescension at the concerns of Americans whose carcass of a justice system is paraded openly don’t move me.
I don’t have to defend Trump’s personal life and sign onto a “cult of personality” to recognize that each of us has a right to be free from political persecution and election interference.
Commentator Alyssa Farah’s silly claims that flying the flag upside down signals “selling out” are as pathetic and hypocritical as the rest of the cast of “The View” with whom she clucks and quacks about abortion rights, gun confiscation, and anti-Catholicism.
Whistling past the graveyard and sending a “strongly worded letter” have only mired us further in the muck of Third World antics.
I reserve the right to fly my flag upside down to signal my extreme distress at this danger to the life and property of the republic I love, and I’ll do so whenever I find it appropriate.
The post To the Condescending Cranks Faking Outrage Over Upside-Down Flags appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Many things human come in pairs. Eyes, ears, hands, feet, and lungs appear in twos. Even a single nose features two nostrils.
In this context, America’s new, two-track justice system might be perfectly natural: One for the Left—in which they suffer few consequences, if any, for their misdeeds—and one for the Right, in which arrests, trials, and prison sentences are routine.
After the Supreme Court’s current term ends later this month, masons should spend this summer re-chiseling the marble above its columns. Out with “Equal Justice Under Law.” In with “Bipolar Justice for All!”
Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs on the Left spent the summer of 2020 yanking statues from pedestals, torching police precincts, and otherwise unleashing total mayhem. Then-Sen. Kamala Harris promoted a legal-defense fund to free arrestees. Few paid any price for the “fiery but mostly peaceful” George Floyd riots.
A peaceful demonstrator shares his opinion at a Black Lives Matter march on June 14, 2020, in Los Angeles. Few, if any, of his more violent BLM compatriots suffered any legal consequences for their anything but “mostly peaceful” actions after the killing of George Floyd less than three weeks earlier. (Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
The Jan. 6 hoodlums on the Right who shattered windows and smashed doors to breach the U.S. Capitol deserve serious prison time. But other protesters naively entered after Capitol Police waved them in.
“Hey, look. It’s open house!” some might have thought.
Many of these accidental tourists are in huge trouble. Arkansas’ Daniel Hatcher entered the Capitol, snapped some photos for two minutes, and walked out. The FBI arrested Hatcher in Little Rock last Feb. 13. He now faces federal charges.
Left-wing Deep State functionaries John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Peter Strzok, and Andrew Weissmann advanced the Russia Hoax, which bedeviled the Trump administration and divided America for three years. Each of these men scored a book contract and a TV deal. Literally.
On the Right, Russiagate ensnared Trump aides Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, George Papadopoulos, Gen. Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone. All were sentenced to prison. Trump pardoned Flynn and Stone. Gates served house arrest. Manafort and Papadopoulos went to the slammer.
The quintessence of these two systems involves 2016’s presidential nominees and how they separately tried to influence that election.
On the Left, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign paid $175,000 to Democratic law firm Perkins Coie, which engaged opposition-research shop Fusion GPS. It hired former British spy Christopher Steele. He wrote a baseless “Dirty Dossier” that hallucinated ties between Trump and the Kremlin. Team Clinton leaked this fraudulent report, which BuzzFeed published. And the Russia Hoax was off to the races.
On the Right, Trump was accused of reimbursing his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to clam up about an alleged affair with Trump that both of them have denied.
As former Justice Department official John B. Daukas wrote in the American Spectator: “So, Hillary Clinton is found to be liable for mislabeling payments for the Steele Dossier as legal fees and gets an $8,000 civil fine; Trump has been found guilty of mislabeling nondisclosure payments as legal fees and is a convicted felon.”
As Yogi Berra might have said: “Only in America.”
Clinton went on to write books, deliver lectures, and whine loudly about why she lost to a real-estate magnate and TV personality on his first political campaign. Notwithstanding emotional scars, she is out a whopping eight grand.
Trump, meanwhile, endured a six-week trial that kept him off the campaign trail for four days each week, cost him undisclosed millions in—not to coin a phrase—legal expenses, and added abundant stress to his already high-pressure life. He awaits sentencing on July 11 and could receive four years for each of the 34 counts on which he was convicted. Total: 136 years in the big house.
But is this really so wrong?
If good things come in pairs, perhaps this applies to justice.
Rather than complain about two paths to justice, one Left and one Right, maybe conservatives should celebrate this development. After all, the truth about pectoral muscles also might apply to justice systems: “One is not enough, and three are too many.”
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post When Lady Justice Lifts Blindfold From Over Her Left Eye Only appeared first on The Daily Signal.
FBI agent Erika Jensen confirmed Tuesday that Hunter Biden's laptop was in fact real and authentic -- meaning that every single one of the 51 "former intelligence officials" who called it Russian misinformation in 2020 should lose their security clearances.
The post Pollak: Revoke the Security Clearance of Everyone Who Signed the Hunter Biden Laptop Letter appeared first on Breitbart.
On Wednesday, the Biden White House posted the demonstrably false claim that "guns are the number one killer of children."
The post Biden White House Still Falsely Claiming Guns ‘Number One Killer of Children’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden’s gun trial uncovered seven more explosive pieces of information in the third day of proceedings.
The post Seven Takeaways from Third Day of Hunter Biden’s Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden's missing revolver appeared at his gun trial after six years, when the FBI got involved in the case of a missing firearm tossed in a Delaware dumpster.
The post Hunter’s Missing Gun Appears at Trial 6 Years Later appeared first on Breitbart.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) has introduced legislation requiring the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to document crimes committed by migrants who were released into the United States via President Joe Biden's parole pipeline.
The post Rep. Luttrell Issues Bill Requiring DHS to Track Crimes by Migrants Released via Biden’s Parole Pipeline appeared first on Breitbart.
An overwhelming majority of registered voters say the Manhattan jury's verdict -- finding former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts in his business records trial -- has not changed their voting intention, the latest weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found.
The post Poll: Overwhelming Majority Say Jury Verdict Has Not Changed Voting Intention appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump is neck-and-neck with President Joe Biden in key swing states post-conviction, according to a Tuesday poll.
The post Poll: Donald Trump Neck-and-Neck with Joe Biden in Key Swing States Post-Conviction appeared first on Breitbart.
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Hunter Biden smoked crack "every 20 minutes or so," his ex-girlfriend, Zoe Kestan, testified against him in the gun trial.
The post Hunter Biden Smoked Crack ‘Every 20 Minutes,’ Ex-Girlfriend Zoe Kestan Testifies appeared first on Breitbart.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki said Wednesday on "Morning Joe" that President Joe Biden issued an executive order on immigration because it was one of his "biggest vulnerabilities" politically.
The post Psaki: Biden Knows Border Chaos Is One of His ‘Biggest Vulnerabilities’ appeared first on Breitbart.
House committees issued criminal referrals to the DOJ concerning Hunter Biden's and James Biden's alleged "false statements to Congress."
The post GOP Sends Hunter, James Biden Criminal Referrals to DOJ, Citing False Statements to Congress appeared first on Breitbart.
No tampering occurred with Hunter Biden's laptop, witness Erika Jensen, an FBI agent, told Hunter's gun trial jury on Wednesday.
The post FBI Witness Confirms in Court: No Tampering Occurred with Hunter Biden’s Laptop appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden was "angry" and "short-tempered," his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, testified Wednesday during the gun trial.
The post Hunter Biden’s Ex-Wife Testifies About His Character: ‘Angry, Short-Tempered’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden's wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, verbally assaulted not-for-profit Marco Polo founder Garrett Ziegler during Tuesday's gun trial.
The post ‘Nazi Piece of Sh*t’: Hunter Biden’s Wife Verbally Assaults Family Critic at Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Wednesday the state's newest effort to crack down on the immigration crisis created by the Biden administration. Abbott launched a "Texas 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List."
The post Texas Announces 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants List appeared first on Breitbart.
“I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Donald Trump turn America into a place that is filled with anger, resentment, and hate,” President Joe Biden said May 29 in Philadelphia.
So, why did America’s self-styled uniter-in-chief decide to “stop the shouting and lower the temperature”—as he promised in his inaugural address—by recruiting Robert De Niro, one of Hollywood’s loudest hotheads?
“Trump wants revenge, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it,” the veteran actor said as narrator of a Biden campaign ad released May 24. De Niro’s overheated audio track continues: “Now, he’s running again, this time threatening to be a dictator. To terminate the Constitution.”
Biden could have tapped the suave and even-keeled George Clooney or the widely admired Julia Roberts, both talented supporters. Instead, Biden picked the boisterous, unhinged De Niro, whose comments about Trump slide from the vulgar to the violent.
On May 28, the Biden campaign staged a press conference outside the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building. Inside Room 1530 that morning, I was among those witnessing closing arguments in New York State vs. Donald J. Trump. Confirming suspicions that this bookkeeping-entry trial was a Democratic election-interference operation, like Trump’s other persecutions, De Niro and Biden-Harris 2024 Communications Director Michael Tyler stood before microphones and taunted Trump on one of the toughest days of his life.
“I don’t mean to scare you. No, wait, maybe I do mean to scare you,” De Niro said. “If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted … And elections. Forget about it. That’s over. That’s done. If he gets in. I can tell you right now. He will never leave.”
De Niro added, “Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city, but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world.” (Funny: After Trump left office in January 2021, Americans’ freedoms and elections remained, and the rest of the Earth is still there.)
This disastrously misconceived stunt then melted down as local Trump fans defended the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and swapped insults with the two-time Academy Award winner, whose screen credits include “Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull.”
“You’re trash! You’re done!” one man yelled at De Niro. Another screamed: “You ruined Leo DiCaprio!”
“You are gangsters,” De Niro hollered back. “You are gangsters!”
This was not the first time that Biden’s new spokesman devolved into what the president decries as “anger, resentment, and hate.”
But De Niro and Biden are not so far apart.
The warm, lovable Grandpa Lunchbucket Joe from Scranton, Pennsylvania, who Democrats showcased in 2020 was a mirage. Americans have learned the hard way that Biden is a nasty, vindictive man who lusts to imprison the leader of the opposition. Asked Friday at the White House about Trump’s charge that Biden had made him a political prisoner, Biden displayed an Arctic smile that seemed chilled by ice water in his arteries.
???Exclusive !!! The face of corruption. pic.twitter.com/IAvDv7X5ie
— Chris LaCivita (@LaCivitaC) May 31, 2024
Really?
Biden, 81, and De Niro, 80, deserve each other. They are a pair of mean, cranky, decaying leftists who gush anger, resentment, and hate at their political opponents.
In a word: Badfellas.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post ‘Badfellas’: Joe Biden and Robert De Niro, 2 Raging Peas in a Pod appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Earlier this year, Joe Biden’s campaign manager said, “We are running a campaign like the fate of our democracy depends on it.”
That’s a heady statement, but an intentional one. The president himself uses the term “our democracy” frequently, as do most progressive politicians and pundits as they wring their hands about the coming election.
Book titles such as “Reclaiming Our Democracy,” “The Future of Our Democracy,” and “Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy” are popping up increasingly as well.
A conspiracy? Doubtful. But neither is it merely coincidence.
According to Google’s Ngram Viewer, an online tool that searches historical sources to track word usage over time, only twice before has the term “our democracy” been in use more frequently than today: the late 1880s (around the time the Statue of Liberty was dedicated) and the late 1930s (during the height of the Great Depression and the onset of World War II).
Between 1950 and 1970, the term “our democracy” was rarely seen in print. But its usage has ratcheted up steadily since the Reagan Revolution began in 1981, and especially since 2000. It’s a development about which we all should be dubious.
I recall learning in 10th grade civics class (for readers born after 1980, that used to be a thing) that America is not a democracy, but a democratic republic. This is a distinction with a very clear difference, most notably the delegation by the people of various and vital public decisions to elected officials.
Although many will say that the term “our democracy” is an innocent shortcut, a catchall phrase for our nation specifically or rule by the people generally, the author of our Constitution would disagree. James Madison made clear in Federalist 14 that “under the confusion of names, it has been an easy task to transfer to a republic observations applicable to a democracy,” and that there are dangers in confounding the two.
Those dangers are manifest today. Progressives’ widespread and increasing use of this innocuous-sounding term is weakening our constitutional checks and balances and undermining the Bill of Rights, the only things standing in the way of what Madison called “the tyranny of the majority.”
Those who most traffic in the term wish to eliminate the Electoral College and reapportion the Senate by population rather than by state. They are working on multiple fronts to weaken First Amendment protections for speech and religion. They have long had the Second Amendment in their sights. And they consistently oppose individuals and organizations that push back against draconian federal restrictions such as public health lockdowns and climate change regulations.
If “our democracy” wants it, “our democracy” should get it, goes their reasoning, oblivious to Booker T. Washington’s admonition: “A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.”
During this election cycle, however, progressives are putting “our democracy” to work in an even more pointed way. Like a magician using sleight of hand to distract his audience, they’re using the phrase to present a false binary to American voters. In sports, this is called “hiding the ball.”
Donald Trump, according to the Left, is an authoritarian who not only will take away our rights but eliminate elections. The charge is, of course, ridiculous—Trump stepped down despite his objections to the 2020 election results, and last I checked it’s his opponents who are using authoritarian tactics to ensure he doesn’t win reelection. But the charge is useful, which to a Marxist mind is all the justification it needs.
Contrasting the potential “autocracy” of a second Trump administration with Biden’s ostensible defense of “our democracy” is meant to distract us from recognizing the real decision that confronts the voters and the actual threat to our republic: the creeping totalitarianism of the administrative state.
Totalitarianism is defined as “subordination of the individual to the state and strict control of all aspects of the life and productive capacity of the nation, especially by coercive measures.” Ask anybody who lived through COVID-19 if that sounds familiar.
And if you visit Britannica.com—the modern iteration of the company whose encyclopedias we used in 10th grade civics class to learn about things like history and government—you’ll see a more expansive description:
Totalitarianism is a form of government that attempts to assert total control over the lives of its citizens. It is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and repression. It does not permit individual freedom. Traditional social institutions and organizations are discouraged and suppressed, making people more willing to be merged into a single unified movement.
I could have sworn I heard something like that last line in a video at the 2012 Democratic National Convention: “Government is the only thing that we all belong to.”
Britannica goes on to say that it was Italian dictator Benito Mussolini who first used the term totalitario, meaning “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.” It cites as examples of totalitarian states not only Mussolini’s Italy but Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hitler’s Germany, and Mao’s China.
Given the growth of the federal government over the past century, totalitarianism certainly represents a greater threat to the United States than authoritarianism.
We’re not there yet, and thanks to America’s exceptional institutions perhaps we won’t get there. But as the recent violent increase in antisemitism shows, something we thought could “never again” happen very well might—all it takes is one generation of historical ignorance.
Those same institutions that have protected us from anything approaching authoritarianism increasingly are becoming our totalitarian masters. As William F. Buckley once observed, it is the extent, not the source, of government power that impinges on freedom.”
Whenever you hear talking heads refer to “our democracy,” pay special attention to what comes next. Don’t assume they’re referring to the democratic republic handed down from our Founding Fathers or trying to preserve our Constitution and its safeguards.
More likely they’re taking advantage of our increasing historical ignorance resulting from the Left’s capture of our educational institutions (which was all part of the plan).
Let’s call our nation what it is: a republic. Whether out of ignorance or malevolence, saying “our democracy” is less likely to strengthen our heritage than seed our demise.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The post The Problem With ‘Our Democracy’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Comedian Stephen Colbert roasted President Joe Biden on his CBS late-night show on Tuessday, mocking the White House's new border order as well as Biden's failed attempts at connecting with young voters.
The post Stephen Colbert Mocks Biden’s Border Order, Age, Failed Attempt to Connect with Young Voters appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden invited several border city mayors to his signing of an executive order limiting asylum claims at the southwest border on Tuesday. The order allegedly aims to further reduce slower migrant crossing rates that have dropped precipitously since January. One Texas mayor, Rolando Salinas of Eagle Pass, one of the nation’s busiest migrant crossing points during Biden’s first three years in office, was left off the invite list and questions the motive and timing for the president's newest executive order.
The post Texas Border Mayor: Biden’s New Immigration Order is About Election-Year Optics appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden is having trouble focusing on work because he is obsessing and worrying about his son's gun trial in Delaware, a report by Politico claims.
The post Report: Distracted Joe Biden Obsesses, Worries About Hunter’s Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
On Tuesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said that he is concerned that the exemption for unaccompanied minors in President Joe Biden’s border executive action might create a crisis-level surge of unaccompanied children arriving at the border. Co-host Amna
The post Dem Sen. Kelly: ‘I’m Worried’ Biden Border Order Will Lead to Crisis of Unaccompanied Minors appeared first on Breitbart.
Peter Navarro, the former top economic Trump aide who is currently in federal prison for standing up against subpoenas from the January 6 committee, is speaking out from behind bars in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.
The post Exclusive: Peter Navarro Speaks from Behind Bars in ‘Joe Biden Prison,’ Warns ‘Unrestrained Lawfare Designed to Interfere’ in Election appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden, 81, has been struggling behind closed doors during official meetings, according to an in-depth report published Tuesday that described a president in serious cognitive decline.
The post Report: Biden Shows Signs of ‘Slipping’ Behind Closed Doors appeared first on Breitbart.
Vice President Kamala Harris joined Jimmy Kimmel Live Tonight late Tuesday in an effort to lay a proverbial blow on Donald Trump after his New York felony conviction on 34 counts, calling the former president a "cheater" undeserving of the highest office in the land.
The post Video: Kamala Harris Joins Biden Campaigner Jimmy Kimmel to Trash ‘Cheater ‘ Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden's gun trial testimony will resume Wednesday with his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle expected to be among the witnesses called to testify in Delaware; the couple were married for over 20 years.
The post All in the Family: Hunter Biden’s ex-Wife to Join Other Close Relatives Testifying in Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Vice President Kamala Harris stated that the White House put forward a border bill with “a comprehensive pathway for citizenship” but after Congress didn’t take it up, did nothing until late last
The post Harris: We Tried a Bill Granting Citizenship, Then Didn’t Act on Border for Over 2 Years appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden's upcoming address in Normandy, France, to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 will focus on the threat of Russia invading Europe, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.
The post Jake Sullivan: Biden’s D-Day Address to Focus on Russia appeared first on Breitbart.
Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Tuesday on CNN's "The Source" that President Joe Biden should not be using an executive order on immigration because that is what "xenophobic, racist" former President Donald Trump did.
The post Jayapal: Biden Using Same Immigration Tool as ‘Xenophobic, Racist’ Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden had no answer to a question on the "endgame" for the Ukraine War during an interview published Tuesday, despite having recently escalated U.S. involvement in the war.
The post Biden Has No Answer on ‘Endgame’ for Ukraine War appeared first on Breitbart.
According to a senior-level Customs and Border Protection source, the latest executive order signed by President Biden on Tuesday will do little more than make Americans grow accustomed to more than 2 million migrant entries into the United States annually. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, says the order will do little to change the landscape of an out-of-control border even if legal challenges by pro-migrant civil rights groups fail to kill the order outright.
The post Source: Biden’s Immigration Order Will Normalize 2 Million Migrant Entries Yearly appeared first on Breitbart.
Republican officials are sounding the alarm over Biden signing an executive order supposedly intending to tighten the southern border.
The post GOP Rips Biden’s ‘Desperate’ Election-Year ‘Border Charade’ — ‘Biden Is Gaslighting You’ appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden says his claimed border shutdown is needed to preserve support for the 1950s narrative that America is a "Nation of Immigrants."
The post Joe Biden: I Need to Secure the Border so We Can Be ‘a Land that Welcomes Immigrants’ appeared first on Breitbart.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas responded to concerns that the exemption for unaccompanied children in President Joe Biden’s immigration executive action will result in cartels taking advantage of that by stating
The post Mayorkas: Cartels Won’t Exploit Unaccompanied Minor Loophole in Biden Order Because We’re ‘Taking it to the Cartels’ appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden said he would help Africa "build back better" in a second term, if reelected, during an interview on Tuesday.
The post Biden Says He’ll Help Africa ‘Build Back Better’ in a Second Term appeared first on Breitbart.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” TIME Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi discussed his interview with President Joe Biden and stated that he “appears very much as he appears on TV. He is older than when he started in office,
The post TIME Biden Interviewer: He Looks Like He Does on TV, ‘It’s Visible’ That He’s Older than in 2020 appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden's executive order ensures one migrant can cross the United States-Mexico border for every two American births. Still, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the order is "tough" and will "deter" illegal immigration.
The post Biden Executive Order by the Numbers: 1 Migrant for Every 2 American Births appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden claimed he could do the job of president "better than anybody" when asked if he would be able to carry out the responsibilities of being president in his mid-80s.
The post Biden Claims He Can Do the Job of President ‘Better than Anybody You Know’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Hunter Biden's gun trial uncovered nine explosive pieces of information in the first two days of proceedings.
The post Nine Takeaways from First Days of Hunter Biden’s Gun Trial appeared first on Breitbart.
U.S. President Joe Biden backtracked Tuesday on criticism he made earlier about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when he claimed in an interview that Netanyahu was prolonging the Gaza war for political reasons.
The post WATCH: Biden Backtracks on Criticism of Netanyahu appeared first on Breitbart.
Witness Erika Jensen, an FBI agent, confirmed the authenticity of Hunter Biden's infamous laptop during the second day of his gun trial on Tuesday.
The post FBI Witness Confirms on Stand in Hunter Biden’s Trial: The Laptop Is Real appeared first on Breitbart.
Former President Donald Trump described himself as being "the political prisoner of a failing nation," days after a Manhattan jury found him guilty in his business records trial.
The post Donald Trump: ‘I Am the Political Prisoner of a Failing Nation’ appeared first on Breitbart.
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