Fighting For Your Values, Back To Court, CUFI Summit, Purim

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  Fighting For Your Values -  I had a great meeting yesterday at the White House with other pro-life leaders and Vice President Mike Pence. I know you don't need reminding, but some politicians have mixed records on the sanctity of life. Not so with Vice President Pence.

He has been a stalwart champion of life in Congress, as governor of Indiana and now as vice president of the United States. Many of the leaders at yesterday's meeting commended President Trump and Vice President Pence for providing articulate and bold statements in defense of life during last year's debates.

Yesterday's meeting focused on the American Health Care Act, the House Republican leadership's Obamacare replacement bill. Vice President Pence made it clear that neither he nor the president want anything in this bill that promotes or subsidizes abortion.

The battle will be complicated. Rest assured, my friends, the problem is not in the White House, but on Capitol Hill, and particularly in the Senate.

Many thanks again to all of you who financially support our work. The deliberations I was part of yesterday are another example of what your funds are empowering!

Today, I am attending several strategy sessions with conservative, pro-family and legal experts to ensure that Judge Neil Gorsuch is confirmed for Justice Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court.

The pro-abortion/progressive wing of the Democrat Party has warned Democrat senators that the vote on Gorsuch is non-negotiable. Democrat senators who support him will face primary challenges.

If every Democrat caves to that pressure, then just a couple of weak-kneed Republican senators could threaten Gorsuch's confirmation.

Back To Court - In the past 48 hours, six states have announced that they are rushing back to the federal courts to block President Trump's latest executive order safeguarding our homeland security. Hawaii was the first to declare its opposition. Washington and Minnesota are also suing, joined by Massachusetts, New York and Oregon.

In its legal filing, the state of Hawaii claims that the president's newest executive order is "a discriminatory ban that goes against the fundamental teachings of our Constitution and our immigration laws." Hawaii's attorneys could not be more wrong.

Let's review some basic facts.

• As a result of repeated terrorist attacks and threats in the United States and around the world, the Obama Administration and Congress identified several nations as "countries of particular concern." These nations were so identified because they were hotbeds of radical Islamic extremism. Some of them are essentially failed states with no government we can trust to help us vet immigrants and refugees.
• We know from court records that we do have a problem with immigrants and refugees from certain nations engaging in terrorism.
• Donald Trump made improved vetting or "extreme vetting" a major issue in last year's presidential campaign. He won in part because the American people overwhelmingly agree with him on this issue.

Now that Donald Trump is president of the United States, he is taking steps to implement the policies he campaigned on. Moreover, the president has tremendous authority on matters of immigration and national security.

There is no universal right to immigrate to the United States. We do not yet have an official open borders policy, as much as the left might wish that were the case. The left, however, does have an interesting ally -- Iran's former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In a recent letter to President Trump, Ahmadinejad declared that "the contemporary U.S. belongs to all nations." The former Iranian leader sounds like an open borders progressive!

Putting politically correct sentimentality aside, it is not bigotry or discrimination to impose limits on nations or people who may be at war with us or who are likely to harm us. That is common sense. The Constitution is not a suicide pact that requires us to ignore reality.

CUFI Washington Summit - Join me in our nation's capital on July 17th and 18th for the Christians United for Israel Washington Summit.

This year's Summit features an outstanding lineup of speakers, including:

Pastor John Hagee
Col. Allen West
Ambassador John Bolton
Malcolm Hoenlein
Erick Stakelbeck
And many others.There will be a Night to Honor Israel celebration, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address the Summit via satellite.

Register now to lock in reduced rates!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Purim - This weekend, Jews throughout the world will celebrate Purim. It is the story of Queen Esther, who broke protocol and saved the Jewish people in Persia from a plot to annihilate them.

Just as it did so many centuries ago, Israel is once again facing an existential threat from modern day Persia (Iran), whose leader routinely promises a second Holocaust and the annihilation of Israel. Meanwhile, repeated bomb threats against Jewish community centers and schools, the vandalism of Jewish graves and anti-Israel BDS activism on college campuses sadly demonstrate that anti-Semitism continues to plague modern society.

So long as God gives me breath, I promise to fight this ancient evil and to stand with Israel, the apple of God's eye.

To all of our Jewish friends and supporters, Chag Purim Sameach!
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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