Where's The News, Laws Were Broken, Religious Liberty Under Siege, Non-News

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author:  Where's The News? To say there is a lot going on in Washington this week would be a "YUGE" understatement. Major issues on the president's agenda (healthcare vote) and issues impacting his legacy (Gorsuch hearing) are coming to a head this week.

But what is likely to dominate tonight's evening news broadcasts and the headlines in tomorrow's papers is the testimony this morning by FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Admiral Michael Rogers before the House Intelligence Committee.

The "big news" from today's hearing appears to be James Comey's statement that there is an active, ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the election and potential collusion by the Trump campaign. All the networks have been breathlessly reporting this statement with "Breaking News" alerts.

But that is exactly what all these outlets have been telling us for weeks -- that there is an investigation of the Trump campaign or associates concerning Russia's interference in the election. Where's the news?

Why It Matters - Why are the left and the media treating this old news as if it is new news? The reason is that this investigation has one purpose -- to make Donald Trump's election and your vote for him illegitimate.

Hillary Clinton was supposedly destined to be president. She was supposed to finish the left's job of transforming America. But on November 8th, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and 63 million Americans said, "Not so fast!" Ever since that moment, the left has been trying to delegitimize this president, his administration and you.

They tried to get electors to disobey the law. They tried to physically disrupt the inauguration. Their allies inside the government have been leaking details of the investigation, hoping to pick off one Trump associate after another. So far they have gotten Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

In spite of the hyperventilating media, this investigation has very little to do with Russia. Russia has been using false information to influence elections in Europe and the United States since 1917. But listening to the progressives on this committee beating their breasts about collusion with the Russians was too much.

Large swaths of elected Democrats -- from the time of the Nixon Administration until the fall of the Soviet Union -- have attempted to thwart Republican presidents who wanted to get tough with Russia. Hoping to defeat Ronald Reagan, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) invited the Soviets to interfere in the 1984 election. Barack Hussein Obama spent eight years appeasing Russia.

How can anyone take seriously the notion that the party of Bernie Sanders and Maxine Waters is suddenly losing sleep, worried that Russia might get away with something under Donald Trump? The most aggressive leftists in Congress will vote against Trump's proposed increase in defense spending -- and Russia will applaud them!

Laws Were Broken - Democrats jumped on Director Comey's statement and insinuated that Donald Trump and his associates were under investigation for breaking the law. The media and the left are having a field day generating headlines damaging to the White House.

But a tweet this morning from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggests the president is not under investigation. Grassley called on Comey to be "transparent" and to "tell the public what he told me" about any investigation of President Trump. The obvious interpretation is that Comey told Grassley that Trump is not being investigated.

Under intense questioning from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), certain former Obama Administration officials or current anti-Trump deep state officials were put on notice.

Gowdy got Comey to acknowledge that the leaking of an American citizen's name as part of a national security investigation is a serious violation of federal law that may result in 10 years in prison.

Gowdy and others on the committee read multiple press stories quoting unnamed government officials in unauthorized discussions about Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and what was discovered during the investigation. Gowdy demanded that Comey investigate these leaks and bring those responsible to justice.

Meanwhile, no evidence was presented that Russia changed the outcome of the election in any way.

Don't forget that this investigation started last summer. James Clapper, Obama's director of National Intelligence, recently said that he saw no evidence of collusion between anyone on the Trump campaign and the Russians. Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of House Intelligence Committee, has said publicly that he has seen no evidence of collusion.

As of now, the only law we know for certain that was broken is the law against unauthorized leaks involving national security investigations. Clearly, these leaks have been committed by people trying to harm President Trump.

Religious Liberty Under Siege - Last week, Justice Samuel Alito addressed an audience of Catholic lawyers and judges. He warned them, "A wind is picking up that is hostile to those with traditional moral beliefs."

Justice Alito predicted "pitched battles in the courts and Congress, state legislatures and town halls" over matters of faith and public policy that were once widely shared values. He called on men and women of faith to "evangelize our fellow Americans about the issue of religious freedom."

Sadly, Justice Alito is right. There is no doubt about the increasing hostility toward traditional Judeo-Christian values. Here are two recent examples.

• The Texas attorney general's office is asking questions about a "prayer room" at a Frisco high school. For the past fifty years, the left has been waging a "jihad" against Christian faith in the public square, especially in the public schools. But the ACLU is silent about a prayer room established to accommodate Muslim students.
• While the Obama IRS was stonewalling tax-exempt status applications from conservative organizations, it reportedly fast-tracked an application for tax-exemption from a school Satanist club in just ten days.

Non-News - There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about "fake news." It's bad enough that the left-wing media often lie to us. But just as often, they ignore news they don't like and tell us nothing at all.

For example, "mainstream media" presented the Dakota Access pipeline protests as a showdown between greedy oil companies and peaceful Indian tribes trying to protect burial grounds. But what the media didn't tell us was that the protests were infiltrated by violent leftists.

Police officers were attacked with rocks, frozen water bottles, Molotov cocktails and feces. In addition to the physical violence, there were threats against the officers and their families.

Law enforcement officials in North Dakota collected 41 pages of social media posts against police officers who were facing off against the demonstrators. Their names, addresses and pictures were posted online with threats like this one: "Every one of these cops has family . . . Make their family pay."

In one video, a progressive threatens to gang rape officers' family members and threatens to "kill your daughters, your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, even you!"

More than 700 people were arrested. Almost all of them were from out-of-state and one-third had criminal records.

And while the media reported a lot of left-wing garbage about the Dakota Access protests, they failed to report about the real garbage these so-called "environmentalists" left behind -- 835 dumpsters full of garbage.
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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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