Shakeup At State, One Done, Build That Wall, Still Seething

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Shakeup At State - President Trump announced this morning that Rex Tillerson was out as secretary of state. Replacing him is CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Gina Haspel, a 30-year veteran of the CIA, is taking over Pompeo's position, and will become the first woman to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

Speaking to reporters this morning, the president cited significant policy disagreements with Tillerson on a host of issues. Referring to Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, Trump said, "I think it's terrible, he thinks it's okay."

In contrast, Pompeo was a fierce critic of the Iran deal when he served in Congress. He has been described as the "anti-Tillerson" for his "decisive and combative" style. As one analyst put it, "Pompeo has a sort of hard-line approach on foreign policy that's quite black and white."

In other words, he is more in tune with Trump's America first approach. I hope he succeeds in bringing the left-wing, anti-Israel bureaucracy at the State Department to heel.

One Done, Two To Go - The House Intelligence Committee is ending its investigation of the 2016 election. Speaking on Fox News last night, Rep. Mike Conway (R-TX), who has taken the lead on the collusion aspect of the investigation, said the committee has looked at 300,000 documents and interviewed 73 witnesses.

"Yes, the Russians tried to interfere with our election process," Conway said. But, he added, "We could find no evidence of collusion. . . No evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians."

As for the ongoing Mueller investigation, Conway said, "We didn't find any evidence of collusion, and I don't know that he will, either."

Meanwhile, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was asked by CNN if his committee has found any evidence of collusion. "I've read a lot about it, but I haven't seen any," Burr answered.

Build That Wall - President Trump is in California today to inspect eight prototypes for his planned border wall with Mexico. Open borders activists held a protest yesterday in San Diego, complete with signs denouncing the militarization of border communities as well as Mexican flags.

The White House is unfazed. Speaking to reporters, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "The president campaigned on this, he talked about it extensively. . . this is something that he is not going to back away from. It's something that he's going to continue to push for."

As the Trump Administration moves forward with the wall, there is a lot of criticism about the potential cost. But a study last year found that the border wall could easily pay for itself with just minor reductions in illegal immigration.

While the president pushes ahead with border security, the left is going in the exact opposite direction. There are growing demands from the progressive movement to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Leading Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi have attacked ICE agents, suggesting their work is "bigoted," "cruel and unjust." Other Democrats have compared ICE to the Gestapo.

Trump Blocks Broadcom - This may not be on your radar screen today, but President Trump did something very significant yesterday. He blocked a takeover of Qualcomm by Broadcom, a Singapore-based company.

Qualcomm is a U.S. company that has developed significant technology with many national security implications. Those concerns led Trump to stop the deal.

We believe this is another sign that the Trump/Pence team is putting America first. There will be no more bad deals like Uranium One. The days of kowtowing to China and looking the other way as they steal intellectual property and destroy U.S. manufacturing through dumping are over.

Still Seething - Well, Hillary Clinton tripped up again yesterday. Seriously, she almost fell down a flight of stairs TWICE while touring the Jahaj Maha palace in India. In addition to her ambulatory difficulties, her rhetoric is also making headlines.

Hillary is clearly still seething about 2016. Here's how she explained her loss to Donald Trump before an audience in India:

"[Democrats] do not do well with white men and we don't do well with married, white women. And part of that is . . . sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should. . .

"If you look at the map of the United States, there's all that red in the middle where Trump won. I win the coast. . . I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward. . .

"And his whole campaign — 'Make America Great Again' — was looking backward. You didn't like black people getting rights; you don't like women getting jobs; you don't want to see that Indian American succeeding more than you are. . ."

So, Hillary starts off by blaming white women, who she suggests can't think for themselves. Then she brags about winning the wealthy parts of the country. I thought the left claimed to represent the middle class and the poor.

She suggested anyone attracted to the idea of making America great was "looking backward." She may have apologized for calling Trump supporters "deplorable" and "irredeemable," but she still believes they are.

And she really seems to be fighting battles from 60 years ago. Hillary said people voted for Trump because they were upset about blacks getting rights. She needs a history lesson. It was the Republican Party under Abraham Lincoln that ended slavery and advanced civil rights for black Americans.

Hillary said Trump voters were upset about women getting jobs. Well, many families today must have two incomes just to keep up because of the left's big spending, high tax policies.

And her claim that Trump voters don't want to see an Indian American succeeding is just bizarre. Donald Trump wants a merit-based immigration system so that people with skills who can contribute to the economy are first in line. India would likely benefit from such a program.

Americans are not upset when people come to the United States legally and succeed. They are upset when people come to the country illegally, take jobs and their kids get free or reduced college tuition.

We are tired of coastal leftists constantly mocking our values and being made to feel like second-class citizens or strangers in our own country. I know this is hard for many on the left to understand, but native-born citizens have dreams too.
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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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