Free Speech Under Siege, Cheney's Challenge, Biden's Blunders

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer: Free Speech Under Siege
If we needed more evidence of the threat America faces from the totalitarian left, we got it this morning.

As you may recall, Facebook banned President Trump from its platforms on January 7th. Facebook swallowed hook, line and sinker the left's lie that Trump was a dangerous dictator.

Today, the company's Oversight Board, sometimes referred to as Facebook's "Supreme Court," upheld that decision. As a result, Trump's accounts will remain blocked, at least for now.

The Oversight Board, however, scolded Facebook for "violating its own rules" when it banned President Trump for allegedly inciting the violence that occurred on January 6th. Trump did no such thing. He urged his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically" make their voices heard.

The board gave Facebook six months to develop clear and consistent rules. Maybe then, Trump's accounts will be restored.

That's outrageous! It's utterly inconceivable that a sitting or former president of the United States could be censored. No president is above the law, but no president is beneath it either.

If Big Tech social media giants have the power to suspend the First Amendment rights of a sitting president, then no citizen is safe from censorship. Sadly, that is precisely the Orwellian, Big Brother regime that the intolerant, totalitarian left is creating.

Once again, we see just how far Big Tech will go to suffocate conservative speech and the America First movement that is personified by Donald Trump. All the Big Tech social media platforms are censoring conservatives. If we want freedom to flourish, this threat to free speech must be defeated.

Trump Responds
President Trump responded to Facebook's decision with a bold defense of free speech. Trump declared:

"What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country. Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before. The People of our Country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process."

Trump also announced the launch of his own social media platform yesterday, which you can visit here. It's still a work in progress, but it provides the former president with an opportunity to post regular statements.

Cheney's Challenge
Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of the House Republican leadership team, has continued to go out of her way to attack Donald Trump and the America First agenda that attracted 75 million votes last November. At a fundraising event Monday night with Paul Ryan, Cheney again ripped the former president and de facto leader of the Republican Party.

Her repeated barbs have roiled the GOP caucus and frustrations are boiling over. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy was caught on an open mic yesterday telling Fox News host Steve Doocy, "I think she's got real problems. I've had it with her. You know, I've lost confidence."

Some House Republicans are now predicting that Cheney will be ousted from her leadership position by the end of the month or even sooner.

Predictably, establishment politicians inside and outside the GOP are rushing to Cheney's defense. Nancy Pelosi praised Cheney's "courage and patriotism." John Kasich hailed her as a "martyr." Mitt Romney tweeted his support too.

But rather than presenting a conservative alternative to the radical left, Cheney is constantly making herself the issue. She's hurting the GOP's chances of succeeding in 2022 and 2024. As one House conservative put it, Cheney "seems very focused on the past and tearing down other Republicans like myself."

Rep. Cheney is a well-known cheerleader for pouring more blood and treasure into the mountains of Afghanistan. But that's just not where the country or the GOP is right now. Twenty years after 9/11, the vast majority of Americans are done.

And when Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) published a detailed memo about how the GOP could appeal to working-class voters, Cheney blasted it as "neo-Marxist and wrong."

Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall her ever saying that about Joe Biden's radical agenda or the real Marxists who run the Black Lives Matter organization. Instead, she's giving Joe Biden fist bumps!

Not surprisingly, President Trump today announced his "complete and total" endorsement of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to replace Liz Cheney as House GOP Conference Chair.

Speaking Of Joe Biden. . .
What exactly is Joe Biden's message when it comes to masks?

During Biden's visit to Georgia last week, Joe and Jill Biden met with former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter at their home. The photo of their meeting is bizarre. It makes the Bidens look like giants.

But they were inside a home with two people in their 90s and they aren't wearing their masks. Yet as soon as they left the house and went outside, the Bidens put their masks on.

That's the exact opposite of the science! You mask up inside with vulnerable elderly individuals, and the mask is completely unnecessary outside.

This constant resistance to getting back to normal is not helping the effort to achieve herd immunity. And, sadly, the president seems befuddled when he's talking about this critical issue.

While attempting to update the nation yesterday on his new national vaccination goal, President Biden repeatedly instructed Americans to register for their inoculations at "Vaccines.gum," instead of vaccines.gov.

He also urged them to follow the "CCD guidance." I'm pretty sure he meant the CDC's guidance, which he isn't following.

And Biden seemed to suggest that people could die multiple times if they weren't vaccinated. Undoubtedly, those deaths would be counted among the 200 million Americans Biden thinks have already died from COVID.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to mock Biden. But it's clear that our president increasingly struggles to make simple statements. That should concern all of us.

By the way, where's that health report on Biden that Jen Psaki promised to release? She might need to circle back on that one.
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer) 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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