Month: January 2019

(CNSNews.com) — At the 46th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Jan. 18, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) announced he had formed the first pro-life caucus in U.S. Senate history.

“I’m very proud to announce that I have founded the first ever pro-life caucus in the United States Senate,” Daines said, to loud cheers from the crowds gathered on the National Mall.

“This pro-life caucus, and our new expanded pro-life majority – thank God in November we sent more pro-life senators to the United States Senate – and that’s thanks to you – that will allow us to accelerate the momentum of the past two years in protecting and defending life,” he said.

Sen. Daines’s announcement came just minutes after President Donald Trump announced his intention to veto any legislation that attempted to weaken pro-life protections.

Sen. Daines joined tens of thousands of Americans who were gathered in the nation’s capital to peacefully protest legalized abortion. On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion across-the-board throughout the United States.

Each year since 1974 Americans have gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court to support life. This year, the official theme of the March for Life is “Unique from Day One: Pro-Life is Pro-Science.”

The congressman also reaffirmed his belief in the science behind the pro-life movement.

“I’m the only chemical engineer in Congress, and if you want to have a debate on the science, I’m ready to have it,” Sen. Daines said. “The science is clear. Life begins at conception. And because of that, every life must be valued, and every life must be protected.”

The nauseatingly controversial Bob Costas, an eight-time National Sportscaster of the Year award winner, is leaving NBC. The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand reports it is difficult for Costas and the network to find projects he feels passionate about and which fit into NBC’s current properties. No wonder. Costas has, over his four decades with the network, demonstrated his passion is political lecture. He’s worn out his welcome among sport fans who tune into sports broadcasts for sports and prefer that politics be left to the newscasters.

We may not have seen the last of Costas yet, but here’s a review of his most disgusting political lectures and controversies.

Costas Wins Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (awarded by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University)

You don’t win this award for objective reporting. It’s a who’s who award that goes to the left-stream media’s heaviest hitters, including: Anderson Cooper, Gwen Ifill, Scott Pelley, Bob Schieffer, Christiane Amanpour, Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, Helen Thomas, Al Michaels and Ben Bradlee, among others.

Sunday Night Football and Gun Control

During NBC’s Sunday Night Football halftime show December 2, 2012, Costas advocated for gun control. He raised the topic because Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for Kansas City, had shot and killed his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, then drove to the Chiefs’ practice facility and fatally shot himself. Costas said it was likely that neither would have died if he didn’t have a gun.

Among the critics were Lou Dobbs, then Republican presidential candidates Herman Cain and Mike Huckabee and others. Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple defended Costas for taking advantage of the opportunity to speak on the issue. In the following week, Costas went on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence Donnell (see photo of Costas above) and denied he was advocating for repeal of the Second Amendment or gun control. But his denial of the obvious was befitting of former President Bill Clinton’s famous word parsing:

“What I was talking about here, and I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear to everyone, was a gun culture. I never mentioned the second amendment, I never used the words ‘gun control’. People inferred that.

“Now, do I believe that we need more comprehensive and more sensible gun control legislation? Yes I do. That doesn’t mean repeal the second amendment. That doesn’t mean a prohibition on someone having a gun to protect their home and their family. It means sensible and more comprehensive gun control legislation. But even if you had that, you would still have the problem of what Jason Whitlock wrote about, and what I agree with. And that is a gun culture in this country.”

George W. Bush’s “Failed Presidency”

On his May 26, 2007 radio program, Costas said the course of the Iraq War and President George W. Bush’s other mis-steps led him to conclude Bush’s presidency had “tragically failed.” Even if you’re a conservative Republican and you’re honest about it, you have to conclude this is a failed administration, he said.

Winning GLAAD’s Gold Medal Award For Condemning Russia’s ‘Homophobic’ Winter Olympic Games

The 2014 Winter Olympics took place in Sochi, Russia, which Costas and Vladimir Pozner deemed the homophobic games because of the host nation’s “anti-LGBT” stance. Their commentary earned them the Gold Medal awarded by GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Ross Murray, senior director of the GLAAD Media Institute, wrote that “Costas didn’t waste any time, opening NBC’s Olympic coverage of the games by mentioning Russia’s anti-LGBT and human rights violations. Hopefully other sports commentators will follow his lead.” Here’s a transcript of their discussion:

Costas: “What is the likely practical effect, if any, on athletes and visitors, of the anti-gay propaganda law?

Pozner: I think zero. No effect at all. I don’t see anything happening. In fact, I think that they, the powers that be, are going to be super careful to see that nothing happens to any gay athletes or guests during the Olympics.

Costas: What about gay Russians and their supporters after the Olympics pack up and leave?

Pozner: Gay Russians have a very tough time. I’ve known some who have been on the brink of suicide. Others who want to leave the country. This is a homophobic country. I would guess that 85% of the population is really, really anti-gay. I mean, it can be physical. They are in a very difficult situation. And the law that was passed, although it is a law to protect minors from gay propaganda, in fact, plays into the whole homophobic mentality.

Football Critic

By expressing skepticism about the future of football, Costas did nothing to endear himself to the NFL and pro football fans. He also turned off fans by opposing the Redskins’ nickname and by supporting the NFL players who kneeled during the national anthem. Newsbusters’ Curtis Houck posted this highly objectionable Costas quote in 2017:

“Now, if you want to make the point that the National Anthem is about something more than the nation’s flaws and shortcomings, it’s also about its ideals and that people can see some texture to what the National Anthem means, and you might prefer that people protest or make their point outside of the National Anthem, that’s something that can be argued. But the idea this doesn’t have something to do with race is preposterous.”

It was all in 40 years’ work on NBC since Costas started there in 1979. As Newsbusters’ Matt Philbin wrote last August, with Costas gone NBC is about to become “a lot more watchable” because the network “seems to have caught on: people don’t tune in to a football game to receive political lectures.”

Amidst the liberal media’s long-delayed realization that perhaps their friends in the Women’s March are anti-Semites, CNN host John King leveled an attack Friday on Christianity through the lens of the Second Family, wondering if the conservative Christianity espoused by the Pence’s disqualifies Second Lady Karen Pence from Secret Service protection.

Earth to John King — Joy Behar tried pulling a fast one like this almost a year ago on ABC’s The View and, if you’d ask Behar and her bosses, it didn’t turn out too well.

 

 

The Pence’s were the topic at the end of Friday’s Inside Politics in light of what King deemed “controversy over a new job for his wife Karen Pence” teaching art at a Northern Virginia Christian elementary school and the Vice President’s subsequent defenses of her decision.

Here’s King’s full comment about the Pence’s: “Does it matter that all taxpayers pay for her housing? That all taxpayers pay for her Secret Service protection? She, you know, it’s not her fault that she needs protection. This is the world we live in, but all taxpayers pay for, subsidize her life. Does it matter?”

Thankfully, Yahoo! News’s Olivier Knox seemed stunned by King and thus responded: “So, do you mean does her First Amendment — do her First Amendment freedoms, get somehow curtailed because taxpayers pay for her accommodations and her security? I don’t know that a lot of people would sign on to that.”

Exactly.

Nonetheless, The Washington Post’s Karoun Demirjian knocked the Pence’s as somehow taken off guard by the left’s criticism. 

Trying to end the show on a note of unity, Knox added that “this is criticism of the Pence’s doing this, it’s not a blind criticism of Christian education.” Sorry, but not sure King’s questions were about that point, though.

King then ended the show by offering a pathetic defense, asserting that “[e]verything is fair debate” because “[w]e live in a democracy.”

Before King’s ugly smear, he began the segment by exclaiming that Pence was “defending his wife Karen’s new job, which is teaching art at a Christian art that bans gay students, parents, and employees” and that it’s triggered “an interesting debate” because while Mrs. Pence has her First Amendment rights, “this decision being made as we head into a reelection campaign.”

Demirjian agreed in questioning this announcement, fretting that “the First and Second Family do are viewed by people across the country as a model to look up to and this one, you know, I think there are even some people who are proponents of Christian education who would say, yeah, but not this kind.”

“So, they’re making a play at a very slim part of the population that they count as part of their base but potentially offending a lot of people,” she added, showing quite the blindspot for just how many people who hold right-of-center theological beliefs about Christianity.

Associated Press D.C. bureau chief Julie Pace preceded King, arguing that people can have “core beliefs,” but “[w]hen you use your core beliefs in a public way, obviously it does open yourself up to criticism, and I think the Pence’s might be a little naive to think that wouldn’t happen if she is going to make this decision.”

Ah, yes, so Pace offered up the suggestion that someone can hold whatever views they want so long as they don’t publicize it (and especially if it runs afoul of societal norms). Got it.

To see the relevant transcript from CNN’s Inside Politics on January 18, click “expand.”

CNN’s Inside Politics
January 18, 2019
12:52 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]

JOHN KING: Next for us, amid controversy over a new job for his wife Karen Pence, the Vice President just moments ago saying he could not be more proud of her.

VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: My wife is many things. [SCREEN WIPE] She’s even an art teacher at a Christian school and I couldn’t be more proud of our Second Lady, my wife, Karen Pence.

(….)

12:57 p.m. Eastern

KING: Just before the break, you heard the Vice President Mike Pence defending his wife Karen’s new job, which is teaching art at a Christian art that bans gay students, parents, and employees. Responding to criticism last night, Pence told Catholic televisions he’s deeply offended by what he calls the media’s attack on Christian education. 

PENCE: We have a rich tradition in America of Christian education, and frankly religious education broadly defined. We celebrate it. It’s — the freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States. [SCREEN WIPE] We’ll let the other critics roll off our back, but this criticism of Christian education in America should stop. 

KING: Immanuel Christian School’s parent agreement says it can refuse a student if the parent’s students are “participating in, supporting or condone, sexual immorality” and it asks parents to “embrace biblical family values such as a healthy marriage between one man and one woman.” it is — it’s an interesting debate. To me, Karen Pence has every right. Her First Amendment belong to the Pence’s as much as it belongs to anybody. Christian schools, as private organizations, have the right to have their views, but this decision being made as we head into a reelection campaign. Number one, the Trump campaign has to know this is making a statement, a statement that it’s Christian conservative base will applaud, but a statement, if you look at Trump polling, and whether it’s gay American, millennial Americans, younger Americans, who are more tolerant of these issues, they don’t like this in the administration. It is a statement, correct? 

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN: Definitely. I mean, anything that the First and Second Family do are viewed by people across the country as a model to look up to and this one, you know, I think there are even some people who are proponents of Christian education who would say, yeah, but not this kind. So, they’re making a play at a very slim part of the population that they count as part of their base but potentially offending a lot of people. 

JULIE PACE: Pence himself — Pence and Karen Pence — I think it’s somewhat surprising coming from them. They have really been — you know, they have been backed by the evangelical community. That is who they view as their base. This is also very personal for them. This is — this is their core beliefs. When you use your core beliefs in a public way, obviously it does open yourself up to criticism, and I think the Pence’s might be a little naive to think that wouldn’t happen if she is going to make this decision. It’s interesting, to me, they made no attempt to get ahead of it. They — they made the announcement she would be working at this school and then saw the backlash come a couple days later. 

KING: Does it matter that all taxpayers pay for her housing? That all taxpayers pay for her Secret Service protection? She, you know, it’s not her fault that she needs protection. This is the world we live in, but all taxpayers pay for, subsidize her life. Does it matter?

OLIVIER KNOX: So, do you mean does her First Amendment — do her First Amendment freedoms, get somehow curtailed because taxpayers pay for her accommodations and her security? I don’t know that a lot of people would sign on to that. 

DEMIRJIAN: But she can — other people have the First Amendment to criticize and they should expect that there will be.

PACE: Sure. Of course.

[PANELISTS MUMBLING]

KNOX: But also, this is criticism — this is criticism of the Pence’s doing this, it’s not a blind criticism of Christian education. 

KING: Everything is fair debate. We live in a democracy.

You know the narrative: The border between Mexico and the U.S. is tranquil and calm, while the president’s calls for improved border security are just fear-mongering.

That’s what the media and the left have been insisting, with outlets like MSNBC mocking President Donald Trump’s use of the word “crisis” and CNN’s Jim Acosta pretending that nobody ever tries to cross the border illegally.

But an incident at the border this week underscored exactly why more security is needed, and destroyed the left’s strange claim that everything is just peachy in the border zone.

“Border Patrol agents said they confiscated more than 700 lbs. of cocaine on Thursday just miles from the Rio Grande river,” reported Eddie Scarry of The Washington Examiner.

“Customs and Border Protection said the suspects were seen loading ‘bundles of narcotics’ into an off-road-style utility vehicle outside of Garciasville, a city in Texas up against the river,” he explained. “The suspects, apparently aware they had been seen, were able to ‘abruptly’ drive the vehicle into the river and escape into Mexico.”

TRENDING: New Mexico Border Ranchers: We Found Prayer Rugs on Our Property, ‘It’s Unreal’

In other words, illegal border crossers and smugglers appear to be able to cross the border at will, with nothing impeding them. When CBP does stumble upon them, the smugglers beat a hasty retreat — again, running back toward Mexico with seemingly nothing in the way.

Gee, it’s almost like some sort of wall or fence might be a really good idea.

“(T)his particular portion of the border is especially high in illegal crossing, including by drug smugglers, due to a lack of physical infrastructure to act as a barrier on the border,” Scarry, who has been in the area talking directly with border agents, explained.

“705 lbs. of cocaine, caltrops, evidence of sophisticated counter surveillance and a splashdown in one encounter are an obvious reminder of the need for more personnel, technology, and infrastructure in the Rio Grande Valley,” reiterated acting Chief Patrol Agent Raul Ortiz.

“Transnational Criminal Organizations continue to exploit areas along our western corridor that accounts for more than 90 percent of our traffic,” the law enforcement expert continued.

Officials believe that the most recent drug haul is valued at around $22.5 million, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. Over 62,000 pounds of cocaine was seized by CBP in 2017 alone.

And remember, that’s just the contraband that officials were actually able to stop. The widespread illegal use of cocaine, not to mention the alarming rise of deadly fentanyl, makes it clear that vast quantities of drugs are still flowing into the U.S.

Even the Obama administration admitted that the Central American corridor, which includes Mexico, is major entry point for illicit cocaine to enter the United States.

“According to seizure data of cocaine destined for U.S. markets, an estimated 86 percent transited through the Central American corridor,” a 2016 report from the Department of State explained.

RELATED: Pelosi’s Own House Maj. Leader Just Defied Her About the Wall on National TV

While the left has insisted that official ports of entry are being used to move drugs, the latest smuggling apprehension — and information from law enforcement experts on the ground — confirms that the under-protected areas away from official border crossings are routinely used for smuggling.

“Those designated border crossings account for roughly 2.5 percent of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border,” the Associated Press recently reported. That means 97.5 percent of the border remains largely unprotected — yet Democrats like Rep. Nancy Pelosi strangely continue to declare that physical barriers are “immoral.”

Here’s the bottom line: America’s southern border is porous and routinely breached by illegal immigrants and dangerous smugglers alike. Nobody is saying that a wall or barrier is perfect, but it will go a long way in impeding the routes that those lawbreakers constantly use.

Whether you call it a wall, fence, or barrier, that structure could be part of a larger strategy to limit the options that criminals use, and allow Border Patrol to then focus on other weak points, such as tunnels and ports of entry. It just makes sense — and anyone pretending otherwise clearly has an agenda.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a video supporting the 2019 March for Life, where Americans gather across the country in support of pro-life policies at all levels of government.

Cruz criticized Roe v. Wade, saying the decision has “has not only denied the most basic rights for those in the womb, but it’s also left the mother suffering, often with tremendous guilt and pain.”

The senator then praised March for Life, saying it is for the “unborn of our generation and generations to come.”

Transcript as follows:

This week millions of Americans are mourning the 46th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, but also celebrating the incredible progress we have made since then fighting to restore the God-given rights of every American of every age.

Under Roe, over 60 million precious lives have been violently lost to abortion, generations of sons and daughters lost. For far too long abortion has not only denied the most basic rights for those in the womb, but it’s also left the mother suffering, often with tremendous guilt and pain.

Today, millions of Americans are marching in Washington, D.C. and in cities across the nation. Why do we march? We march for the unborn of our generation and generations to come. We march in prayerful protest of the horrific injustice against the unborn and their mothers. We march in celebration of life.

To all those women and men marching at home and in our nation’s capital, thank you. Thank you for being true champions of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I’m proud to stand with you and I’m committed to working side-by-side with you to restoring a culture of life in America where every human life is respected and protected as a precious gift from God.

Thank you and God bless you.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

WASHINGTON, DC – The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) launched a $1.5 million ad buy on Friday calling on Senate Democrats to stop bullying President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees over their religious faith. Federal judges will be a top issue over the next two years for the 2020 election.

President Trump broke records during his first two years in office, confirming 85 federal judges. In addition to two Supreme Court appointments, this number includes 30 judges to the U.S. courts of appeals, leaving in the dust the previous record of 23.

However, there are a record number of judicial vacancies – almost 100 – providing the president and Senate Republicans with a historic opportunity to reshape the third branch of government as one of President Trump’s greatest accomplishments going into 2020.

JCN’s ad campaign is jumpstarting that process, now that Republicans have a working majority in the Senate for the first time since President Trump took office. Senate Democrats seem committed to continuing their blind opposition to the president’s judicial nominees.

“Democrats are taking their obstruction to disgraceful new lows,” declares the narrator — showing images of Democrat Sens. Chuck Schumer (NY), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Patrick Leahy (VT), and likely presidential candidate Kamala Harris (CA) — “shamefully bullying nominees, attacking them just because of their faith.”

Video during these words shows Feinstein and Dick Durbin (D-IL) going after Judge Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Feinstein infamously told Barrett in Yoda-ish prose, “The dogma lives loudly in you,” a reference to Barrett’s being a faithful Catholic committed to the teachings of her church. (As a Roman Catholic, Barrett is hardly an adherent of a marginal faith. There are roughly 70 million Catholics in the United States.)

The ad even quotes Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, who said these anti-Catholic statements “foment bigotry, fears and suspicions.” Gabbard was responding to attacks from her fellow Hawaii Senator, Mazie Hirono, and Harris, for signaling that they would vote against Brian Buesher’s nomination to be a federal trial judge because Buescher is a member of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic charity organization.

The Religious Test Clause of Article VI of the Constitution commands that no person can be disqualified from federal service because of that person’s religious faith.

The ad urges viewers: “Tell your senator. Stand up to the bullying. Confirm the judges.”

“Because of Democrats’ obstruction of judicial nominees we now have significantly more vacancies than when President Trump took office,” JCN Chief Counsel Carrie Severino said in a statement accompanying the ad’s release. “Sen. McConnell has restated his commitment to filling the vacancies and has maintained that this is a Senate priority.”

“It’s time for Democrats to end the bullying and smear campaigns and confirm the judges,” Severino concluded.

Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.