Columnist.
We all know the anxiety level in the country is sky high. There is tremendous economic insecurity. Obama's foreign policy is failing us. Our alliances are frayed. Recent polls find that two-thirds of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, nearly as many say their values are under attack, and 57% feel like they are falling further and further behind. There appears to be a war on law enforcement.
Before [Tuesday's] voting began, Senator Bernie Sanders had a narrow lead in the polls — 48% to 45% for Hillary Clinton. Evidently, Wisconsin voters were feeling the Bern! [Tuesday] night, Sanders won not by three points, but by 14 points — 57% to 43%. Sanders clearly has what is called "the big Mo" — momentum. He has won six of the last seven Democrat primaries.
We told you yesterday how Big Business, thoroughly coopted by the sexual revolutionaries of the left, is attempting to browbeat the people of North Carolina and their elected representatives. Today we are witnessing the marriage of Big Government and Big Business as five agencies within the Obama Administration are threatening to withhold funding from the families of North Carolina.
I told you Friday about the Obama administration's latest concession to Iran — granting the Islamic Republic's financial institutions access to U.S. dollars. Members of Congress aren't happy. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second highest ranking House Democrat, blasted last week's announcement, saying, ". . .the Administration had indicated that there would be no further concessions beyond those specifically negotiated and briefed to Congress. I do not support granting Iran any new relief without a corresponding concession."
No matter what Iran does to threaten U.S. interests and our allies, the response by Obama/Biden/Kerry is always the same: more U.S. concessions to Tehran. The latest is a decision by Obama's Treasury Department to give Iran's financial institutions access to U.S. dollars. Doing so will inevitably lead to more European and Asian banks doing business with Iran. Why is this in the interest of the U.S.? As Iran continues to export subversion and support terrorism throughout the Middle East, the Obama Administration should be increasing pressure on them, not rewarding the mullahs in Tehran.
[Wednesday] Donald Trump was interviewed by journalist Chris Matthews. At one point in their conversation, Matthews raised the issue of abortion, and asked Trump if women who have abortions should be punished.
Western nations that negotiated last year's nuclear deal with Iran have sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon declaring that the Islamic Republic's recent ballistic missile tests are violations of U.N. Resolution 2231. In their letter, officials from the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany warn that the missiles Iran launched were "inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons." As a result, the launches were "inconsistent with" and "in defiance of" U.N. resolutions, and the various countries are demanding that the Security Council consider "appropriate responses."
ISIS-inspired terrorism from Syria and Iraq is increasingly spilling over into Turkey. The nation has been rocked by a series of recent bombings that have killed nearly 100 people since the beginning of the year. Today, there are credible reports that a major ISIS attack targeting Jewish children is "imminent." The intelligence was obtained from six ISIS jihadis who were arrested last week.
With the world still reeling from the Brussels attacks, radical Islamists demonstrated their ability to strike anywhere, anytime and without any mercy whatsoever. A Taliban faction that pledged its support to the Islamic State carried out a horrific attack in Lahore, Pakistan. A suicide bomber targeting Christians celebrating Easter Sunday blew himself up in a crowded park. Seventy-two people, including 36 children, were killed. More than 300 people were wounded.
In the era we're living in, it is important that more and more Americans understand the value of leadership when it comes to national security. As a former Under Secretary of Education, I know the importance of testing. So here is a pop quiz that might help to inform our response to the attacks in Belgium. Are you ready?
Senator Bernie Sanders notched two wins [Tuesday] night. He won Idaho 78% to 21% and carried Utah by an even larger margin — 80% to 20%. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton carried Arizona 58% to 40%. The delegate allocation from the three states slightly favored Sanders — 57 to 51. But he is still a long way from catching Mrs. Clinton. In the total delegate count for the Democrat nomination, Hillary Clinton has 1,681 delegates (71% of the total needed to win the nomination) to 937 for Senator Sanders.
Once again, jihadists have struck in the heart of Europe, this time in Brussels, Belgium. Reports indicate that at least 30 people were killed and more than 180 were wounded after coordinated attacks at an airport and subway station. ISIS has taken credit for the attack. The Brussels attack follows a bombing over the weekend in Istanbul, Turkey, in which a suicide bomber stalked a group of Israelis. He blew himself up as they were leaving a restaurant, killing four people, including two Americans.
Radical left-wing protestors attempted to shut down a Donald Trump rally in Phoenix, Arizona, this weekend by shutting down a highway leading to the event. The rally was delayed an hour while local law enforcement worked to remove the blockade. At least three protestors were arrested. Once again, the intolerance of the radical left was on full display. Candidates for public office have a First Amendment right to speak. Their supporters have a First Amendment right to hear and see them. But the left is trying to deny them their rights. The protestors have a right to demonstrate. But there is no First Amendment right to shut down roads and create traffic jams. The left is trying to shut down speech it doesn't like by demonizing candidates it doesn't like.
After seven years of radical Islam rampaging across the Middle East — massive killings, pledges by ISIS to drive Christians out of the region, beheadings and crucifixions — Secretary of State John Kerry has finally decided that genocide is taking place. Yesterday, Kerry officially designated the atrocities committed by ISIS against Christians and other religious minorities in the region as genocide.
We are learning more about President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland. The White House and its allies have attempted to spin a narrative that Garland is a moderate judge whom Senate conservatives should be eager to confirm. But he is hardly a moderate.
At the White House [Wednesday] morning, President Obama announced his nominee for the Supreme Court — Judge Merrick Garland of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The media are dutifully attempting to spin Garland as a "centrist" or a "consensus choice." Consider this headline from the Los Angeles Times: "It's Going To Be Hard For Conservatives To Oppose The Careful, Moderate Merrick Garland."
Of all the counterproductive things that have happened in the campaign this year, perhaps the most troubling took place Friday night. A left-wing mob organized by MoveOn.org, activists from the Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street movements, and a dozen other radical groups, sent thousands of people into the streets of Chicago and inside an arena where Donald Trump was scheduled to speak. Bill Ayers even showed up, too.
[Thursday] night's Republican debate thankfully had a lot less vitriol and a good discussion of the issues. There were clear policy differences, but the exchanges avoided the schoolyard taunts that have dominated previous debates. Perhaps the best example of the new-found civility came when Donald Trump tried to explain that while he was pro-Israel, he would, nevertheless, maintain a position of neutrality between the Israelis and Palestinians during any peace talks.
When conservatives suggest that it should be the nation's policy to deport all illegal immigrants, the response from the media, the left, and, sadly, even some quarters of the right is, "That's ridiculous. You're not going to deport 11 million people." Well, based on their statements at last night's debate, the opposite view of open borders and no deportations appears to be the new standard on the left. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders promised to go farther than Barack Obama in protecting illegal immigrants. In fact, Mrs. Clinton's comments seemed to take amnesty advocate Jorge Ramos of Univision by surprise.
Bernie Sanders stunned the pundits and proved the pollsters wrong [Tuesday]. The last poll before the Michigan primary gave Hillary Clinton a whopping 27-point lead. Sanders' voters ignored the polls and gave him a 50% to 48% victory over Hillary. One commentator said the Michigan polling was "among the greatest polling errors in primary history." But Mrs. Clinton had some good news, too. She won the Mississippi primary by a lopsided margin of 83% to 17%.
