Columnist.
It is a phrase I have repeated over and over again during recent national debates about immigration reform: "Border security is national security." There is nothing racist or bigoted about that statement. It is simply common sense. And it is a lesson Europe is learning the hard way. According to the Associated Press, the Belgian woman who alerted police to the location of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks, also told authorities that Abbaaoud entered France with 90 other Islamic extremists. Abbaaoud claimed that they got in with a wave of migrants and came without any documents.
I read the president's speech to the Islamic Society of Baltimore and found that it was a very muddled message. Below are a few quotes from the speech followed by my response.
In the wake of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks — terrorist atrocities carried out by radical Islamist supremacists — President Obama is visiting a synagogue today to reassure Americans concerned about rising anti-Semitism. No, wait ... that's not right. Sorry, folks, he's going to a church to express his outrage over the unprecedented level of Christian persecution taking place in the world today. Oops, wrong again.
In an Iowa caucus that broke all turnout records, with more than 186,000 Republicans participating, Ted Cruz defied the polls by defeating Donald Trump 28% to 24%. Cruz's ground game and turnout effort impressed even seasoned Iowa operatives. For the last three weeks Cruz has been the target of withering attacks from all sides. Trump hit Cruz repeatedly with concerns about his citizenship. The party establishment, from the governor of Iowa to Bob Dole, did its best to smear him. In the last debate, which Trump skipped, every other candidate saw their chance to eviscerate Cruz, hoping to knock him out of contention. How did Cruz defy expectations? According to the exit polls, there was a surge of evangelical voters. In 2012, evangelical voters made up 57% of Iowa GOP caucus-goers. [Monday] night, they accounted for 64% of Republican caucus-goers, and Cruz won them by 12 points.
There is a reason Fox News has been so successful. After decades of domination by left-wing networks, Fox burst onto the scene offering viewers something very different — fair and balanced coverage of the news and current events. Yet I must confess that, in spite of everything Fox News has done for the conservative movement, I was deeply disappointed by some of [Thursday] night's questioning. For example, let's examine the way the moderators approached two of the most important issues in this campaign: Terrorism and immigration.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is not happy with the conduct of the war against ISIS, and he's letting everyone know it. Last week he met with European defense officials and urged them to step it up. In the days ahead, he will convene a special meeting of coalition leaders specifically "to set expectations" for each nation. Carter told CNBC recently that our coalition partners "can do more," adding that "many of them are not doing enough or doing nothing at all." I'm sure there is a lot of truth to that statement, but the same criticism has been leveled against the Obama administration. In August 2014 Obama said he didn't have a strategy to defeat ISIS. Nearly a year later, the strategy was still incomplete. Meanwhile the "JV team" continued to run up the score, conquering more and more territory, committing more and more atrocities.
Seventy-one years ago [yesterday], Soviet forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz, revealing some of the worst horrors of the Holocaust. More than one million people were systematically murdered at Auschwitz. Nearly all of them were Jews, killed as part of Hitler's "final solution to the Jewish question," which ultimately claimed six million Jewish lives. In 2005, as then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was threatening a second Holocaust by vowing to "wipe Israel off the map," the United Nations voted to recognize January 27th as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
A grand jury in Harris County, Texas, has indicted two pro-life journalists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, with the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). As you no doubt recall, CMP is the group responsible for the disturbing undercover videos that exposed Planned Parenthood's trafficking in baby body parts. The grand jury was initially formed to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had illegally sold fetal body parts. Instead, it cleared Planned Parenthood and somehow ended up indicting the journalists for attempting to illegally purchase baby body parts.
Think we need another candidate running for president this year? We may get another one! Various reports indicate that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously considering a third-party bid for president. If he runs, polling suggests Bloomberg would get about 13% with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton essentially tied at 37% and 36% respectively. But that really doesn't tell you much because the presidency is won in the Electoral College, which is based on individual state results. For example, does Bloomberg carry New York, taking that state out of the Democrats' column?
Charles Krauthammer, insightful as always, has a must read column in [the] Washington Post, pointing out the historic shift that took place in the Middle East last Saturday, January 16th — "Implementation Day" for President Obama's nuclear deal. Consider this excerpt: "In a stroke, Iran shed almost four decades of rogue-state status and was declared a citizen of good standing of the international community, open to trade, investment and diplomacy... On Saturday, the Iranian transport minister announced the purchase of 114 Airbuses from Europe. This inaugurates a rush of deals binding European companies to Iran, thoroughly undermining Obama's pipe dream of 'snapback sanctions' if Iran cheats."
Muslim migrants at a French refugee camp in Calais are rioting and, for the past two nights, they have literally burned the camp to the ground. Why would they do that? The camp they are at now is not exactly the most welcoming place. Known as "The Jungle," it's essentially just a tent city housing about six thousand people. Crammed into such squalid conditions, you might expect people to get upset. So the French government, at a cost of more than $21 million, built better temporary housing with heat, showers, beds and electricity.
The March For Life will take place this Friday, January 22nd, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The annual march memorializes the anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision 43 years ago in Roe v. Wade forcing every state in the union to permit the destruction of innocent unborn children. After more than four decades of marching year after year in the bitter cold and snow, some might ask, "Nothing is changing. Why keep doing it?"
Every American celebrates the release over the weekend of five Americans held by Iran. Let's call them what they were — hostages. Predictably, President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry were trumpeting the exchange as evidence of the value of their diplomatic strategy.
The Obama administration must be disconnected from reality. Consider these statements regarding the same event — Iran's seizure of our patrol boats and sailors. **Secretary of State John Kerry:** "I want to underscore how pleased I am that our sailors were safely returned into the United States' hands this morning... I also want to thank the Iranian authorities for their cooperation and quick response... And, in fact, it is clear that today this kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and officially resolved, and that is a testament to the critical role that diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure and strong."
The Obama administration is on "spin overdrive" trying to downplay Iran's seizure of two U.S. ships and ten sailors. Secretary of State John Kerry literally thanked the Iranians for their help. Vice President Joe Biden brushed off the incident, saying, "This was just standard nautical practice." Standard practice? Sorry, Joe, but we're not that dumb.
Is the president really as isolated from reality as he sounded [Tuesday] night? I could write pages analyzing every misleading and inaccurate comment. But I'll focus on just a few.
The fight to defend religious liberty against burdensome Obamacare mandates did not end with the Hobby Lobby case. Previous administrations likely would have gotten the court's message from that case, which granted certain for-profit businesses a religious exemption from the government's coercive contraception mandate. But not this one.
Last week we told you about the assassination attempt on Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett. Edward Archer, who fired 13 shots at close range into Officer Hartnett's patrol car, confessed to police that he did so "in the name of Islam." In recent years, Archer made two trips to the Middle East — one to Saudi Arabia for the hajj and one extended visit to Egypt. At a press conference Friday, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said, "In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with" the shooting of Officer Hartnett. "It is abhorrent," Kenney continued. "It is terrible and it does not represent the religion or any of its teachings."
President Obama was on CNN [Thursday] night for a national "town hall" discussion about gun control. Of course, it was no such thing. It was political theater with an audience tilted heavily toward Obama's agenda.
[Wednesday] night the House of Representatives, on a largely party-line vote, passed legislation repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood. It has passed bills to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood on several occasions. But in previous years, these bills have died in the Senate. What is different this time is that the repeal/defund legislation already passed the new Republican Senate under special rules that prevent filibusters. With the House's approval, both chambers of Congress are now on the record in favor of repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood. The bill is now headed to Barack Obama's desk.
