White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced yesterday that the United States was imposing sanctions on two top Turkish officials due to the continued detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson.

“At the president’s direction, the Department of Treasury is sanctioning Turkey’s minister of justice and minister of interior, both of whom played leading roles in the arrest and detention of Pastor Brunson,” Sanders said.

“Any property or interest in property of both ministers within U.S. jurisdiction is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.”

That is a good first step. I pray it succeeds in achieving Pastor Brunson’s freedom. But for now, President Erdogan remains defiant, even accusing the U.S. of having “an evangelist, Zionist mentality.”

Trump in Tampa

President Trump held a rally in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday night. It was a great speech with lots of impromptu lines. There were many applause lines, but one jumped out at me.

The president mentioned shaking hands with a police officer who appreciated the growth of his retirement account. The president said, “I was in New York shaking hands. I love law enforcement. Do we love law enforcement?” The crowd erupted in applause.

Of course, had I been there I would have enthusiastically applauded as well. And I am certain everyone reading this report would have done so too.

But then a somewhat disturbing and depressing thought occurred to me: That was a line no leading Democrat would dare utter. In fact, the Left is increasingly attacking law enforcement — especially if it has anything to do with enforcing our immigration laws.

Not long ago, politicians in both parties gladly let voters know that they stood proudly with the brave men and women on the Thin Blue line who risk their lives to protect us.

But you will wait a long time to hear Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez express their appreciation for law enforcement.

Mocking Middle America

Needless to say, Washington’s media elites did not care for the president’s speech. CNN’s Jim Acosta was “triggered” by Trump’s remarks, and he tweeted this:

“I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way.”

Spare me the crocodile tears! When was the last time Jim Acosta and CNN condemned antifa and the literally hundreds of attacks against conservatives?

For years I’ve been telling people that one of the reasons Washington seems so out of touch is that DC elites, if they think of people outside the Beltway at all, think of them as uncouth idiots.

Remember Barack Obama’s remark about “bitter Americans” clinging to their guns and religion? How about Peter Strzok’s claim that he could “smell” conservatives at Walmart? And don’t forget Hillary’s “basket of deplorables.”

You can add to that list this tweet from Politico reporter Marc Caputo about the people at Trump’s Tampa rally: “If you put everyone’s mouths together in this video, you’d get a full set of teeth.”

When the predictable backlash began, he replied, “Oh, no! I made fun of garbage people…”

If Caputo tweeted anything remotely similar about any racial or sexual minority group, he would be fired immediately. Same for Peter Strzok. But it is acceptable when elites mock Middle America.

Promoting Hate

I was disappointed to learn that the FBI is still cooperating with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The bureau reportedly severed ties with the group because of its dubious record.

The SPLC is a progressive hate group that is spreading hate against conservatives even while it claims to be monitoring hate groups. It has falsely smeared Christian organizations as being equivalent to the KKK, but it does not label antifa as a “hate group.”

The FBI says it has “forged partnerships nationally and locally with many civil rights organizations.” But according to The Washington Times, the list of partners includes many with a “progressive or liberal political slant [and] none would be considered conservative.”

Attorney General Sessions, call your office!

More Meddling?

It seems the Russians have been caught red-handed (pun intended!) meddling in our elections again. But there’s a slight problem for the Left.

Facebook announced that it had shut down more than 30 pages and accounts. While Facebook is not yet certain who was behind these efforts, there is evidence pointing to Russia.

These fake groups were promoting the anti-Trump “resistance” agenda, including efforts to abolish ICE. Unfortunately, that is not a fake position, but a rapidly growing view among the socialist Left. (And it wants to let illegal immigrants vote in our elections too!)

In fact, the Democrats’ 2018 campaign slogan seems to be: “Free health care for everyone! Borders for no one!”

Here’s the bottom line: Whatever pro-Trump social media ads the Russians ran in 2016 were not advocating positions that the Russians actually believe in. But in this case, the Russians are running ads they surely agree with — Putin would love it if ICE was abolished and our borders were unguarded.

By the way, Donald Trump recently predicted that the Russians would try to interfere in the 2018 elections in support of the Democrats. It is easy to understand why.

We have been told repeatedly that Russia’s meddling was meant to sow chaos and discord. Well, they certainly have accomplished that!

So much of the Left’s animosity is based on the myth that Donald Trump is an illegitimate president. Incredibly, 55% of Democrats believe that Russian hacking actually changed vote tallies. Even Barack Obama said that did not happen.

But just imagine the chaos and discord in Washington if Democrats do win this November. As one journalist recently noted:

“Democratic control of one or both houses of Congress might … guarantee two years of a paralyzed America… A Democratic House might lead to a polarizing impeachment fight that would further exacerbate America’s political divides and weaken the country.”

In that scenario, the only winners are America’s enemies.