In an interview this week, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand repeated a public pledge that all of her judges will be committed to abortion on demand. When a reporter asked if she was concerned about undermining judicial independence, Gillibrand did us a favor by once again showing us where the left is headed.

Here’s what she said:

“I think there’s some issues that have such moral clarity that we have as a society decided that the other side is not acceptable. Imagine saying that it’s okay to appoint a judge who’s racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic.

"Telling – asking someone to appoint [a judge] who takes away basic human rights of any group of people in America, I don’t think that those are political issues anymore.”

Why is the left so intent on demonizing its opponents?

It is outrageous for Gillibrand to compare pro-life Americans to racists and anti-Semites. She’s putting half the country into Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” as “unacceptable” and “irredeemable.”

Pro-life Americans are pro-life because we care about civil rights. And the most fundamental civil right is the right to life. Our Founding Fathers declared the right to life to be “unalienable.”

Gillibrand is arguing for a civil wrong and exactly what she claims to be against: the “taking away of basic human rights” and the destruction of a whole group of individuals (unborn children) without due process of law. And the left is so extreme that they want to kill babies born alive after the abortion failed to kill them.

Silencing Conservatives

On Gillibrand’s broader point, I understand her suggestion that some things are off limits. We don’t need to debate the merits of slavery or whether the Holocaust happened.

But that is precisely what the left is trying to do when it comes to the sanctity of life. Gillibrand says it is “not acceptable” to even consider the pro-life position.

And it’s not just the sanctity of life. The left is using this tactic to make a host of normal conservative values “beyond the pale” of debate and discussion.

To believe in border security is racist.

To believe in traditional marriage and just two genders is bigotry.

To question the left’s socialist solutions to climate change is science denial.

Every conservative, every Christian and every free-thinking American should be alarmed by the left’s growing intolerance. This totalitarian mindset has seized control of one of America’s two political parties. It is extending its grip well into the news media and social media.

For example, Pinterest just banned a major pro-life site and labeled it “pornography.” In recent days big business has joined with Hollywood to threaten states that limit abortion.

In other words, corporate and cultural elites are doing exactly what they accuse conservatives of doing: imposing their values on the rest of society. And we are supposed to shut up and take it.

The American people are not pro-abortion. Only 13% of the public supports abortion in all nine months of pregnancy. Yet we’re being told we can’t even talk about it. That is real extremism, my friends. It must be resisted and defeated.

About That Poll…

A new Quinnipiac poll is making headlines. It finds Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 13 points. If Biden won the election by 13 points, it would be a major landslide.

The good news is that another candidate was ahead of Donald Trump by 18 points. How can that be good news? Well, the other candidate who led Trump by 18 points was Hillary Clinton.

In May of 2015, roughly the same point we are at now in the 2020 cycle, Quinnipiac’s polling found Jeb Bush leading the GOP primary and Clinton leading Trump 50% to 32% in a hypothetical general election match-up. And we all know how that ended.

Confronting China

Earlier this week, I read a shocking report in the Wall Street Journal. It is complicated, so I’m going to do my best to summarize the information because you need to know what is going on. It is also very revealing of what the Obama/Biden Administration allowed to happen and of what Donald Trump is dealing with now.

Communist China is moving aggressively to expand its power and influence throughout the world.

It’s “Belt and Road Initiative” aims to ensnare 65 countries that account for 75% of the world’s known energy reserves. It has an aggressive 10-year plan called China 2025 to dominate global production in 10 major industrial sectors.

Another Chinese initiative is called the “Thousand Talents Plan.” Chinese search firms, often tied to the Chinese military, are looking all over the world for scientists and researchers who could improve Chinese society.

When China finds someone it wants, they are enticed or bribed with, in some cases, millions of dollars in financial incentives.

The Trump Administration has discovered that at least 300 U.S. government researchers and contractors have accepted Chinese “talent” offers. Many of these “talents” work at the Department of Energy, which among other things maintains the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

I want to remind you that during Obama’s watch, the Chinese government hacked into the Office of Personnel Management and stole the records of more than 20 million government employees.

I think it is clear that China has used that information to determine which U.S. scientists and contractors it could develop, or perhaps even blackmail, as “talents”. This is another stark reminder that China is not just a “trading partner” or even a “strategic competitor.” It is an aggressive adversary.

With little fanfare, the Trump Administration recently announced that employees and contractors with the federal government must immediately disclose any foreign projects they are involved in. They must also cancel the projects or resign.

Late last year, Vice President Pence delivered a blistering speech taking China to task on a host of issues. This is one reason why. And it is another example of President Trump and Vice President Pence bringing a healthy dose of reality back to American foreign policy and putting America first.

“Pence The Puritan”

National Review today defended Mike Pence on his position, which I share and shared with you yesterday, that only the American flag (and not the gay pride flag) should fly outside of our embassies. The column pointed out that the left is now attacking Pence as an overbearing “Puritan.”

But what caught my eye is that National Review also noted that the left always picks someone in a Republican administration to be the “Puritan bogeyman.”

As examples, the writer cited John Ashcroft in George W. Bush’s administration, Dan Quayle in his father’s administration and me, your faithful advocate in Washington, during the Reagan Administration.

I am proud to be in that company! And I am proud to stand with Mike Pence!

But I am sure it will come as quite a surprise to my wife, my three adult children and my five grandchildren that “Babu,” as the grandkids call me, is a Puritan.