The Patriot Post® · Confronting Communist China

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/73676-confronting-communist-china-2020-09-24

President Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Like so many other events this year, the UN meeting was held virtually, so the president spoke from the White House. And he wasted no time in confronting communist China.

Just 28 words into his remarks, the president blasted Beijing for failing to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. Here’s an excerpt of the president’s remarks:

Seventy-five years after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, we are once again engaged in a great global struggle. We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy — the China virus — which has claimed countless lives in 188 countries.

In the United States, we launched the most aggressive mobilization since the Second World War. We rapidly produced a record supply of ventilators, creating a surplus that allowed us to share them with friends and partners all around the globe. We pioneered life-saving treatments, reducing our fatality rate 85 percent since April.

Thanks to our efforts, three vaccines are in the final stage of clinical trials. We are mass-producing them in advance so they can be delivered immediately upon arrival.

President Trump condemned China for shutting down domestic air travel and “locking citizens in their homes” while it allowed international flights to “infect the world.”

He ripped the World Health Organization for parroting Beijing’s claim that there was “no evidence of human-to-human transmission,” and he called on the UN to hold China accountable.

But the president wasn’t done. He also denounced China’s terrible environmental record and abusive trade practices.

If you missed the president’s UN address, you can watch it below.

Another Vaccine Advances

Johnson & Johnson announced that its COVID-19 vaccine has entered late-stage testing. That makes it the fourth vaccine supported by the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program to advance into Phase 3 testing.

Sixty thousand people in the United States and seven other countries will participate in the voluntary testing, which showed promise in animal trials.

What makes the Johnson & Johnson vaccine unique is that it is a single-shot vaccine, whereas the three other vaccines in Phase 3 testing require a second booster shot weeks later.

President Trump Defends Life

Yesterday, President Trump announced that he was taking additional steps to defend the sanctity of life. During an address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, the president said:

Today I am announcing that I will be signing the Born-Alive Executive Order to ensure that all precious babies born alive, no matter their circumstances, receive the medical care that they deserve. This is our sacrosanct moral duty.

While I am pleased with the president’s announcement, he has unfortunately been forced to take this step because legislation to protect babies born alive after failed abortion attempts was filibustered by 41 Senate Democrats and failed to get a vote in Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives.

That’s how extreme today’s Democrat Party has become on the issue of abortion. It refuses to save babies even after they have been born alive!

Among those Democrats who filibustered this important pro-life legislation were Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s running mate, and Gary Peters (MI), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Tina Smith (MN), and Mark Warner (VA), who are facing competitive races this year.

All of them should lose their seats over this issue alone!

Confronting Anti-Semitism

Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom held a virtual event discussing the growing threat of rising anti-Semitism in Europe amid the coronavirus pandemic. I was pleased to participate in the event along with USCIRF Chairwoman Gayle Manchin and experts from the Trump administration and the Anti-Defamation League.

I have been warning for years about the dangers of anti-Semitism. But, sadly, there are those who exploited the pandemic to spread their own virulent hatred of Jews.

You can watch the USCIRF anti-Semitism event below.

Getting Tough on Crime

The Justice Department has followed through on an executive order from President Trump to crack down on cities that tolerate riots and lawlessness.

The department named New York City, Portland, and Seattle as “anarchist jurisdictions.” Attorney General William Barr blasted these progressive cities, saying, “When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected.”

Justice Department officials warned that these cities risk losing federal grant dollars unless they take more proactive measures to stop rioting and looting.

That may prove difficult in Seattle, where the left-wing city council just overrode the mayor’s veto to force significant cuts in the police budget.

Hunter & Ukraine

A year-long investigation by the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Finance Committee has uncovered a number of startling findings related to Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine.

The report released yesterday by Senators Ron Johnson and Charles Grassley, chairmen of the respective Senate committees, details “a vast financial network that connected [members of the Biden family] to foreign nationals and foreign governments across the globe.”

As you know, Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, was appointed to the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, even though he had no experience in the energy industry or Ukraine.

His appointment coincided with the time that his father had been tasked by the Obama administration with overseeing U.S. policy toward Ukraine. Multiple officials, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry (whose stepson was a business partner with Hunter Biden), were aware of the obvious conflict of interest, but did nothing about it.

Senate investigators discovered that Hunter Biden’s company made millions of dollars from connections with the corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, who founded Burisma, as well as millions of dollars from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia. (Perhaps we need another special counsel to investigate this potential Russian collusion!)

The investigation also found evidence that Hunter Biden paid “nonresident alien women” from Russia and Ukraine who were involved in or connected to European prostitution or human trafficking, raising serious concerns for the risk of foreign blackmail.