The Patriot Post® · Doubt in the Pipeline After Biden's Oil Spill
Maybe the mistake for Joe Biden wasn’t going into his basement — but coming out. After Thursday night’s debate, liberals have to be counting their lucky stars that so many Americans have already voted, because if that was their last impression of the Democrat running for president, it was not a good one. When Biden wasn’t telling outright lies, he was shocking viewers with the truths that he let slip about his radical agenda on oil, energy, lockdowns, socialized medicine, and government regulation. For a man who says he cares about the environment, he created a mess. And not even the Left’s allies in the media will be able to mop up this one.
This was the President Trump America had been waiting for. He was measured, confident, exacting, and brutally honest. When he had the opportunity, he cut straight to the quick. At one particularly powerful moment, he turned to Biden after another string of untruths and said, “You know, Joe, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama, because you did a poor job… [You’ve] been in government 47 years… You were vice president. You keep talking about all these things you’re going to do and you’re going to do this. But you were there just a short time ago, and you guys did nothing.” When moderator Kristen Welker asked Biden to respond, he shrugged and said, “Republicans controlled Congress.” Now, that wasn’t just a lie — it was a lazy lie. Anyone with a search engine (or a good memory) knows that not only did he and Barack Obama have a Democratic Congress when they were elected, they had a supermajority.
But unfortunately, dishonesty has become second nature for the former vice president, who also tried to convince Americans that he knew nothing about his son’s shady deals with China and Russia (despite his business partner’s testimony to the contrary) and never took “a penny” from foreign sources. He yoyo-ed on health care, insisting he didn’t want a government takeover (even though his own platform calls for it). He claimed “not one person with private insurance” had lost their plans under Obamacare — a whopper so big it deserves its own sandwich at Burger King. Biden’s fiction on fracking is almost comical at this point, since he’s made enough statements on banning it to fill a whole YouTube channel. Remember when Obama talked about shovel-ready jobs? Well, this was a shovel-ready debate, and Biden just kept digging the hole deeper.
On the subject of immigration, the vice president thought he had a “gotcha” moment bringing up family separation at the border. Then, Trump took the opportunity to remind people which administration put the children in cages. “Who built the cages, Joe?” he asked. When Biden wouldn’t answer, the president persisted, “Who built the cages?” “Let’s talk about what we’re talking about,” the flustered Democrat tried to say. “Parents were ripped — their kids were ripped from their arms and separated.” Not all of them, Trump fired back. “Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here and it’s easy to use them to get into our country.”
The president is right. I know, because I’ve been to the border and seen the cages. I’ve also talked to several experts, border agents, and senators who will confirm the tragic reality that a number of these kids were brought in by horrible criminals to be trafficked. How do we know? Because there’s DNA testing to prove it! If the media did its job, more people would know that Homeland Security launched a pilot program more than a year ago to determine, through genetic testing, who the real families are. What they discovered is that at least 30 percent of the “parents” who consented to the test turned out to be frauds! If there’s real family separation, a large portion of it happens well before these caravans get to the border.
On the rare moments when Joe Biden was telling the truth, his advisors were probably wishing he could be interrupted. His oil “spill” was one of the worst moments of his campaign, horrifying tens of millions of voters who care about jobs, energy, and the U.S. economy. Saying you want the oil industry to disappear is as big of a swing-state kiss-off as it gets. And yet, Biden kept repeating it. “I would transition away from the oil industry.” “That’s a big statement,” Trump said, genuinely surprised. “It is a big statement,” Biden agreed. Even moderator Kristen Welker then seemed stunned, asking Biden, “Why would you do that?” By that point, Biden’s advisors were desperately wishing they had control of the mute button.
A better question might be: what wouldn’t Biden shut down? He wants to turn off the lights in the oil industry, the economy, he wants to lock us all back down, and force us to wear masks. He’s not Sleepy Joe Biden — he’s Board ‘Em Up Biden! But if the night was a disaster for Joe, it wasn’t the media’s fault. They did everything in their power to win the evening for Joe, right down to the questions themselves. Did we hear a single thing about Joe Biden’s late-term abortion extremism or his plan for eight-year-old gender transitions? No. Did Susan Page ask Kamala Harris about her two votes for newborn infanticide or her push to legalize prostitution? No, because deep down, the media understands how incredibly unpopular the Left’s social agenda is in mainstream America. If voters were truly on board with Joe Biden on his anti-faith, abortion, LGBT agenda, the moderators would have tripped over themselves to cover it. They didn’t. And that ought to say everything voters need to know about where this country would be headed.
Get the facts. Check out our election headquarters at PrayVoteStand.org. See the truth for yourself in Trump vs. Biden on the issues, what Trump has accomplished, and the two party platforms.
Originally published here.
Graham and Feinstein: Embracing Our Differences
It was the hug heard 'round the world — the last gasp, some say, of political civility. When Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) dared to show signs that comradery still exists on the Hill, extremists started calling for her head. “It’s time for Sen. Feinstein to step down from her leadership position on the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Demand Justice tweeted. Why? Because the mere suggestion that she and the Left’s mortal enemy, Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), might be friends means war.
To the rest of America, watching the two embrace was a refreshing moment in an otherwise bitter ideological climate. It was a reminder that the two parties could disagree on everything under the sun but still have a cordial relationship. But then, as we were all quick to learn, the Left doesn’t believe in relationships, coexistence, or even civility. On “Washington Watch,” Senator Graham could only shake his head at how far the radical Democratic Party had come. “Look what happened to Dianne Feinstein. She gave me a hug, a human act of kindness. She didn’t agree with the proceedings [for Amy Coney Barrett]. She wouldn’t vote for the judge, but she did acknowledge that I tried to be fair. And she gave me a hug rather than a handshake. And they’re trying to ruin her life. So you got to understand the energy in the Democratic Party is very nasty and destructive.”
Dianne Feinstein, Lindsey explained, is progressive in every sense of the word. But this is “somebody who can find common ground… whose unpardonable sin was to show me some kindness,” and for that, she’s persecuted by the Left. “She’s old school. Well, old school is no longer accepted in the modern Democratic Party. It’s just not enough to agree on the issues. You have to hate the people the Left hates. They hate me. They hate my guts for Kavanaugh, and [for daring to] help President Trump. This should be a wake-up call for America. The people driving the Democratic agenda have no tolerance for anything different — and that means you.”
Senator Graham makes an important point. A lot of people out there think we should just set aside our differences and try to get along. But here’s the thing: you can’t create a culture of respect if only one side shows it. The other side has no interest in coming together, in sharing common truths. The reality is, in an environment as hostile as this one, one worldview is going to dominate. And either Christians and conservatives are going to be dominated by a worldview that’s hostile to God and the devastating consequences that flow from it — or we’re going to fight to uphold truth and live it out in the face of opposition. Those are the choices. We can, and should, choose to be kind, but we cannot make that choice for others.
As for Barrett, there’s no better example of someone showing calm, poise, and decency in the face of opposition than her. The Left could learn a lot from the courageous and disciplined way she carried herself. As Lindsey said, “The judge was challenged, but she passed with flying colors… [She] shined. My goal was to make it about her, not about any of us, to give her a chance to demonstrate her capabilities in the law, her judicial disposition, and temperament, and the well-rounded life she has led. And I think in that regard, the mission was accomplished, and the hearings were instructive. There’s a reason that a majority of Americans approve of her going on the court because she’s exactly where she needs to be. She’s lived an incredibly good life — a consequential life.”
It’s a shame, he agreed, that Democrats didn’t have the courtesy to show up and give her the vote she deserved. “They chose to boycott the hearing. I chose as chairman to make sure that she would get out of committee… She has earned the right to be on the floor of the United States Senate.” And she will be as soon as Sunday. “I’m not leaving town until she’s on the court,” Senator Graham vowed.
Do your part to help him. Contact your senators and urge them both to fill that seat!
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.