thelibertydaily--2020-01-21--Portland Antifa ‘Martyr’ Mourned by Democrats Urged Terrorist Attacks, Writings Reveal

Last October , a well-known Portland antifa militant was killed under mysterious circumstances after leaving a pub popular with far-left extremists .
Sean Daniel Kealiher , 23 , was killed near the Cider Riot pub after being hit by a car that had been fired upon with live rounds .
His friends dragged his body away and did not call the police .
Kealiher ’ s death immediately rippled throughout Portland and beyond , leading both the far-left and even establishment Democrat leaders to mourn publicly .
A GoFundMe for his funeral raised thousands .
And while he was lionized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-fascist activist ” and even called a “ martyr ” by some , an investigation by The Post Millennial can reveal that newly uncovered evidence show he was far more radical than previously reported .
In a series of discovered writings , Kealiher urged fellow comrades to commit violent terrorist acts and led training sessions to radicalize other youth .
Before his death , Kealiher was known in the militant anarchist community as “ Armeanio Lewis , ” one of the many names he also used online .
His radical activism goes back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 14 during the Occupy Portland demonstrations in 2011 .
As a minor , Kealiher was filmed being arrested on numerous occasions .
The details of juvenile cases are not available to the public .
As previously reported by The Post Millennial , Kealiher was filmed in recent years fighting at left-wing protests and threatening journalists who had cameras at public demonstrations .
On numerous occasions , he was also seen travelling with members of the Red and Anarchist Skinheads , or RASH , a violent gang-like group known for brawling with right-wingers at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a member of the group .
But aside from his known street militantism , The Post Millennial can now report that he also authored extreme literature calling for terrorist acts against schools , law enforcement and the public .
An excerpt from a September 2014 zine by Kealiher titled , “ Why Break Windows ” reads : “ From the simple smashing of windows to the placement of a bomb or the robbing of the bank , our actions are heard and felt rather than ignored and treated as everyday life.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the most beautiful moment an anarchist can undertake .
Feeling the adrenaline of rushing to a window with a rock in hand , or the moments before striking a cop with your fist .
Planting the bomb , pulling the trigger , shouting f— the police !
” In 2015 , an 18-year-old Kealiher tried to stop a police officer from investigating an incident of suspected domestic violence , according to a report by Portland Police .
The officer notes that Kealiher physically obstructed the investigation , cursed at him and resisted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abuse suspect likely used the distraction to flee .
Kealiher was found guilty for interfering with a police officer and sentenced to 15 days in jail .
Two weeks after his death , Kealiher ’ s extremist zine romanticizing violent extremism was distributed at a memorial potluck in downtown Portland attended by his mother .
Several masked individuals acted as security .
Beyond that tract , Kealiher would go on to author more pieces urging explicit terrorist attacks .
On his blog , the “ Lumpen Prole Distro , ” he uses the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that his writings may have inspired real-world attacks in Portland .
“ Shortly after the publishing of this essay , 15 [ Aramak ] Trucks , the company that supplies school lunches and prison lunches , were sabotaged , ” reads the new preface in a November 2014 update to Kealiher ’ s “ Manifesto Against Schools.
” The 12-page document continues : “ Shortly after that , an entire condo complex was burned to the ground .
This fire was the biggest fire seen in Portland , and everything was torched.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under construction in northeast Portland was destroyed in a large fire .
The flames spread to surrounding apartment buildings , leading to emergency evacuations of residents and further damage .
The heat was so intense on the block that cars parked nearby appeared “ melted , ” according to media reports .
Though the fires were among the largest in the city ’ s history , causing around $ 6m worth of damage , nobody was injured .
An investigation by authorities determined the fire was started through an arson attack .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 5,000 cash reward for information at the time .
The incident is listed by the Department of Homeland Security as an instance of far-left domestic terrorism .
Beyond the manifesto ’ s preface , Kealiher explicitly called for others to engage in violent attacks .
“ It ’ s time to get off your knees , unclasp your begging hands and pick a weapon , because those on the other side have already done so , ” it reads .
The “ other side ” references current society .
“ My side , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapons to choose from .
Be it the power of a pen , the strength of a rock , or the power of a gun.
” The manifesto continues : “ You can craft your own destruction .
Be it burning down a school , smashing a banks window … There is so much to destroy , and so much for you to choose.
” Elsewhere on the blog , Kealiher expressed “ unapologetic support ” for killing law enforcement and destroying buildings with fires .
Most of the blog ’ s essays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was 18 and 19 years old .
He also made efforts to export his ideas into real-world training sessions .
In December 2013 , a 17-year-old Kealiher organized a training event with the intention of introducing minors to extremist anarchist ideas , according to the flyer for the event .
He spoke at The Red and Black Cafe , a now-defunct left-wing Portland cafe , using the pseudonym “ John Cracklemore.
” Kealiher ’ s extreme views were also published on various social media platforms .
On Reddit , using a different pseudonym @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says he trained high school students to fight police officers .
Kealiher ’ s extremism may have eventually landed him under the investigation of federal authorities , however .
In January 2017 , Kealiher posted on Facebook that two DHS agents showed up to his mother ’ s house to try and speak with him .
The details of that alleged investigation are unknown .
DHS did not respond to The Post Millennial ’ s request for comment .
His mother , Laura Kealiher , declined to comment for the story .
More @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s death but Portland Police have not released any new details in their investigation .
What is known is that Kealiher was struck by a vehicle following an argument outside the Cider Riot pub .
The attorney for Hyatt Eshelman , who was with Kealiher at the time of the incident , says Eshelman pulled out a handgun and fired at the SUV .
The vehicle crashed outside the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Oregon , where the driver and passengers fled on foot .
A vagrant who witnessed part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and another man dragged Kealiher ’ s body away , leaving a bloody trail .
Emergency responders were never called to the scene by those involved .
Eshelman has not spoken publicly about the incident himself but his far-left activism is documented .
In November 2016 , he was arrested at a violent antifa riot in Portland against Trump ’ s election win .
He was charged with one count of failing to obey a police officer , but the charge was subsequently dismissed .
He is also a member of the Rum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Online , various antifa activists and groups instructed their comrades to scrub their messages with Kealiher and to not cooperate with police in their investigation .
Kealiher ’ s mother has also come out publicly to demand that nobody associated with her son speak to the media .
While his history of extremism online was known only to his comrades , his violent actions offline were well-documented through law enforcement and the press .
Despite this , local mainstream Democrat politicians joined various antifa activists to publicly mourn his death .
Portland @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is alarming and heartbreaking .
Our deepest sympathies go out to family and friends of the victim.
” And on the Sunday night following his death , Kealiher ’ s comrades responded by vandalizing the Democratic Party of Oregon building with antifa propaganda and spray paint .
The graffiti messages encouraged others to kill law enforcement , among other things .
Brad Martin , the executive director for the Democratic Party of Oregon , downplayed the graffiti and expressed support for the vandals at the time .
He told KATU : “ We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a lot of ways , including the graffiti on the building and we understand that .
It ’ s just paint.
” But for Sean Kealiher , vandalism was never “ just paint.
” In the final paragraph of his “ Manifesto Against Schools , ” it reads : “ We all die anyway , and we will be miserable somehow and somewhere , so why sit by when you can burn ?
Why sit in your room , dreading going to school ?
You need not have to , especially when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ IT DOWN .
”

Originally published 9 JAN 2020.
Last October, a well-known Portland antifa militant was killed under mysterious circumstances after leaving a pub popular with far-left extremists. Sean Daniel Kealiher, 23, was killed near the Cider Riot pub after being hit by a car that had been fired upon with live rounds. His friends dragged his body away and did not call the police.
Kealiher’s death immediately rippled throughout Portland and beyond, leading both the far-left and even establishment Democrat leaders to mourn publicly. A GoFundMe for his funeral raised thousands. And while he was lionized in the press as a murdered “anti-fascist activist” and even called a “martyr” by some, an investigation by The Post Millennial can reveal that newly uncovered evidence show he was far more radical than previously reported. In a series of discovered writings, Kealiher urged fellow comrades to commit violent terrorist acts and led training sessions to radicalize other youth.
Before his death, Kealiher was known in the militant anarchist community as “Armeanio Lewis,” one of the many names he also used online. His radical activism goes back to when he was around 13 or 14 during the Occupy Portland demonstrations in 2011. As a minor, Kealiher was filmed being arrested on numerous occasions. The details of juvenile cases are not available to the public.
Sean Kealiher (right) at a violent protest in Portland in July 2017. Photo: CK Bouferrache
As previously reported by The Post Millennial, Kealiher was filmed in recent years fighting at left-wing protests and threatening journalists who had cameras at public demonstrations. On numerous occasions, he was also seen travelling with members of the Red and Anarchist Skinheads, or RASH, a violent gang-like group known for brawling with right-wingers at riots. It is unknown if Kealiher was a member of the group. But aside from his known street militantism, The Post Millennial can now report that he also authored extreme literature calling for terrorist acts against schools, law enforcement and the public.
An excerpt from a September 2014 zine by Kealiher titled, “Why Break Windows” reads: “From the simple smashing of windows to the placement of a bomb or the robbing of the bank, our actions are heard and felt rather than ignored and treated as everyday life.”
The zine continues: “The attack is the most beautiful moment an anarchist can undertake. Feeling the adrenaline of rushing to a window with a rock in hand, or the moments before striking a cop with your fist. Planting the bomb, pulling the trigger, shouting f— the police!”
In 2015, an 18-year-old Kealiher tried to stop a police officer from investigating an incident of suspected domestic violence, according to a report by Portland Police. The officer notes that Kealiher physically obstructed the investigation, cursed at him and resisted arrest. The officer says the domestic abuse suspect likely used the distraction to flee. Kealiher was found guilty for interfering with a police officer and sentenced to 15 days in jail.
Sean Kealiher (center) with a group of radical anarchists in 2017 in Vancouver, Wash. Photo: CK Bouferrache
Two weeks after his death, Kealiher’s extremist zine romanticizing violent extremism was distributed at a memorial potluck in downtown Portland attended by his mother. Several masked individuals acted as security.
Beyond that tract, Kealiher would go on to author more pieces urging explicit terrorist attacks. On his blog, the “Lumpen Prole Distro,” he uses the pseudonym “Armeanio Lewis” and suggests that his writings may have inspired real-world attacks in Portland.
“Shortly after the publishing of this essay, 15 [Aramak] Trucks, the company that supplies school lunches and prison lunches, were sabotaged,” reads the new preface in a November 2014 update to Kealiher’s “Manifesto Against Schools.” The 12-page document continues: “Shortly after that, an entire condo complex was burned to the ground. This fire was the biggest fire seen in Portland, and everything was torched.”
In August 2013, a 46-unit building under construction in northeast Portland was destroyed in a large fire. The flames spread to surrounding apartment buildings, leading to emergency evacuations of residents and further damage. The heat was so intense on the block that cars parked nearby appeared “melted,” according to media reports. Though the fires were among the largest in the city’s history, causing around $6m worth of damage, nobody was injured. An investigation by authorities determined the fire was started through an arson attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation offered a $5,000 cash reward for information at the time. The incident is listed by the Department of Homeland Security as an instance of far-left domestic terrorism.
Beyond the manifesto’s preface, Kealiher explicitly called for others to engage in violent attacks. “It’s time to get off your knees, unclasp your begging hands and pick a weapon, because those on the other side have already done so,” it reads. The “other side” references current society. “My side, hopefully our side, has so many weapons to choose from. Be it the power of a pen, the strength of a rock, or the power of a gun.”
The manifesto continues: “You can craft your own destruction. Be it burning down a school, smashing a banks window … There is so much to destroy, and so much for you to choose.”
Elsewhere on the blog, Kealiher expressed “unapologetic support” for killing law enforcement and destroying buildings with fires. Most of the blog’s essays were written between 2014–15, when Kealiher was 18 and 19 years old.
A screenshot from Sean Kealiher’s blog written under his pseudonym, ‘Armeanio Lewis’
He also made efforts to export his ideas into real-world training sessions. In December 2013, a 17-year-old Kealiher organized a training event with the intention of introducing minors to extremist anarchist ideas, according to the flyer for the event. He spoke at The Red and Black Cafe, a now-defunct left-wing Portland cafe, using the pseudonym “John Cracklemore.”
Kealiher’s extreme views were also published on various social media platforms. On Reddit, using a different pseudonym, he recounted a time where he says he trained high school students to fight police officers.
Kealiher’s extremism may have eventually landed him under the investigation of federal authorities, however.
In January 2017, Kealiher posted on Facebook that two DHS agents showed up to his mother’s house to try and speak with him. The details of that alleged investigation are unknown. DHS did not respond to The Post Millennial’s request for comment. His mother, Laura Kealiher, declined to comment for the story.
More than three months have passed since Kealiher’s death but Portland Police have not released any new details in their investigation. What is known is that Kealiher was struck by a vehicle following an argument outside the Cider Riot pub. The attorney for Hyatt Eshelman, who was with Kealiher at the time of the incident, says Eshelman pulled out a handgun and fired at the SUV. The vehicle crashed outside the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Oregon, where the driver and passengers fled on foot.
A vagrant who witnessed part of the incident says Eshelman, 26, and another man dragged Kealiher’s body away, leaving a bloody trail. Emergency responders were never called to the scene by those involved. Eshelman has not spoken publicly about the incident himself but his far-left activism is documented. In November 2016, he was arrested at a violent antifa riot in Portland against Trump’s election win. He was charged with one count of failing to obey a police officer, but the charge was subsequently dismissed. He is also a member of the Rum Rebellion, a radical anarchist punk band.
Hyatt Eshelman was arrested at a Portland antifa riot in November 2016
Online, various antifa activists and groups instructed their comrades to scrub their messages with Kealiher and to not cooperate with police in their investigation. Kealiher’s mother has also come out publicly to demand that nobody associated with her son speak to the media.
While his history of extremism online was known only to his comrades, his violent actions offline were well-documented through law enforcement and the press. Despite this, local mainstream Democrat politicians joined various antifa activists to publicly mourn his death. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted: “This is alarming and heartbreaking. Our deepest sympathies go out to family and friends of the victim.”
And on the Sunday night following his death, Kealiher’s comrades responded by vandalizing the Democratic Party of Oregon building with antifa propaganda and spray paint. The graffiti messages encouraged others to kill law enforcement, among other things.
Brad Martin, the executive director for the Democratic Party of Oregon, downplayed the graffiti and expressed support for the vandals at the time. He told KATU: “We know that [pain] expresses itself in a lot of ways, including the graffiti on the building and we understand that. It’s just paint.”
But for Sean Kealiher, vandalism was never “just paint.”
In the final paragraph of his “Manifesto Against Schools,” it reads: “We all die anyway, and we will be miserable somehow and somewhere, so why sit by when you can burn? Why sit in your room, dreading going to school? You need not have to, especially when you can BLOW IT UP OR BURN IT DOWN.”


thelibertydaily--2020-01-20--President Trump and Vice-President Pence Make Unscheduled Visit to MLK Memorial

Moments ago President Trump and Vice President Pence made an unscheduled stop to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in @ @ @ @ @ holiday respects .
The President is scheduled to depart the White House at 6:15pm ET @ @ @ @ @ attend the World Economic Forum in Davos , Switzerland .
The White House has announced @ @ @ @ @ discussions including : • Dr. Barham Salih , President of the Republic of Iraq • @ @ @ @ @ Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Moments ago President Trump and Vice President Pence made an unscheduled stop to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC to pay their holiday respects.
Dr. Barham Salih, President of the Republic of Iraq
Imran Khan of Pakistan, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Simonetta Sommaruga, President of the Swiss Confederation
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Nechirvan Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government
World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab
The President is scheduled to depart the White House at 6:15pm ET, for a trip to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The White House has announced the schedule for several bilateral discussions including:


thelibertydaily--2020-01-20--Globalist Gary Cohn Falsely Claims Tariffs on China ‘Totally Hurt’ U.S.

Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn , who proudly embraces the label “ globalist , ” falsely claimed on Face The Nation that tariffs on Chinese imports have “ totally hurt the United States.
” During a segment , Cohn said without evidence that tariffs “ have hurt the U.S. ” economy and that tariffs did not help secure President Trump ’ s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement ( USMCA ) to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) .
“ I didn ’ t think the steel and aluminum tariffs were helpful to our economy , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t think the tariffs helped us get to any different outcome.
” As Breitbart News ’ s John Carney has reported for more than two years now , Trump ’ s tariffs have not spurred massive price hikes for American consumers on U.S. goods as free trade advocates had claimed for years .
Likewise , Trump ’ s tariffs on cheap , foreign-imported steel and aluminum have led to an economic resurgence in many American towns where steel mills have either reopened or new mills are being built .
Thanks to Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s economic growth has slowed to its weakest pace in three decades , and experts have said major companies are being forced to relocate outside of China .
Contrary to Cohn ’ s claims , researchers have discovered that a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese imports to the U.S. would create about one million American jobs by 2024 .
For decades , free trade has helped gut working and middle-class U.S. jobs and stripped whole middle American towns of their industries and livelihoods .
Since NAFTA was signed and China was allowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearly five million American manufacturing jobs and more than 50,000 manufacturing facilities have been eliminated from the U.S. economy .
This mass elimination of jobs due to free trade has coincided with an almost 600 percent increase in trade deficits and more despair for American communities left in the wake .
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News .
Follow him on Twitter at @ JxhnBinder .

Former White House economic adviser Gary Cohn, who proudly embraces the label “globalist,” falsely claimed on Face The Nation that tariffs on Chinese imports have “totally hurt the United States.”
During a segment, Cohn said without evidence that tariffs “have hurt the U.S.” economy and that tariffs did not help secure President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
“I didn’t think the steel and aluminum tariffs were helpful to our economy,” Cohn said. “I don’t think the tariffs helped us get to any different outcome.”
As Breitbart News’s John Carney has reported for more than two years now, Trump’s tariffs have not spurred massive price hikes for American consumers on U.S. goods as free trade advocates had claimed for years.
Likewise, Trump’s tariffs on cheap, foreign-imported steel and aluminum have led to an economic resurgence in many American towns where steel mills have either reopened or new mills are being built.
Thanks to Trump’s implementation of tariffs, China’s economic growth has slowed to its weakest pace in three decades, and experts have said major companies are being forced to relocate outside of China. Contrary to Cohn’s claims, researchers have discovered that a 25 percent tariff on all Chinese imports to the U.S. would create about one million American jobs by 2024.
For decades, free trade has helped gut working and middle-class U.S. jobs and stripped whole middle American towns of their industries and livelihoods.
Since NAFTA was signed and China was allowed to enter the World Trade Organization, nearly five million American manufacturing jobs and more than 50,000 manufacturing facilities have been eliminated from the U.S. economy. This mass elimination of jobs due to free trade has coincided with an almost 600 percent increase in trade deficits and more despair for American communities left in the wake.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.


thelibertydaily--2020-01-21--HELLO DEMOCRATS! Stop Trying to Replace Family With Big Government!

Daniel Greenfield , a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center , is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism .
`` I had a job teaching at a law school in Houston when the babysitter quit .
Over the next few months I tried all sorts of child care options : another babysitter , a neighbor with kids , and a couple of daycare centers , '' Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote , introducing her Universal Child Care plan .
“ One day I picked up my son Alex from daycare and found that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diaper for who knows how long .
I was upset with the daycare but , more than anything , angry with myself for failing my baby.
” Then her Aunt Bee came to her rescue by arriving and helping out with the baby .
And Warren concludes , `` Not everyone is lucky enough to have an Aunt Bee of their own . ''
Then , as usual , misses her own point , and announces her plan for universal government child care .
Universal government child care would just be the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diaper and left her in tears .
Allegedly .
( Any personal story that Warren tells has to be viewed with suspicion . )
As a law professor , Warren could afford a good daycare center .
Government daycare facilities are much worse .
Here 's a sample of headlines from New York City which has universal 3-K , `` Father Grieves His Toddler Son Beaten to Death at NYC Day Care Center with Numerous Violations '' , `` Health Code Violations Common at NYC Day Care Centers '' , and `` Woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Center . ''
That ’ s what Warren ’ s universal child care would look like .
Children being beaten and kicked by the foot soldiers drafted to provide the latest universal benefit .
There ’ s no government substitute for Aunt Bee .
After our child was born , we had our own Aunt Bee .
Her name is Auntie Barbara .
Our new baby ’ s grandma stayed with us overnight on our first night home from the hospital .
She came back countless nights to walk us through the hardest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When she couldn ’ t be there in person , she was on the phone .
Her grandpa came and held her in his arms through meals and dinners .
And Auntie Barbara also came night after night to hold her and soothe her .
Warren is right .
Not everyone is lucky enough to have an Aunt Bee or Barbara .
The question is why .
A new study from the Institute for Family Studies notes that California ’ s upper classes enjoy the benefits of a family structure that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it comes to their own families , California elites with kids overwhelmingly ‘ live right ’ in private , giving their children the benefit of growing up in a two-parent family .
In fact , this pattern of talking left and living right plays out at the neighborhood level in the Golden State as well .
It turns out that some of the most elite neighborhoods in the state—including several in Hollywood and San Francisco—have virtually no single parents.
” That ’ s true , not only in California , but around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Murray documented the gap in social values between the working class and the upper class .
Marriage had become an asset for wealthier groups while declining in poorer areas .
The disintegration of the two-parent family has gotten more attention than the similar collapse of the extended family .
Warren not only had the support of her husband , but of her extended family .
These days she has the support of the sort of media publications who write explainers about how to argue with more conservative members of the extended family over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The disintegration of communities , of the extended family , and finally the family , ushered in the social problems of the modern age .
And the ability to create communities is at the heart of social stability .
There can be no sustained prosperity without community .
The welfare state is a poor replacement for a community whose members know and support each other .
Government child care is an even worse replacement for Aunt Bee .
And no amount of government services can replace a two-parent family .
The missing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difference between Aunt Bee and a daycare worker kicking one of the children in her care is values .
Government entitlements are abstract legal moralizing that are very different than a personal sense of obligation .
It ’ s the difference between caring and not caring .
Charity and morality are not just jobs .
Progressives have declared wars on hunger and poverty .
But the soldiers fighting those wars are as indifferent to their outcomes as the armies of any empire fighting for a cause they don ’ t believe in .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ generation of children .
There ’ s no collective solution to personal problems .
The war on child care will be fought and lost by the same forces that lost the war on poverty .
It will be implemented along the same lines as the failed public education system .
The soldiers will be recent immigrants working in the basements of daycare centers with too many kids and too many regulations .
The quality standards won ’ t be met and every attempt to tighten them will just make things worse .
Warren @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that you can ’ t collectivize Aunt Bee .
What most people miss about the Left is that its elites have built successful communities .
Its members are often the products of inherited wealth .
They succeed because of strong family structures .
As adults , they integrate into communities , social , academic , and cultural , that pursue the same goals .
These goals include breaking up traditional and conservative communities by undermining their structures and their values .
And then offering to replace them with government services .
We often @ @ @ @ @ @ @ structure of the family .
It ’ s more accurate to say that it undermined the structure of other people ’ s families .
Just as it has shredded the values on which traditional community structures were based .
The decline of traditional families and communities allowed the Left to grow stronger by building up the power of its own communities and families .
What the Left set out to do was to destroy the social stability of the working class , undermining its communities , its families , and its values .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ from its Eisenhower stability , could it advance its radical program for seizing power and transforming the country .
The America of broken families and shattered communities , of drug epidemics , lost industries , absent jobs , political extremism , religious decline , and loss of faith in everything is the triumph of the radicals .
But this is only part of the picture .
The other part is a Left that has built up its economic niches into industries , creating rewarding jobs for its own class , whether in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or cultural industries .
While shattering traditional communities by destroying their economies and values , it has built up its own communities along the lines of its economic programs and its own cultural and social values .
This new system has been funded by managing the traditional communities they have destroyed .
There is a term for it .
Colonialism .
America ’ s traditional values , its communities and its economy were shattered and then colonized .
Lefties want to live in these colonies in the nation that they broke while denying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does not want to live in the world it made for everyone else .
Senator Warren wanted Aunt Bee .
Not the daycare center she ’ s pitching to others .
Lefties like Warren want the two-parent family and the extended family .
They want rewarding careers and a supportive community based around their values .
They want to monopolize the power of family while denying it to everyone else .
The family bonus is an incredible financial force multiplier .
The progressive solution of running everyone through college while offering them and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that , “ the average Black bachelor ’ s degree family with a head born between 1970 and 1989 had no more wealth than the average Black nongraduate family with a head born in the same decade ” .
Instead , “ Whites are the only racial or ethnic group born in the 1980s for whom a bachelor ’ s degree provides a family with a reliable wealth advantage over comparable nongraduate families—albeit one that is much smaller than those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Income doesn ’ t necessarily mean wealth .
The social stability provided by family and community transforms wealth into income .
The decline in the college wealth premium reflects the universalization of higher education and the decline of the qualities that made it possible to lock in the advantages an increased income .
Higher income without stability doesn ’ t lead to greater wealth , but to greater debt .
And that holds back individuals and the economy .
Without familial stability , the country ’ s economy is doomed .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are officially created or what initiatives are announced .
Wealth and productivity can ’ t be carried forward by collective policies , but only by individual choices .
That ’ s as true of all of life as it is of child care .
The family is the basis for all human productivity .
When the family is undermined , productivity will not be sustained even when it ’ s aided by technological innovation and revolutionary scientific discoveries .
Government can give people benefits , but not a sense of purpose .
Family @ @ @

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
“I had a job teaching at a law school in Houston when the babysitter quit. Over the next few months I tried all sorts of child care options: another babysitter, a neighbor with kids, and a couple of daycare centers,” Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote, introducing her Universal Child Care plan. “One day I picked up my son Alex from daycare and found that he had been left in a dirty diaper for who knows how long. I was upset with the daycare but, more than anything, angry with myself for failing my baby.”
Then her Aunt Bee came to her rescue by arriving and helping out with the baby. And Warren concludes, “Not everyone is lucky enough to have an Aunt Bee of their own.”
Then, as usual, misses her own point, and announces her plan for universal government child care.
Universal government child care would just be the same daycare that left Alex in a dirty diaper and left her in tears. Allegedly. (Any personal story that Warren tells has to be viewed with suspicion.) As a law professor, Warren could afford a good daycare center. Government daycare facilities are much worse.
Here’s a sample of headlines from New York City which has universal 3-K, “Father Grieves His Toddler Son Beaten to Death at NYC Day Care Center with Numerous Violations”, “Health Code Violations Common at NYC Day Care Centers”, and “Woman Seen Kicking Child at Brooklyn Day Care Center.”
That’s what Warren’s universal child care would look like. Children being beaten and kicked by the foot soldiers drafted to provide the latest universal benefit. There’s no government substitute for Aunt Bee.
After our child was born, we had our own Aunt Bee. Her name is Auntie Barbara.
Our new baby’s grandma stayed with us overnight on our first night home from the hospital. She came back countless nights to walk us through the hardest parts of caring for a new baby. When she couldn’t be there in person, she was on the phone. Her grandpa came and held her in his arms through meals and dinners. And Auntie Barbara also came night after night to hold her and soothe her.
Warren is right. Not everyone is lucky enough to have an Aunt Bee or Barbara. The question is why.
A new study from the Institute for Family Studies notes that California’s upper classes enjoy the benefits of a family structure that the culture they promote rejects. “When it comes to their own families, California elites with kids overwhelmingly ‘live right’ in private, giving their children the benefit of growing up in a two-parent family. In fact, this pattern of talking left and living right plays out at the neighborhood level in the Golden State as well. It turns out that some of the most elite neighborhoods in the state—including several in Hollywood and San Francisco—have virtually no single parents.”
That’s true, not only in California, but around the country.
In Coming Apart, Charles Murray documented the gap in social values between the working class and the upper class. Marriage had become an asset for wealthier groups while declining in poorer areas.
The disintegration of the two-parent family has gotten more attention than the similar collapse of the extended family. Warren not only had the support of her husband, but of her extended family. These days she has the support of the sort of media publications who write explainers about how to argue with more conservative members of the extended family over Thanksgiving. And break up the family.
The disintegration of communities, of the extended family, and finally the family, ushered in the social problems of the modern age. And the ability to create communities is at the heart of social stability.
There can be no sustained prosperity without community.
The welfare state is a poor replacement for a community whose members know and support each other. Government child care is an even worse replacement for Aunt Bee. And no amount of government services can replace a two-parent family. The missing X factor are the values.
The difference between Aunt Bee and a daycare worker kicking one of the children in her care is values.
Government entitlements are abstract legal moralizing that are very different than a personal sense of obligation. It’s the difference between caring and not caring. Charity and morality are not just jobs. Progressives have declared wars on hunger and poverty. But the soldiers fighting those wars are as indifferent to their outcomes as the armies of any empire fighting for a cause they don’t believe in.
You can’t mass produce a generation of children. There’s no collective solution to personal problems.
The war on child care will be fought and lost by the same forces that lost the war on poverty. It will be implemented along the same lines as the failed public education system. The soldiers will be recent immigrants working in the basements of daycare centers with too many kids and too many regulations. The quality standards won’t be met and every attempt to tighten them will just make things worse.
Warren and her colleagues have failed to understand that you can’t collectivize Aunt Bee.
What most people miss about the Left is that its elites have built successful communities. Its members are often the products of inherited wealth. They succeed because of strong family structures. As adults, they integrate into communities, social, academic, and cultural, that pursue the same goals.
These goals include breaking up traditional and conservative communities by undermining their structures and their values. And then offering to replace them with government services.
We often say that the Left has undermined the structure of the family. It’s more accurate to say that it undermined the structure of other people’s families. Just as it has shredded the values on which traditional community structures were based. The decline of traditional families and communities allowed the Left to grow stronger by building up the power of its own communities and families.
What the Left set out to do was to destroy the social stability of the working class, undermining its communities, its families, and its values. Only by bringing down the working class from its Eisenhower stability, could it advance its radical program for seizing power and transforming the country.
The America of broken families and shattered communities, of drug epidemics, lost industries, absent jobs, political extremism, religious decline, and loss of faith in everything is the triumph of the radicals.
But this is only part of the picture.
The other part is a Left that has built up its economic niches into industries, creating rewarding jobs for its own class, whether in the government sector, the non-profit sector, or cultural industries. While shattering traditional communities by destroying their economies and values, it has built up its own communities along the lines of its economic programs and its own cultural and social values.
This new system has been funded by managing the traditional communities they have destroyed.
There is a term for it. Colonialism.
America’s traditional values, its communities and its economy were shattered and then colonized. Lefties want to live in these colonies in the nation that they broke while denying them to everyone else.
The Left does not want to live in the world it made for everyone else. Senator Warren wanted Aunt Bee. Not the daycare center she’s pitching to others. Lefties like Warren want the two-parent family and the extended family. They want rewarding careers and a supportive community based around their values.
They want to monopolize the power of family while denying it to everyone else.
The family bonus is an incredible financial force multiplier. The progressive solution of running everyone through college while offering them and everyone else government freebies has failed miserably.
A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that, “the average Black bachelor’s degree family with a head born between 1970 and 1989 had no more wealth than the average Black nongraduate family with a head born in the same decade”. Instead, “Whites are the only racial or ethnic group born in the 1980s for whom a bachelor’s degree provides a family with a reliable wealth advantage over comparable nongraduate families—albeit one that is much smaller than those enjoyed by earlier cohorts of college graduates.” Income doesn’t necessarily mean wealth.
The social stability provided by family and community transforms wealth into income. The decline in the college wealth premium reflects the universalization of higher education and the decline of the qualities that made it possible to lock in the advantages an increased income. Higher income without stability doesn’t lead to greater wealth, but to greater debt. And that holds back individuals and the economy.
Forget, “It’s The Economy, Stupid”. It’s The Family, Stupid.
Without familial stability, the country’s economy is doomed. It doesn’t matter how many jobs are officially created or what initiatives are announced. Wealth and productivity can’t be carried forward by collective policies, but only by individual choices. That’s as true of all of life as it is of child care.
The family is the basis for all human productivity. When the family is undermined, productivity will not be sustained even when it’s aided by technological innovation and revolutionary scientific discoveries.
Government can give people benefits, but not a sense of purpose. Family does that.


thelibertydaily--2020-01-21--SOLITARY: Democrat Creepy Porn Lawyer Michael Avenatti Transferred To El Chapo’s Former Cell In New

SOLITARY: Democrat Creepy Porn Lawyer Michael Avenatti Transferred To El Chapo’s Former Cell In New York Jail

New legal documents published Monday night reveal that showboat attorney and former cable news star Michael Avenatti has been transferred from a California jail to an infamous New York jail after violating the terms of his pre-trial agreement .
Avenatti was arrested at a hearing of the California Bar Association last weekend .
New documents published by his attorney surfaced Monday , revealing that Avenatti was transferred from California to New York over the weekend and jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center .
Avenatti is currently facing criminal charges related to an alleged extortion of Nike , in which the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sporting company with legal and press campaign against it if it failed to provide him with millions of dollars .
The documents assert that he has been housed in a cell formerly occupied by Mexican Cartel boss El Chapo , an infamous global criminal who has since been transferred to a federal prison in Colorado known as the most secure in the country .
take our poll - story continues below In another strange twist , the Metropolitan Correctional Center was the location of infamous billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein ’ s detention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s lawyers are asking for him to be removed from protective custody and placed in general population in order to effectively litigate his ongoing court case .
With the once-hyped potential presidential candidate literally being housed in El Chapo ’ s former jail cell , it ’ s hard to think of a more dramatic character arc for the celebrity lawyer .
Around a year ago , Avenatti was still exploring the possibility of a campaign for the Democratic nomination .
As he fights against criminal charges that could carry a penalty of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appears unlikely that Avenatti will be getting anywhere with any political ambitions anytime soon .

SOLITARY: Michael Avenatti Transferred To El Chapo’s Former Cell In New York Jail
New legal documents published Monday night reveal that showboat attorney and former cable news star Michael Avenatti has been transferred from a California jail to an infamous New York jail after violating the terms of his pre-trial agreement.
Avenatti was arrested at a hearing of the California Bar Association last weekend.
New documents published by his attorney surfaced Monday, revealing that Avenatti was transferred from California to New York over the weekend and jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. Avenatti is currently facing criminal charges related to an alleged extortion of Nike, in which the showboat attorney is said to have threatened the sporting company with legal and press campaign against it if it failed to provide him with millions of dollars.
The documents assert that he has been housed in a cell formerly occupied by Mexican Cartel boss El Chapo, an infamous global criminal who has since been transferred to a federal prison in Colorado known as the most secure in the country.
In another strange twist, the Metropolitan Correctional Center was the location of infamous billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s detention and controversial “suicide.”
Avenatti’s lawyers are asking for him to be removed from protective custody and placed in general population in order to effectively litigate his ongoing court case.
With the once-hyped potential presidential candidate literally being housed in El Chapo’s former jail cell, it’s hard to think of a more dramatic character arc for the celebrity lawyer. Around a year ago, Avenatti was still exploring the possibility of a campaign for the Democratic nomination.
As he fights against criminal charges that could carry a penalty of a life sentence in prison, it appears unlikely that Avenatti will be getting anywhere with any political ambitions anytime soon.


thelibertydaily--2020-01-21--‘Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman’: What to Expect From 2020 March for Life

“ Life Empowers : Pro-life Is Pro-Woman ” is the theme of this year ’ s March for Life , set to take place Friday in the nation ’ s capital .
Since 1974 , the March for Life has gathered to remember the lives lost since the Supreme Court ’ s Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion , and to remind America that each life has value .
Jeanne Mancini , president of the March for Life , joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss what to expect at this year ’ s march and where the pro-life movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Listen to the podcast or read the lightly edited transcript below .
Virginia Allen : I am joined by the president of March for Life , Jeanne Mancini .
Jeanne , thank you so much for being with me today .
Jeanne Mancini : Thanks so much for having me , Virginia .
Allen : Now , March for Life began in January of 1974 , one year after the passage of Roe v. Wade .
March for Life really started out just as a small , peaceful demonstration , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largest pro-life event .
The 2020 march is taking place on Jan. 24 in Washington , D.C. Can you share with us what the theme is that you all chose for this year ’ s march ?
Mancini : I ’ d love to and if it ’ s OK , I ’ ll just give a little bit of backdrop that every year we do a lot of thinking and discerning about the appropriate theme because with the March for Life being the only place where all of the different pro-life groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an awesome springboard to message , essentially , about what we think are the most cutting edge , most pressing issues in building a culture of life .
Themes in past years have included adoption and nubile decision .
Another year , in fact , last year , we had pro-life as pro-science and really delved into the science behind embryology and some of the wonderful neonatal surgeries available , etc .
This year our theme is “ Life Empowers : Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman.
” And , of course , this is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the 19th Amendment , which created a woman ’ s right to vote .
So it ’ s a great opportunity to go back and look at the suffragist , the early feminist , the early female leaders who recognize the inherent dignity of women and the inherent dignity of the unborn .
We ’ re not at odds with each other and they had a really good understanding about that .
We ’ re having a lot of fun with this theme and we ’ re excited to be able to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Allen : Absolutely .
Now , who is speaking at this year ’ s march ?
Mancini : We ’ ve got a great , great , great lineup and stay tuned because there are more announcements to be made even tomorrow .
Legislatively , we will welcome to the stage Representative Chris Smith , as well as state Representative , state Senator , as of yesterday , Katrina Jackson .
Chris Smith is very well-known .
He ’ s from New Jersey and just a stalwart on our issues .
Katrina Jackson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s one of the few pro-life Democrats and , in particular , we ’ re so interested to have her this year because she was the author of the bill in Louisiana related to abortion clinic regulations that then became a law .
And now will go before the Supreme Court in March .
And so it ’ ll be very interesting to hear from Senator Jackson .
So those are some of our legislative speakers and there ’ s a few more to be there .
We have Claire Culwell and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incredibly inspiring stories .
They both survived abortion , essentially .
And their lives are such witnesses and so they ’ re going to share their stories .
And , of course , we ’ ll link that very much to the born-alive discharge petition in the House .
Right now we ’ ve got Jim Daly from Focus on the Family , Marjorie Dannenfelser , head of Susan B. Anthony List—a good year for Marjorie to speak with the theme .
Another wonderful woman , she ’ s a pro-life leader in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also have a local pastor , David Platt from McLean Bible Church , a very well-known church here in the D.C. area .
He will be doing our closing prayer .
And , like I said , we ’ ve got a few more announcements .
And I should say our favorite speaker , at least when we do our surveys after the March for Life , is almost always the young person that speaks because , of course , by and large the participants in the March for Life are young people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who ’ s speaking this year is Catalina Scheider Galiñanes .
And she is from Oakcrest , a school in Vienna , Virginia .
She ’ s going to speak about why she ’ s pro-life .
Allen : Wow .
So many amazing speakers .
I really look forward myself to hearing many of them at the event on the 24th .
People come to March for Life in Washington , D.C. , from states all across America .
What is that message or motivation that you are really hoping that marchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home states and their communities ?
Mancini : The March for Life is very interesting in that it ’ s a place to come and witness and testify to the beautiful inherent dignity of the unborn person .
And yet , ironically , for those of us who participate in the march every year , it ’ s an opportunity for our own hearts and minds to be changed even more about this issue .
I ’ ll just give you a quick example of that … I know I ’ m kind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here , but I had a family member come and participate from out West last year and it was the first time he had come and he ’ s always been pro-life , but it was quite a sacrifice to come .
He and his wife and one of his children came and had a really beautiful time .
I think … his eyes were opened to the significance of the issue and perhaps his heart was changed even more in the direction of life .
And while he had a very busy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a … I guess you could say a break from work for a few months as he was changing to a new job .
This year , he ’ s again coming because he realized how important it is and it ’ s like , again , his own experience was changed and he wants to do more in his local community .
So what I would say is that the March for Life , again , while it ’ s a moment to testify and to give witness in the public square @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our own hearts .
Our deepest hope as those of us who pull this event together is that marchers go back home and make a difference in their local community .
Because if it ’ s just one day that we ’ re coming together and are really [ having a ] motivating and exciting day , then we ’ re not doing our job .
The job is really recognizing that we each have a role to play in building a culture of life and to do that in the area where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of working in that area where you ’ re planted , you all have also launched a number of marches across America in different cities .
Why did you feel that it was important to not just have the national march but also to have marches in states across America ?
Mancini : Well , a few years ago as a pro-life organization in D.C , .
we found that we were being tapped to do all things and there was a bit of … mission creep even within the organization , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some reflection .
After some time I think we were all a little bit burned out and it gave us an opportunity to really look interiorly as well as look up to God and really think about why was the March created and what do we bring to the pro-life movement and to building a culture of life that no other pro-life group brings .
So , what can we do better and more of to end abortion , to change hearts and minds so that abortion is unthinkable in our country ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ask us , “ What is the single thing that you get the most calls about or the most questions about ?
” It was to help groups start marches in their states and in their local areas .
We didn ’ t really have the bandwidth to do that well .
I mean , we had sort of a very informal toolkit and we take calls and try to give technical assistance , but for the most part , we weren ’ t really staffed up to be able to help groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So all of that led to a lot of soul-searching and deep discernment with the board .
We decided to try as a beta test , a state march program .
So our first state march was in Virginia last year and it was in April and we brought out over 7,000 people for it .
And we ’ re the lead story on the Richmond Times-Dispatch , which is the local Richmond paper .
And for so many reasons , it was a huge success and we didn ’ t quite anticipate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a success as it was .
So this year we ’ ll have a second march in Virginia on Feb. 13 .
We ’ ll also have a march in Pennsylvania .
That ’ s on May 18 .
And a march in Hartford , Connecticut , on April 15 .
Stay tuned for more announcements .
Allen : That ’ s so exciting .
I do want to take just a moment to ask you to share a little bit about your own pro-life journey and how you got connected with March @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well , thank you for asking that .
Well , let ’ s see .
I grew up in a Catholic family and social justice and just understanding human dignity was something that was ingrained in my understanding of life and the most important things of life .
… I was 1 of 5 .
So we loved life , my family , and definitely lived in a way that was very respectful of life .
… After college , I did a volunteer corps , I did something called the Jesuit Volunteer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that were in a crisis setting .
They were in a youth crisis shelter .
They were being moved either from a situation that wasn ’ t safe for them to be in or they ’ d been found on the streets .
And there was a long-term search for more of a permanent home , whether that was going to be foster care or a residential treatment center or what have you .
So my time working with those young people was very informative and I grappled a lot with the deeper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some of these lives hadn ’ t been born ?
Is it unfair to bring some lives into the world when there ’ s such a difficult scenario and such heavy crosses that these people carry that nobody ’ s ever really meant to carry ?
Anyways , I did a lot of sort of introspection and I came out on the other side really recognizing that every life is a gift .
And I guess realizing with humility , who am I to judge the value of someone ’ s life because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen to them ?
And then along the way I ’ ve had different experiences , obviously , in life .
For certain one experience [ that ] weighs heavily on my heart is two people very close to me when I was in college decided to have an abortion and they didn ’ t tell me before , they told me after .
And then in some cases it was a long time after .
Just hearing the pain that they underwent was so sad and even this terrible guilt that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s always hope and healing .
And I should say that to anyone listening to your podcast , anyone who ’ s been involved in abortion , there ’ s so many wonderful groups and people to speak with to find hope and healing after having been involved in abortion .
But I just realized personally through these people who were close to me that women deserve so much better than abortion .
It was just a lived experience of what I ’ d always believed but I thought in a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , along the way there have been many different I guess you could say epiphanies throughout my life .
And you asked how I ended up getting to the March for Life .
So this is a very long-winded way of answering that .
But I guess about 10 or 11 years ago , I was working with Family Research Council and I was their pro-life spokesperson and just loved that job .
It was so fun and I got to do a lot of policy analysis , which is really what I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few years into that job , I was asked to join the board of the March for Life .
And I did expecting just to be a board member for a period of time .
But I never really made it to my first board meeting without a major happening .
And that was that the founder of the March for Life , Nellie Gray , passed away before I went to my first board meeting .
So my first board meeting was an emergency board meeting where we were coming up with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to continue the march .
In a short-term capacity , I and another board member , Patrick Kelly , took on the leadership and we thought we ’ d we had our plans for how that was going to happen and here I am seven and a half years later , still working with the March for Life .
And lots has changed over that time .
But it ’ s just been a big blessing .
Allen : Certainly .
That ’ s so neat just to hear that background and your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those pieces came together .
It ’ s really , really neat .
Allen : Increasingly , unfortunately , we are seeing an attitude among the pro-choice movement .
It is really not only pro-abortion but advocates flaunting abortion .
And you know , we see this through the Shout Your Abortion movement , examples like actress Michelle Williams during her award acceptance speech at the Golden Globes .
We could go on and on , but what should the response of pro-lifers be to this really blatantly pro-abortion rhetoric ?
Mancini : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to just have great confidence in what we believe .
So , to remember that reality is not arbitrary and that calling something a certain name or saying that something shouldn ’ t have stigma or shame or what have you doesn ’ t make it so .
Abortion—whatever you ’ re going to call it , if you ’ re going to shout it , if you ’ re going to tell your story about it , etc.—always takes the life of one and most frequently wounds the life of another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t change that reality .
So I think just to A , recognize that .
And then B—this might sound a little counterintuitive based on what I just said—to take a very merciful approach .
I mean , look , we are in a culture of what I would describe as the walking wounded because so many women and men have been involved in abortion and that very much impacts their response to these kinds of things .
There ’ s so much woundedness around it .
And so I think approaching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of mercy and love and tenderness is critical .
And … I feel that we don ’ t ever have to twist someone ’ s arm behind their back to agree with us because we should have so much confidence .
Life is inherently beautiful and the pro-life message is so positive and attractive .
So we really just need to show it for what it is instead of twisting someone ’ s arm behind their back if they don ’ t agree with us .
Conversely , the more that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abortion procedures , it ’ s dark .
I mean , it ’ s really , really dark .
So to the extent that we can show that reality for what it is as well , and certainly try to prevent people from any kind of pain and loss of life .
I think that ’ s important too .
Allen : President [ Donald ] Trump is often referred to as the most pro-life president in history .
Looking back at his first three years in office , what , to you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pro-life victories of his administration ?
Mancini : Oh , that ’ s a great question .
In terms of really creating pro-life policy , I would agree he has done more for the pro-life movement than any president when it comes to enacting policy .
Because of my job , I have to just start by talking about the March for Life .
Prior to the Trump administration , we never had a president or vice president of the United States come to the march .
In fact , a speech writer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a former speech writer , that presidents were counseled to go to Camp David around the time of the March for Life because they didn ’ t want to be photoed with some graphic images or something like that .
So … there ’ s almost been a real fear at top levels to associate with something this important .
And we ’ ve seen the opposite from this White House .
And it ’ s been incredible .
I will never , ever , ever forget one week after being inaugurated , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the March for Life and Kellyanne Conway , who ran a successful campaign .
And that was , again , the first time .
It was a historic moment because it was the first time ever in the history of a March [ for Life ] that a standing vice president had come and spoken in person .
Then the following year , President Trump addressed the marchers about a mile away from the rally .
So he was in the Rose Garden and there were a couple hundred young people there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ big jumbotrons at the rally ’ s site .
We broadcast that live and that was very exciting .
Last year , again , we had Mrs. [ Karen ] Pence and the vice president .
So it ’ s just been incredible to have that level of support from the administration .
But in terms of amazing policies that they ’ ve enacted—gosh , there ’ s been so much .
One of my personal favorites is the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy that had been formerly called the Mexico @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been reinstated and broadened .
Another favorite , of course , would be Supreme Court appointments , nominations and confirmations of both Justice [ Neil ] Gorsuch and [ Justice Brett ] Kavanaugh .
And then all of the excellent judicial nominations that are going to be at the appeals court and the district court , I think there have been over 218 of those .
I don ’ t have the number right in front of me , but it ’ s high .
Returning Title 10 funding decisions to the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I mean , again and again , there have been so many really , really great things .
Allen : Yeah .
And just earlier this month , over 200 members of Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade .
Of course , like you mentioned , we ’ ve seen all of these great new policies and legislation come out of the Trump administration .
Also … 2019 did see some really devastating pro-choice legislation pushed forward .
So what do you think we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s a great question .
Well , I think that some of the things that we need to think about are , first of all , the election .
And the March for Life doesn ’ t endorse candidates , but we do educate .
And I think that elections matter .
I know having worked in the Office of the Secretary at HHS [ the Department of Health and Human Services ] and seeing all of the policies change—I was there during the Bush administration and then in the beginning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say the pro-life vote makes such a difference .
So , elections matter and to prepare well for the election ahead because it ’ s going to be a big year .
That ’ s one thing .
I know that something that we are very much focusing on at the March for Life this year is the born-alive discharge petition and just the born-alive troops .
You mentioned that there have been so many extreme laws enacted at the state , though .
Of course , Illinois now passed the Reproductive Act @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most pro-abortion state in our country .
New York , of course , did last year .
Vermont passed another similar law .
Essentially , it ’ s just so critical that we ’ re aware of these kinds of things and that we do as much as we possibly can to message on the truth about things like the born-alive discharge petition or born-alive bills at the level of the state by the ERA , etc.
, etc .
… You asked the question and it ’ s a little hard to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ] .
The elections are in front of us .
We have a mixed Senate and House , so it ’ s hard to pass the federal legislation right now .
And then in the states there ’ s all sorts of different things happening .
So to fight the extreme stuff , especially in places like Virginia , my own home state , and we ’ re seeing the ERA [ Equal Rights Amendment ] is going to get voted on soon there , but to continue as much as we possibly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for example , the Born-Alive [ Abortion Survivors Protection ] Act , which any person with common sense would agree with .
Allen : And you recently co-authored a commentary for The Daily Signal titled “ Early Feminists Were Right About Unborn Human Life.
” Can you tell us a little bit more about these American suffragists ?
Mancini : I would love to .
To the best of my knowledge , I don ’ t think that there is even one suffragist who was pro-abortion .
So we ’ ve got some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alice Paul , who called abortion the ultimate exploitation of women .
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was very strong in her views on this .
Of course , Susan B. Anthony , etc .
But these early female pioneers , again , knew that a woman ’ s capacity for fertility and motherhood wasn ’ t a liability , but that it was a beautiful thing .
I think they saw men and women as being equal in dignity but different not having to do away with the part of them that can make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wonderful to look back and to see sort of this first wave of feminists and where they were coming from and their understanding of these kinds of issues .
And then to see sort of where things are today and how far we ’ ve gotten from that .
For any of your listeners who have an interest in that , I can not highly recommend enough coming to our conference the day before the March for Life .
Our keynote is one of my favorite speakers , especially on this topic .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a legal scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center .
And she ’ s got so much to say about this and herself has a tremendous testimony and story of coming from a more pro-abortion feminist perspective to where she is today .
And then we have a stellar lineup of panelists , very much speaking to different nuances about this .
Sue Ellen Browder will be speaking , she ’ s an author , she wrote a wonderful book called “ Subverted.
” Now she ’ s got a book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Catholic Feminist.
” She ’ s essentially going to go into this question that you just asked me , what the early suffragettes said and a history of that .
She ’ ll read quotes and papers , etc .
We also have Christina Francis , OB-GYN , who ’ s the chairman of the board of AAPLOG , the American Association of Pro-life OB-GYNs , and she ’ s going to talk about the consequences of abortion and especially the physiological consequences .
We also have Mary McCluskey , who works with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men who regret having been involved in abortion .
And then Brandi Swindell , who ’ s the founder and CEO of Stanton Healthcare—named after Elizabeth Cady Stanton , of course , an early suffragist .
So I highly recommend coming in and hearing about our theme .
Allen : And how can our listeners find out more about the march that ’ s happening in D.C. and then the state marches that are going to be taking place throughout this year ?
Mancini : Well , follow us on all of our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ check us out particularly on our website at marchforlife.org , and you can count down the hours , like you mentioned , Virginia , right at the beginning .
Allen : Yeah .
Thank you so much , Jeanne .
We just really appreciate your time .
Mancini : Thanks for having me .
It ’ s been a pleasure .

“Life Empowers: Pro-life Is Pro-Woman” is the theme of this year’s March for Life, set to take place Friday in the nation’s capital. Since 1974, the March for Life has gathered to remember the lives lost since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion, and to remind America that each life has value.
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, joins The Daily Signal Podcast to discuss what to expect at this year’s march and where the pro-life movement as a whole is headed in 2020. Listen to the podcast or read the lightly edited transcript below.
Virginia Allen: I am joined by the president of March for Life, Jeanne Mancini. Jeanne, thank you so much for being with me today.
Jeanne Mancini: Thanks so much for having me, Virginia.
Allen: Now, March for Life began in January of 1974, one year after the passage of Roe v. Wade. March for Life really started out just as a small, peaceful demonstration, but it quickly grew into the world’s largest pro-life event. The 2020 march is taking place on Jan. 24 in Washington, D.C. Can you share with us what the theme is that you all chose for this year’s march?
Mancini: I’d love to and if it’s OK, I’ll just give a little bit of backdrop that every year we do a lot of thinking and discerning about the appropriate theme because with the March for Life being the only place where all of the different pro-life groups come together annually, it’s an awesome springboard to message, essentially, about what we think are the most cutting edge, most pressing issues in building a culture of life.
Themes in past years have included adoption and nubile decision. Another year, in fact, last year, we had pro-life as pro-science and really delved into the science behind embryology and some of the wonderful neonatal surgeries available, etc.
This year our theme is “Life Empowers: Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman.” And, of course, this is the year where we celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which created a woman’s right to vote.
So it’s a great opportunity to go back and look at the suffragist, the early feminist, the early female leaders who recognize the inherent dignity of women and the inherent dignity of the unborn. We’re not at odds with each other and they had a really good understanding about that.
We’re having a lot of fun with this theme and we’re excited to be able to talk about that more next week.
Allen: Absolutely. Now, who is speaking at this year’s march?
Mancini: We’ve got a great, great, great lineup and stay tuned because there are more announcements to be made even tomorrow.
Legislatively, we will welcome to the stage Representative Chris Smith, as well as state Representative, state Senator, as of yesterday, Katrina Jackson.
Chris Smith is very well-known. He’s from New Jersey and just a stalwart on our issues.
Katrina Jackson as well is very interesting because she’s one of the few pro-life Democrats and, in particular, we’re so interested to have her this year because she was the author of the bill in Louisiana related to abortion clinic regulations that then became a law. And now will go before the Supreme Court in March. And so it’ll be very interesting to hear from Senator Jackson.
So those are some of our legislative speakers and there’s a few more to be there.
We have Claire Culwell and Melissa Ohden. They both have these incredibly inspiring stories. They both survived abortion, essentially. And their lives are such witnesses and so they’re going to share their stories. And, of course, we’ll link that very much to the born-alive discharge petition in the House.
Right now we’ve got Jim Daly from Focus on the Family, Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of Susan B. Anthony List—a good year for Marjorie to speak with the theme. Another wonderful woman, she’s a pro-life leader in New Mexico, Lisa Martinez.
We also have a local pastor, David Platt from McLean Bible Church, a very well-known church here in the D.C. area. He will be doing our closing prayer.
And, like I said, we’ve got a few more announcements. And I should say our favorite speaker, at least when we do our surveys after the March for Life, is almost always the young person that speaks because, of course, by and large the participants in the March for Life are young people.
Our one specific designated young person who’s speaking this year is Catalina Scheider Galiñanes. And she is from Oakcrest, a school in Vienna, Virginia. She’s going to speak about why she’s pro-life.
Allen: Wow. So many amazing speakers. I really look forward myself to hearing many of them at the event on the 24th.
People come to March for Life in Washington, D.C., from states all across America. What is that message or motivation that you are really hoping that marchers will take with them back to their home states and their communities?
Mancini: The March for Life is very interesting in that it’s a place to come and witness and testify to the beautiful inherent dignity of the unborn person. And yet, ironically, for those of us who participate in the march every year, it’s an opportunity for our own hearts and minds to be changed even more about this issue.
I’ll just give you a quick example of that … I know I’m kind of backing my way into the answer here, but I had a family member come and participate from out West last year and it was the first time he had come and he’s always been pro-life, but it was quite a sacrifice to come.
He and his wife and one of his children came and had a really beautiful time. I think … his eyes were opened to the significance of the issue and perhaps his heart was changed even more in the direction of life.
And while he had a very busy schedule last year with having kind of a … I guess you could say a break from work for a few months as he was changing to a new job. This year, he’s again coming because he realized how important it is and it’s like, again, his own experience was changed and he wants to do more in his local community.
So what I would say is that the March for Life, again, while it’s a moment to testify and to give witness in the public square about the unborn, it also changes our own hearts.
Our deepest hope as those of us who pull this event together is that marchers go back home and make a difference in their local community. Because if it’s just one day that we’re coming together and are really [having a] motivating and exciting day, then we’re not doing our job. The job is really recognizing that we each have a role to play in building a culture of life and to do that in the area where we are planted.
Allen: Speaking of working in that area where you’re planted, you all have also launched a number of marches across America in different cities. Why did you feel that it was important to not just have the national march but also to have marches in states across America?
Mancini: Well, a few years ago as a pro-life organization in D.C,. we found that we were being tapped to do all things and there was a bit of … mission creep even within the organization, not terribly so, but it allowed for some reflection.
After some time I think we were all a little bit burned out and it gave us an opportunity to really look interiorly as well as look up to God and really think about why was the March created and what do we bring to the pro-life movement and to building a culture of life that no other pro-life group brings.
So, what can we do better and more of to end abortion, to change hearts and minds so that abortion is unthinkable in our country? And simultaneously, if you were to ask us, “What is the single thing that you get the most calls about or the most questions about?” It was to help groups start marches in their states and in their local areas.
We didn’t really have the bandwidth to do that well. I mean, we had sort of a very informal toolkit and we take calls and try to give technical assistance, but for the most part, we weren’t really staffed up to be able to help groups do that in a powerful way. So all of that led to a lot of soul-searching and deep discernment with the board.
We decided to try as a beta test, a state march program. So our first state march was in Virginia last year and it was in April and we brought out over 7,000 people for it. And we’re the lead story on the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which is the local Richmond paper. And for so many reasons, it was a huge success and we didn’t quite anticipate that it would be as big of a success as it was.
So this year we’ll have a second march in Virginia on Feb. 13. We’ll also have a march in Pennsylvania. That’s on May 18. And a march in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 15. Stay tuned for more announcements.
Allen: That’s so exciting. I do want to take just a moment to ask you to share a little bit about your own pro-life journey and how you got connected with March for Life.
Mancini: Oh, well, thank you for asking that. Well, let’s see. I grew up in a Catholic family and social justice and just understanding human dignity was something that was ingrained in my understanding of life and the most important things of life. …
I was 1 of 5. So we loved life, my family, and definitely lived in a way that was very respectful of life. …
After college, I did a volunteer corps, I did something called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I worked with young people that were in a crisis setting. They were in a youth crisis shelter.
They were being moved either from a situation that wasn’t safe for them to be in or they’d been found on the streets. And there was a long-term search for more of a permanent home, whether that was going to be foster care or a residential treatment center or what have you.
So my time working with those young people was very informative and I grappled a lot with the deeper questions about would it be better if some of these lives hadn’t been born? Is it unfair to bring some lives into the world when there’s such a difficult scenario and such heavy crosses that these people carry that nobody’s ever really meant to carry?
Anyways, I did a lot of sort of introspection and I came out on the other side really recognizing that every life is a gift. And I guess realizing with humility, who am I to judge the value of someone’s life because they’ve had some hard things happen to them?
And then along the way I’ve had different experiences, obviously, in life. For certain one experience [that] weighs heavily on my heart is two people very close to me when I was in college decided to have an abortion and they didn’t tell me before, they told me after. And then in some cases it was a long time after.
Just hearing the pain that they underwent was so sad and even this terrible guilt that they were experiencing. Of course, there’s always hope and healing.
And I should say that to anyone listening to your podcast, anyone who’s been involved in abortion, there’s so many wonderful groups and people to speak with to find hope and healing after having been involved in abortion.
But I just realized personally through these people who were close to me that women deserve so much better than abortion.
It was just a lived experience of what I’d always believed but I thought in a very sad reality in these situations. So, along the way there have been many different I guess you could say epiphanies throughout my life.
And you asked how I ended up getting to the March for Life. So this is a very long-winded way of answering that. But I guess about 10 or 11 years ago, I was working with Family Research Council and I was their pro-life spokesperson and just loved that job. It was so fun and I got to do a lot of policy analysis, which is really what I love to do.
So, a few years into that job, I was asked to join the board of the March for Life. And I did expecting just to be a board member for a period of time. But I never really made it to my first board meeting without a major happening. And that was that the founder of the March for Life, Nellie Gray, passed away before I went to my first board meeting.
So my first board meeting was an emergency board meeting where we were coming up with a plan for how we were going to continue the march.
In a short-term capacity, I and another board member, Patrick Kelly, took on the leadership and we thought we’d we had our plans for how that was going to happen and here I am seven and a half years later, still working with the March for Life. And lots has changed over that time. But it’s just been a big blessing.
Allen: Certainly. That’s so neat just to hear that background and your story and kind of see how all those pieces came together. It’s really, really neat.
Mancini: Thank you.
Allen: Increasingly, unfortunately, we are seeing an attitude among the pro-choice movement. It is really not only pro-abortion but advocates flaunting abortion. And you know, we see this through the Shout Your Abortion movement, examples like actress Michelle Williams during her award acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. We could go on and on, but what should the response of pro-lifers be to this really blatantly pro-abortion rhetoric?
Mancini: I think a couple things. One is to just have great confidence in what we believe. So, to remember that reality is not arbitrary and that calling something a certain name or saying that something shouldn’t have stigma or shame or what have you doesn’t make it so.
Abortion—whatever you’re going to call it, if you’re going to shout it, if you’re going to tell your story about it, etc.—always takes the life of one and most frequently wounds the life of another. So calling it something different doesn’t change that reality.
So I think just to A, recognize that. And then B—this might sound a little counterintuitive based on what I just said—to take a very merciful approach.
I mean, look, we are in a culture of what I would describe as the walking wounded because so many women and men have been involved in abortion and that very much impacts their response to these kinds of things. There’s so much woundedness around it. And so I think approaching any conversations about this topic with a lot of mercy and love and tenderness is critical.
And … I feel that we don’t ever have to twist someone’s arm behind their back to agree with us because we should have so much confidence.
Life is inherently beautiful and the pro-life message is so positive and attractive. So we really just need to show it for what it is instead of twisting someone’s arm behind their back if they don’t agree with us.
Conversely, the more that we understand about the abortion industry and even abortion procedures, it’s dark. I mean, it’s really, really dark. So to the extent that we can show that reality for what it is as well, and certainly try to prevent people from any kind of pain and loss of life. I think that’s important too.
Allen: President [Donald] Trump is often referred to as the most pro-life president in history. Looking back at his first three years in office, what, to you, are some of the most notable pro-life victories of his administration?
Mancini: Oh, that’s a great question. In terms of really creating pro-life policy, I would agree he has done more for the pro-life movement than any president when it comes to enacting policy.
Because of my job, I have to just start by talking about the March for Life. Prior to the Trump administration, we never had a president or vice president of the United States come to the march. In fact, a speech writer once told me, and this was a former speech writer, that presidents were counseled to go to Camp David around the time of the March for Life because they didn’t want to be photoed with some graphic images or something like that.
So … there’s almost been a real fear at top levels to associate with something this important. And we’ve seen the opposite from this White House. And it’s been incredible.
I will never, ever, ever forget one week after being inaugurated, there was the vice president in person at the March for Life and Kellyanne Conway, who ran a successful campaign. And that was, again, the first time.
It was a historic moment because it was the first time ever in the history of a March [for Life] that a standing vice president had come and spoken in person.
Then the following year, President Trump addressed the marchers about a mile away from the rally. So he was in the Rose Garden and there were a couple hundred young people there in the Rose Garden with him on big jumbotrons at the rally’s site. We broadcast that live and that was very exciting.
Last year, again, we had Mrs. [Karen] Pence and the vice president. So it’s just been incredible to have that level of support from the administration.
But in terms of amazing policies that they’ve enacted—gosh, there’s been so much. One of my personal favorites is the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy that had been formerly called the Mexico City policy, but that’s been reinstated and broadened.
Another favorite, of course, would be Supreme Court appointments, nominations and confirmations of both Justice [Neil] Gorsuch and [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh.
And then all of the excellent judicial nominations that are going to be at the appeals court and the district court, I think there have been over 218 of those. I don’t have the number right in front of me, but it’s high.
Returning Title 10 funding decisions to the state, launching an investigation into Planned Parenthood. I mean, again and again, there have been so many really, really great things.
Allen: Yeah. And just earlier this month, over 200 members of Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade.
Of course, like you mentioned, we’ve seen all of these great new policies and legislation come out of the Trump administration. Also … 2019 did see some really devastating pro-choice legislation pushed forward. So what do you think we can expect in 2020?
Mancini: That’s a great question. Well, I think that some of the things that we need to think about are, first of all, the election. And the March for Life doesn’t endorse candidates, but we do educate. And I think that elections matter.
I know having worked in the Office of the Secretary at HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] and seeing all of the policies change—I was there during the Bush administration and then in the beginning of the Obama administration—I just have to say the pro-life vote makes such a difference.
So, elections matter and to prepare well for the election ahead because it’s going to be a big year. That’s one thing.
I know that something that we are very much focusing on at the March for Life this year is the born-alive discharge petition and just the born-alive troops.
You mentioned that there have been so many extreme laws enacted at the state, though. Of course, Illinois now passed the Reproductive Act, which makes it sort of the most pro-abortion state in our country. New York, of course, did last year. Vermont passed another similar law.
Essentially, it’s just so critical that we’re aware of these kinds of things and that we do as much as we possibly can to message on the truth about things like the born-alive discharge petition or born-alive bills at the level of the state by the ERA, etc., etc. …
You asked the question and it’s a little hard to know [what to expect this year]. The elections are in front of us. We have a mixed Senate and House, so it’s hard to pass the federal legislation right now. And then in the states there’s all sorts of different things happening.
So to fight the extreme stuff, especially in places like Virginia, my own home state, and we’re seeing the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] is going to get voted on soon there, but to continue as much as we possibly can to pass good pro-life legislation, for example, the Born-Alive [Abortion Survivors Protection] Act, which any person with common sense would agree with.
Allen: And you recently co-authored a commentary for The Daily Signal titled “Early Feminists Were Right About Unborn Human Life.” Can you tell us a little bit more about these American suffragists?
Mancini: I would love to. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think that there is even one suffragist who was pro-abortion.
So we’ve got some fantastic quotes from, for example, Alice Paul, who called abortion the ultimate exploitation of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was very strong in her views on this. Of course, Susan B. Anthony, etc.
But these early female pioneers, again, knew that a woman’s capacity for fertility and motherhood wasn’t a liability, but that it was a beautiful thing. I think they saw men and women as being equal in dignity but different not having to do away with the part of them that can make them mothers.
So it’s wonderful to look back and to see sort of this first wave of feminists and where they were coming from and their understanding of these kinds of issues. And then to see sort of where things are today and how far we’ve gotten from that.
For any of your listeners who have an interest in that, I cannot highly recommend enough coming to our conference the day before the March for Life.
Our keynote is one of my favorite speakers, especially on this topic. Erika Bachiochi—she’s a pro-life feminist and a legal scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. And she’s got so much to say about this and herself has a tremendous testimony and story of coming from a more pro-abortion feminist perspective to where she is today.
And then we have a stellar lineup of panelists, very much speaking to different nuances about this. Sue Ellen Browder will be speaking, she’s an author, she wrote a wonderful book called “Subverted.” Now she’s got a book coming out called “Sex and the Catholic Feminist.” She’s essentially going to go into this question that you just asked me, what the early suffragettes said and a history of that. She’ll read quotes and papers, etc.
We also have Christina Francis, OB-GYN, who’s the chairman of the board of AAPLOG, the American Association of Pro-life OB-GYNs, and she’s going to talk about the consequences of abortion and especially the physiological consequences.
We also have Mary McCluskey, who works with Project Rachel Ministry on helping women and men who regret having been involved in abortion. And then Brandi Swindell, who’s the founder and CEO of Stanton Healthcare—named after Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of course, an early suffragist.
So I highly recommend coming in and hearing about our theme.
Allen: And how can our listeners find out more about the march that’s happening in D.C. and then the state marches that are going to be taking place throughout this year?
Mancini: Well, follow us on all of our different mediums on social media, and check us out particularly on our website at marchforlife.org, and you can count down the hours, like you mentioned, Virginia, right at the beginning.
Allen: Yeah. Thank you so much, Jeanne. We just really appreciate your time.
Mancini: Thanks for having me. It’s been a pleasure.


thelibertydaily--2020-01-21--White House Announces Eight House Republicans for Impeachment Defense Team

The White House has just announced that eight House Republicans will be on his impeachment defense team as the trial gets underway in the Senate : THE HILL – The White House announced Monday that President Trump appointed several prominent Republican House members to advise his impeachment defense team ahead of the Senate trial set to begin this week .
GOP Reps. Jim Jordan ( Ohio ) , John Ratcliffe Texas ) , Mike Johnson ( La . )
, Mark Meadows ( N.C. ) , Debbie Lesko ( Ariz. ) , Lee Zeldin ( N.Y. ) , Elise Stefanik @ @ @ @ @ @ @ set to play leading roles .
A statement from the White House said the lawmakers “ have provided guidance to the White House team , which was prohibited from participating in the proceedings concocted by Democrats in the House of Representatives ” throughout the House proceedings and would continue to do so in the Senate .
The only name on that list I ’ m not terribly familiar with is Debbie Lesko from Arizona .
As far as the others , they don ’ t surprise me in the least as they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side since the beginning of this .
Interestingly enough , there were some concerns about these House appointments from Senate Republicans : Johnson noted ahead of the announcement that there was some reluctance to have House members participate in the Senate trial , with GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber citing concerns the optics of adding House members could be detrimental to the seriousness of the trial .
“ There was some resistance or concern in the Senate that it would become more of a show than a trial and I tried to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been involved in the discussion on this are very serious about this , I mean I was a litigator for 20 years in federal court on constitutional law cases , so this is within my wheelhouse and something I have great interest in , ” Johnson said .
“ And the others that I have mentioned feel the same way , so it would be exactly the opposite of the concerns that ’ s been expressed on the other side.
” The Hill also notes that Lindsey Graham himself isn ’ t fond @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Senate have also warned against such appointments , warning that the addition of Republican House members would cast the Senate trial in a partisan light .
“ I don ’ t think it ’ s wise .
I think we need to elevate the argument beyond body politics , beyond party politics and talk about the constitutional problems with these two articles , ” Sen. Lindsey Graham ( R-S.C. ) told reporters earlier this month .
Honestly , I get their concerns , but I think McConnell will ensure that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possible .
My biggest concern , of course , is more about getting through this trial and ending it .
I like that McConnell has not been generous thus far in allotting time for opening arguments and I hope he keeps the pedal to the metal so the country can be done with this shame and get back to normal business .

The White House has just announced that eight House Republicans will be on his impeachment defense team as the trial gets underway in the Senate:
THE HILL – The White House announced Monday that President Trump appointed several prominent Republican House members to advise his impeachment defense team ahead of the Senate trial set to begin this week. GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio), John Ratcliffe Texas), Mike Johnson (La.), Mark Meadows (N.C.), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) and Doug Collins are set to play leading roles. A statement from the White House said the lawmakers “have provided guidance to the White House team, which was prohibited from participating in the proceedings concocted by Democrats in the House of Representatives” throughout the House proceedings and would continue to do so in the Senate.
The only name on that list I’m not terribly familiar with is Debbie Lesko from Arizona. As far as the others, they don’t surprise me in the least as they’ve been hard on Trump’s side since the beginning of this.
Interestingly enough, there were some concerns about these House appointments from Senate Republicans:
Johnson noted ahead of the announcement that there was some reluctance to have House members participate in the Senate trial, with GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber citing concerns the optics of adding House members could be detrimental to the seriousness of the trial. “There was some resistance or concern in the Senate that it would become more of a show than a trial and I tried to make very, the people that have been involved in the discussion on this are very serious about this, I mean I was a litigator for 20 years in federal court on constitutional law cases, so this is within my wheelhouse and something I have great interest in,” Johnson said. “And the others that I have mentioned feel the same way, so it would be exactly the opposite of the concerns that’s been expressed on the other side.”
The Hill also notes that Lindsey Graham himself isn’t fond of the idea:
Key Republican allies in the Senate have also warned against such appointments, warning that the addition of Republican House members would cast the Senate trial in a partisan light. “I don’t think it’s wise. I think we need to elevate the argument beyond body politics, beyond party politics and talk about the constitutional problems with these two articles,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters earlier this month.
Honestly, I get their concerns, but I think McConnell will ensure that the Senate runs the trial as seriously as possible. My biggest concern, of course, is more about getting through this trial and ending it. I like that McConnell has not been generous thus far in allotting time for opening arguments and I hope he keeps the pedal to the metal so the country can be done with this shame and get back to normal business.