Commentary

KAMALA HARRIS – Further proof that the vice president should be considered the enemy has surfaced with clear evidence that she is violating the Johnson Amendment by allowing video tapes of her political endorsement of Terry McAuliffe for governor of Virginia to be shown in some 300 black churches.

The first showing, in which she declares “I believe that my friend Terry McAuliffe is the leader Virginia needs at this moment,” was aired on Sunday and is scheduled to be aired in the remaining churches through November 2, 2021.

Despite the fact that the IRS has made clear that violations will not be tolerated, don’t hold your breath that there will be consequences. Perhaps it’s because it’s not punishable by jail time.  The worst that can happen is that a church could lose its tax-exempt status. Not likely with Merrick Garland as attorney general.

Who can forget Hillary Clinton’s phony Southerner accent while speaking in a Selma, Alabama church in 2007, when she said, “I don’t feel no ways tired.” Pew Research noted that 28 percent of those who attended a black Protestant church during her 2016 campaign heard support for her.  There were no charges brought against her campaign.

ENEMY JEN PSAKI violated the Hatch Act when she used her White House press room to support McAuliffe for governor.  It prohibits civil service employees from engaging in political speech. “We’re going to do everything we can to help Governor McAuliffe,” she said, “And we believe in the agenda he’s representing.”

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN, who tops my enemies list, was again taken to the cleaners by Robert Gates, who spent nearly three decades in national security, leading the CIA and Defense Department.  Gates once wrote, “I think he (Biden) has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” was again critical of the president during an appearance with Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Seeking affirmation of his earlier view of Biden, Cooper asked him if he thought Biden had made a mistake in Afghanistan.  Gates responded with a “yes.”

During the interview about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gates told Cooper, “President Biden didn’t act quickly enough after announcing in April he was pushing back President Trump’s deadline for the U.S.  withdrawal by four months.

“They really had a lotta time to plan, beginning with the deal President Trump cut with the Taliban.  So that was in February of 2020.

“Once he reaffirmed that there was going to be a firm deadline date, that’s the point at which I think they should have begun bringing those people out.  You have to be pretty naïve not assume things were gonna go downhill once that withdrawal was complete.”

Gates conceded that he wasn’t feeling very well, and realized it was because of what was happening in Kabul. “I was just so low about the way it ended, if you will,” elaborating with the thought “was that it probably did not need to have turned out that way.”

Thirteen lives were lost.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, who became a member of my enemies list for his failure to restore the integrity of the FBI, was taken to task in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday by Thomas J. Baker, a retired FBI agent. 

Baker had the same view I had when I wrote in May of 2020 that Wray wasn’t right for the job as FBI director, referencing his low-key leadership style.

“Many current and former agents have wished he showed ‘fire in the belly’ in confronting the bureau’s missteps,” Baker wrote.

While much of Baker’s piece covered situations dealt with by previous directors, he was concerned with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s directive that those pesky parents confronting school boards needed to be charged with domestic terrorism.

Wray shouldn’t undertake any investigation based on speech alone, suggests Baker, and that Wray should remind his agents that any violence occurring at a local school board meeting is in the purview of state and local law enforcement.

Biden Nominations in the News

President Biden has announced his intention to nominate Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, U.S. Navy (Ret.) to be the next U.S. Maritime Administrator.

The position is traditionally held by a commercial ship owner or captain.  Phillips once captained a Navy Warship, but this isn’t a warship position; it’s a commercial shipping appointment and she has zero experience aboard any commercial ship, nor a military sealift ship.

Not only didn’t Biden select someone with commercial experience, we have now learned that during his recent actions at the Port of Long Beach he failed to seek advice from a single sea captain.

Of course, Phillips’ appointment comes as we are facing a shipping crisis, but with the position comes the management of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, which recently required strong, positive action against allegations of rape at USMMA.

Neera Tanden, who was known for her combative Twitter feed and in-your-face politics, was forced to withdraw her name from consideration to be OMB director when Sen. Joe Manchin killed her chances of confirmation in the evenly divided Senate.

She has now been appointed as senior advisor in the White House.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.