Mar-a-Lago Raid Update

Remember the raid? Heavily-armed FBI agents showed up at Mar-a-Lago in the early hours of the morning. Dozens of them entered the residence, threw Trump’s aides out of the rooms and searched every “nook & cranny.” They even went through Melania’s closet. They were looking for top-secret documents.

In the weeks that followed, the Washington Post, New York Times, and other major media published one article after another, quoting unnamed sources at the Justice Department, FBI, and intelligence services on what they found. Trump had nuclear codes! Trump was going to give classified material to Putin! Trump was going to blackmail his political enemies. Trump took the documents to sell them. On and on it went. 

Fast forward to November 14th. With virtually no fanfare and no apologies, the Washington Post did a follow-up. Here’s the key quote: The investigation “has not found any apparent business advantage to the types of classified information in Trump’s possession,” nor “any nefarious effort by Trump to leverage, sell or use the government secrets.”

In other words, “never mind.”

Shame On The Senate

Something happened yesterday that I never thought I would see. The United States Senate voted 62 to 37 to advance the (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act legalizing same-sex marriage. 

Just 26 years ago, not exactly ancient history, the Senate voted 85 to 14 to protect the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 342 to 67. It was signed into law by Democrat President Bill Clinton. 

In the years that followed, the people of more than 30 states passed constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage from being redefined by left-wing courts.

Yet, as we all know, that’s exactly what a left-wing majority of the U.S. Supreme Court did in 2015. 

And now we find ourselves fighting to keep boys out of girls' bathrooms and fighting to stop far-left teachers and doctors from pushing radical gender ideology on our children. But I digress. 

So, why would the Senate pass this bill now, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and codifying same-sex marriage into federal law? 

It’s payback to the radical gay rights movement, a major Democrat voting bloc, which is demanding results from Joe Biden and their allies in Congress. They’re rushing it through now before they lose control of the House of Representatives, potentially killing the legislation in the new Congress that meets in January.

And by adding same-sex marriage to our federal laws, it increases the likelihood that the demands of the gay rights movement will trump religious liberty. 

If your business is asked to participate in a same-sex wedding, some court cases provide limited protections for religious businesses and individuals. But there may be greater legal burdens once this becomes federal law. 

And the intolerant left will use this law as a battering ram against men and women of faith.  Prominent Democrats have threatened to strip the tax-exempt status of churches, religious schools and faith-based charities that oppose same-sex marriage.

As you know, I’m very critical of national Democrats. This is not my father’s Democrat Party. It’s not even Bill Clinton’s Democrat Party! 

But the sad truth is that Senate Democrats didn’t do this by themselves. Shame on the 12 Republican senators who helped them! They are:

Roy Blunt (MO)

Richard Burr (NC)

Shelley Moore Capito (WV)

Susan Collins (ME)

Joni Ernst (IA)

Cynthia Lummis (WY)

Lisa Murkowski (AK)

Rob Portman (OH)

Mitt Romney (UT)

Dan Sullivan (AK)

Thom Tillis (NC)

Todd Young (IN)

Three of senators – Blunt, Burr and Portman – are retiring at the end of the year. This is their parting gift to the conservative voters of Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio who stood with them year after year. 

As for Mitt Romney, many of us worked to elect Romney as president because he assured us privately and publicly that he believed in traditional values. He not only voted to advance this terrible legislation, he aggressively recruited more Republican Senators to vote for it. 

Romney should have no future in the Republican Party.

The Left Attacks Parents

The fallout from the midterm elections hadn't settled yet before the left lobbed another grenade in their war on family and faith. The day after the election, Rep. Eric Swalwell mocked Sen. Tim Scott's call to put parents back in charge of their children’s education. 

Swalwell tweeted, "Please tell me what I’m missing here. What are we doing next? Putting patients in charge of their own surgeries? Clients in charge of their own trials? When did we stop trusting experts? This is so stupid."

What's stupid is suggesting that parents and taxpayers have no role in the education of their children. But that's today's left. They think Big Government knows best, and they believe your kids belong to them.

But don't take my word for it. Three days later, the National Education Association joined Swalwell's attack on parental rights, declaring, "Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and thrive."

The left has corrupted public education, trapped students in failing schools, and poisoned the minds of our children for decades. It must stop! The left's demonization of concerned parents must stop!

This is a fight conservatives should welcome. Parental rights and educational reform must be top priorities for conservatives in Congress and in state legislatures. 

Florida's Parental Rights in Education law was overwhelmingly popular. And in spite of all the huffing and puffing by the radical left and their media allies, Gov. Ron DeSantis cruised to reelection and conservatives in the state legislature fared just as well.

About Those Losses

As some in the Washington establishment continue blaming Trump for last week’s disappointing results, I want to revisit the major Senate setbacks – Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania – and provide some context to help you understand what happened and why blaming Trump is so absurd.

In Arizona, which makes extensive use of mail-in balloting, early voting started October 12th. The Republican candidate was outspent 7:1 by the incumbent Democrat, and a third-party candidate took two percent of the vote. Given those challenges, it’s remarkable that Blake Masters managed to get 46%.

In Georgia, which is going into a runoff, early voting started October 17th. The incumbent Democrat outspent Herschel Walker 3:1, and a third-party candidate took two percent of the vote, which denied Walker an outright win.

In Nevada, which also makes extensive use of mail-in ballots, early voting started October 22nd. The Democrat incumbent outspent Adam Laxalt by 3:1, and wasted votes on independent candidates also cost him the election.

In Pennsylvania, the candidates were more closely matched in fundraising, but Fetterman still outspent Oz by $17 million. Early voting started in September, and more than 600,000 votes had already been cast before Fetterman’s disastrous debate.  

The obvious point is that in each case there were other factors that seriously impacted the outcome. Early voting is killing us. The left’s fundraising machine is massive. 

Lastly, I understand that turnout falls in midterm elections. That needs to stop – especially among conservatives who should understand how much is at stake. 

Two years ago, Donald Trump got 74 million votes. This year, House Republicans got 53 million votes. That means millions of conservatives just didn’t bother to vote this year.

Overconfidence or apathy is a big reason why November 8th was such a disappointment. And you can’t blame that on Donald Trump.