Clapper Calls Trump

The fallout from President-elect Donald Trump's contentious press conference yesterday continues. First, the good news.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called Donald Trump last night and expressed his "profound dismay" over the continued leaks about Trump's intelligence briefings.

Clapper also reiterated to Trump that the scandalous dossier was "not a U.S. Intelligence Community product." (More on that below.) In addition, Clapper told Trump that he did not believe the leaks came from his people, and he reassured the president-elect that the intelligence community "stands ready to serve his administration."

I'm glad to hear it. But that cannot be the end of the story.

As many as eight members of Congress -- presumably the bi-partisan leadership of key committees -- had access to the information. Did a member of Congress or Hill staffer leak it? It has been done before.

The left-wing outfit Buzzfeed, which published the dossier, could be facing lawsuits.

In a statement, Buzzfeed Editor Ben Smith defended publishing the document, claiming that transparency was the goal. Smith added that "publishing the dossier reflects how we see the job of reporters in 2017." Let me translate for you: "Facts be damned; smear Trump at all costs!"

And what about the dossier itself? It was produced by a left-wing opposition research firm that attacked conservative donors in 2012. More recently, it attempted to discredit the videos that exposed Planned Parenthood's profiteering from aborted baby body parts.

Trump's Lesson

In 2012, conservative reporter Neil Munro got a little aggressive during a Rose Garden press conference. Obama smacked him down, and the entire Washington press corps attacked Munro for his unprofessional behavior.

I'm waiting for reporters to step up and hold CNN's Jim Acosta to the same standard for his behavior at yesterday's press conference with the president-elect. But of course they won't.

When they blasted Munro, the media were defending their man in the White House. When he accosted Trump, Acosta was attacking the man the liberal media didn't want in the White House. Once again, the media's double standard is obvious and disgusting.

Whether they realized it or not, every elected conservative was enrolled in a free course at Trump University yesterday. It was entitled, "How To Deal With Hostile Media."

If they were taking notes, which they should have been because they will be repeatedly tested over the next four years, they would have learned that everything they have been taught by professional consultants is wrong.

The liberal media are held in very low esteem. When left-wing reporters act like Acosta did yesterday, the proper response is to punch back as hard as you are being punched.

No one on the left, whether it's a Hollywood star, a professor on a college campus or a reporter at a press conference, should get away with taking shots at our values. We need to give it as good as we get it. That is what Donald Trump and Mike Pence are proving.

A Personal Observation

I was in Washington, D.C., yesterday visiting multiple senators and helping to coordinate hundreds of Christians United for Israel activists on Capitol Hill. They were there to support a resolution condemning last month's biased U.N. Security Council vote against Israel. In addition, they urged senators to back efforts to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and to support the quick confirmation of David Friedman as ambassador to Israel.

When I came out of the Russell Senate Office Building, there was an eye-catching demonstration. Men in orange jump suits were marching in chains through the streets of Washington. Hundreds of people were following them. The leader of the march was yelling something about "freedom."

I wondered if this was a demonstration in support of Christians or other religious monitories being held prisoner by radical Islamists in the Middle East or Africa. No. Was it a cry for help for political prisoners in North Korea, China or Iran? Nope.

Instead, they were demanding the release of the remaining inmates at Guantanamo Bay -- the worst jihadists we've captured, those implicated in the 9/11 attacks, other terrorists plots or captured on the battlefield fighting and killing U.S. soldiers.

Fifteen years ago on that very corner, I searched for our oldest daughter on the morning of 9/11, trying to get her out of Washington, D.C., before more planes came crashing from the sky into the power centers of America.

We have seen unmitigated horrors in the years since.

Prisoners burned to death.

Christians beheaded on a beach.

Children turned into executioners.

U.S. soldiers executed on their own bases.

A Christmas office party turned into massacre.

Young Americans slaughtered at a nightclub.

All of these attacks and many others were carried out by the co-religionists of those now held at Guantanamo Bay. But, incredibly, there were Americans marching in the streets of Washington, D.C., outraged not by terrorist atrocities but by the incarceration of terrorists at Gitmo.

And yet our elites wonder why Donald Trump's theme of "Make America Great Again" resonated with so many Americans. By the way, Trump is pledging not to close Gitmo, but to "load it up with some bad dudes."

Capitol Culture Wars

A culture war over art is raging on Capitol Hill. It all started when Rep. William Clay (D-MO) hung a painting that depicted police officers as pigs.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr., (R-CA) took it down. Rep. Clay put it back up.

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) took it down. Rep. Clay and other members of the Congress Black Caucus put it back up.

Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) took it down. Rep. Clay put it back up.

Clay is complaining that conservatives are trying to deny "fundamental free speech rights." Really?

Radical activists are pulling down statues and other symbols left and right. They are doing everything they can to silence and shutdown religious business owners. They are even suing nuns!

Every conservative on Capitol Hill should be issuing statements and giving speeches, asking, "What happened to the party of Harry Truman, JFK and even Bill Clinton?" The left is creating an atmosphere of hate against law enforcement and it is having a chilling effect.

Killings of police officers were up dramatically last year. Sadly, they are continuing this year. Another officer was ambushed in Arizona today.

The violence against police is having a terrible impact on morale and recruitment.

The brave men and women on the thin blue line deserve our respect, not ridicule. If the liberals want to defend that picture, let them. But conservatives must keep calling them out for it.