Debate Recap: Trump Wins, Biden Doesn't Faint, Chris Wallace Goes Down Hard

BY TYLER O'NEIL | P J Media 

AP Photo/Julio Cortez

President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden went head to head on Tuesday night, and moderator Chris Wallace got knocked out. Wallace seemed to push left-wing talking points to help Biden and hurt Trump, but both candidates talked over him. Trump and Biden brought out the fisticuffs and both got in a few good hits. Biden stumbled but he did not come across as a bumbling fool.

While Trump and Biden both went on the offensive, Trump got in more clear statements and Biden came across as shifty, especially on packing the Supreme Court.

Wallace asked Biden if he would support expanding the Supreme Court to more than nine justices, noting that Democrats brought up the issue first. Biden refused to answer the question, and Trump pressed him.

When Trump asked, “Why aren’t you going to answer that question?” Biden shot back, “Would you shut up, man?”

After Trump pressed, “Who is on your list, Joe?” Biden responded by saying, “This is so unpresidential.”

Not only did Biden dodge the question, but he lost his cool about the issue, and then accused his opponent of being unpresidential right after he said, “Would you shut up, man?”

On the issue of nominating Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement to the Supreme Court, Trump insisted, “I’m not elected for three years, I’m elected for four years.” He suggested that Biden’s call for delaying the nomination and confirmation until after the election would essentially deny Trump’s presidency — an effective counter.

When Trump tried to catch Biden on the extreme measures of the far left, the Democrat responded, “I am the Democratic Party right now.” We’ll see what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has to say about that.

On the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, Biden claimed that the U.S. has 4 percent of the world’s population but 20 percent of coronavirus deaths. Trump rightly called him out on this, noting that countries like China are likely undercounting their deaths. (He should have mentioned Iran and Russia, but he did mention China and India.)

Biden repeated the false claim that Trump suggested injecting “bleach into your arm.” In reality, Trump asked the experts a question about using a disinfectant to fight the virus, and he suggested that people should not try this without medical doctors.

When Trump brought up Hunter Biden’s notorious corruption, Joe Biden insisted, “My son did nothing wrong at Burisma.” The president countered, “Why did he deserve three and a half million from Moscow?!”

Biden noted that black Americans have died from COVID-19 at higher rates, insisting that Trump’s presidency has “been disastrous for the African American community.” Yet Trump rightly countered by citing the 1994 crime bill and Trump’s criminal justice reform. “I’m letting people out of jail now.” Trump accused Biden of using the term “super-predators.” Biden did condemn “predators,” but Hillary Clinton was the one to call criminals “super-predators.” Clinton was defending the bill Biden championed, however.

Trump championed law and order, noting that 250 military leaders and generals have endorsed him, along with a long list of law enforcement organizations, including the national Fraternal Order of Police. The president challenged Biden to name a single law enforcement group that supports him and the Democrat could not.

When Wallace asked Trump about his decision to end “white privilege” trainings in the federal government, the president explained, “I ended it because it’s racist.” He noted that the trainings, many of which follow Marxist critical race theory, “were teaching people to hate our country,” claiming that America is fundamentally racist. Biden countered by saying that “there is racial insensitivity.”

Trump rightly noted that Biden’s policy would destroy the suburbs by getting rid of local control over zoning. Biden responded by saying, “all these dog whistles on racism don’t work anymore.” The Democrat is correct — dog whistles don’t work, because Trump’s argument isn’t a dog whistle. Biden supports the Obama administration’s radical AFFH (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing) regulation which gets rid of single-family zoning in the name of diversity. This would end local control, which is the real issue.

President Trump touted that he will have nominated and the Senate will have confirmed approximately 300 federal judges, along with at least two — and likely three — Supreme Court justices.

Biden countered by claiming that Trump is “Putin’s puppy” and accusing the president of “causing the recession” associated with the coronavirus pandemic.

As Reason’s Robby Soave pointed out, Trump painted Biden as the candidate of lockdowns and Biden did little to rebut the idea. The Democrat has suggested he would shut down the country again if he wins in November.

Wallace pulled a fast one toward the end of the debate, bringing up the issue of climate change. President Trump condemned the Paris Climate Accord, noted that the environment has gotten better, touted the project to plant a billion trees, and emphasized the importance of forest management in states like California that have been overwhelmed by forest fires.

“If you had forest management, good forest management, you wouldn’t be getting those calls,” Trump said, explaining that dead leaves on the forest floor contribute to wildfires. I grew up in dry rural Colorado and I spent my summers clearing up the forest floor in the mountains. My father is a volunteer firefighter and I did my Eagle Project in wildland fire mitigation. Forest management is far more critical to preventing forest fires than the unproven claims about climate change increasing the temperature by a degree or two.

In one of the more memorable events of the night, President Trump called on the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” while Joe Biden refused to even address the instigators in antifa. Instead, Biden cited FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has called antifa an ideology, not a group. “Antifa’s an idea, not an organization,” the Democrat said, supposedly quoting Wray.

While Wallace took Trump to task for interrupting Biden, Wallace himself interrupted Trump.

“Gentlemen, I hate to raise my voice, but why should I be different than the two of you?” Wallace said. Wallace suggested that Trump had interrupted more than Biden, but Biden also interrupted both Trump and Wallace throughout the debate.

CNN’s Jake Tapper called the debate “a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck.”

President Trump got in more good jabs at Biden than the Democrat got in at him, but Biden did not prove the stuttering fool that many on the Right expected. I would say Trump won the debate, but it was grating to hear three people talk at once so many times.

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/29/the-first-trump-biden-debate-was-a-slugfest-and-chris-wallace-got-knocked-out-n986380?utm_source=breakingemail

Trump camp seeks extra debate rule: Third party inspectors to look for electronic devices in candidates' ears

 By Peter Doocy, Patrick Ward, Paul Steinhauser | Fox News

A source said the Biden campaign has declined the ear check.

CLEVELAND -- President Trump is asking for an additional ground rule ahead of Tuesday night’s first presidential debate between himself and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. But the Biden campaign is rejecting it.

Fox News has learned that the president’s re-election campaign wants the Biden campaign to allow a third party to inspect the ears of each debater for electronic devices or transmitters. The president has consented to this kind of inspection, but a source said the Biden campaign has declined the ear check.

The Trump campaign, in the hours ahead of the debate, claimed Biden's campaign had agreed to such an inspection before reversing themselves.

“Joe Biden’s handlers several days ago agreed to a pre-debate inspection for electronic earpieces but today abruptly reversed themselves and declined. Biden’s handlers have asked for multiple breaks during the debate, which President Trump doesn’t need, so we have rejected that request," said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. "On top of the refusal to take a drug test, it seems pretty obvious that the Biden team is looking for any safety net they can find in the hours leading up to the debate. With his 47 years as a failed Washington politician, how much help does Biden want?

Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, called the Trump campaign’s request “absurd” in a call with reporters. She also denied the claim that the campaign had asked for breaks.

"His staff seems concerned that he may not do well tonight and they’re already laying the groundwork for how they’re going to lie about why," Bedingfield said. "It is completely absurd. Of course, he’s not wearing an earpiece and we never asked for breaks."

Over the last several weeks, sources told Fox News, the former vice president's campaign has also requested two breaks -- one every 30 minutes -- to break up the 90-minute commercial-free program. But that request has been denied by their Trump counterparts, the sources said.

A Trump campaign source told Fox News that "our guy doesn't need breaks. He gives 90-minute speeches all the time."

And the source says that the negotiations are still on-going for Tuesday's night's debate -- as well as the remaining two showdowns between Biden and Trump.

Fox News is reaching out to the Commission on Presidential debates – the bipartisan organization that for more than three decades has organized and produced the debates – for a response to the requests from the two campaigns.

The commission has traditionally pushed back against requests from the networks for commercial breaks.

The debate – the first of three between Biden and Trump -- kicks off at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday and is being hosted by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio. The showdown’s being moderated by "Fox News Sunday" anchor Chris Wallace.

Fox News’ John Roberts contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-third-party-inspect-ears-electronic-devices

Liberal Reporter Zeroes In On Why The NYT Tax Story Is Actually Good for Trump

 By Matt Vespa | Townhall.com

Source: AP Photo/Steve Helber

Leah and Julio wrote about the ‘bombshell’ tax story The New York Times published over the weekend. Also, it’s nothing we haven’t read before the paper did similar stories in 2016 and 2018, which no one read or cared about. Tax avoidance is not illegal, clowns. Thanks for playing and in the process—the Times actually helped Trump by exposing another aspect of the Russian collusion myth, which is that he did not have an unreported connection to Russia. I mean, it’s there in black and white, which liberal reporter Michael Tracey pointed out (via NYT) [emphasis mine]:

The New York Times has obtained tax-return data extending over more than two decades for Mr. Trump and the hundreds of companies that make up his business organization, including detailed information from his first two years in office. It does not include his personal returns for 2018 or 2019. This article offers an overview of The Times’s findings; additional articles will be published in the coming weeks.

The returns are some of the most sought-after, and speculated-about, records in recent memory. In Mr. Trump’s nearly four years in office — and across his endlessly hyped decades in the public eye — journalists, prosecutors, opposition politicians and conspiracists have, with limited success, sought to excavate the enigmas of his finances. By their very nature, the filings will leave many questions unanswered, many questioners unfulfilled. They comprise information that Mr. Trump has disclosed to the I.R.S., not the findings of an independent financial examination. They report that Mr. Trump owns hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable assets, but they do not reveal his true wealth. Nor do they reveal any previously unreported connections to Russia.

The big reveal, if you can call it that, is that President Trump only paid $750 in income taxes back in 2016. That’s it. I think Brett Kavanaugh throwing ice at a bar might be more of a ‘bombshell’ and that’s not saying much. 

Tracey, a Russia collusion skeptic, pointed that out, much to the irritation of liberal reporters. I know there’s a lot of…crap to sift through with the media-manufactured tale of Russian collusion, but the withholding of tax records to hid Russia ties was the liberal media’s explanation for Trump’s refusal to do so.

“For years it was an article of faith among conspiracists that Trump withheld taxes in order to conceal sinister financial dealings with Russia. That's now-debunked per New York Times,” wrote Tracey. “But don't expect any acknowledgment: the conspiracies were always faith-based and therefore unfalsifiable.”

Now, are the taxes of the president newsworthy? Yes, but Tracey added that’s not the reason for the Left’s inquiry and it ended up boomeranging on them.  

“It's in the public interest to publish them, but c'mon: The New York Times essentially just exonerated him on the question of hidden debts to Russia.”

And those who keep peddling this Trump-Russia nonsense go unpunished. This story isn’t going to alter the election. We’ve all made up our minds over who we’re going to vote for months ago. It’s just a recycling of old stories, but with the added notion that the collusion delusion was never part of the equation here.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/09/28/the-one-sentence-that-kills-this-entire-nyt-trump-tax-return-story-n2577064?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=09/28/2020&bcid=1b87ed489cb499e9d52de389e64c7f01&recip=19399969

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RELATED ARTICLE

 

NYT Bombshell Essentially Boils Down to This: Trump Paid Millions in Taxes, Owes No Debt to Russia

BY STEPHEN GREEN  | P J MEDIA 

AP Photo/John Raoux 

“Trump Paid Millions in Taxes” isn’t nearly as scandalous a headline as “Trump Paid Only $750 in Taxes,” although, to be fair, it does have the advantage of being true.

Alexandria Brown dug deep into the New York Times‘ story to see if there was any truth to the shrieking headlines:

As Brown further noted, “Trump PAID, as in transferred to the US Treasury, $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Note also that most of the overpayment was rolled forward, not refunded.”

People who own and run businesses take losses in some years, and pay little or nothing in taxes, and make great sums in other years and pay much more in taxes.

They also take advantage of tax breaks, tax credits, and tax incentives — just like you and I do.

Here’s a screencap from the actual NYT report:

The Treasury was millions of dollars richer in 2016 and 2017, thanks to checks signed “Donald J. Trump.” But thanks to our overly complicated tax code, the line-item amount Trump technically paid for those years was $750.

Fact Check: Are you kidding us with this nonsense, NYT?

In reality, Trump has paid enough in taxes just this century to buy more than one $85 million F-35A Lightning II stealth strike jet.

I haven’t paid enough in taxes my entire working life to buy a single one of the $2 million helmets F-35 pilots wear.

Feeling like a bit of a slacker here on that score.

No, Nobody Really Cares About Trump’s Taxes

The real scandal here — aside from how awful and corrupt our tax laws are — is that someone in the federal government, presumably in the IRS, broke the law by leaking confidential tax returns.

I would remind you that while president, Barack Obama weaponized the IRS against conservative Tea Party groups.

You should also remember that this isn’t the first time the New York Times has run a tax-related hit-piece on Trump in the weeks before a presidential election.

The problem with hit pieces like these — aside from the fact that the NYT prefers to bury stories about corruption and tax avoidance by Democrats — is that they rarely work, politically.

Sometime around 1991 or ’92, the American people pretty much gave up on caring about ethics in our political class.

I mean, if we didn’t care about Bill Clinton’s bimbo eruptions and pot-smoking and his wife’s dodgy investments, then it’s pretty clear that ethics as a national concern… isn’t.

It doesn’t say anything good about us as a serious nation that we went in short order from giving Clinton a bye for some serious personal foibles, to electing Barack Obama, whose presidential ambitions were launched in the living room of a domestic terrorist.

While he was serving as vice president, Joe Biden got a top Ukrainian prosecutor fired “whose office had investigated the Burisma owner by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees.”

At the time, Biden’s son Hunter worked for Burisma to the tune of millions of dollars.

Joe Biden even boasted about getting a good man fired for daring to look into corruption at the energy firm that employed his own son. The New York Times shrugged at the news.

In fact, Hunter was up to all sorts of no good while snuggled safely under the veep’s wing.

Or as Mike Cernovich quipped, “Democrats are mad at Trump because he followed the tax laws passed by the Obama administration.”

We let all those obvious corruptions slide, and now we’re supposed to get all excited over the fact that Donald Trump…

…followed the tax code and paid what he owed plus million more in advance of when he owed it?

That’s the scandal? 

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2020/09/28/nyt-bombshell-trump-paid-millions-in-taxes-owes-no-debt-to-russia-wait-what-n974892

Devastating Video Shows Biden Calling Soldiers 'Stupid Bastards'

 By Michael Austin

Just when you think Joe Biden could not embarrass himself any more, he can’t help but prove you wrong.

A recently resurfaced video now making the rounds shows the Democratic presidential nominee calling a crowd of U.S. service members “stupid bastards.”

 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS VIDEO.

This most recent gaffe is not a new one, but it is certainly just as cringeworthy as the rest of Biden’s biggest hits.

“I have incredibly good judgment,” Biden says in the video.

“One, I married Jill, and two, I appointed Johnson to the academy. I just want you to know that.”

There is then a short pause as Biden awkwardly waits for applause that isn’t going to come.

“Clap for that, you stupid bastards,” he says.

The description of the video, which was posted on YouTube in 2017, reads “Vice President Joe Biden, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom calls A room full of servicemen and servicewomen at an undisclosed location in southwest Asia stupid bastards in March 2016.”

Given that description, it appears the video is from a speech Biden gave to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia on March 7, 2016.

The timing of this video’s resurfacing is especially troubling for Democrats.

Only a few weeks ago, anonymous sources in a controversial Atlantic article alleged that President Donald Trump once called soldiers who were killed in action “losers” and “suckers.”

The truth of the article’s claims has since been disputed by former National Security Advisor John Bolton, a man who has absolutely no reason to protect Trump given their falling out.

All in all, 21 on-the-record sources denied Trump made the comments, according to the Washington Examiner.

Nonetheless, Biden used the story as an opportunity to attack Trump, apparently forgetting about his own comments from 2016.

“Mr. President, if you don’t respect our troops, you can’t lead them,” the former vice president tweeted.

Unlike the anonymously sourced Atlantic article, however, it is undeniable that Biden disparaged soldiers during his remarks in 2016.

In all fairness, Biden could have been joking, but whatever joke he was trying to make is far from obvious.

That’s the problem with Biden nowadays: The former vice president has become so nonsensical with his statements that many have cause to wonder whether his mental state is beginning to decline in his old age.

And Biden appears to be far worse now than he ever was in 2016.

A series of verbal blunders and gaffes have defined the candidate’s less-than-stellar campaign so far.

Perhaps the most famous example came during the presidential nominee’s interview on the popular radio program “The Breakfast Club,” hosted by a man going by the name Charlemagne Tha God.

Toward the end of their interview, Charlemagne suggested that Biden has quite a lot of work left to do to win over black supporters.

Biden’s response has since been criticized as borderline racist at best.

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden replied.

Although he later apologized, the gaffe haunts the Biden campaign to this day.

Now, his comments about soldiers will as well.

It’s hard to guess which class of people this bumbling candidate will insult next. We’ll likely find out soon enough.

https://www.westernjournal.com/devastating-video-shows-biden-calling-soldiers-stupid-bastards/

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WATCH: Biden Calls US Troops 'Stupid Bastards'

By Bronson Stocking  | Townhall.com 

If the media thought the fake news about Trump calling fallen World War One soldiers "suckers" and "losers" was breaking news, there's no excuse for them to ignore this resurfaced video of Biden calling our men and women in uniform "stupid bastards." 

The video was reportedly taken on March 7, 2016, during Biden's visit to Al Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates.

The clip begins with Biden proclaiming that he has "incredibly good judgment" and ends with Biden ridiculing our nation's finest. 

"Clap for that, you stupid bastards," Biden said. "C'mon man. Man, you are a dull bunch. Must be slow here, man."

So here we see Biden in his own words calling servicemembers "stupid bastards," unlike the anonymously sourced and widely debunked story in The Atlantic that claimed President Trump referred to fallen U.S. soldiers in World War One as "suckers" and "losers." Other people with the president that day and willing to go on the record said the Atlantic story wasn't true, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton who recently wrote a book attacking Trump. 

Biden is known for making bizarre statements. In February, the candidate accused a voter of being a "lying dog-faced pony soldier." According to Biden, the candidate's brother likes to use quotes from John Wayne movies and sometimes they rub off on him. 

Quick, Did John Wayne ever call our troops "stupid bastards"? 

 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2020/09/25/biden-stupid-bastards-n2576952

 

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Has Biden Lost His Mind? He Just Compared Trump to Joseph Goebbels

BY TYLER O'NEIL | PJ Media 

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he is running for president in order to “restore the soul of America,” but he’s just another lying, slimy politician intent on demonizing his opponent, President Donald Trump. While Nazi comparisons are tragically common in politics, most presidential candidates have avoided comparing their opponents to Adolf Hitler or Nazi propagandist Paul Joseph Goebbels.

“He’s sort of like Goebbels, you say the lie long enough, keep repeating it, repeating it, repeating it, it becomes common knowledge,” Biden said in an interview on MSNBC.

The Democrat — who has teamed up with outright socialists Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — tried to smear Trump for calling him out on his increasing support for big government policies in the direction of socialism. While Trump does engage in hyperbole, this is hardly comparable to the Nazi propaganda of Goebbels.

It is astounding that Biden thinks he can run a campaign on “restoring the soul of America” while comparing his opponent to the Nazis.

Biden launched his campaign by condemning Trump, arguing he had praised the white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 as “good people.” In reality, the president unequivocally condemned the racists. “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally – but you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists, okay?” he said.

After Biden launched his campaign, Trump again explained that he was defending the people who protected the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, not the white nationalists. Yet Biden continues to parrot the narrative that Trump is dividing America and the Democrats will bring Americans back together, using Charlottesville as an example.

Biden would be far from a return to normalcy. During a debate last year, Biden bragged about launching a character defamation campaign against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork. He led an orchestrated smear effort so notorious that it turned Bork’s last name into a verb. Biden has also repeatedly lied about the tragic car wreck that killed his wife. While Biden’s late wife was at fault, Biden repeatedly accused the innocent truck driver of having “drank his lunch” before the accident.

On policy, Biden campaigned as a “moderate” in the Democratic primary — far further to the Left than Obama had campaigned in 2008 and 2012. When it seemed as though the outright socialist Bernie Sanders was about to win the nomination, the Democratic establishment rallied around Biden. After he won the race, Biden worked with Sanders to craft the “most progressive” Democratic platform in history.

Biden appears to take black voters for granted, telling Charlamagne tha God that if Americans are divided between voting for him or Trump then “you ain’t black.” Yet Biden long championed the tough-on-crime legislation that ended up locking up young black men in record numbers, while Trump has signed criminal justice reform to reverse these policies. Trump also secured permanent funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), presided over an economy with historically low rates of black unemployment, and just recently announced a $500 billion “platinum plan” for the black community.

As Georgia House Rep. Vernon Jones (D) explained, Trump has done more for the black community in four years than Biden did in more than four decades. Among many other things, Trump has condemned the rioting that has disproportionately hit black communities.

“While Biden was turning a blind eye to the rioting, looting, and indiscriminate violence afflicting Democrat-run cities all over the country this summer, the President was demanding that Democrat governors and mayors allow their police forces to restore law and order, pointing out that destroying small businesses in majority-Black communities does nothing to advance the cause of racial justice but does negatively impact the people who live in those communities,” Jones noted.

Indeed, the destructive George Floyd riots have disproportionately damaged black communities in Kenosha, Wisc., Minneapolis, and Chicago. The riots destroyed black lives, black livelihoods, and black monuments. At least 26 Americans have died in the riots, most of them black. While Biden condemned the arson and looting early on and more recently, he remained silent for months. He singled out “right-wing militias” but never condemned antifa or Black Lives Matter agitators.

Yet Biden has released ads comparing Trump to notorious segregationist Bull Connor.

As for anti-Semitism, the noxious hatred that Joseph Goebbels preached, Trump couldn’t be a better ally for Jews and the Jewish State of Israel. Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, fulfilling a pledge the last three presidents failed to fulfill. He signed an executive order protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment on college campuses. He has even secured historic Middle East peace deals between Israel and multiple Arab and Muslim countries.

Trump could not be further from Adolf Hitler or Joseph Goebbels, but Biden frequently engages in the exact kind of political character defamation for which he condemns Trump. Don’t expect the left-leaning legacy media to call him out on it, however.

Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.

 

https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/27/joe-biden-compares-trump-to-nazi-propagandist-n973091

Trump Nominates Amy Coney Barrett to Replace RBG on Supreme Court

 BY TYLER O'NEIL | P J Media 

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

On Saturday, President Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a law professor at Notre Dame and a judge at the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Trump commemorated Ginsburg before introducing Barrett.

“Today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court. She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials, and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution, Judge Amy Coney Barrett,” Trump said. “Judge Barrett is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Notre Dame Law School,” he noted. She graduated the first in her class and edited the school’s law review.

Barrett clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Trump introduced Scalia’s widow, Maureen.

“You are very eminently qualified for this job, you are going to be fantastic,” the president said to Barrett.

“If confirmed, Judge Barrett will be the first mother of school-age children ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court,” he added, introducing each of her seven children by name.

Trump joked, “I’m sure [her confirmation] will be extremely non-controversial.”

“I am deeply honored by the confidence you have placed in me,” Barrett told the president.

“I fully understand that this is a momentous decision for a president,” the nominee said. “I love the United States and I love the United States Constitution. I am truly humbled by the prospect of serving on the Supreme Court. Should I be confirmed, I will be mindful of the one who came before me.”

She noted that the flag is still at half-staff commemorating Ginsburg. “She not only broke glass ceilings, she smashed them.”

“Her life of public service serves as an example to us all,” Barrett said, noting Ginsburg’s close friendship with Anonin Scalia.

“Judges are not policymakers, and they must be resolute in setting aside any policy preferences they may hold,” she added.

Amy Coney Barrett’s background

Amy Coney Barrett graduated from Notre Dame Law School first in her class. She has taught there for decades — and continues to teach there while serving as a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. After graduation, she clerked at the Supreme Court for Justice Antonin Scalia. As Princeton professor Robert P. George noted, even fellow clerks who disagreed with Barrett admired her intellect. Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman described her as “a brilliant lawyer.”

Barrett and her husband have seven children, ranging in age from 5 to 16. They adopted two of them from Haiti. One of her sons also has “special needs.” As George wrote, “As someone who excelled as a legal scholar and reached the pinnacle of her profession as a Supreme Court Justice, Barrett would be an example to women hoping to combine a flourishing family life with a professional vocation.”

Barrett is an originalist in the Scalia mold. Last year, she spoke about her judicial philosophy at the Washington, D.C., branch of my alma mater, Hillsdale College. She rebuked the notion of a “living Constitution,” arguing that the judge’s role is not to twist the text of the Constitution to fit his or her policy prescriptions but rather to interpret the law faithfully.

“If the judge is willing not to apply the law but to decide cases in a line, in accordance with personal preference rather than the law, then she’s not actually functioning as a judge at all. She’s functioning as a policymaker,” Barrett explained.

“And I would have had no interest in the job if the job was about policymaking and about making policy decisions,” the judge said. “My interest is in contributing to our tradition of judges upholding the rule of law.”

She also addressed the increasing political polarization centered on the Supreme Court.

“There’s a lot of talk these days about the courts being mere political institutions. But if we reduce the courts to mere politics, then why do we need them? We already have politicians. Courts are not arenas for politics. Courts are places where judges discharge the duty to uphold the rule of law,” Barrett said.

Yet the judge insisted that the Supreme Court is not partisan, not divided along the lines of Republicans and Democrats.

“So I don’t think that five-four decisions or splits on courts are explicable by partisan commitments or by outcomes in particular cases. I think they’re explicable by starting points, by first-order commitments. So there are differences in ways that judges approach the enterprise of interpreting the Constitution,” Barrett explained.

“All judges think that the original meaning of the Constitution—its history, the way that it was understood by those who ratified it, who drafted it, the founding generation—all judges take that as a data point, as relevant,” she said. “Those who are committed to originalism treat it as determinative when the original meaning is discernible. Others just treat it as a data point, but one that would not necessarily control.”

“Some judges approach the Constitution saying, ‘There are some constitutional commitments that we’re not going to back down from because the Constitution enshrines them. But with respect to those that the Constitution does not speak, we’re going to leave it to democratic majorities to work out.’ Others see the Constitution as having a more amorphous and evolving content and speaking to evolving values and majority—evolving values in ways that democratic majorities don’t have the freedom to make choices,” the judge explained.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/09/26/breaking-trump-nominates-amy-coney-barrett-to-replace-rbg-on-supreme-court-n972448?utm_source=breakingemail

Trump Rolls Out $500 Billion 'Platinum Plan' for Black Americans

 By Jack Davis | The Western Journal

President Donald Trump speaks during an event for black supporters on Sept. 25, 2020, in Atlanta. (Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images) 

On Friday, President Donald Trump unveiled a nearly $500 billion plan for his second term — a proposal that he called a “Platinum Plan” for black communities.

The Trump campaign said the plan will increase access to capital in black communities by almost $500 billion, create 500,000 new black-owned businesses and bring three million new jobs for the black community.

Opportunity, security, prosperity and fairness are the four pillars of the plan, Fox News reported.

Trump’s plan also proposes making Juneteenth a national holiday.

The plan vows to “prosecute the KKK and ANTIFA as terrorist organizations and make lynching a national hate crime” as well.

The proposal pledges to raise standards to which police are held, including an increase in diversity training.

It also says that the federal government will work to close failing schools and use school choice to increase educational opportunities for black children.

The plan says that it will “defend religious liberty and African American churches that lift the conscience of our nation.”

“I will always put Americans first, and that includes black Americans,” Trump said in Atlanta as he unveiled the plan, according to WTTG-TV.

“Together we will fulfill our contract with black America and we will pass the Platinum Plan into law, and we’ll do it quickly and easily.”

In announcing his proposal, Trump said that he will build on his record of getting results for black Americans.

“I did more for the black community in 47 months than Joe Biden did in 47 years,” Trump said, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.

“Our movement is welcoming millions of black Americans back into the Republican Party, the party of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln,” he added.

He said that the election is pivotal for black Americans.

“Racial justice begins with Joe Biden’s retirement from public life,” Trump said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Some at Trump’s Atlanta event said the president has earned support from black voters.

”He has given African-Americans a fresh start,” Andrea Smith told The AJC. “We have been taken for granted for so long by the Democratic Party. But he is building a community of respect.”

Rena-Marie Moore, 32, a real estate broker, said that Trump has already helped black Americans.

“The president didn’t get much support in 2016,” Moore said.

“But he still did so much for our people. That just shows his character. And he is going to do more.”

___________________

BELOW IS THE PLAN

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-rolls-500-billion-platinum-plan-black-americans/

Gov. DeSantis lifts all COVID-19 restrictions on Florida restaurants

 By ABC 3 WEAR TV Staff

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday morning that Florida is moving into full Phase 3 of its reopening.

The order specifically lifts COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants.

Restaurants can now operate at a minimum of 50% capacity -- meaning they are fully open. Gov. DeSantis says if local governments try to restrict the reopening of any restaurant, they need state's approval.

WATCH LIVE:  The video of the news conference is on this page:  https://weartv.com/news/local/watch-live-florida-gov-ron-desantis-holds-press-conference 

DeSantis press conference

Phase 3 also states that bars, pubs and nightclubs that derive more than 50 percent of sales from alcohol should operate at full capacity with limited social distancing protocols.

https://weartv.com/news/local/watch-live-florida-gov-ron-desantis-holds-press-conference