White House Turns to Legally Dubious Tactics To Boost McAuliffe for Virginia Gov
VP Harris, press sec Psaki face criticism over questionable electioneering actions
As President Joe Biden looks to avoid a high-profile loss in Virginia, the White House has turned to legally dubious tactics aimed at boosting Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe.
Liberal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) launched a complaint against press secretary Jen Psaki for violating the Hatch Act, which prevents administration officials from engaging in political activity. During a Thursday press briefing, Psaki said the Biden administration will "do everything we can to help former Governor McAuliffe" and "believe[s] in the agenda he's representing." Psaki later acknowledged her statement's impropriety in an interview with CNN.
The Biden administration just hours later released a video that features Vice President Kamala Harris, who urged viewers to vote for her "friend Terry McAuliffe." While the Hatch Act does not apply to the president and vice president, Harris's video—filmed for hundreds of churches across Virginia—could run afoul of IRS law, which explicitly prohibits churches and other tax-exempt 501(c)3 organizations from "engaging in any political campaign activity."
The Biden administration's questionable campaign tactics come as McAuliffe slips in the polls against Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin—a development that has spooked Biden officials, who worry that a loss in Virginia will spell trouble for Democrats in 2022. While Biden won Virginia by double digits, an October Trafalgar Group poll shows McAuliffe trailing Youngkin by 1 point. McAuliffe has blamed his struggles in part on Biden's unpopularity in the state.
Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust executive director Kendra Arnold called the IRS law related to Harris's church video "abundantly clear," noting "there's no question that the churches cannot engage in political activity, including the publishing and distributing of statements on behalf of any campaign." Arnold argued that while Harris was legally allowed to support McAuliffe in the video, she may not be in the clear from a legal perspective.
"I think there's an ethical question on whether or not our elected officials, for political purposes, can engage with another entity and essentially get them to break the law," Arnold told the Washington Free Beacon. "I would argue that it is not ethical to engage in activities that break the law, whether you're breaking it or enticing someone else to break it."
CREW president Noah Bookbinder, meanwhile, in his Thursday complaint admonished Psaki, writing that the press secretary mixed "official government business with support of a candidate for partisan political office in the weeks before the election" and engaged in "political activity while on duty." Psaki addressed the controversy during a Friday CNN interview, during which she pledged to "be more careful with my words next time." Penalties for Hatch Act violations include removal from federal service suspension and a civil penalty.
The White House did not return a request for comment.
In addition to Psaki and Harris, McAuliffe's liberal allies have employed controversial schemes to hurt Youngkin and promote Democrats. Liberal dark money operative David Brock, for example, has used his "pseudo-news outlet" to send Virginia voters unsolicited mailers that attack Youngkin with debunked claims, including one page that falsely contends Youngkin has a plan to "eliminate the state income tax." The move sparked concern among ethics experts, as Brock's "progressive news" outlet is not subject to campaign finance laws that require political groups to disclose where their funding comes from.
Democratic operatives have also targeted Youngkin through a shadowy political action committee that runs ads designed to look like they came from a Republican outfit. That PAC, Accountability Virginia, took at least $250,000 from Virginia utility company Dominion Energy and went on to release social media spots that question Youngkin's support for the Second Amendment. Dominion CEO Robert Blue asked for the PAC to refund the company's donation on Monday, saying he "failed to vet" the group's "intended activities."
McAuliffe, who took tens of thousands of dollars from Dominion during his 2013 gubernatorial campaign, did not return a request for comment.
Exclusive–Ortiz: Democrats’ Reckless Spending Would Turn Stagflation Problem into Crisis
Stagflation is coming. By many metrics, it’s already here. Small businesses and ordinary Americans are paying the price. Democrats reckless spending, including their pending deal on the Build Back Better reconciliation bill, would turn this stagflation problem into a crisis
This week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that median weekly earnings in the third quarter of this year rose by 0.7 percent year-over-year. Over the same period, inflation rose by 5.3 percent, meaning Americans’ real wages and living standards are significantly declining. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity estimates this Biden pay cut is the equivalent of $50 per week for the average worker.
Americans are seeing costs rise in their everyday purchases. The price of gas has increased by approximately 50 percent since Biden was elected. Steak prices have risen 22 percent over the last year. This week, Nestlé, Danone, and Proctor and Gamble announced that inflation is forcing them to raise prices on their consumer staples.
This inflation hurts ordinary folks. A Fox News poll finds 70 percent of Americans say they’re facing increased hardship buying food, and 67 percent are facing hardship buying gas. The poll finds 87 percent of registered voters are extremely or very concerned about inflation. According to the Job Creators Network Foundation’s Monthly Monitor poll, inflation is the biggest concern confronting small business owners.
Last week, Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain ridiculously said that this historic inflation is a “high-class” problem. Tell that to ordinary workers whose real wages are declining and small business owners facing the dilemma of raising prices on their loyal consumers or seeing their narrow profit margins erode.
While inflation rises, economic growth contracts. Consumer confidence is plummeting. The Conference Board Index dropped by 25.3 points this year, and the University of Michigan index fell by 21 points. A 10 point drop or more indicates a recession. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow model estimates third-quarter GDP will grow at the anemic pace of 0.5 percent.
Recent jobs numbers are also very disappointing. Only 194,000 jobs were created last month, even though there are a near-record number of unfilled jobs and five million fewer workers than before the pandemic. JCNF’s Monthly Monitor poll suggests small businesses are pulling back on job creation.
Against this backdrop, it’s no surprise that President Biden’s poll numbers are cratering. The most recent Quinnipiac poll shows Biden’s approval rating has fallen to just 37 percent and only 27 percent among independents. A recent Pew poll showed eroding support for the president among major elements of the Democratic coalition, including African Americans, Hispanics, and young adults.
This painful stagflation would be exacerbated by Democrats’ proposed trillions of dollars in spending, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure-in-name-only bill and the Build Back Better Broke reconciliation bill. The money creation needed to monetize this spending would devalue the existing currency, spurring inflation. The reconciliation bill’s myriad social welfare programs, such as universal basic income for families, would exacerbate the ongoing inflationary labor shortage. Taking money from the productive private sector in the form of massive proposed tax increases on small businesses to pay for these government programs would further contract economic growth and job creation.
As I’ve said since the start of his presidency, President Biden is a modern-day reincarnation of Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was infamously marred by stagflation. The last thing Americans need right now is a rerun of that 70s show.
The Death of Trust in US Institutions, and How to Restore It
Few can recall the turbulent 1950s from personal memory, particularly the loss of faith and trust in American institutions. Soviet agents ("Reds") were everywhere: schools, agencies, the military, and even Congress. We the People were repeatedly warned: trust no one.
Those days sound eerily familiar. The nation's great institutions — Congress, federal bureaucracies like the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the Judiciary, the FBI and DOJ (Department of Justice), the military, our schools at all levels, even the electoral process itself — have been corrupted. The fourth estate no longer exists, replaced by mainstream media that advocate rather than report facts.
In the 1950s, Washington used the Soviet threat as an excuse to illegally extend federal authority and create political tyranny. Today's excuse is COVID, justifying medical tyranny. Tyranny is tyranny, regardless of the modifying adjective.
The Death of Trust
Progressive Democrats currently dominate the Executive and Legislative Branches as well as a myriad of federal agencies, collectively called the establishment or the "swamp." Americans disdain members of both parties because the latter focus on expanding their power while ignoring our problems. The border crisis is proof.
Approval ratings for Congress have been 30 percent or lower for the past 30 years. Can you imagine any business staying open if more than 70 percent of its customers disapproved of the salespeople?
Americans thought their country has rule of law. Unequal application of laws is not rule of law. U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland ordered the DOJ to investigate parents as "domestic terrorists" when they strenuously voiced distrust of local school boards. The DOJ did not prosecute Hillary Clinton for violating security protocol while secretary of state and, worse, destroying the email evidence of her crimes. When Lady Justice takes off her blindfold, trust in the DOJ vanishes.
Faith in the FBI has also evaporated. For more than two years, the bureau continued a show trial against President Trump even though there was no real evidence. When then–vice president Joe Biden threatened to withhold a billion dollars in aid if Ukraine did not fire a prosecutor investigating his son, Hunter, both the FBI and the DOJ did nothing.
Among malfeasance of the FBI, unequal justice of the DOJ, and courts legislating from the bench, trust in the judicial system has died.
The CDC is reputedly committed to hard science, facts, and the truth, without regard to politics. Not so. Its commitment has become defending federal mandates rather than providing facts so each American can decide the best path to personal good health.
The CDC has manipulated and conflated data; assured pregnant women that mRNA gene therapy (called vaccination) is safe when it may not be; made simple, obvious reporting errors; and changed its tracking methods for no scientific reason. No wonder we have lost trust.
During the Vietnam era, the public disrespected the military. Over the subsequent fifty years, trust and respect were restored. Recently, that hard won trust has been shattered.
General Milley tried to usurp presidential nuclear authority. Overt racism — CRT (Critical Race Theory) — was introduced into a previously colorblind military curriculum. Some Navy SEALs were declared "undeployable" because they refused the mRNA vaccination mandate. These are some of the healthiest people on Earth, many with natural immunity from prior COVID infection. The final straw was the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. They left a large but unknown number of Americans and local allies in enemy (Taliban) hands, and they even gave the Taliban names and addresses of Americans remaining in Afghanistan.
A military that fails to protect our citizens, that gives billions of dollars of American military hardware to terrorists (Taliban), and that throws away prime resources (like SEALs) for purely political reasons is not worthy of trust.
Five days a week, our school systems hold the nation's most precious possession: our children. Parents expect schools to teach their children how to think, not what to think. Parents lose trust in school boards when they indoctrinate children with CRT and reject standard English words like "boy," "girl," and "parent" in order to placate the LGBT lobby.
Daniel Henninger wrote in the Wall Street Journal that complicit media report Democrats' "alternative realities" as truth though they are obvious lies. We see hundreds of thousands of individuals crossing our southern border, but Homeland Security secretary Mayorkas says "the border is closed." President Biden proclaims that "the cost will be zero" for his multi-trillion-dollar social engineering bill disingenuously called infrastructure. A CNN video claims that protests were "mostly peaceful," while in the background, buildings are ablaze. The stark contrast between what our senses and brains tell us and the alternate realities presented by the complicit media explains the death of trust.
During the opening episode of the HBO series Newsroom, Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels) explains that the USA became a great nation because Americans were "well informed" by a press free to write or speak objectively without censorship or bias.
Media bias for Democrats is amply proven above. Censorship is harder to demonstrate. By definition, one cannot show a citation that has been removed. If Google does not display a web page or Amazon reports "item not found" even though it exists, that is censorship. Same is true when Twitter bans the 45th president from tweeting to his 15.6 million followers. When studies that contradict Dr. Fauci's so-called science are relegated to page 16 on Google, banned from Facebook as "misinformation," or ignored by the CDC, that too is censorship.
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "A well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny." Because our citizenry is poorly informed or not informed at all, tyranny has returned to the USA. See mask mandates and vaccine passports.
Rebirth of Trust
"Never identify a problem without proposing a solution" is a time-honored management aphorism. Can we reverse the death of trust? Yes — with the Eight Rs.
Require evidence, always, from a personal conversation or one-on-one debate to a White House Press conference or presidential debate. Ignore those who don't give you their proof, no matter how impressive the title or how many microphones they stand behind.
Resurrect the fourth estate. The public needs a reliable source of unadjusted facts, someone to question everything said or done by politicians and bureaucrats, without regard for party affiliation or expressed ideology.
Recall elected persons who forget they are public servants. We have the power of the ballot box. Use it! Don't blindly follow a party or platform. Vote for a person you trust and "un-elect" (recall) those who say the right things on the campaign trail but don't do the right things when in office.
Resist tyranny. President Biden issued an executive order on Sept. 9, 2021, that mandated that all federal employees, including military and even federal contractors, receive the "jab" (mRNA gene therapy against COVID-19). This action is federal overreach.
The U.S. Founding fathers bequeathed us many ways to resist government tyranny. We must use them! For instance, a class action lawsuit was just filed to stop Biden's illegal, unconstitutional executive order. The district judge's decision is pending.
Redirect your dollar. In addition to power of the vote, Americans have power of the dollar: where they spend their money. Support those businesses and activities you trust and that trust you to decide. Withhold your dollars from businesses that dictate to you or that support government tyranny.
Replace indoctrination with education. When Terry McAuliffe, former Virginia governor running for re-election, claimed there is "no role for parents in school curriculum," he was totally out of sync with American ethos and tradition. American parents, not the government, are responsible for and in charge of what their children are taught.
Use the Remote! Just like the dollar, Americans have control over what they see or hear. If you find a radio or TV show or internet venue that spins the facts or lies, change the channel. Deny them (and their advertisers) your time and attention.
If Americans apply the seven Rs above, they can achieve the eighth: Rebirth of trust in government and other great institutions.
Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is professor emeritus of pediatrics, pathology, and decision science; former director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; and author of the multi-award-winning book Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.
Image via Max Pixel.
Obama campaigns for McAuliffe in Virginia, making an ass of himself
Terry McAuliffe, memorably characterized as "the unkillable cockroach of the Democratic Party" by PJMedia's Stephen Kruiser, is not faring well in the polls in his campaign for governor of Virginia. Apparently, neither is New Jersey's Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, who's also running for a second term as governor and who at last count had just a six-point lead, plus a toxic endorsement from The Nation, which declared him "the most progressive governor in America." That won't go over well in Jersey City or Weehawken.
Democrats think these elections are important to their wretched 2022 prospects in Congress and have whipped out their big guns -- not flailing Joe Biden, of course -- but Barack Obama. New Jersey's a blue state that's been the hardest hit by Democrat COVID policies, including the seeding of nursing homes with COVID patients, a man-caused disaster that killed off thousands of elderly people. It's also been subject to tax hikes. Virginia's a purple state and Obama's the man who expanded Washington's bureaucracies and handed its bureaucrats gargantuan salaries; creating Virginia's Washington suburbs and turning the historically red state blue. Obama is there to remind such voters of all those good times.
He's back, and spewing his banal platitudes as well as Trump hate, in the perfect picture of leftist establishment hypocrisy.
Start with the first forked-tongue idiocy, from Fox News:
Former President Barack Obama traveled to New Jersey on Saturday to campaign for Gov. Phil Murphy and claimed that he understands why Americans are questioning when COVID-19 mandates will end.
"The science says it's the right thing to do," Obama said in reference to COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements to a crowd of Murphy supporters in Newark. "You do it because you're not just protecting yourself, but people you love, people who are vulnerable. But, you know, I don't know how folks just decide everything's got to suddenly be political."
"But I understand why people want to know when this is all going to end," Obama added.
It's as if 2020 never happened. His argument, like a lot of them coming from him, is old and hackneyed. It's what officials were saying back in March 2020 when the pandemic began. The nursing home seedings were just beginning and the bodies were being rolled out, but according to Obama, anything that comes out of the mouth of an incompetent, power-hungry bureaucrat with a one-size-fits-all mentality is 'science.'
Grosser still, he 'understands.' It sound like 2008 now, that's the kind of nonsense he spewed to convinced voters he was a 'moderate.' He understands nothing, he just wants credit for 'understanding' and dismisses all inconvenient facts as well as public discontent and moves on with his socialist power-mongering. Little guys are never a factor except at election time and for them, he offers 'I understand.'
These days, it's flaming hypocrisy.
As Obama pontificates about masks and the importance of doing whatever bureaucrats say because "science," voters have got to be remembering that not too long ago, Obama held a big super-spreader event at his 60th birthday party on Martha's Vineyard. The elite minions at the huge event (supposedly pared down after an outcry, but not really) wore no masks, partied hearty in the closed tent, and sure enough, Martha's Vineyard got its first large outbreak of COVID in the aftermath. Officials denied that there was a connection, but gave no details. No COVID, then after Obama, lots of COVID? Sounds a little funny. Obama hasn't said anything about it, of course. His message now? Masks for thee, but not for me.
The other problem is his obnoxious claims to favor science, which of course he doesn't. What he favors is bureaucratic edicts, which often go against science, and are dictated by labor unions. As various commentators have noted, first it was 'two weeks to stop the spread.' Then it was 'don't wear masks.' Then it was 'wear masks.' Then it was 'wear two masks.' Then it was 'no vaccine can come because Trump.' Then it was 'get vaxxed.' Then it was 'get vaxxed with a lottery ticket.' Then it was 'get vaxxed or lose your job and be cast as a pariah in society.' None of this sounds like science. It's bureaucratic caprice, premised on what serves bureaucratic, political and union interests best at the time. For Obama to hollering about 'science' is just a little ... tired. Been there, done that.
As he declares he 'understands,' it's pretty obvious he doesn't understand or pay attention to a thing. It's like he's lost his touch, and can't read a room. Maybe it'll work in blue New Jersey, but I have my doubts.
However, he's lost none of his wiliness.
Spewing more banalities, he decried "meanness" in Virginia. The old "Trump does mean tweets" translated to Virginia politics. Or, Clinton-redux, recall how Bill and Hillary Clinton used to whine about mean-spiritedness, in contrast to that pair's supposed big-spiritedness.
According to NBC News:
RICHMOND, Va. — Former President Barack Obama, campaigning Saturday for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s closely watched race for governor, framed the Nov. 2 election as an opportunity to decisively reject the rhetoric and politics of another former president, Donald Trump.
"We’re at a turning point right now, both here in America and around the world," Obama told a crowd of about 2,000 gathered outdoors on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. "Because there's a mood out there. There's a politics of meanness and division and conflict, of tribalism and cynicism. That's one path. But the good news is there's another path where we pull together and we solve big problems."
Meanness? Tribalism. Does he mean bitter clingers? As far as 'path where we pull together' that's already been taken by Joe Biden and just look at the country.
It's obnoxious as heck, given the Democrat record with full control of the House, the Senate and the White House. If that's unity and pulling together (read: shutting out dissenting voices, same way one of the airlines achieved 99% vaxx rates by firing the unvaxxed), Americans know what that means now. While the Obama argument is old and hackneyed, it might work among Democrats, given that seems to have been effective in California during the recall election of loathsome Gov. Gavin Newsom. It's just fake claims with sleazy underhanded tactics to achieve it, all in a bid to look big and above it all. Tell that to the parents protesting at school board meetings who've since been declared domestic terrorists, an act so unpopular most of the school boards and their advocates are trying to walk it back.
Obama essentially is running the 2020 election all over again, this time campaigning against Trump, without the useless baggage of Joe Biden to front for him. The response of his GOP opponent, Glenn Youngkin, is kind of flat-footed, given that I am not aware of any bid from him to flip the tables on Obama and warn voters that a McAuliffe victory means another Joe Biden to plague their lives. He ought to be doing that instead of "distancing" himself from Trump which Elder did, too, and which didn't stop Democrats from running away with it as their big idea to voters. Youngkin is also making the same mistake Larry Elder did by campaigning solely on local issues -- which is important, but insufficient -- while Democrats are taking the campaign national and making it all about Trump. The race is close, and now with Obama playing the Newsom team playbook, he might succeed.
But none of this halts the reality that he's a banal guy with zero new ideas, zero ability to recognize what voters are thinking, and the same-old, same-old, repeating himself over and over. In that regard, he's following the trajectory of Hillary Clinton, who was a same-old, same-old until her party got tired of her. Obama is supposed to be a Democrat star in his party, but he's constantly trotted out to bolster fading Democrat dotards with far less political talent than he had -- from Hillary, to Biden, to now cockroach McAuliffe.
It might work in New Jersey and Virginia, but I suspect this has a limited shelf life. There are too many hypocrisies and contradictions. There's also too much living in the past in this palaver. At some point, the voters are going to catch on to this one-trick pony and one can only hope it happens in New Jersey and Virginia first. If it doesn't happen there, I think it will happen in the rest of country.
Hard fact here is, Obama's act is getting old.
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
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Terry McAuliffe Denies
Existence of Pro-Life Women
CEOs in America
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) told the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Wednesday “there’s not a woman CEO in America that wants to go to a state where someone’s banning abortions.”
Abortion has become a central issue in the tight gubernatorial race between McAuliffe and Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin.
McAuliffe boasted to the Chamber of Commerce about his entirely pro-abortion stand as governor, one he associated with the position of being pro-women and “welcoming”:
I also made sure that Virginia was an open and welcoming state. We had some, as you all know, the most anti-women, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-environment legislation in America. I ended all that nonsense. I kept all 16 women’s clinics open. They would not be open today had I not got elected.
In July, McAuliffe touted his endorsements by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and NARAL.
“I’ve always been a brick wall against attacks on reproductive health care and that won’t stop now,” he vowed on Twitter. “As Governor, I’ll fight to enshrine the right to choose into the Virginia constitution.”
Planned Parenthood Action Fund donated $250,000 to McAuliffe’s campaign just between August 31 and September 28.
CNBC reported Friday abortion and education have taken the spotlight in the Virginia gubernatorial race, with the candidates’ most expensive ads focused on both of these issues.
According to the report:
Three of McAuliffe’s most expensive ads, which cost from $510,000 to $922,000 to produce and run, have attacked Youngkin for his abortion stance. They are among the former governor’s most aired ads on broadcast or cable television, with each airing over 1,100 times, according to AdImpact data.
During this week’s 8News/Urban One Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Forum, McAuliffe said abortion is the most important issue in the governor’s race, and repeated he would enshrine Roe V. Wade into Virginia’s constitution.
When asked about what changes he might make to the current abortion laws in Virginia, McAuliffe responded, “I’m glad you asked this … because there probably is not a more important question to ask right now.”
Monmouth University Polling Institute has McAuliffe and Youngkin “locked in a close battle” in the governor’s race, with Youngkin making the most recent gains.
According to Wednesday’s polling report:
Youngkin (46%) and McAuliffe (46%) hold identical levels of support among all registered voters. This marks a shift from prior Monmouth polls where the Democrat held a 5-point lead (48% to 43% in September and 47% to 42% in August). A range of probabilistic likely electorate models* shows a potential outcome – if the election was held today – of anywhere from a 3-point lead for McAuliffe (48% to 45%) to a 3-point lead for Youngkin (48% to 45%). This is the first time the Republican has held a lead in Monmouth polls this cycle.
Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth Polling Institute, especially noted that suburban women in Virginia are not registering as enthusiastic for Democrats as they have in the past.
“Suburban women, especially in Northern Virginia, have been crucial to the sizable victories Democrats have enjoyed in the commonwealth since 2017,” he said.
“However, their support is not registering at the same level this time around,” he observed. “This is due partly to a shift in key issues important to these voters and partly to dampened enthusiasm among the party faithful.”
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