PENCE 3 VP

sorta neglected re 1/6

pension plan?

dropped out of 2024

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AN 5 25

'That neocon traitor': MAGA erupts at Mike Pence over criticism of Trump's policies TARIFFS?

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TRUMP JUST GAVE AWARD BUT NO MENTION OF NAME? 5 25

MMA Benny Johnson claims Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo were “colluding with the deep state to destroy” Trump with COVID

05/06/25

an 7 24

'Shut up, shill': Mike Pence’s call for calm spurs MAGA meltdown

Revealed: Mike Pence isn't paying his bills - Alternet.org

5 24 desantis endorsed trump, mcconnell, lindsey graham?

3 24 declined to endorse after djt clinched nom?! unprecedented? NYT buried it?

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an 8 24

In a report for The Associated Press last week, Peter Smith reported that Donald Trump's "support is as strong as ever among evangelicals and other conservative Christians."

Smith noted, "Many of the T-shirts and hats that were worn and sold at the rally in March proclaimed religious slogans such as 'Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president' and 'God, Guns & Trump.' One man’s shirt declared, 'Make America Godly Again,' with the image of a luminous Jesus putting his supportive hands on Trump’s shoulders."

The Atlantic's Peter Wehner highlights the hold Trump has on evangelicals in a Thursday, May 23 op-ed, noting, "In my years in politics, I’ve never found a group as easily seduced by political power as evangelicals." Wehner also wonders why that is.

Others, according to Wehner, have a similar question, wondering "how people who claim to be followers of Jesus can offer such dependable, even enthusiastic, support to a man of undisguised moral degeneracy."

He writes:

*How did we end up in a situation that led the late Timothy J. Keller, who was one of the most trusted Christian ministers in the world, to say that the word evangelical used to denote people who staked out the moral high ground—but now, in popular usage, is nearly synonymous with hypocrite?

*The answer is complicated. Part of the explanation is that many white evangelicals have convinced themselves that if Democrats win public office, especially the presidency, abortion and crime rates will skyrocket, there will be a 'war on Christianity,' and America will become a hellscape.

Furthermore, Wehner asserts, "Another reason things are playing out the way they are in the white evangelical world is that its leaders are giving in to the ancient temptation of proximity to political power, choosing to be court pastors in order to win the favor of the king. They are thrilled to be taken seriously, thrilled to be offered invitations to the halls of power, thrilled to be seen having influence in this world."

The Trinity Forum senior fellow also notes:

*In Walker Percy’s The Second Coming, Will Barrett, the novel’s main character, says of Christians, 'I cannot be sure they don’t have the truth. But if they have the truth, why is it the case that they are repellent precisely to the degree that they embrace and advertise that truth? One might even become a Christian if there were few if any Christians around. Have you ever lived in the midst of fifteen million Southern Baptists?' Barrett then puts forward a mystery: 'If the good news is true, why is not one pleased to hear it? And if the good news is true; why are its public proclaimers such assholes and the proclamation itself such a weary used-up thing?'

Wehner's friend, Steve Hayner — the former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Columbia Theological Seminary — said something before his death in 2015 that Wehner will never forget: "The central character of God, Steve said, is love and grace, and the central mission of Christians is to extend God’s hand of grace to others."

Contrary to Hayner's assertion, Wehner notes that Malcolm Gladwell wrote in a 1986 essay: "For some on the religious right, advancing a political agenda has come to take precedence over even the most basic ethical considerations."

Pointing out that prominent evangelical, Franklin Graham, recently "conceded that Trump—twice impeached, thrice married, and four times indicted—at times uses 'locker room' talk." Wehner writes, "The narrative that’s being pushed by Graham is that Trump’s 'locker room' talk and 'mean tweets' are his worst transgressions."

However, The Atlantic writer emphasizes:

*This assertion is a lie, ignoble but in some respects understandable. After all, Trump supporters can’t defend who Trump really is, the awful things he does and says. They can’t defend his lawlessness and cruelty and crudity, the attempted coups and encouragement to his supporters to violently storm the Capitol and hang his vice president. They can’t defend his fraud and promiscuity, his love of conspiracy theories and affinity for dictators, his pathological lying and deranged rants, his misogyny and racism, his mockingof prisoners of war and those with disabilities. So they take his least problematic actions and pretend they’re his most problematic offenses. It’s the opposite of damning someone with faint praise; in this case, it’s praising Trump with faint damnation.

*Wehner's full op-ed is available here.

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an aug 27

Donald Trump — the former president responsible for the end of Roe v. Wade — last week claimed in a post published to Truth Social that if he wins the White House in November, he will turn into a reproductive rights advocate.

"My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights," he wrote, worrying staunch pro-life Republicans, like Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence.

NPR noted that the ex-MAGA official "called Trump’s comments 'concerning,'" and, "In a statement to the National Review, Pence said, 'The former President’s use of the language of the Left, pledging that his administration would be ‘great for women and their reproductive rights’ should be concerning for millions of pro-life Americans.'"

In an op-ed published by The Atlantic Tuesday, columnist Peter Wehner submits that "the pro-life justification for supporting Trump has just collapsed," and that evangelical Christians — who have long supported Trump, particularly for his pro-life views — have been betrayed by the former president.

Wehner now wonders whether staunch anti-abortion Republicans will condemn Trump's flip-flopping ways or if they plan to usher him into the presidency no matter what.

Aside from switching up his stance on the issue of reproductive rights, the columnist points out that "ending Roe is not the same thing as reducing the number of abortions in America." He adds, "In fact, the number of abortions has increased since the 2022 *Dobbs* decision, which overturned Roe. As Philip Klein wrote in National Review, 'overturning Roe was only the necessary first step of a much longer battle to protect the lives of the unborn. And on that battle, it increasingly looks like Trump is joining the other side.'"

Wehner writes:

Who in the pro-life movement—Al Mohler, Mike Huckabee, Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, Robert Jeffress, and countless others—will speak out, publicly and forcefully and relentlessly, against Trump’s about-face? Will they tell the full truth, which is that abortions increased during the Trump presidency, that the pro-life movement is weaker than at almost any time in its history, and that, when it comes to making the Republican Party the home of the pro-life cause, Trump is doing unprecedented damage?*

Although The Atlantic columnist emphasizes, "This is not a hard call," Wehner recognizes that this level of boldness is unlikely.

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'Pence found his spine': Former VP praised on social media after refusing to endorse Trump - Alternet.org

an 11 23

an ABC News bombshell report revealing then-Vice President Mike Pence had, at one point, decided to not preside over the January 6 joint congressional session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election is once again bringing up questions about remarks U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had made one day before the event, which some interpreted as him announcing he, and not the Vice President, would be presiding over the proceedings. Grassley later denied the claim.

The ABC News report includes conversations Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team had in closed-door sessions with Pence, including the former vice president’s notes they obtained from the National Archives.

“According to sources, one of Pence’s notes obtained by Smith’s team shows that, days before Pence was set to preside over Congress certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, he momentarily decided that he would skip the proceedings altogether, writing in the note that there were ‘too many questions’ and it would otherwise be ‘too hurtful to my friend.’ But he ultimately concluded he had a duty to show up,” ABC News reported.

The report added that their “sources said, with the pressure on Pence mounting, he concluded on Christmas Eve — just for a moment — that he would follow Trump’s suggestion and let someone else preside over the proceedings on Jan. 6.”

“Speaking with Smith’s team, Pence insisted his loyalty to President Trump at the time never faltered — ‘My only higher loyalty was to God and the Constitution,’ sources described Pence as telling them.”

“‘Not feeling like I should attend electoral count,’ Pence wrote in his notes in late December. ‘Too many questions, too many doubts, too hurtful to my friend. Therefore I’m not going to participate in certification of election.'”

ABC’s report is prompting questions about U.S. Senator Grassley’s remarks on January 5, 2021, when he said he would be presiding over the Senate the following, fateful day.

Back in September, the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake revisited that event, which in 2021 sparked rumors and speculation.

“Asked whether former president Donald Trump’s legal team had any discussions about Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) presiding over the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, rather than Vice President Mike Pence, [Trump coup memo author John] Eastman declined to answer, citing attorney-client privilege with Trump,” The Post reported, referring to Eastman’s legal testimony in a disbarment proceeding. “The moment drew renewed attention to one of the bigger unanswered questions about Jan. 6: How extensive was the effort to get Pence to step aside?”

“While Grassley has denied any outreach about whether he would preside on Jan. 6, an email obtained by the [U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack] shows that one of his staff members asked Pence’s office on Dec. 23, 2020, about such a scenario.”

“‘ … Is there any reason to believe that your boss will not preside over the electoral college vote count,’ Grassley aide James Rice wrote, as recounted in Jan. 6 committee transcripts, ‘leaving my boss in the spot as [president pro tem]?'”

“Pence aide Paul Teller responded that ‘it’s not a zero percent chance of that happening.'”

But The Post concluded, “the suggestion that this was a concerted effort to get rid of Pence remains unsubstantiated.”

In October of 2022, the Des Moines Register also looked that that event from January 5.

“As the counting of electoral votes neared, reporters asked Grassley how he planned to vote on election certification, the Iowa newspaper reported.

“’If the vice president isn’t there, and we don’t expect him to be there, I will be presiding over the Senate and obviously listening to the debate without saying anything,’ [Grassley] said on a call with agriculture reporters Jan. 5, 2021. ‘You’re asking me how I’m going to vote. I’m going to listen to that debate on what my colleagues have to say during that debate and decide how to cast my vote after considering the information before me.'”

The Register added, “Taylor Foy, a spokesperson for Grassley, quickly issued a clarification to the media the same day, saying Grassley was talking about possibly presiding over the Senate debate if Pence happened to step out. The House and Senate needed to meet separately to consider objections to the electoral count in individual states before convening a joint session of Congress.”

Regardless of the Grassley issue, many have served up sharp criticism of Pence after learning he at one point had decided to not execute his constitutional responsibilities, even if he ultimately did perform his duty.

“A regular Profile in Courage,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss sarcastically declared.

“I myself would never want to upset a good friend who wishes to see me hung by an angry armed mob,” conservative attorney George Conway said mockingly.

“The most important takeaway from the ABC News story re: Pence hedging on whether he should preside over the counting of the Electoral College votes on January 6, is that the pressure campaign on Pence to unlawfully and unilaterally upend the election was not entirely ineffective,” observed professor of law Anthony Michael Kreis.

“Remember that Mike Pence, who didn’t want to carry out the Constitutional oath he took that ended with the words ‘So Help Me God’ shamelessly titled his book about the events ‘So Help Me God.’ The man’s always been a shameless fraud,” declared political scientist David Darmofal.

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an 11 23

despite facing four criminal indictments and a variety of civil lawsuits, Donald Trump is showing no signs of losing his frontrunner status in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Trump leads the second-place candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 58 percent in a Harvard University/HarrisX poll released on November 20 and by 40 percent in a NBC News poll conducted November 10-14.

Moreover, some polls are showing Trump with narrow leads in a hypothetical Trump/President Joe Biden matchup.

The fact that Trump could return to the White House in January 2025 not only worries Democrats — some conservatives are sounding the alarm as well, including three legal experts: attorney George Conway, retired Judge J. Michael Luttig and former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Virginia).

The three of them, The Guardian's Martin Pengelly reports, have proposed a new conservative legal group that would be called the Society for the Rule of Law Institute — which would challenge, from the right, Trump and his allies' "anti-constitutional" and "anti-democratic" actions.

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on November 21, Conway, Luttig and Comstock lament that the Federalist Society — a major right-wing legal group — "has failed to respond in this period of crisis," arguing that a non-MAGA "conservative legal movement" is badly needed.

"We need an organization of conservative lawyers committed to the foundational constitutional principles we once all agreed upon: the primacy of American democracy, the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law, the independence of the courts, the inviolability of elections and mutual support among those tasked with the solemn responsibility of enforcing the laws of the United States," the legal experts argue. "This new organization must step up, speak out and defend these ideals."

*Read George Conway, J. Michael Luttig and Barbara Comstock's full New York Times op-ed at this link (subscription required) and The Guardian's full report here.

no lnx

three prominent US legal thinkers have announced a new organisation to champion conservative legal theory within the rule of law, to fight the threat of a second Donald Trump term.

“Our country comes first,” the three wrote in the New York Times, “and our country is in a constitutional emergency, if not a constitutional crisis. We all must act accordingly, especially us lawyers.”

The authors were George Conway, an attorney formerly married to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s White House counselor; J Michael Luttig, a retired judge and adviser to Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, who became a prominent January 6 witness; and Barbara Comstock, a former Republican congresswoman from Virginia.

The authors also rebuked prominent rightwing groups including the Federalist Society for not resisting the former president and his authoritarian ambitions.

Their new group, the Society for the Rule of Law Institute, would “work to inspire young legal talent … focus on building a large body of scholarship to counteract the new orthodoxy of anti-constitutional and anti-democratic law … [and] marshal principled voices to speak out against the endless stream of falsehoods and authoritarian legal theories … propagated almost daily,” they said.

The Federalist Society and its chair, Leonard Leo, played a key role in Trump’s judicial appointments, installing three hardliners on the supreme court who helped hand down rightwing wins including removing abortion rights and loosening laws on gun control, affirmative action, voting rights and other progressive priorities.

Conway, Luttig and Comstock emerged among prominent conservative opponents of Trump, warning of his authoritarian threat before and after January 6, when rioters attacked Congress in an attempt to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.

Ninety-one criminal charges and assorted civil threats notwithstanding, Trump is now the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination while polling strongly against Biden in battleground states.

“American democracy, the constitution and the rule of law are the righteous causes of our times, and the nation’s legal profession is obligated to support them,” Conway, Luttig and Comstock wrote.

“But with the acquiescence of the larger conservative legal movement, these pillars of our system of governance are increasingly in peril. The dangers will only grow should Donald Trump be returned to the White House next November.”

Trump, they said, would stock a second administration “with partisan loyalists committed to fast-tracking his agenda and sidestepping – if not circumventing altogether – existing laws and long-established legal norms.

“This would include appointing … political appointees to rubber-stamp his plans to investigate and exact retribution against his political opponents; make federal public servants removable at will by the president himself; and invoke special powers to take unilateral action on first amendment-protected activities, criminal justice, elections, immigration and more.”

Saying Trump tried such attacks when in power but was blocked by lawyers and judges, the authors said the former president would if re-elected “arrive with a coterie of lawyers and advisers who, like him, are determined not to be thwarted again”.

“That is why we need an organisation of conservative lawyers committed to the foundational constitutional principles we once all agreed upon: the primacy of American democracy, the sanctity of the constitution and the rule of law, the independence of the courts, the inviolability of elections and mutual support among those tasked with the solemn responsibility of enforcing the laws of the United States.

“This new organisation must step up, speak out and defend these ideals.”

..nyt

By George Conway, J. Michael Luttig and Barbara Comstock

The writers are lawyers. Mr. Conway was in private practice. Mr. Luttig was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006. Ms. Comstock represented Virginia’s 10th District in Congress from 2015 to 2019. They serve on the board of the newly formed Society for the Rule of Law Institute.

American democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law are the righteous causes of our times, and the nation’s legal profession is obligated to support them. But with the acquiescence of the larger conservative legal movement, these pillars of our system of governance are increasingly in peril. The dangers will only grow should Donald Trump be returned to the White House next November.

Recent reporting about plans for a second Trump presidency are frightening. He would stock his administration with partisan loyalists committed to fast-tracking his agenda and sidestepping — if not circumventing altogether — existing laws and long-established legal norms. This would include appointing to high public office political appointees to rubber-stamp his plans to investigate and exact retribution against his political opponents; make federal public servants removable at will by the president himself; and invoke special powers to take unilateral action on First Amendment-protected activities, criminal justice, elections, immigration and more.

We have seen him try this before, though fortunately he was thwarted — he would say “betrayed”— by executive branch lawyers and by judges who refused to go along with his more draconian and often unlawful policies and his effort to remain in office after being cast out by voters. But should Mr. Trump return to the White House, he will arrive with a coterie of lawyers and advisers who, like him, are determined not to be thwarted again.

---

1/20 new tag PPP pence, pompeo perry, ie high ranking trump dominionist/ paleo-catholic

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/revealed-mike-pence-received-church/

7 23 raw moonie $? he and pompeo 2021 event?

https://www.alternet.org/radical-gender-ideology-mike-pence/

drag-ged to the rt by desantis?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/mike-pence/

staffer ~ trump

11 22 ~ j6 comm

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/mike-pence-donald-trump-reckless/

1020 pence pioneered post-truth we don't even care about looking like we care about governing: fired/did not hire policy staff but beefed up PR, get on Fox booktv?

an 10 22

Former Vice President Mike Pence claimed during a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution does not protect Americans from having other people's faiths forced upon them.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances," it states.

In fact, there are no references to a supreme being anywhere in the Constitution, because the Founding Fathers were adamantly opposed to centralized religious power as well as requiring individuals to subscribe to any particular denomination.

The concept of separation of church and state was sacrosanct to men like President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in his 1776 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that "setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time" and that "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."

Jefferson's condemnation of forced faith in the document was unambiguous, further affirming that "no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

President James Madison, in whose hand the Constitution was penned, concurred with Jefferson.

"The settled opinion here is that religion is essentially distinct from Civil Government, and exempt from its cognizance; that a connexion between them is injurious to both; that there are causes in the human breast, which ensure the perpetuity of religion without the aid of the law," Madison explained in an 1819 letter, noting that "a legal establishment of religion without a toleration could not be thought of, and with toleration, is no security for public quiet and harmony, but rather a source itself of discord and animosity."

Benjamin Franklin took it one step further, arguing in 1780 that any religion that seeks to impose itself is simply "bad."

Yet Pence and host Larry Kudlow share an interpretation that strays wildly from what Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison clearly spelled out more than two centuries ago.

"These lefties want to scrap religion, Mike Pence, and I think it's a terrible mistake," Kudlow griped.

"Well, the radical left believes that the freedom of religion is the freedom from religion. But it's nothing the American founders ever thought of or generations of Americans fought to defend," Pence said.

As mentioned, that statement is completely false. Jefferson even concluded in his treatise that "such act will be an infringement of natural right."

But Pence was not finished. He also suggested that the Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority has a duty to side with one faith over another. Today, that means the GOP's embrace of Christian nationalism.

"You know, I said today here in Houston that the source of our nation's greatness has always been our faith in God, our freedom, andour vast natural resources.And the good news is, that after four years of the Trump-Pence administration, I'm confident that we have a pro-religious freedom majority on the Supreme Court of the United States. And I'm confident that come Election Day, November the 8th, you're gonna see that freedom majority around the country turn out and vote pro-freedom majorities in the House, and in the Senate, and in statehouses around the country," Pence said. "So stay tuned, Larry. Help is on the way."

Watch below or at this link.

9 22 an

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former Vice President Mike Pence are among the Republicans who former President Donald Trump has been lambasting for refusing to join him in promoting the Big Lie and claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But unlike Kemp and Pence, Burt Jones — the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in Georgia — has been a vocal Big Lie promoter. And Pence is campaigning for him in Georgia.

In a tweet posted on September 26, Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter points out that Jones was “a January 6 fraudulent elector.”

After the 2020 election, MAGA Republicans in various swing states that now-President Joe Biden won pretended to represent the Electoral College and even presented fake election documents to election officials. In Georgia, Carpenter notes, Trump loyalist Jones was an example of a fake elector.

According to Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein, Pence “will return to Georgia next month for a pair of fundraisers to boost GOP candidates, marking his first return to the state since a May rally with Gov. Brian Kemp that punctuated a deepening divide with Donald Trump. Pence will hold an October 13 fundraiser in Atlanta with State Sen. Burt Jones, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, and State Sen. Tyler Harper, the Republican contender for agriculture commissioner. He’ll head to Thomasville later the same day to raise cash for U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson of West Point and Chris West, the GOP nominee running against veteran Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop.”

Carpenter cited Pence’s support of Jones as an example of the fact that even some “normal” Republicans are supporting Big Lie promoters.

Carpenter posted, “What’s interesting is that MAGA folks are excited about GOP ‘unity’ events…. because the so-called Team Normal folks are coming around election-denialism and other nutty ideas. Not the other way around.”

Twitter user Janet Byrd, @gajbyrd, commented, “So Pence is raising cash for Burt Jones who is a fake elector? Guess Pence forgot the fake elector scheme almost got him killed on Jan 6!”

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/john-eastman-in-the-spotlight/ stoer edit bd

1/6 at the last possible moment did the right thing (berated belittled pssy from oval with fam; wife pulled curtains to hide; he knew for a month what trump/eastman were plotting and said nothing, after toady 4 yrs [fedsoc speech when?) vs Luttig tweets 2? jan 6.

6 22

The first thing to know about today’s hearing by the J6 committee is John Eastman, the coup-memo mastermind, is in deep deep doo doo.

The former professor of law at Chapman University and fellow at the Claremont Institute apparently thought it was a good idea to explain in writing that the J6 insurrection might not have happened if not for a mulish vice president refusing to go along with a bloodless coup.

Eastman moreover had no qualms about saying in front of witnesses that it’s OK for a Republican vice president to pick and choose who’s going to be president but nuh-uh for VPs from the other side. He also said – to the president – that his attempted coup would perhaps maybe I dunno yeah definitely violate the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

Former White House counsel Eric Herschmann said he told Eastman this: “I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life: Get a great f-ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it.” (Evidently counsel advised mum’s the word. In deposition, Eastman invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 100 times.)

Eastman’s hare-brained scheme came down to this: Mike Pence, in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate, in the counting of the electoral votes, could do one of two things on his own, Eastman said.

He could reject the votes, thus declaring Donald Trump the winner.

Or he could send the votes back to the five to seven states that had determined the 2020 election’s outcome. (From there, it’s hard to tell what would have happened. Either the states would resend alternate slates of electors loyal to Trump, a dubious option. Or the election would have been thrown to the House, where state legislatures controlled by one party would get one vote to settle matters.)

Either way, Pence said no.

He said no from the start, according to Greg Jacob, former counsel for the office of the vice president. Jacob was today’s star witness. Thanks to his testimony, we know that those who did not believe that Mike Pence could decide the election on his own, included, in addition to the entire White House counsel’s office, the following people:

Mark Meadows.

Rudy Giuliani.

Donald Trump.

And John Eastman himself.

Indeed, Eastman conceded numerous time and in various ways that his conspiracy would not survive legal scrutiny or the Supreme Court, Jacob said. Eastman vacillated between requesting that Pence reject the votes outright, which he deemed too aggressive an option, or suspend the vote count, which he deemed more politically palatable.

Having gotten nowhere with White House attorneys, state elections officials and his own vice president, Trump mounted a pressure campaign on Pence knowing that neither statutory law nor the Constitution gave him the authority to do what Trump demanded.

Trump did it anyway.

The J6 committee made must-see good TV by illustrating how, starting in December, the former president began pressing Pence via television remarks, Twitter and in private meetings. On the morning of January 6, 2021, Trump called to ask Pence one last time. According to witnesses, Trump called him a coward, a wimp and the p-word.

Then Trump took the stage at the Ellipse. According to lead presenter California Congressman Pete Aguilar, the first draft of his speech made no mention of Pence. Trump revised it, however. Then on stage, he ad libbed. Video footage shows that with each mention, the crowd got more jacked up before being sent down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Most dramatic, I think, was the demonstration of cause and effect regarding Trump’s tweet at 2:24 p.m. By that time, Pence had begun counting the votes. White-power terrorist group the Proud Boys had already breached security and were pouring into the building. White House staffers told J6 investigators there was general agreement that Trump ought to send out a tweet in order to calm things down.

He was told an insurgency was brewing. He wrote:

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving states a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or incorrect ones which they were previously asked to certify. USA demands the truth!”

That, according to a witness, “was like pouring gasoline on the fire.”

Congressman Aguilar said an informant told the FBI that the Proud Boys were prepared to capture and kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if they found her. Same for Mike Pence. A makeshift gallows was raised on the Capitol grounds while the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

Like said, deep deep doo doo.

And John Eastman isn’t alone.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/546848-pence-launches-conservative-political-group/

rev dr pension wheeler and bernhardt

former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday announced the creation of a new political advocacy group, his latest step to remain involved in the conservative movement as he plots out his political future.

Pence launchedAdvancing American Freedom, which he said would defend conservative values while opposing the Biden administration’s agenda.

“Advancing American Freedom plans to build on the success of the last four years by promoting traditional Conservative values and promoting the successful policies of the Trump Administration,” Pence said in a statement. “Conservatives will not stand idly by as the radical Left and the new administration attempt to threaten America’s standing as the greatest Nation in the world with their destructive policies.”

The nonprofit advocacy group will be advised by several former Trump administration officials and prominent leaders in the conservative movement. Kellyanne Conway, Larry Kudlow, Russ Vought, Seema Verma, Andrew Wheeler, Robert Lighthizer and David Bernhardt are among the former Trump officials on its advisory board.

The group will advocate for policies focused on three areas: The economy, foreign policy and “American liberties” like school choice and anti-abortion policies.

The launch of the advocacy group is Pence’s latest bid to remain a key player in conservative politics. Since leaving office, he has joined the Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow where he has a regular column and podcast, and he also joined former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) Young America’s Foundation as a scholar.

Pence is expected to speak later this month in South Carolina in his first speech since leaving office.

The Washington Examiner reported that the new advocacy group comes with the support of former President Trump,who has patched things up with Pence after attacking his former vice president for refusing to illegally subvert the certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6. Pence was the target of threats when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol that day, and he was taken away to a secure location when rioters entered the complex.

The former vice president is known to be interested in running for president in 2024, but the end of his tenure has raised questions about whether he would be embraced by Trump supporters. Other former Trump administration officials, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, are also likely to launch presidential bids.

TAGS 2024 ELECTION ANDREW WHEELER CONSERVATIVE POLITICS DONALD TRUMP KELLYANNE CONWAY LARRY KUDLOW MIKE PENCE MIKE POMPEO NIKKI HALEY ROBERT LIGHTHIZER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

often/always a lagging indicator? looking to pick up pieces of gop after trump finally implodes? presumably fine w/ ass kissing of vlad 4 yrs? inner cold warrior?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/pence/

vp ~ djt

2 22

two stories straight out of Alabama this week really encapsulate how the panic over "critical race theory," the war on schools and the war on democracy itself are all a piece of a singular racist right wing movement. Last week, AL.com reported that school officials across the state say parents are freaking out over the very existence of Black History Month, accusing schools of promoting "critical race theory" by mentioning it or honoring it in any way.

And on Monday, the Supreme Court declined to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Actin response to a plainly racist gerrymander in Alabama, on the grounds that doing so would interfere with the state's control of their elections systems. Yes, even though federal oversight of state election systems is literally what the Voting Rights Act was designed to do.

It's been 13 months since Donald Trump incited an insurrection on the Capitol, one that was clearly driven by white supremacy and the belief that the votes of Black Americans simply shouldn't count as much as those of white people. There continues to be a struggle between various factions of the GOP over how to portray the violent insurrection itself — to call it a glorious MAGA revolution or pretend it was a random event unconnected to the larger party — but these two stories show the sentiment that drove it has now taken root in every corner of the GOP. From the school board to the Supreme Court, Republicans are determined to stomp out anything that stands in the way of white supremacy, from history to the law to democracy itself.

The Supreme Court's Monday decision is rife with confusing legalese, and will likely be mostly overlooked by both the media and the public because of it. But it's important. As with the court's recent approach to the Texas abortion ban, it showcases how the three Trump appointees to the court have transformed SCOTUS into an authoritarian body that will throw out the rule of law to enforce a far-right agenda.

In a 5-4 decision, the conservative justices stayed a lower court's ruling that a new Alabama gerrymander disenfranchised Black voters, in a clear violation of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In his defense of the decision, Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh didn't even bother to argue that the gerrymander was legal, but instead insisted that enforcing federal election law nine months out from an election would "lead to disruption" and that it was "unanticipated and unfair" to expect Alabama to obey a law passed 57 years ago.

"It is hard to overstate how lawless the Supreme Court's order is," wrote Mark Joseph Stern, who covers courts and law for Slate, on Twitter. "The five ultraconservative justices broke the court's own rules to intervene with an unreasoned shadow docket decision that effectively nullifies a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. It's profoundly alarming."[twt]

the refusal of the court to enforce the plain letter text of the law is so egregious that even Chief Justice John Roberts — a man who has made it his life's work to gut the Voting Rights Act — voted with the liberal justices. Roberts may share the racist goals of the other conservative judges, but even he clearly feels uneasy with the court simply rejecting the duty to enforce the law simply because they disagree with its aims.

By issuing this decision, the conservative judges are throwing their lot in with Trump and the Capitol insurrectionists — if the law will not uphold white supremacy, the law itself is invalid.

It's the same impulse underpinning the panic over "critical race theory," a cover story for white conservatives trying to stomp out acknowledgment of the country's racist history and contributions made by Black Americans. Republicans spent months gaslighting the public about this, insisting the attacks on school boards and bans on "critical race theory" were about stopping supposedly "divisive" teachings and "anti-white" racism. But their actions speak otherwise, from these complaints about Black History Month to efforts to ban books about Martin Luther King Jr. The goal is erasing history, literature and even facts that conflict with a white supremacist ideology.

What was remarkable about the Capitol insurrection is that it was both an assault on rule of law and on reality itself. The rioters rejected the basic fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. They also rejected the basic law that asserts that the winner of the election has the right to take power. The belief that they and people like them — white conservatives — have a "right" to rule overrules everything else.

The insurrection clearly didn't end on January 6, just because the rioters failed to overturn the election and enshrine the Big Lie. On the contrary, the insurrection has mutated and metastasized within the GOP. It has infused the whole party, from the ordinary voters freaking out at school boards to the highest court in the land. There might be a few Republican holdouts — :{like Roberts or former vice president :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:**Mike Pence**— who still think things like "rule of law" and "basic facts" matter. But they have clearly lost the battle with the rest of the party, as this 5-4 Supreme Court decision shows. There is no law or fact Republicans feel bound to respect. Anything that stands in the way of the white conservative will to power is expected to give way.

Steve Bannon is not pleased with former Vice President Mike Pence's clear condemnation of former President Donald Trump's endless conspiracy theories and claims of voter fraud regarding the 2020 presidential election.

On Friday, February 4, Bannon, former White House strategist to Trump, shared his reaction to Pence's speech at the Federalist Society's Florida Chapters Conference. During the event, Pence addressed the situation and defended his actions on January 6 when he solidified the Electoral College vote in favor of President Joe Biden. Referencing the U.S. Constitution, the former vice president made it clear he had "no right" to overturn the outcome of the presidential election.

"This week, our former president said I had the right to 'overturn the election.' President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election," Pence said.

He added, "Frankly there is almost no idea more un-American than the notion that anyone person could choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election and Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024."

Apparently, Pence's truth was not what Bannon, and other Trump loyalists, would have liked to hear. So, following Pence's remarks, Bannon decided to rant during Friday's episode of his "War Room: Pandemic" podcast. Describing him as "a stone-cold coward," Bannon delivered a direct message to the former vice president.

"Pence, you're going to carry this thing eventually to your grave, OK?" Bannon said. "Because it is a mark of shame. And you are a stone-cold coward. A stone-cold coward."

Although Pence is accurate regarding the limitations on his Constitutional power to overturn the election, Trump has continued to distort the truth by suggesting otherwise. In a recent statement, Trump leveled yet another attack at Pence, once again falsely claiming that he had the power to overturn the election.

"In other words, I was right and everyone knows it," Trump said in the statement.

The former president's dangerous claims are continuing to undermine the United States' democracy although what he is saying is completely untruthful.

no lnx

Scathing new report sheds light on the most shocking aspect of John Eastman's involvement in the Capitol riots

Meaghan Ellis October 30, 2021

New damning developments pertaining to the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol have come to light. According to Washington Post, the latest investigative update involves former President Donald Trump's lawyer John Eastman.

The report, written by Washington Post reporters Josh Dawsey, Jacqueline Alemany, Jon Swaine, and Emma Brown, explains how Eastman attempted to build a case to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election. It has been revealed that "even as rioters overran the Capitol and a recalcitrant Pence was forced into hiding, Eastman emailed a Pence aide to actually blame Pence for the scene."

At one point, Pence's aide Greg Jacob also became embroiled in a heated exchange with Eastman telling him that "his 'bullshit legal advice was why Pence's team was 'under siege.' An accusation Eastman replied to with a suggestion pushing the blame off on Pence.

"The 'siege' is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this [election challenge] to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened," Eastman replied.

The reporters also highlighted more damning details that occurred after U.S. Capitol Police managed to clear the breached federal building so lawmakers could reconvene.

Pence allowed other lawmakers to speak before they returned to counting the votes, and said he wasn't counting the time from his speech or the other lawmakers against the time allotted in the Electoral Count Act.

Eastman said that this prompted him to email Jacob to say that Pence should not certify the election because he had already violated the Electoral College Act, which Pence had cited as a reason that he could not send the electors back to the states.

"My point was they had already violated the electoral count act by allowing debate to extend past the allotted two hours, and by not reconvening 'immediately' in joint session after the vote in the objection," Eastman told The Post. "It seemed that had already set the precedent that it was not an impediment."

Based on Eastman's actions and his response to Pence's aide, it appears he was well aware of how they could possibly leverage the angry mob of rioters that stormed the Capitol.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Coalition of lawyers urge CA bar to probe Trump coup memo ... ›

There was a method to the madness of the Trump coup memos ... ›

GOP operative warns Mike Pence is up to something dangerous ... ›

Pence busted for ‘lying through his teeth’ about Trump’s COVID-19 response in damning supercut

Travis Gettys / Raw Story September 11, 2020

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough busted Vice President Mike Pence for “lying through his teeth” about President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The vice president went on Fox News and…

Climate Change Skeptic, Mike Pence Brought to the Vice Presidency Deep Ties to the Koch Brothers

BY: MARIANNE LAVELLE

Pence’s record on climate is built on ironclad support for oil, gas and coal, and an abiding antipathy for the ‘job-killing’ Paris climate accord.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/white-house-cover-up-new-report-show-trump-and-pence-withheld-truth-about-19-as-they-spread-lies/

knew big problem in June

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/mike-pences-contemptible-convention-speech-a-fable-of-failure-culture-war-and-corruption/

salon

Vice President Mike Pence’s appearance as the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday was an ill-timed booking that mostly served to highlight his role in the Trump administration’s failed response to COVID-19, its continued culture wars and its blatant corruption.

Exactly six months to the day since Trump claimed, in reference to the spreading novel coronavirus, “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero — that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” the U.S. officially registered 180,000 cases. And exactly four years to the day since former San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick first knelt during the national anthem in protest of police violence, several NBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer teams led an unprecedented wildcat strike in protest of continued police killings of unarmed Black people. Joe Biden was quick to make a strong statement of support for the atheletes.

But speaking Wednesday from Fort McHenry outside Baltimore, reputed location for the writing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Trump’s dutiful vice president opened his address not by noting the solemn state we find ourselves in as a nation, but by continuing to rail against cancel culture, socialism, “left wing mobs” and Americans who failed to adequately “back the blue.” Pence praised law enforcement, including a misleading reference to Dave Patrick Underwood, an officer with the Department of Homeland Security’s federal protective service who was shot and killed in May by a far-right extremist.

“He was shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California,” Pence shamelessly claimed.

even as Pence was ranting about protesters — those in Kenosha, Wisconsin remained peaceful without police interference. Of course, Pence didn’t even bother to mention the police shooting of Jacob Blake that ignited this latest round of civil unrest, or the outside agitator, another apparent right-wing milita member, who shot and killed two protesters the night before.

Using a National Park Service location for his blatantly political speech, Pence followed his boss’ RNC strategy of forcing public employees to appear in potential violation of the _{Hatch Act}_, which forbids federal employees other than the president or vice president from engaging in political activity at their workplace. Like the faithful soldier, Pence used his speech to rewrite recent history as an epic success.

“We are protecting the vulnerable and we are saving lives,” Pence said, claiming that the federal government has now “coordinated the delivery of billions of pieces of personal protective equipment.” But the forced sell fell as flat as the veep’s delivery.

“Last week, Joe Biden said ‘no miracle is coming,'” Pence said Wednesday night. “What Joe doesn’t seem to understand is that America is a nation of miracles and we’re on track to have the world’s first safe, effective coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.” Most experts believe a vaccine won’t be ready until 2021 at the earliest.

Pence, who was plucked off the campaign trail in February to head the White House coronavirus task force, quietly quit overseeing day-to-day operations in Washington to return to the campaign trail after being sidelined by Trump earlier this summer. While still in charge, Pence implored people not to listen to warnings about COVID-19 just before it exploded all over the South. He trotted around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to brag about how well the Sunshine State was doing, right before it degraded into a COVID deathscape. And he infamously visited the Mayo Clinic and _{wore no mask inside}_ the hospital, where staff were caring for patients infected with the coronavirus.

Pointing to a _{new Politico report }_about Pence’s role leading the White House coronavirus task force, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that Pence had “pulled his punch” in confronting the virus and became “a figure in the background.”

“There’s nothing for him to be proud of in terms of his role in fighting this virus,” Pelosi said. “In fact there’s evidence to support the fact that he was very slow on the draw, pulled his punch when he should have been leading with it. And he’s part of the indictment on the coronavirus. They were slow in anticipation and … reacting to what was happening out there in terms of the spread of the virus.”

Hours before Pence’s RNC speech, multiple news outlets confirmed that the CDC had abruptly changed its guidelines to limit coronavirus testing,a top priority of Trump’s since the outset of this outbreak. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who serves on the White House coronavirus task force, told CNN that the changes had been rushed through while he was in surgery last week under anesthesia. Of course, Pence’s track record during an HIV/AIDS outbreak while he was governor of Indiana ought to have been enough to make anyone interested in public health alarmed.

Recall that Pence has covered for Trump’s corruption at nearly every turn during the last four years.

He was present in the Oval Office just before Trump asked former FBI director James Comey to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Asked what he knew as the head of Trump’s transition team, Pence _{claimed}_ that he had just learned of Flynn’s ties to Turkey in March 2017. When Flynn was initially fired, however, his cited offense was having lied to Pence during the transition. Pence also _{admitted to helping Trump pressure}_ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden in exchange for the release of U.S. military aid.

Pence has even helped drive taxpayer dollars to Trump’s private organizations.

During a foreign trip to meet with Irish leaders, Pence _{stayed at a hotel owned by Trump}_ almost 180 miles away. at his boss’s urging. Trump International Golf Links in Doonbeg, on the west coast of Ireland, was nearly a four-hour drive from Pence’s scheduled meetings in Dublin. According to an analysis by the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Pence’s stay cost taxpayers nearly _{$600,000}_ in limousine service alone.

If Pence was supposed to be the post-Trump savior of the Republican Party, then Wednesday’s performance reveals that prospect as a complete farce. This nightmare won’t end in November. The contemptuous dismissal of the Hatch Act on display this week at the RNC is just one more test run for Team Trump’s evident plan to dismiss or overturn the results of the election. The professional athletes who walked out last night in pursuit of justice have the right idea and we all should follow suit. This week’s RNC performance makes clear that the entirety of the Republican Party is rotten. Americans can’t wait until the election has already been undermined. They need to be in the streets now.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/mike-pence-says-johns-roberts-is-a-disappointment-to-conservatives/

an 720 kos

Sing for dear leader; die for dear leader.

On Sunday, Politico posted a story speculating on whether or not Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and the rest of the White House team would have to “reassess” their demands that churches be allowed to hold unrestricted services during the COVID-19 pandemic despite numerous “super-spreader” events now demonstrating that it. Is. Not. Safe.

Politico needn’t have bothered. Only hours afterwards, Mike Pence was the guest of honor at a Dallas, Texas megachurch rally that featured a choir of 100 unmasked singers and a packed audience even as Texas reeled from skyrocketing new COVID-19 cases. There’s your answer, everyone who wasted their time wondering whether Trump and Pence would continue to risk the lives of their most fervent evangelical supporters in exchange for the visuals of crowds cheering them. They genuinely don’t care if evangelicals live or die as long as they can squeeze a bit of footage out of each event.

Politico cites what is now the most infamous superspreader event: an Oregon church responsible for 258 new COVID-19 cases after Memorial Day weekend services. We have been seeing—and experts have been warning—that some behaviors are more dangerous than others during the pandemic. Prolonged indoor contact is dangerous. Heavy breathing, as comes with exercise, is dangerous. Singing, as in a choir, and loud talking, as from speakers trying to make themselves heard throughout a building, are more dangerous than normal speech and breath. It makes perfect sense: Anything that forces more moisture, and therefore more virus, out from the lungs is going to be dangerous.

Unfortunately for churches, that makes religious services (and gyms, and bars, and crowded restaurants) places where it is far more likely that the coronavirus will spread. If anyone among the Republican crowd gave a flying damn about saving the lives of their own constituents, they would make this as clear as the experts do. Wear masks. Wear them. Even if you do nothing else, wear the damn masks and stop spit from spreading the virus as you sing and preach about how God Himself will protect you no matter how much contempt you have for your own safety.

i'm genuinely confused, however, as to how anyone could seriously think anyone in the Trump administration, and especially Trump and Pence themselves, would be even slightly interested in “reassessing” their policy encouraging religious services to be held without proper safety precautions just because worshippers were getting sick and dying. They do not care. They have given zero indication that they care. They insisted on reopening churches because they believed their evangelical base would reward them for it, and what happens to any member of that base is of absolutely no interest to Mike Pence, man of Jesus, or Donald Trump, man of Himself Alone.

What sort of delusional insanity could possibly convince anyone otherwise? What evidence?

Here is what will happen if evangelical Trump supporters begin to die in large numbers: Trump and Pence will blame immigrants. Or minorities. Or the press for reporting it. Or Democrats for no reason whatsoever. Or bears, or wild boars, or Crayola crayons, or anarchists, or the harvesting of fall crops. It does not matter, because they do not care. If public officials urge churches to take basic safety precautious even as the pandemic explodes in Arizona, Florida, and Texas, Trump and Pence will attack those public officials for suggesting it.

Donald Trump is incompetent, delusional, and sincerely does not care how many more Americans after the first 125,000 might die. Mike Pence is a cultish pseudo-Christian whose faith is microns deep; the rest of him is filled with glassy-eyed ambition. Stop thinking anything but the absolute worst about either of them: Not once, not even one time during the last four years, has either of them done anything but the absolute worst they could do.

Trump has made mask-wearing and other basic precautions deeply political, gambling with the lives of everyone in the nation on the one-in-a-million chance that the pandemic will simply vanish without intervention. He is a delusional and incompetent nut. There is no going back from that, and there will never be, at any point, remorse.

And every competent pundit in America already knows I am righ

in post- truth world, only PR matters [~ "reality-based" jrnlism , rove?]

an 620 wa mon? // trms prod The Imposter bk (pence fired all policy and replaced w/ PR [thus wants to be prez?!]

i've already written twice about Donald Trump’s decision to kind of/mostly move the 2020 Republican National Convention from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida. In my last installment, I noted that it would be difficult to meet the president’s goal of having a full house for the television cameras, in part, because people cannot be in two places at the same time.

The Republican Party is contractually obligated to hold its national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, but Democratic Governor Roy Cooper would not guarantee that state health restrictions could be lifted for the Aug. 24-27 event. The solution, then, was to keep the convention in Charlotte in a strictly legal sense by holding all the regular business meetings there, but to find an alternative location for the speeches and pageantry…

… People can’t simultaneously be in Charlotte holding a meeting on the Republican platform and in Jacksonville listening to Mike Pence or Melania Trump give a speech. Trump might have to hire “extras” to fill the gaps.

I suppose I was a bit naïve. There was an obvious solution but I didn’t see it because I don’t have enough of a criminal mind.

Now, mind you, I didunderstand that the only reason the Republicans were keeping part of the convention in Charlotte was to provide a legal defense against reneging on their contracts. As the Charlotte Observer reports, there will be wrangling over the decision:

Ed Driggs, one of two Republicans on the Charlotte City Council, had once hoped for an exciting week-long convention that would show off his city and his party.

On Thursday, as news dribbled out about just how scaled-backed Charlotte’s piece of the convention will be, Driggs said, “I guess I’m disappointed it’s so little.”

Now that the Republican National Committee has officially voted to move most of the convention out of Charlotte, Driggs said, “the big question is: How do we (the city) deal with the contracts in place? Who is responsible for those? (The parties to the contracts) are still trying to work it out.”

The Charlotte host committee, for example, has “an interest in not being saddled with liabilities and expenses,” Driggs said.

On Wednesday the committee, charged with raising almost $70 million for the event, said the move to another city violates contracts with the city and other local groups.

“This decision is in clear violation of the agreements made with the City of Charlotte, the County of Mecklenburg, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and the Charlotte Host Committee,” the committee said in a statement Wednesday.

To maintain the fiction that these contracts are being honored, the proceedings in Jacksonville are being called a “celebration” rather than a “convention.” Whether this will be convincing in court is for lawyers, judges, and perhaps a jury to decide, but it still doesn’t solve the problem of people having to be in two places at the same time. The elegant solution was sitting right in front of my face and I couldn’t see it.

On Wednesday, the RNC’s executive panel voted to leave the 2016 party platform in place, with absolutely no edits. This will have the absurd result of leaving in place language about the president that clearly refers, in a critical manner, to Barack Obama. It will leave harsh language about deficit spending that applies with more force to the Trump administration than its predecessor. It will keep descriptions of the Middle East that no longer have any application, and in some cases it will pledge Trump to promises he has already kept. It also means that there will be no adjustments made to reflect an evolution of the party or national culture over the last four years.

The decision by the Wednesday means the GOP will maintain positions in the 4-year-old policy blueprint — including opposition to same-sex marriage and a nod to gay conversion therapy — and decline to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity and third-trimester abortions.

Of course, both moderates and social conservatives are furious. They’ve both been gearing up to battle over the party platform, and now there will be no debate at all. Yet, by eliminating the most important piece of party business, the RNC no longer has to worry that people will be in Charlotte hashing out party principles when they should be in Jacksonville adoring the president.

The Republican National Convention is officially on the move to Jacksonville, Fla., after it will spend just a single day in Charlotte this August, the RNC committee announced Thursday night.

It will host what the Republicans are calling a “celebration” of President Donald Trump’s re-nomination…

…The convention was once expected to span four days in Charlotte — bringing in 50,000 people and pumping more than $150 million into the local economy.

Instead, around 336 delegates will conduct the convention’s official business Monday, Aug. 24. Then they’ll head to Jacksonville — and join more than 2,000 other delegates for three days of speeches and celebrations, a top GOP official said Thursday.

So, in order to manage the limitations of the time/space continuum, there will be no changes to the Republican platform in 2020, and anyone who cares about the platform will just have to suck it.

This is a final confirmation that the Republican Party has become a cult that stands for nothing and exists only to fluff Donald Trump’s ego. It was completely predictable but I failed to foresee it because I was still operating in the world where contracts are honored and political parties are made of up people who care about policy.

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/09/venezuela-coup-regime-change/

PICTURE THE FOLLOWING SCENE: Two former Venezuelan special forces soldiers are captured while trying to land on a beach in the United States. They confess on camera to being part of a wider plot to capture and kidnap the American president.

That same day, back in Venezuela, another ex-special forces soldier with connections to the longtime bodyguard of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, releases a video announcing the two men were working for his private security company, on a mission to detain and extract President Donald Trump and bring down the government in Washington, D.C.

Two days later, the Venezuelan foreign minister, who also happens to be the former head of the country’s feared intelligence agency, gives a press conference at which he chooses to deny only “direct” involvement in the operation. “If we had been involved, it would have gone differently,” he added, with a smirk.

What do you think the reaction would be here in the United States? Among political and media elites? In national security circles? Wouldn’t the U.S. press be running endless pieces denouncing and berating Maduro? Wouldn’t cable news be rolling on it? Does anyone doubt that the U.S. military would be preparing to attack targets across Venezuela in retaliation?

Yet that is exactly what we have witnessed over the past week — but in reverse, and without any sense of shock or outrage in the United States.

[In this photo released by Venezuela’s Ministry of Communication, Jorge Rodriguez shows a video of American Airan Berry, a former U.S. special forces soldier associated with the Florida-based private security firm Silvercorp USA, during a televised statement in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 7, 2020.]

On Monday, it was Venezuela that captured two former U.S. special forces soldiers, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, after what authorities described as their “botched beach landing in the fishing village of Chuao.” A video was released of Denman telling his interrogators that he had been tasked with capturing the Venezuelan president. Meanwhile, Florida-based ex-Green Beret Jordan Goudreau, head of the private security firm Silvercorp USA, appeared in a video alongside a former Venezuelan military officer in combat fatigues, in which he confirmed that Denman and Berry were working for him. (Press reports have since revealed that Goudreau had meetings with former longtime Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, had signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition, and also claims to have been in contact with the office of Vice President Mike Pence.)

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former director of the CIA, spoke at a press conference where he issued his very carefully worded denial: “There was no U.S. government direct involvement in this.” He also couldn’t help but brag to reporters about how it “would have gone differently” if the United States had been behind it. (Memo to Pompeo: Google “Bay of Pigs.”)...

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/pence-is-blocking-fauci-and-birx-from-cnn-in-retaliation-for-the-network-not-airing-trump-daily-briefings-in-full/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/pence-secretly-meeting-with-right-wing-media-personalities-on-how-to-spin-trumps-virus-crisis-report/

no lnx

Pence secretly meeting with right-wing media personalities on how to spin Trump’s virus crisis: report

Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story March 17, 2020

As part of his duties overseeing the task force in charges of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, Vice President Mike Pence has been holding secret meetings with prominent right-wing “influencers” on how to spin Donald Trump’s administration’s efforts to contain the growing health crisis.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, the outreach began at the annual CPAC conference long before the administration had any idea what they were dealing with, the report notes.

“The direct outreach occurred on Thursday, Feb. 27—the day after Trump tapped Pence to lead the task force. There, the vice president hosted an informal briefing on COVID-19 and the administration’s latest efforts, with several right-leaning personalities with large followings on Twitter and other social media platforms, according to a source with direct knowledge of the gathering,” the Beast reports, adding, “The following Wednesday, Pence hosted another closed-door meeting with conservative ‘influencers,’ with this one lasting for roughly an hour in the vice president’s office on White House grounds.”

Among those Vice President Pence has been reaching out to are “Fox New fixture and prolific MAGA tweeterDan Bongino; former Trump adviser and current “War Room: 2020” podcast host Jason Miller; Newsmax TV host and Trump’s former press secretary Sean Spicer; former White House official and Sinclair ‘must-run’ commentator Boris Epshteyn; Sinclair anchorand ex-Fox News host Eric Bolling; and former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), a Trump surrogate.”

The report notes that the outreach illustrates that White House knows it has a public relations problem of epic proportions on its hands and needs all Trump-supporting hands on deck, who are being used to praise the president while at the same time lashing out the media for their coverage of the administration’s failures.

“For weeks the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force has struggled to maintain continuity in messaging, with different departments seemingly operating off of different scripts and with different ideas about how to disseminate information to the public. Part of that tension is internal, with a White House and a president having been desperate to calm the markets at a time when state governments are calling for help amid rising death tolls,” the report continued. “Through it all, the vice president’s office, and communications teams on the task force, have tried to minimize the noise, calm Americans, and relentlessly lauded the president’s response to the outbreak in the U.S. The efforts to loop in conservative influencers has been seen as a way to maneuver beyond the regular briefings to the White House press corps and reach a different and more sympathetic media cohort. “

Defending the meetings, Pence chief of staff Marc Short described their efforts by stating, “The vice president has said that he wants to get as much information out to the American people as possible… There are a lot of different channels of communication. It’s not just press briefings every day, it’s not just TV interviews… There’s a whole lot of different streams of information. And one of those is surrogates.”

You can read more here.

===

320

photo of Pence praying with coronavirus task force draws criticism: ‘We are so screwed’David Badash / The New Civil Rights

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an 220

pence hit the Sunday talk shows without facing a single question about his abysmal HIV outbreak record

Laura Clawson / Daily KosMarch 2, 2020

Mike Pence talked coronavirus response on three Sunday morning talk shows yesterday, and boy, did CNN’s Jake Tapper and NBC’s Chuck Todd let him off the hook.

Mike Pence’s coronavirus clown show humiliates Trump — and endangers the rest of us

Heather Digby Parton / Salon March 2, 2020

Our vice president doesn’t believe in science — so he’s perfect to dispense pro-Trump lies and conspiracy theories.

msnbc ari b cigs no cause cancer?!

Watch: Mike Pence’s public health record

As a reporter for The (Louisville, Kentucky) Courier-Journal and USA…

===

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/vp-mike-pence-talks-coronavirus-conspiracy-theorist-rush-limbaugh

v President Mike Pence, who President Donald Trump has placed in charge of overseeing the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, appeared Friday afternoon on The Rush Limbaugh Show — which has been the source of a mixture of conspiracy theories, denialism, and other misinformation about the virus.

During the program, Pence stated that the government is on top of the situation, saying, “President Trump has no higher priority than the health of the American people.”

Radio host Rush Limbaugh offered his support to Pence and discussed the problem as a matter beyond politics. “I'm for you guys, I want you to succeed because this needs success. I mean, this problem needs to be dealt with successfully, hopefully as apolitically as possible,” Limbaugh said. “The virus doesn't know whether it's infecting a Republican or a Democrat, a woman, a man, anything. And until we get a better handle on it, we want competent people working on this.”

However, the segment made no mention of all the irresponsible rhetoric and conspiracy theories that its own host had been spreading earlier this week

[pix]

kicking off the week on Monday, Limbaugh falsely claimed that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is actually just “the common cold,” but added that it “probably is a [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized” as part of “an effort to bring down Trump” through negative media coverage.

Limbaugh then only dug in further on Tuesday, downplaying the potential impact of coronavirus in the U.S. and declaring:

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): I'm not going to play ball with this, I'm not going to join a panic over something that I have been independently informing myself about. I have no interest in lying to you about anything, it doesn't help me, it doesn't help you, it doesn't further anything. It doesn't help a thing for me to knowingly lie to you about something as serious as a “possible global pandemic,” and that's how the media is treating this.

He later went on to claim that the coronavirus was not a major threat, but that the media was only hoping for it to sufficiently evolve to become one:

RUSH LIMBAUGH (HOST): They hope for hurricanes — on the first day of hurricane season, they hope for Hurricane Katrina so they can say “climate change,” anything to advance the leftist agenda. Now, the leftist agenda includes getting rid of Trump. They would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out, so they could blame Trump for it.”

Limbaugh did not repeat or even acknowledge any of these conspiracy theories during the interview with Pence — nor did Pence mention that Limbaugh had been spreading them.

Later in the program, Pence projected a message of nonpartisan national unity in the crisis.

“We're going to follow the facts, we're going to follow the science, we're going to tune out the politics, and keep reaching out to people across the spectrum,” Pence said. “And I have to tell you, my conversations with many of the officials that I mentioned to you in the Democratic Party, I get that sense — I think this is a real moment where we have an opportunity to really come together and work this issue on behalf of the American people. And that's going to continue to be our focus.”

Pence also rebutted the story that any kind of “gag order” had been imposed on Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, as was reported Thursday in The New York Times.

“I was told that Dr. Fauci testified at a briefing in Congress today that there is no gag order and there is not. What we want to make sure is happening is that with so many different agencies involved, that we're providing that information in a consistent and a systematic way,” Pence said. “We're going to give the American people the facts. We're going to follow what the scientific community is recommending on this. And we're going to let the health care experts lead.”

However, the message that the Trump-Pence administration is “going to let the health care experts lead” is another talking point that should contrast sharply with Limbaugh’s rhetoric during the coronavirus crisis. On Thursday, Limbaugh was one of many right-wing media figures attacking Dr. Nancy Messonnier,director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because she is also the sister of former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. (Rosenstein is a frequent target of pro-Trump propagandists for having appointed Robert Mueller as a special counsel in the Russia investigation.)

Beyond Limbaugh, Pence and Donald Trump have had their own serious issues when it comes to “following the science.”

Pence chief of staff rants wildly about anti-Trump conspiracy at DOJ — gets promptly shut down on CNN

Tom Boggioni / Raw Story

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” with fill-in host Dana Bash, the chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence argued the Justice Department is rife with officials who are biased against Donald Trump.

watch Mike Pence fail spectacularly when ER doctor confronts him about Trump’s Medicaid cuts

Daily Kos

Vice-president Mike Pence was glad-handing at the Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa, last week when he encountered something that made him visibly uncomfortable—a well-informed citizen.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/01/evangelicals-are-anticipating-the-end-of-the-world-and-trump-is-listening/

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Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of Them Is Especially Terrifying

End Times.

Stephanie Mencimer January 23, 2020

Mother Jones

The enemies of Israel have unleashed a massive air attack on the Promised Land. Hundreds of fighter jets streak across the sky. But before Israel can be destroyed, fire rains from the heavens and the enemy jets explode in mid-air with no explanation. Hailstones the size of golf balls follow the fire. The ground shakes. Birds pick clean the bodies of the fallen attackers. The enemy is vanquished without a single Israeli casualty, and the country is saved.

These are some of the opening scenes of the bestselling 1995 book Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days, by Jerry B. Jenkins and the late evangelical minister Tim LaHaye. But don’t mistake this scenario for a mere action sequence: It’s based on the war of Gog and Magog, a biblical conflict prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel. In the Bible, Gog is the leader of Magog, a “place in the far north” that many evangelicals believe is Russia. According to Ezekiel’s prophecy, Gog will join with Persia—now Iran—and other Arab nations to attack a peaceful Israel “like a cloud that covers the land.” LaHaye, like many evangelicals, believed this battle would bring on the Rapture, the End Times event when God spirits away the good Christians to heaven before unleashing plagues, sickness, and other horrors on the unbelievers remaining on Earth. Meanwhile, the Antichrist reigns supreme.

The story of Gog and Magog is central to the bloody eschatology long embraced by millions of American evangelicals. In recent years, End Times has gained special political currency as believers have seen any number of Middle East conflagrations as fulfilling Ezekiel’s prophecy, notably the US invasion of Iraq and the war in Syria. Gog and Magog took on fresh relevance earlier this month, when the Trump administration assassinated Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force.

On many levels, President Donald Trump’s self-created crisis in Iran seems to have no relationship to any sort of coherent foreign policy or geopolitical plan for the future. The assassination has yielded few if any tangible rewards for the US. But there is an eager constituency for Trump’s improvised policy toward the Middle East and Iran in particular: the evangelical Christians who see it as a means of ushering in the return of Christ. Lured by the promise of conservative Supreme Court justices, anti-abortion measures, and a commitment to Christian supremacy under the guise of religious freedom, white evangelicals voted for Trump in higher numbers than any other group—more than 80 percent.

He desperately needs them if he’s going to be reelected. And while some have expressed concern about the administration’s inching toward war with Iran, many of those with what were once fringe beliefs have cheered the killing of Soleimani. “Iran has this big part to play in biblical history,” says religious historian Diana Butler Bass, who grew up in the evangelical church, attended an evangelical college and seminary, and wrote her Ph.D. thesis at Duke University on American fundamentalism. “There are these particular prophecies from Ezekiel, where there is talk of a war that will happen at a very important moment in Israel’s history. And that war is going to kick off the End Times. People in this prophetic community believe Iran is going to be one of these aggressors.”

“When Iran gets into the news, especially with anything to do with war, it’s sort of a prophetic dog whistle to evangelicals.”

Bass thinks this worldview may be central to understanding Trump’s foreign policy. “When Iran gets into the news, especially with anything to do with war, it’s sort of a prophetic dog whistle to evangelicals. They will support anything that seems to edge the world towards this conflagration,” she says. “They don’t necessarily want violence, but they’re eager for Christ to return and they think that this war with Iran and Israel has to happen for their larger hope to pass.”

Not all or even most evangelicals believe in the literal truth of these sorts of prophecies, though nearly 60 percent of white evangelicals, according to one 2010 poll, believe Jesus is definitely or probably going to return by the year 2050. But those who do subscribe to this apocalyptic world view seem to be overrepresented among Trump’s religious supporters and advisers. In October, a host of influential evangelical pastors came to the White House to pray with Trump to protect him from impeachment. Among those who laid hands on the president as he stood, head bowed, in the Oval Office, was repeat visitor Greg Laurie, pastor of a California megachurch. A few days after the killing of Soleimani, Laurie made a YouTube video with Don Stewart, author of 25 Signs We Are Near the End, to discuss Iran and the End Times. “The scenario that the Bible predicted, seemingly so impossible,” Stewart promised, “is now falling into place.”

From the outset, Trump has surrounded himself with people who hail from the fringes of the evangelical community that is steeped in the language of biblical prophecy, and his administration regularly reflects that language back to them in its messaging. In March 2017, for instance, Trump issued an official White House statement recognizing the Persian New Year in which hemisattributed a quote to Cyrus the Great, the libertine pagan leader of the ancient Persian empire who was anointed by God to free Jews in Babylon.Ordinary Americans probably wouldn’t have even noticed the announcement, but evangelicals knew that Trump was speaking their language. Many of them believe Trump is like Cyrus, a flawed nonbeliever who nonetheless is chosen by God to work his miracles on Earth.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was reportedly instrumental in pushing for the killing of Soleimani, is also a master of such messaging. In March, during an interview in Jerusalem with the Christian Broadcasting Network (founded by another apocalyptic preacher, Pat Robertson), Pompeo showed his familiarity with another Iran-centric Bible story popular with End Times evangelicals. In the story, a Persian king is urged to slaughter the Jews in his kingdom at the urging of the evil adviser Haman. But his Jewish Queen Esther convinces him not to and saves her people. Asked whether he thought Trump could be a modern-day Esther, saving the Jews from Iran, Pompeo replied, “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible.” The secretary of state’s End Times beliefs made headlines again after the Soleimani killing, as meme-makers circulated a quote from a speech he made in a Kansas church in 2015. A few days after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Pompeo said: “We will continue to fight these battles. It is a never-ending struggle. … until the Rapture.”

The State Department did not respond to questions about how Pompeo’s religious views may affect his foreign policy decisions. But it’s not hard to see how apocalyptic evangelicalism might be influencing the Trump administration as it seeks to mobilize the millions of evangelicals reached by televangelists and megachurch pastors preaching the End Times. The most blatant appeal to this constituency came when Trump made the controversial decision to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a long-desired goal of evangelicals who see it as fulfilling a biblical prophecy necessary in securing the Second Coming. What may be less obvious is how Trump’s disdain for international governing bodies like NATO also dovetails almost perfectly with End Times theology, whether he realizes it or not.

Matthew Avery Sutton, a Washington State University history professor and author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism, says evangelicals who believe the end is near have always been hostile to any sort of international organizations. That’s because they believe biblical prophecies that say that in the last days, a world leader who preaches peace will emerge and move toward a one-world government. In fact, the prophecy goes, that leader will be the Antichrist who will force the world to accept a false religion and persecute people who don’t accept him as a Messiah. (In Left Behind, the Antichrist is a Romanian UN secretary-general.) Evangelicals love Trump’s talk of pulling out of NATO, his attacks on the UN, and his trashing of the Paris climate change accord. “They hate the UN,” Sutton says. “Trump’s unilateralism is also music to their ears.”

Trump is not the first president to surround himself with evangelical Christians with an apocalyptic bent. Ronald Reaganwas advised by Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, andpersonally believed in the End Times and the coming apocalypse, writing about it in his journals. He appointed people like Interior Secretary James Watt, a Pentecostal fundamentalist whose disdain for environmental conservation seemed to be informed by his belief that the end of the world was nigh. In an appearance before Congress, he told stunned lawmakers, “I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns.”

Apparently George W. Bush was also part of this apocalypse-now group. When Bush was trying to convince French president Jacques Chirac to support an invasion of Iran in 2003, he reportedly told Chirac: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.” Chirac had no idea what Bush was talking about and had to consult a biblical scholar.

George W. Bush: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.”

Trump, who seems unable to distinguish between the New and Old Testaments, doesn’t seem particularly fluent in the prophecies of Ezekiel. But he has brought into the White House a host of people who are.Quite a few also hail from what Bass delicately describes as the “not respectable charlatan wing” of evangelical Christianity. They’re the prosperity preachers and prophets of the sort depicted by Sinclair Lewis in Elmer Gantry. “I have no doubt at all that those people are sitting right next to [Trump], giving him these Bible verses, telling him about these prophecies,” Bass says, “which means that they are kind of egging him on, [telling him] that he’s part of God’s prophetic fulfillment for these last days.”

Many of those who have become White House regulars are associated with something known as the New Apostolic Reformation, what Christianity Today describes as “a loosely connected group of Pentecostals and Charismatics.” They’re the ones who speak in tongues, scour the news for clues to biblical prophecies, engage in faith healing, and preach prosperity gospel—the notion that faith in God (or, usually, the preacher) will make people wealthy (or at least enrich the preacher). These apostles tend to embrace “dominionist” theology that implores Christians to take over of all levels of government, media, and education as a way of preparing for the End Times and return of Christ. Influential politicians like former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has made several visits to the Trump White House, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and former Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry fall into this camp.

Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow at the liberal nonprofit People for the American Way who has tracked the religious right for many years, says that the network of preachers who come from NAR and Pentecostal media operations “are telling people over and over again that Trump was ‘chosen,’ that God intervened in the election. Some of them say very explicitly that Trump is playing a role in God’s End Time plans to bring about the return of Christ.”

One of the most prominent representatives of the Left Behind wing of the evangelical movement is San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, who has been calling for a war with Iran for more than a 15 years. In 2005, Hagee wrote a best-selling book, Jerusalem Countdown, that claimed the Bible predicted a war with Iran. (In2011, it was turned into a movie of the same title, starring Bionic Man Lee Majors and Randy Travis.) Shortly after the book was published, Hagee created Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist organization that now claims to have 8 million members. It lobbies for support for Israeli settlements, military aid to Israel, and for the US to join with Israel to launch a preemptive strike on Iran.

He has said that gays caused Hurricane Katrina, referred to the Catholic Church as the “great whore,” called Hitler a “half-breed” Jew, and said that Hitler was part of God’s plan to get the Jews back to Israel.

Hagee, now 79, had once been popular with powerful Republicans during the George W. Bush administration, despite some of his more controversial statements. Among other things, he has said that gays caused Hurricane Katrina, referred to the Catholic Church as the “great whore,” called Hitler a “half-breed” Jew, and said that Hitler was part of God’s plan to get the Jews back to Israel. His star began to fall in 2008 after he endorsed Sen. John McCain for the GOP presidential nomination. McCain rejected his support, calling Hagee’s views “crazy and unacceptable.”

The election of Barack Obama consigned Hagee to his megachurch in San Antonio. But Trump has restored him to the corridors of power in Washington. Hagee endorsed Trump early in 2016. Once Trump was elected, Hagee met with the new president for two hours in 2017 to discuss moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Foreign policy experts feared the embassy relocation would destabilize the region and hamper peace talks, but Trump moved it anyway in May 2018. Israeli troops killed more than 50 people in the protests that followed.

Hagee attended the opening ceremony alongside notables such as Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, and he gave the closing benediction.“Let every Islamic terrorist hear this message: Israel lives,” he announced. “Let it echo down the marble halls of the presidential palace in Iran: Israel lives.” He later told the Texas Observer that he was looking forward to Trump confronting Iran, explaining, “The sum of Iran’s evil is greater than the whole of its parts.”

When Christians United for Israel held its annual DC confab and lobbying day last summer, Trump sent no fewer than five top administration officials to address attendees, including Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence (both evangelicals themselves), then–national security adviser John Bolton, a special envoy to the Middle East, and the US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Pompeo opened the speech by telling the crowd of more than 5,000 people, “This is what it must have looked like to be part of the crowd for the fishes and the loaves. What a miracle that was.” Once more the story of Queen Esther came in handy, this time as Pompeo compared it to modern-day Iran.

Hagee is one of the most prominent of Trump’s evangelical supporters who see a war with Iran as a necessary step towards the End Times, but he’s far from the only one. The White House has hosted a steady stream of dominionists and NAR apostles since Trump took office, including Lance Wallnau, author of God’s Chaos President.An evangelical leader with a consulting business in Dallas, Wallnau has become famous as one of the few evangelicals who accurately prophesied Trump’s election after receiving divine inspiration to read chapter 45 of the Book of Isaiah. That’s the story of King Cyrus, whom Wallnau and many other evangelicals think Trump resembles.(For $45, Wallnau and ex-con televangelist Jim Bakker now sell a Trump/Cyrus coin that people can use to pray for Trump’s reelection.) Dr. Lance, as he’s known, has made several visits to the White House, including for a private briefing on Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace plan.

Facilitating many of these visits is Paula White-Cain, the controversial televangelist associated with the Trinity Broadcasting Network who became Trump’s spiritual adviser after he saw her preach on TV in the early aughts. White led a 20,000-strong megachurch in Tampa that was investigated by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in 2007 for lavish spending on private jets and big houses and possible violations of its tax-exempt status. His report did not find any wrongdoing—church leaders refused to cooperate with the investigation—but in 2012, White’s church declared bankruptcy. She went on to lead a mostly African American church in Florida where she remained until last spring, when her son took over the ministry.

Now on her third marriage, White has long been at odds with more elite, mainstream evangelicals because of her particular self-help brand of prosperity gospel. Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore called White a “charlatan” and “heretic.” Nonetheless, in late October, Trump installed her in an official post at the White House office of public liaison to do outreach to evangelicals, formalizing access for some of the more extreme members of that group. She has referred to Trump as a modern-day Esther and called his enemies “demonic.”

Bass says that evangelical elites of the sort who associated with President George W. Bush have long looked down their noses at populist preachers like White and her crowd, but Trump has elevated them to positions of power. It’s a win-win situation. The evangelicals are at last in the influential positions those who disparaged them once held. And Trump’s narcissism is receiving special nourishment by their insistence that he was chosen by God. “I think that Trump likes it when people think he’s close to God—he called himself the ‘chosen one’—and to think that all of this has some sort of divine backing,” Bass says. “I don’t think there’s ever been a president who was quite influenced by this stream of evangelicalism as Trump has been.”

Naturally, there are political benefits to all of this. The administration has struggled to provide evidence of any imminent threats from Soleimani, but the timing for the assassination was certainly fortuitous for someone looking to mobilize evangelicals. Not only was Trump embroiled in impeachment hearings, he was still chaffing from a recent editorial in the evangelical publication Christianity Today, founded by Billy Graham, calling for him to be removed from office on moral grounds. Trump announced the killing of Soleimani just hours before appearing at the launch of his campaign’s Evangelicals for Trump coalition in Miami.

That event took place at a Pentacostal Latino church headed by Guillermo Maldonado, who speaks in tongues and hosts a TV show called “The Supernatural Now.” He’s the founder of the King Jesus International Ministry, a Miami megachurch with upwards of 20,000 members and a large TV and radio presence. Maldonado is also another regular White House visitor who has preached that Trump has a role in God’s plans for the End Times. At the 2019 Global Prophetic Summit, he claimed that God told him, “America, I have prepared this time, I have raised somebody in office to open the doors for my gospels.”

André Gagné, a theology professor at Concordia University in Montreal, says the apocalyptic worldview is concerning at such high levels of power, because believers may be rather sanguine about the possibility that assassinating an Iranian general might spur an even bigger war or nuclear confrontation in the Middle East. “If it brings the end of the world, it brings the end of the world,” Gagné says. “They’re ready. They can’t wait for the Rapture to happen. For them it’s the ultimate reunion with God.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/mike-pence-denied-knowing-lev-parnas-then-his-lawyer-shared-a-video-of-them-together/

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Mike Pence denied knowing Lev Parnas — then his lawyer shared a video of them together

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon January 21, 2020

An attorney for Lev Parnas, the indicted former Rudy Guliani associate, shared a video of his client meeting Vice President Mike Pence after Pence denied knowing his client.

“Pence does indeed know the guy,” Parnas attorney Joseph Bondy wrote on Twitter as he published a 23-second clip of Parnas alongside Pence and his wife.

The video, set to the song “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, shows Parnas holding Karen Pence’s hand before she says something to him and pats him on the back. Parnas is seen extending his hand toward Pence, apparently waiting for a handshake.

Bondy provided no details about the context of the video but added a quote from European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony to Congress, in which he said that “everyone was in the loop” on the Ukraine scheme that led to President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Joseph A. Bondy

@josephabondy

.@VP Mike Pence does indeed know the guy. “”Everyone was in the loop.“ -Gordon Sondland” -Lev Parnas #LevRemembers #LetLevSpeak #TheyAllKnew

Embedded video

As he urges Congress to allow Parnas to testify, Bondy has shared numerous videos, all set to catchy tunes, showing his client meeting with the president, as well as his family members, Cabinet officials and congressional allies.

Bondy published the video of Pence after the vice president denied knowing Parnas.

“I don’t know the guy,” Pence told reporters, calling Parnas’ claim that he was aware of the Ukraine scheme “completely false.”

Parnas, who was indicted on charges of illegally funneling foreign money to Republicans, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last week that Pence was aware of the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I’m going to use a famous quote from [Ambassador Gordon] Sondland,” he said. “Everybody was in the loop.”

Parnas told Maddow that Pence canceled his scheduled trip to attend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration after Parnas warned an aide of Zelensky that the vice president would not attend if an investigation into Biden was not announced.

“The announcement was the key at that time because of the inauguration, and I told him Pence would not show up, nobody would show up to his inauguration,” Parnas said. “It was particularly Vice President Mike Pence.”

Parnas claimed that Pence canceled the trip after Parnas spoke with Zelensky adviser Sergei Schaffer.

“It was after my phone call. The conversation that I laid out to Mr. Schafer was basically what I was told to do by Giuliani and the president,” Parnas said. “And then afterwards, I got back to them, saying he was going to get back to me later tonight.”

Parnas said that Schafer blocked his number on WhatsApp.

“I remember Rudy going, ‘OK. They’ll see.’ To my awareness, Trump called to say, ‘Make sure Pence doesn’t go [to the inauguration],'” Parnas told Maddow.

Asked if Pence canceled his trip because of the disagreement, Parnas replied, “It was, 100 percent. I know it was, 100 percent.”

Amee Vanderpool

@girlsreallyrule

Here is Lev Parnas confirming that Mike Pence knew exactly why his trip to Zelensky's inauguration was canceled and why Pence was going to Poland in place of Trump and was complicit in assisting with Trump's quid pro quo with Ukraine. #MaddowParnas

"Everybody was in the loop."

Embedded video

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham denied the allegation and called the former Giuliani associate who aided the shadow diplomacy effort in Ukraine a discredited witness.

“These allegations are being made by a man who is currently out on bail for federal crimes and is desperate to reduce his exposure to prison,” she said. “The facts haven’t changed: The president did nothing wrong and this impeachment, which was manufactured and carried out by the Democrats has been a sham from the start.”

But Jennifer Williams, Pence’s top adviser on Russia, testified to Congress that she was surprised when Pence’s trip to the inauguration was abruptly canceled and learned that the move was directed by Trump himself.

“My understanding from my colleague — and, again, I wasn’t there for the conversation — was that the president asked the vice president not to attend,” she testified.

Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry traveled to the inauguration in his stead.

Parnas told Maddow that Perry told Giuliani he would attend the inauguration and asked him what he should discuss with Zelensky. Perry told Giuliani that he got Zelensky to agree to publicly announce the investigations Giuliani had sought after the trip, Parnas claimed.

Parnas said Giuliani later “blew his lid” when Zelensky failed to mention the Bidens when he announced a wide-ranging corruption investigation.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a corruption announcement,” Parnas said. “It [had] to be about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.”

Amee Vanderpool

@girlsreallyrule

Lev Parnas says Rick Perry played a role with Ukraine and that he and Giuliani communicated about the investigations Trump wanted and Perry was sent in to push Zelensky for the quid pro quo.

There is no doubt now that the Senate must call witnesses, including Giuliani and Perry.

Embedded video

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-assassinated-soleimani-to-gain-favor-with-key-gop-senators-vital-to-supporting-him-during-impeachment-trial-wsj/

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Trump assassinated Soleimani to gain favor with key GOP senators vital to supporting him during impeachment trial: WSJ

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement January 10, 2020

It has long been said that President Trump only acts in his own self-interest, not the nation’s. And while in recent days President Trump has described the Iranian general he assassinated, Qasem Soleimani, as a “sadistic mass murderer,” and lambasted his predecessors for not having killed him earlier, the truth is few Americans had ever heard of Soleimani before his death, and not once had Trump, at least publicly, ever mentioned his name.

So why was he assassinated, and why now?

The administration and President Trump on and off have claimed there was an “imminent threat” of an attack against the U.S. personnel or U.S. Armed Forces. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday insisted any evidence to support that claim is far too sensitive to share, even with top members of Congress, sworn to secrecy, in a classified briefing.

Numerous reports put Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an end-times Christian extremist who believes the Middle East is a hotbed of Biblical proportions, as the driving force behind the killing of Soleimani.

“We will continue to fight these battles,” Pompeo said in 2015, insisting there is a “never-ending struggle” until “the rapture.”

But like all things Trump, it boils down to self-protection and self-interest.

The Wall Street Journal published a deep dive Thursday night, headlined, “Trump’s New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike.”

And buried in the center of the article, dozens of paragraphs in, is the devastating revelation that President Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general to gain favor with key Republicans whose support is vital to winning his impeachment trial:

Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said.

Some have just started to weigh in on the grotesque news.

Michelangelo Signorile

@MSignorile

Let’s be clear re: this WSJ story:

Trump assassinated Soleimani based on no imminent threat to please GOP Senators who were pressuring him & who he needed re: impeachment.

Terribly corrupt and, well, impeachable. https://twitter.com/JoeSudbay/status/1215636962079657984 …

Joe Sudbay

@JoeSudbay

So, yeah, it was about impeachment --> "Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said" https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 … via @WSJ

Dennis Mersereau

@wxdam

It takes until the 29th paragraph in this story to mention that Trump told people his looming impeachment trial was a factor in his greenlighting the strike against Soleimani.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 …

Trump’s New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike

White House advisers were cohesive and less inclined than their predecessors to push back against the president’s wishes. They also were less likely to consult in advance with others, including...

wsj.com

ets

Eric Columbus

@EricColumbus

And there it is. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 …

PPP

ref

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/07/pompeo-aligns-u-s-foreign-policy-with-the-christian-zionists/

According to the Washington Post, it was Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who talked Trump into the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, with an assist from Vice President Mike Pence. They report that Pompeo first proposed the idea months ago, which is at odds with the administration’s claim that the strike was based on intelligence about an “imminent threat.”

While the authors of that piece chronicle the fact that the secretary of state has been obsessed with Iran throughout his career in Congress, the CIA, and now at the State Department, they failed to address the question of what motivates his interest.

As Kathryn Joyce pointed out last March, “even amid an administration stacked with evangelical staffers and advisors, Pompeo stands out.” At about that time, the secretary of state was in Jerusalem and sat down for an interview with reporters from the Christian Broadcast Network.

Chris Mitchell asked Pompeo, “could it be that President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?”…

“As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Pompeo said.

On that occasion, Pompeo was reacting to a question from a reporter. But a few months later, he gave a speech titled “The U.S. and Israel: a Friendship for Freedom.” He used the occasion to bring up the Biblical story of Esther himself.

A lot of people get spun up with the wrong ideas that American evangelicals want to impose a theocracy on America. I wish they would be concerned about the real theocratic takeover that has been happening in Iran for the last four decades. The ayatollahs have grievously deprived the Iranian people of that most basic, simple, fundamental right, their right to worship.

That same twisted, intolerant doctrine that fuels persecution inside Iran has also led the ayatollah and his cronies to cry out, quote, “death to Israel” for four decades now. This is similar to a cry that came out of Iran—then called Persia—many, many years ago.

It was in the 5th century B.C. There was a wicked advisor named King Xerxes. A fellow named Haman hatched a plot to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire. He secretly wrote letters with the king’s seal to all the provincial governors, ordering the people to rise up and attack the Jews. This edict, once issued, could not be revoked. But thanks to the courageous intervention of Queen Esther, who begged the king to show mercy to her people, Haman’s plot was exposed and the Jews were ultimately spared.

I wanted to tell this story today for a couple of reasons, because similar threats to the Jewish people have marked other eras as well… Thank God we have a leader in President Trump—an immovable friend of Israel.

Pompeo went on to articulate the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Iran as a demonstration of its support for Israel.

The secretary gave that speech to a group known as Christians United for Israel (CUFI) that was the brainchild of John Hagee. Here is what Sarah Posner wrote about him back in 2006:

Hagee, who serves as head pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, hosts his own television program that is seen twice a day on TBN. He argues that the United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West… With CUFI, which Hagee has said will cause a “political earthquake,” the televangelist aims to put the political organizing muscle of the conservative evangelical movement behind his grand plan for a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ.

Vice President Mike Pence addressed the same group in 2017.

One of the things Hagee is known for is the elaborate charts he has created to predict the rapture and events leading up to the end times. He also has a history of making bigoted statements about Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. John McCain was forced to distance himself from the pastor after he received an endorsement for his presidential campaign in 2008. Clearly, neither Pompeo nor Pence share those concerns about Hagee and his organization.

What we are witnessing is a secretary of state who is conducting U.S. foreign policy in alignment with Christian Zionism, with the support of the vice president. While neoconservatives like John Bolton have their own twisted logic for wanting regime change in Iran, it is the belief that events in the Middle East align with Biblical prophecy about the end times that motivates Christian Zionists like Pompeo, Pence, and Hagee.

As I noted when the same crowd celebrated Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, rising tensions in the Middle East are a feature, not a bug, for these folks. That’s because all of this was prophesied thousands of years ago as a prelude to the rapture. In other words, they welcome the escalation.

Schiff pushes Pence to declassify aide’s secret information — implying it might be embarrassing or illegal

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/mike-pence-shows-just-how-much-contempt-he-holds-for-the-american-public-with-tweet-containing-multiple-lies

no lnx

Mike Pence shows just how much contempt he holds for the American public with tweet containing multiple lies

Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos January 5, 2020

Donald Trump has lied over 14,000 times since taking office. Some of those lies are about the economy, some of them about his political opponents, and a surprising number involve Trump claiming credit for programs actually signed into law by Barack Obama. Trump’s been joined in his lies by members of his White House team, from Kellyanne Conway to Mick Mulvaney to Mike Pompeo, delivering a fat untruth with a sneer seems to be the primary qualification to join Team Trump.

But it’s a tweet posted by Mike Pence on Friday that may be the best illustration of the lies originating from this White House. Because it’s not just a lie, it’s multiple lies. Incredibly lazy lies. Lies so sloppy, with so little attention to history, reason, or anything else, that Pence should be forced to wear them eternally stapled to his massive white forehead.

In defense of assassinating Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Pence went through a long list of Soleimani’s supposed crimes. Among them “Assisted in the clandestine travel to Afghanistan of 10 of the 12 terrorists who carried out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.”

The list of reasons why this tweet is ridiculous is far longer than the original tweet. First of all, on the most straightforward point, there were 19 hijackers on 9/11. Not 12. A spokesperson for Pence has since launched a defense for this in saying that Pence was talking about a “subset” of the hijackers who traveled to Afghanistan through Iran. That statement also clarifies how Soleimani “assisted” these hijackers. He “allowed them to land” in Iran. A quick check of the records shows that Soleimani also allowed 4 million other people to land in Iran in 2001 alone. He was apparently a very busy fellow.

As many, many people have pointed out since Pence’s tweet, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. They didn’t just touch down in Saudi Arabia to change planes on the way to Kabul, they lived there—which would seem to make a lot of Saudi officials more bomb-worthy than Soleimani if that were the real basis of Trump’s action. More importantly, not only were the large majority of the hijackers Saudi, all of them were Sunni. So was all of al-Qaeda. The whole organization is composed of Salafist jihadists, a subset of radical Sunnis who regard Shiite Muslims as heretics worthy of death.

Attempting to tie the Sunni forces of al-Qaeda to the Shiite government of Iran may just signal that Mike Pence is astoundingly ignorant.But it certainly shows the disdain the whole Trump White House holds for the intelligence of the American public. And it’s not the only way they’re demonstrating their contempt.

Here’s the schedule for the top Defense Department officials on Friday.

Mark Esper, Secretary of Defense: No public or media events.

David Norqust, Deputy Sec. of Defense: No public or media events.

Mark Miley, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff: No public or media events.

John Hyten, Vice chair Joint Chiefs of Staff: No public or media events.

In the wake of an event that takes the nation to the brink of war, the Defense Department had nothing to say. The generals left it guys like Pence to distribute lies.

Pence isn’t even pretending to have secret intelligence that supports the death of Soleimani. Completely missing from his list of reasons is any detail about the supposed “imminent threat” that the general represented to Americans.

The reason for that is clear enough: The intelligence that Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence and others have been claiming supported the assassination of a foreign official, was just as absurd as Pence’s tweet.

an 1119

Mike Pence’s office releases a statement calling Ambassador Gordon Sondland a liar — but only one of them is under oath

racism new problem? ProEnglish tanton

The Southern Poverty Law Center reported on the group’s statement about the January 2018 meeting and also noted the July 2019 meeting in a piece about Tanton’s death.

On its 25th anniversary last month, the organization wrote that it “is very proud to have been able to have several meetings directly in the White House with a variety of aides to both President Trump and Vice President Pence.” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK):(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:[ecorded](https://youtu.be/u-RSLVhDlKg&feature=emb_title)ecorded a message of congratulations to the group for its work.

mma 1119

pass thru to trump mar a lago? why risk it (eg ireland)

ntbcw infamous scam pac; V pence

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00640664

2018

modei, Mark (R-NV)	$5,400
Armstrong, Kelly (R-ND)	$5,000
Arrington, Katherine (R-SC)	$5,000
Bacon, Donald John (R-NE)	$7,700
Balderson, Troy (R-OH)	$5,000
Barr, Andy (R-KY)	$7,700
Bishop, Mike (R-MI)	$10,000
Blum, Rod (R-IA)	$7,700
Bost, Mike (R-IL)	$7,700
Brat, Dave (R-VA)	$5,000
Buchanan, Vernon (R-FL)	$5,000
Budd, Ted (R-NC)	$5,000
Burgess, Michael (R-TX)	$5,400
Carter, Buddy (R-GA)	$5,400
Chabot, Steve (R-OH)	$5,00

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/11/how-mike-pence-meddled-in-foreign-aid-to-reroute-money-to-favored-christian-groups/

Last November, a top Trump appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a candid email to colleagues about pressure from the White House to reroute Middle East aid to religious minorities, particularly Christian groups “Sometimes this decision will be made for us by the White House (see… Iraq! And, increasingly, Syria),” said Hallam Ferguson, a senior official in USAID’s Middle East bureau, in an email seen by ProPublica. “We need to stay ahead of this curve everywhere lest our interventions be dictated to us.”< >The email underscored what had become a stark reality under the Trump White House. Decisions about U.S. aid are often no longer being governed by career professionals applying a rigorous review of applicants and their capabilities. Over the last two years, political pressure, particularly from the office of Vice President Mike Pence, had seeped into aid deliberations and convinced key decision-makers that unless they fell in line, their jobs could be at stake.

Five months before Ferguson sent the email, his former boss had been ousted following a mandate from Pence’s chief of staff. Pence had grown displeased with USAID’s work in Iraq after Christian groups were turned down for aid.

ProPublica viewed internal emails and conducted interviews with nearly 40 current and former U.S. officials and aid professionals that shed new light on the success of Pence and his allies in influencing the government’s long-standing process for awarding foreign aid. Most people spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Trump administration’s efforts to influence USAID funding sparked concern from career officials, who worried the agency risked violating constitutional prohibitions on favoring one religion over another. They also were concerned that being perceived as favoring Christians could worsen Iraq’s sectarian divides.

“There are very deliberate procurement guidelines that have developed over a number of years to guard precisely against this kind of behavior,” said Steven Feldstein, a former State Department and USAID official during the Obama administration. When politics intrude on the grant-making process, “you’re diluting the very nature of what development programs ought to accomplish.”

USAID regulations state that awards “must be free from political interference or even the appearance of such interference and must be made on the basis of merit, not on the basis of the religious affiliation of a recipient organization, or lack thereof.”

Last month, USAID announced two grants to Iraqi organizations that career officials had previously rejected. Political appointees significantly impacted the latest awards, according to interviews with officials and other people aware of the process. Typically, such appointees have little to no involvement in USAID grants, to avoid perceptions of undue political influence on procurement.

One of the groups selected for the newest awards has no full-time paid staff, no experience with government grants and a financial tie that would typically raise questions in an intense competition for limited funds. The second organization received its first USAID direct grant after extensive public comments by its leader and allies highlighting what they described as a lack of U.S. assistance to Christians. The two groups — a charity that primarily serves Christian Iraqis and a Catholic university — were not originally listed as front-runners, according to a document seen by ProPublica.

The Wall Street Journal and BuzzFeed have previously reported Pence’s interest in increasing foreign aid to Christians and his displeasure with USAID’s activities in Iraq.

Pence’s spokeswoman, Katie Waldman, did not respond to questions. A USAID spokeswoman did not respond to specific questions, including about Ferguson’s email, but said the latest grants were appropriate.

“The Trump Administration has made responding to the genocide committed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) against religious and ethnic minorities a top priority,” said the spokeswoman, Pooja Jhunjhunwala. “Assistance to religious and ethnic communities targeted by ISIS is not a departure from the norm, but rather a continuation of USAID’s rich history of promoting inclusive development and defending human dignity and religious freedom in our partner countries.”

Approximately 97% of Iraq’s population is Muslim, according to the most recent U.S. figures available. Religious minorities — including Christians, Yazidis and others — make up around 2% to 3% of Iraq’s total population.

The Trump administration’s efforts to steer funding to these minorities in Iraq stand in stark contrast to its overall approach to foreign aid. It has repeatedly proposed cutting U.S. diplomatic and foreign assistance budgets by billions of dollars. In August, as the White House was considering cuts to an array of foreign aid programs, it shielded funding for religious minorities abroad, according to news accounts.

As Trump mounts a 2020 reelection effort, he is taking steps to solidify his conservative Christian base, including his decision last week to install his spiritual adviser, Florida televangelist Paula White, in a White House position. Increasing aid to Christians abroad is a core value for his supporters.

In a speech last month at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, a major gathering of the religious right, Trump touted his administration’s work on behalf of religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.

“Other presidents would not be doing that,” he said. “They’d be spending a lot more money, but they’d be spending it on things that would not make you very happy.”

Late in the Obama administration, USAID’s activities in Iraq focused on an effort by the United Nations to restore basic services as soon as cities had been liberated from Islamic State rule.

By the end of 2016, the United States had contributed over $115 million to the effort through USAID, and other countries had contributed hundreds of millions of dollars more. U.S. officials credit the U.N.’s work with enabling millions of Iraqis to return to their homes soon after the fighting was done instead of languishing in refugee camps.

“Here’s another example of when the U.N. and the United States work together, really good things can happen,” said John Allen, the former special presidential envoy to the global coalition formed to defeat ISIS, at an event at the Brookings Institution in September.

Robust U.S. support for the U.N.’s work initially carried over into the Trump administration. In July 2017, the administration announced that USAID would provide an additional $150 million to the U.N. Development Program’s Iraq stabilization fund, bringing the total U.S. contribution to more than $265 million since 2015.

But by then, U.S. officials in Iraq were sensing dissatisfaction among some Iraqi Christians and American religious groups with the U.S. strategy and the U.N.’s work. Trying to head off problems, U.S. officials urged the U.N. in the summer of 2017 to pay special attention to the Nineveh Plains, an ethnically and religiously diverse region of northern Iraq where many of the country’s Christians live.

U.N. officials were reluctant, arguing their assistance could go further in dense urban areas like Mosul, as opposed to the Nineveh Plains, a stretch of farmland dotted by small towns and villages.

“They were going for the biggest bang for the buck,” one former U.S. foreign service officer said.

Dylan Lowthian, a UNDP spokesman, said the agency worked closely with local Christian leaders in 2017 to encourage more people to return to the Nineveh Plains.

“UNDP is one of the largest supporters of minority communities in Iraq in terms of volume of projects, impact, and funding,” Lowthian said.

But the pressure from Washington built. Influential religious groups like the Knights of Columbus and current and former Republican members of Congress advocated throughout 2017 for direct U.S. aid to religious minorities, including Christians and Yazidis. They said that the groups merited special attention because they had been targeted for genocide by Islamic State and that local churches had proven track records of delivering aid quickly and reliably. Furthermore, Christians — who fled the country in droves after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq — were at risk of disappearing from Iraq altogether if they didn’t receive help, they argued.

Bashar Warda, a powerful archbishop based in Erbil, Iraq, was a key figure in this effort. “The Christians of Iraq desperately need American government humanitarian aid now, and we need it to be delivered in a manner to ensure it actually reaches us and does not get absorbed and redirected in the existing aid structures,” he said in a 2017 interview withCrux, a Catholic- focused publication. “While the U.S. has donated generously to the overall humanitarian aid effort in Iraq, almost none of this aid reached the Christians.”

Warda met with Pence in late 2017 and stood beside Trump in the Oval Office in 2018 as he signed a bill authorizing the State Department and USAID to provide relief to victims of Islamic State, particularly religious minorities. Warda had advocated for the bill’s passage.

...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/will-impeachment-stymie-this-powerful-groups-plans-for-mike-pence

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Will impeachment stymie this powerful group’s plans for Mike Pence?

Written by Anne Nelson / Salon October 25, 2019

With the prospect of an impeachment looming over Washington this month, the conversation has naturally turned to Vice President Mike Pence — both as a possible successor to the presidency and as a possible candidate for impeachment himself. Standing in the eye of the storm, on October 5 Pence chose to tweet a photo of himself at the podium of an organization that is unknown to most Americans.

@VP

The Council for National Policy is one of the oldest & most effective organizations in the history of the conservative movement. Thank you Congressman McEwen & the more than 400 fellow conservatives for coming out & fighting for the principles that have made this country great!

“The Council for National Policy is one of the oldest and most effective organizations in the history of the conservative movement,” he wrote. He thanked former Ohio congressman (and CNP executive director) Bob McEwen “and the more than 400 fellow conservatives for coming out & fighting for the principles that have made this country great!”

Pence’s anodyne statement can be viewed as both life insurance for his career and the ongoing repayment of an old debt. The reasons have less to do with Trump than with the inner workings of the Republican Party.

Over the past few decades the traditional GOP has been overtaken by partisans of the Radical Right, now entrenched in the party’s infrastructure. This shadow network of hardline organizations, activists and donors stands ready to outlast the Trump presidency.The story of the CNP, a hub in this network, is a case study in how the durability and strategic capacity of right-wing institutions has shaped the American political landscape.

The Council for National Policy had its origins in the Southwest, where the social agenda of Christian fundamentalists and the economic interests of the oil industry converged. They founded the CNP in 1981 to capitalize on the election of Ronald Reagan; Reagan’s former attorney general, Edwin Meese III, would serve as the CNP’s president from 1993-1997.

The organization meets several times a year, maintaining secrecy for its membership and its proceedings. But a 2014 membership roster was leaked and published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, illustrating the span of the political network: major donors such as the DeVos family; evangelical powerhouses such as Southern Baptist leader Richard Land; and heads of influential media interests, including the Salem Media conglomerate. Kellyanne Conway has belonged to the CNP’s executive committee, and Jay Sekulow, lead attorney on Trump’s personal legal team, has served on the board of governors. The organization also, critically, includes the heads of membership organizations such as the National Rifle Association and the Susan B. Anthony List (a group that funds anti-choice candidates), whose ground troops can be deployed in coordinated political canvassing. In the words of former CNP president Richard DeVos (father-in-law to Education Secretary Betsy), the CNP convenes the “donors and the doers.”

The CNP has played the long game in Washington, using its ability to activate evangelical voting blocs as its political capital, building up influence in the statehouses and pushing the GOP ever farther to the right. Over time, the CNP partnerships evolved into a well-oiled machine, in which big money, regional broadcasters and ground troops advanced its interests in ways that were often neglected by the national news media. Mike Pence appeared at various stages of his career. One co-founder, Morton Blackwell, claims to have trained some 200,000 conservative candidates and political activists through his Leadership Institute — among them Mike Pence. Another co-founder, ideological architect Paul Weyrich, instituted a celebrated weekly lunch not far from the Capitol to talk strategy. Congressman Mike Pence briefed the group on a weekly basis. In 2006 the New York Times quoted Weyrich’s verdict on Pence: “He is what I’ve been waiting for in terms of leadership.”

After Barack Obama’s election in 2008, the donor networks of the CNP, fueled by the DeVos family’s Amway fortune, converged with those of the Koch brothers. Their digital campaigns and grassroots activism converged as well. The heads of Koch-backed organizations — including Americans for Prosperity and the Tea Party Patriots — joined the Council for National Policy, and CNP donors funded Koch initiatives. In 2012 Democrats celebrated Obama’s reelection, but Republican efforts to cultivate state-level politics were paying off. Despite the Democrats gaining a national plurality of over 1.4 million votes in the House elections, Republicans won back the House with a margin of 17 seats, giving them power over the budgetary process.

The CNP partners’ long-term strategy identified some 17 million politically unengaged evangelicals, many concentrated in swing states, and sought ways to drive them to the polls. Focus groups found that this demographic could be motivated by scare tactics involving abortion and LGBT rights. These voters have been bombarded with falsehoods: Democrats conspire to “execute babies on the day of their birth”; schoolchildren face a mortal danger of sexual assault by transgender people using public restrooms. Swing state voters encountered these campaigns on radio broadcasts from CNP partner networks, in church sanctuaries from partner “ministries” and on social media, fueled by partner memes. They were complemented by grassroots canvassing run by CNP members, including the NRA, the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans for Prosperity.

In 2016, CNP members played a critical role in bridging the chasm between the evangelical base and Trump, overcoming objections to Trump’s character flaws and spiritual deficits.

CNP members Marjorie Dannenfelser and Penny Nance had signed an “anyone but Trump” letter to Iowa voters; Southern Baptist Richard Land and his fellow editors at the Christian Post described him as “exceptionally bad.”But CNP president Tony Perkins and strategist Ralph Reed kept their options open. Trump rode the wave of the primaries on the strength of his celebrity, but he lacked campaign funds, strategy and ground troops. The CNP partners could offer him all three — under certain conditions.

On June 21, 2016, Perkins hosted some 1,000 fundamentalist leaders at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square to allow Trump to make his case, sharing the stage with a panoply of CNP all-stars. Trump emerged with their full support. In return, CNP members received an Evangelical Advisory Board stacked with CNP members, a leading role in writing the social planks of the Republican platform, and, crucially, a decisive say in federal judicial nominations — their most powerful lever for reshaping the national landscape. By mid-July Trump also replaced his previous choices for running mate with Mike Pence.

Pence’s career now hangs in the balance, and much will depend on how closely he’s tied to Trump’s actions — even if Trump is only impeached and not convicted. But the Council for National Policy has looked ahead. Operating on the principle of “an heir and a spare,” it conspicuously auditioned Nicky Haley at its 2018 meeting.

The strategists of the CNP are keenly aware of the formula that won them the White House in 2016: Hillary Clinton’s campaign, focused on the national media, won the popular election by three million votes, but lost the Electoral College by some 80,000 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The CNP may be hoping for a repeat: wagering that the impeachment furor in Washington will play out in the national media without moving the swing states — and that the Democrats will be too distracted by the drama to notice.

Anne Nelson (@anelsona) is the author of “Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right,” out this month from Bloomsbury.

damn, i wanted to see what end times dominionist would say

Trump roasted for Turkey’s snub of Mike Pence: ‘Total humiliation of the USA’

Brad Reed / Raw StoryOctober 16, 2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an on Wednesday declared that he would not meet with American Vice President Mike Pence, who had traveled to the Turkish capital of Ankara to discuss a potential ceasefire in northern Syria.

omg

an 919

no lnx

Mike Pompeo is targeting Hillary Clinton’s emails in massive investigation: Bombshell Washington Post report

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement September 29, 2019

While claiming that the impeachment inquiry into alleged misconduct by Donald Trump is a “witch hunt,” the administration is focusing attention on investigating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to a bombshell report published by The Washington Post on Saturday.

“The Trump administration is investigating the email records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said,” the paper reported.

The scope of the investigation is staggering.

“As many as 130 officials have been contacted in recent weeks by State Department investigators — a list that includes senior officials who reported directly to Clinton as well as others in lower-level jobs whose emails were at some point relayed to her inbox, said current and former State Department officials,” the paper noted. “Those targeted were notified that emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute potential security violations, according to letters reviewed by The Washington Post.”State Department investigators began contacting the former officials about 18 months ago, after President Trump’s election, and then seemed to drop the effort before picking it up in August, officials said.”

The investigation is causing yet another abuse of power scandal for the embattled administration.

“To many of those under scrutiny, including some of the Democratic Party’s top foreign policy experts, the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Clinton email case represents a new front on which the Trump administration could be accused of employing the powers of the executive branch against perceived political adversaries,” The Post explained. “The existence of the probe follows revelations that the president used multiple levers of his office to pressure the leader of Ukraine to pursue investigations that Trump hoped would produce damaging information about Democrats, including potential presidential rival Joe Biden.”

Read the full report.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/trumps-disturbing-plan-to-address-mass-shooting-has-nothing-to-do-with-gun-safety-its-a-sign-of-his-authoritarianism/

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Trump’s disturbing plan to address mass shooting has nothing to do with gun safety — it’s a sign of his authoritarianism

Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly September 3, 2019

Less than an hour after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold started shooting people at Columbine High School, they killed themselves. The same is true for Adam Lanza, who killed himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School after his shooting rampage.

That is not an uncommon end for mass shooters, according to research done by the Associated Press.

More than half the perpetrators of mass shootings since 2006 have ended up dead at the scene of their crimes, either killed by others or dying by suicide, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University…Of the 82 public mass shootings since 2006, 30 gunmen killed themselves and 16 were killed.

While the specifics can be controversial, of the 16 who were killed at the scene, it is possible that many of them would fit the description of“suicide by cop,” which is “a method of suicide that occurs when a subject engages in threatening behavior in an attempt to be killed by law enforcement.

We can assume that a gunman who engages in a mass shooting expects (or wants) to die. At a minimum, he is not concerned with the consequences of his behavior. But that kind of basic logic has escaped this administration.

The Justice Department has drafted legislation to expedite the death penalty for those convicted of mass murder and the provision will be included in a larger White House package designed to address recent incidents of gun violence, a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence said Monday.

Pence has been directly involved in conversations with Attorney General William Barr about the death penalty initiative, Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, told reporters traveling with Pence between Poland and Ireland on Monday.

Since imposing the death penalty happens only after a gunman has taken lives and spread terror, the only possible justification for it is deterrence. But as Matt Stein explains, the administration is once again ignoring the evidence.

One study from 2009 found that 88 percent of criminologists did not consider the threat of execution as a deterrent, a level of consensus that matched the scientific consensus on human involvement in global warming.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is ignoring research about policies that could actually save lives.

Children living in states with strict firearm laws are less likely to die from gun violence than those in states with more lax restrictions, according to a study in Pediatrics published Monday. The more rigorous the rules, the lower the risk, the researchers showed.

Given the involvement of Donald Trump and William Barr in this decision to push for the death penalty in response to mass shootings, it should come as no surprise that they have ignored the facts. After all, it was the president who called for the reinstatement of the death penalty against the Central Park Five before they even stepped footin a courtroom. He has also referred to our criminal justice system as a “laughingstock” because it isn’t strong enough. Similarly, the attorney general doesn’t seem to know the difference between justice and revenge, suggesting that because our system is a process, it doesn’t achieve justice very often.

Confirming what we would expect, studies have shown that “authoritarianism is a leading predictor of death penalty support.” Perhaps that is why, prior to this move by the Trump administration, the United States already “ranked in the top five countries in terms of state killings, along with Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq, and Iran.” Additionally, “the vast majority of executions in America (81 percent) have been carried out by Southern states,” with Texas—where two mass shootings recently took place—leading the way. It is clear that Trump and Barr want to inflict the death penalty more often because they are authoritarians, not because it works.

bolling a flawed vessel/sinner and a useful tool?

Mike Pence is the latest Trump administration official to sit down with Eric Bolling for a softball interview. Bolling was let go from Fox News after reportedly sexually harassing his colleagues.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/nikki-haley-battled-with-mike-pence-for-attention-at-gop-donor-retreat-report

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Nikki Haley battled with Mike Pence for attention at GOP donor retreat: report

Nikki Haley Nikki Haley

Written by Matthew Chapman / Raw Story August 24, 2019

Who will be President Donald Trump’s successor as leader of the Republican Party?

It’s a question that GOP officials are already asking themselves, and it is already producing subtle divides within their ranks. Two of the biggest names that get floated areVice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Both politicians are comfortable appealing to multiple wings of the GOP, and both have managed to stay in Trump’s good graces for far longer than most of the people who have worked in his administration.

They have pushed back aggressively on claims that they are challenging one another for control, with Haley aggressively denying rumors that Trump was interested in swapping her in to replace Pence on the 2020 ticket.

But behind closed doors, a rivalry is beginning to bloom. According to Politico, the two politicians competed with one another for attention at a GOP retreat for wealthy donors in Aspen, Colorado.

According to the report, “The assembled group of governors, high-dollar donors, and operatives were well aware that the two have big ambitions; to some it seemed as if Pence and Haley, who spoke on back-to-back days, were vying for their attention. Some in the audience found themselves parsing and comparing the two speeches and buzzed they were getting a sneak preview of a 2024 Republican primary. Others recalled something peculiar: Neither Pence nor Haley acknowledged each other in their presentations, even though they gave shout-outs to others attending the retreat.”

It is hard to say who will become the GOP’s standard bearer when Trump is gone. But already, it is clear that battle lines are being drawn for that day.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pence-hhs-special-report/as-trump-rewrites-health-rules-pence-sees-conservative-agenda-born-again-idUSKCN1T0176

no lnx

SPECIAL REPORTSMAY 30, 2019 / 4:05 AM / 2 MONTHS AGO

Special Report: As Trump rewrites health rules, Pence sees conservative agenda born again

Yasmeen Abutaleb, Joseph Tanfani

19 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a sweeping social policy shift, the Trump administration is seeking to remake health rules at home and abroad for women, gay and transgender people, restricting access to abortion, curtailing support for contraception and narrowing the scope of civil rights in healthcare.

The turnaround has its foundations in the quiet, behind-the-scenes influence of Vice President Mike Pence, who has been driven throughout his political career by his evangelical Christian beliefs to restrict abortion and prioritize the rights of religious conservatives.

Pence has been in the spotlight for leading the administration’s failed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. But other changes, affecting health policy domestically and abroad, are moving ahead with far less attention.

Under the direction of two secretaries recommended by Pence, the Department of Health and Human Services has moved to slash funds from teen pregnancy-prevention programs, curb abortion both in the United States and abroad and strip civil protections for transgender patients.

The administration has emphasized abstinence programs, led by appointees who believe contraception harms women, and pushed to cut government funds for Planned Parenthood – a longtime cause for Pence while he was in Congress. Planned Parenthood, a national network of healthcare providers, offers infertility services, contraception and abortions.

Public health civil rights offices, marshaled to strengthen LGBT rights under Obama, have been retooled into a new Office of Conscience and Religious Freedom. This month, the office unveiled a final “conscience rule” to strengthen protections for healthcare workers who object to performing abortions and sterilizations or treating gay and transgender patients.

And the HHS, along with the State Department – headed by Pence ally Mike Pompeo, also an evangelical Christian – has expanded the campaign beyond U.S. borders. Trump-appointed officials are seeking to delete language in international documents at the United Nations they contend promotes access to abortion and expands healthcare rights to transgender individuals.

“There has never been anything like it,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, said of her working relationship with Pence. “The policy I believe can’t get done without Vice President Pence and his team.”

A cadre of religious conservatives appointed in the early days of the administration is driving the changes, largely from within HHS, which administers most government health programs, along with the State Department and White House. Many appointees come from religious and conservative groups, some of whom regularly protested outside abortion clinics during the Obama years.

In the Trump-Pence West Wing, “everywhere I turn are colleagues, mentors and friends who have fought in the pro-life trenches for decades,” Katy Talento, who handled health policy in the White House, told an anti-abortion group in Texas. She last week announced plans to leave the administration. “I still can’t believe they let us all in the complex every day.”

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Emboldened by the movement and by the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, states including Alabama and Missouri have passed laws in recent weeks that nearly outlaw abortion, spurring nationwide protests.

The shift has generated legal challenges, and chunks of the agenda are bottlenecked in the courts. Recently, a federal judge in Washington State blocked new rules meant to cut funding from facilities offering abortion.

The campaign has been more successful abroad. Pompeo in March held a rare news conference to say the administration was strengthening an effort to combat abortion globally. “We’re determined to make sure that we don’t allow taxpayers’ dollars to get to those places,” he said, citing groups performing or referring abortions, and announcing a cut in funds to Latin America.

Pompeo’s declaration marked an expansion of the Mexico City Policy, which requires foreign non-governmental groups that receive U.S. health aid not provide, refer or counsel on abortions. Implemented by every Republican administration since 1984, the policy in the past applied to U.S. family planning funds, or about $600 million. In one of his first acts as president, Trump signed an order expanding the rule to cover nearly all U.S. global health aid, or more than $8 billion.

Nationally, this public health battle has often been pushed to the background by the nonstop churn of Trump’s tweets and controversies.

“One of the benefits of Trump’s Twitter approach is it creates headlines, and that’s what it’s intended to do, and underneath those headlines, everyone else in the administration can go about peacefully doing their job,” said David McIntosh, president of the conservative Club for Growth and a longtime Pence friend. HHS has “released several very important, significant regulations that changed the nature of Obamacare, of healthcare, with very little coverage in the press.”

The effort has startled some public health veterans. “It’s very, very extreme,” said Megan Huchko, director of the Center for Global Reproductive Health at Duke University. “It seems we’re moving backward in pretty profound ways.”

The vice president declined interview requests for this article. Administration officials say his voice matters. Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president, praised Pence’s advocacy on cutting federal support for Planned Parenthood.

“It means a great deal to the president to hear that from somebody who had been a legislator on Capitol Hill for 12 years, a governor for four, and somebody who like the president is trusted by the small c conservative movement as a full-spectrum conservative,” Conway said.

One senior HHS official told Reuters the agency is correcting the course set by the Obama administration on the government’s role in enforcing LGBT rights and whether providers have to perform abortions. “Our rights to religious freedom have too long been treated as a second-class right compared to others and it’s time for that to change,” said Roger Severino, director of the agency’s Civil Rights Division.

THE PENCE EFFECT

When Trump secured the GOP nomination in 2016, he had yet to win over skeptical evangelical voters who questioned his varying stances on critical issues, most notably abortion. Trump previously had said he supported a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate a pregnancy.

His selection of Pence as his running mate helped him win over those voters. The Trump-Pence ticket ultimately secured 80 percent of white born-again and evangelical Christians.

In a White House marked by turnover, the amiable Pence has been a quiet presence prodding the administration to align with his faith-based agenda. Aides describe him as a man whose effectiveness is rooted in a willingness to shun the limelight and put like-minded proteges in crucial jobs.

“Pence’s influence has come from … getting people who have the same worldview as Pence in key positions at things you care about and then trusting them to make decisions,” said Paul Winfree, who served as deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Trump and is now at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

The vice president’s allies and former aides are salted throughout the administration, carrying out significant shifts in federal health insurance programs. One change cheered by the religious right made it easier for employers to not cover contraception.

A key Pence ally is Seema Verma, a healthcare consultant who worked with him in Indiana, now administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Under Verma, the agency has worked to roll back Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, the insurance program for the poor and disabled that covers more than 70 million Americans.

Both HHS secretaries under Trump were pushed by Pence: Tom Price, an ally in Congress who was fired in 2017 for using expensive charter flights for public business, and Alex Azar, who worked as a senior pharmaceutical company executive and lobbyist in Indianapolis while Pence was governor. At a January event, Azar called Pence “my friend and mentor.”

The agency took on a new religious tone. Price hosted a Bible study on Wednesday mornings for members of Congress and political appointees, a former senior HHS official said.

SOLDIER IN ABORTION WARS

After being elected to Congress on his third try, in 2000, Pence formed connections to the Washington anti-abortion movement, including Dannenfelser, the Susan B. Anthony List president. Dannenfelser had previously served as staff director of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. She and Conway encouraged Pence to run for president in 2012, though he declined.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting at National Harbor near Washington, U.S., March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

Three times, he introduced bills to bar HHS from funding Planned Parenthood. His efforts failed, but won him fierce loyalty among anti-abortion activists.

Elected Indiana governor in 2012, Pence signed a bill that banned the use of fetal tissue in research, a law now being challenged in court. Another bill he signed banned abortions for reasons of the sex, race or disability of the fetus, and required that fetal remains be cremated or buried. This week, the Supreme Court upheld the burial requirement but left in place a lower-court ruling that blocked the abortion ban.

In the Trump White House, Pence serves as a chief advocate for religious conservatives, making sure they have a voice in policy-making. While he does not always have a hand in specific policies, Pence’s ardent support has empowered the administration’s religious conservatives to action.

Other times, he gets directly involved. During the Republican campaign to repeal Obamacare, Dannenfelser said she attended a meeting in Pence’s office, helping the vice president and staff craft language to add anti-abortion provisions to the failed bill.

Another focus has been the Mexico City Policy involving U.S. aid to non-government groups. “It’s unfortunate enough that we continue to fund Planned Parenthood here in the U.S.; we don’t need to export a pro-abortion ideology overseas,” Pence said at a House hearing in 2007.

Now, under the expanded Mexico City rule Pence advocated, some groups have refused U.S. funding because abortion is part of their mission. One result: shuttered clinics.

GLOBAL FALLOUT

In Kenya, services are already being reduced, said Jedidah Maina, director of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health, which offers programs on sexual and reproductive health and operates a health services hotline. One partner organization no longer provides free healthcare for the impoverished, and another was forced to reduce HIV services, she said.

In Peru, the reproductive-rights advocacy group PromSex said it was unable to apply for a grant to combat human trafficking from the U.S. Agency for International Development because it fights for access to abortion. In a November 2017 email obtained by Reuters, a USAID contracting officer said if the group “were carrying out activities or planning to carry out any activity related to family planning methods, it could not commit itself with the Government of the United States.”

Despite the changes, a USAID spokesperson said, the U.S. remains “the largest donor” of family planning aid in the world.

At the United Nations and World Health Organization, U.S. representatives appointed under Trump-Pence have worked to pull references to “gender” and “sexual and reproductive health” from international rights documents.

In April, the United States threatened to veto a U.N. resolution aimed at combating rape as a weapon of war because it would have included language providing victims with sexual and reproductive healthcare. The phrase “sexual and reproductive health” was cut from the final resolution. A spokesman for the United Nations Population Fund said the cut was “regrettable,” adding that “denying survivors access to such services is a human rights violation that can have dire consequences.”

One document obtained by Reuters outlined talking points for U.S. officials before a WHO summit. In it, political appointees wanted to make clear the United States “does not support abortion in our reproductive health assistance, nor do we recognize abortion as a method of family planning.”

In a statement, HHS said the phrase “sexual and reproductive health” has “unfortunately evolved” to include abortion. “The United States under President Trump’s leadership unequivocally supports the empowerment of women and girls, including health promotion for women and girls across the lifespan,” it said.

Emails and memos from U.S. officials at the U.N. obtained by Reuters show the influence of the Center for Family and Human Rights, or C-Fam, a private U.S. research institute formed to affect policy at the U.N. to align with conservative Catholic views. In a fundraising pitch, C-Fam’s president, Austin Ruse, said “sexual orientation and gender identity is code for odious sexual behavior and gender lunacy.”

Starting in 2017, when the center had a seat on the U.S. delegation to a U.N. conference on women’s rights, administration officials have worked to accommodate its positions, the documents show.

“Thank you for having sent proposed changes” to a draft document of the Commission on the Status of Women, an aide to then-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley wrote C-Fam in 2018. “We reviewed them all carefully and included many, many of them in our initial comments.”

In 2017, during negotiations over a document on violence against women, another C-Fam official wrote an email flagging language he thought would help establish a right to abortion for migrants. “This is just tragic and speaks volumes about the culture we are projecting to the rest of the world,” wrote Stefano Gennarini, the group’s vice president for legal affairs.

“Oh dear,” replied a State Department official. “I do hope we can find a way to rectify this language.” The phrase, alluding to “reproductive rights,” did not make it into the final version.

Gennarini said the administration, while not granting all his group’s requests, has been true to its promises in promoting anti-abortion policies.

“Simply put, for U.N. language related to abortion and used to promote abortion, this administration has certainly taken the strongest position that any Republican administration has ever taken,” he said.

Slideshow (16 Images)

TITLE X BATTLE

Last year, Pence made a forceful argument directly to Trump to rewrite the rules regarding Title X, the U.S. federal program dedicated to affordable birth control and other reproductive healthcare, to cut out abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood, administration sources said.

The new version of Title X released in February would begin to accomplish Pence’s goal, making it clear the program barred the use of funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” Such language would limit Planned Parenthood operations and prevent doctors from discussing abortion with patients. A federal court blocked the rule.

Planned Parenthood still received Title X money this year, though cut from about $28 million to $16 million. And HHS took a new step, awarding up to $5.1 million to Obria, a network of medical clinics in southern California funded in large part by Catholic groups that describes itself as “led by God” and does not offer abortions. Obria in May sued HHS on religious freedom grounds, saying it shouldn’t have to participate in abortions to spend the grant money.

“Many women want the opportunity to visit a professional, comprehensive health care facility – not an abortion clinic – for their health care needs,” Kathleen Eaton Bravo, founder and CEO, is quoted saying on the group’s website. “Today HHS gave women that choice.”

Pro- and anti-abortion groups say the grant marks a noteworthy shift.

“It’s very clear from how quickly we were able to hit the ground running that the vice president certainly had an influential role,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, who regularly meets with Pence. “One example is opening the door to life-affirming pregnancy centers and businesses through federal grant programs like Title X.”

HHS Secretary Azar gave political appointees more power over grants. Appointees changed the points system for evaluating applicants, giving less emphasis to “adequacy of the applicant’s facilities and staff,” while boosting those who promoted “natural family planning” and abstinence.

Christine Dehlendorf, director of the Person-Centered Reproductive Health Program at the University of California, San Francisco, said HHS canceled two grants for ongoing research into contraception. One was restored through litigation.

Dehlendorf said she lost about $800,000 in funding for a study of how well medical providers meet women’s contraception preferences, which included natural family planning methods favored by some conservatives. There was “no reason to eliminate it other than a lack of a general desire to meet women’s reproductive health needs,” Dehlendorf said.

A day after creating the new Conscience and Religious Freedom division last year, HHS proposed a new rule that would allow health workers to deny care based on religious or moral objections. The final rule was put in place this month, and applies to foreign groups that receive U.S. funding. HHS also proposed a rule, not yet final, to strip “gender identity” from the non-discrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act; the agency said it cannot enforce those protections because of court decisions.

At the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s HR office, the website was changed last year to remove references to transgender people in a section advising managers to avoid discrimination. “They clearly say that they don’t think transgender people have any protections in law,” said Gillian Branstetter, of the National Center for Transgender Equality.

In a May commencement speech at Liberty University, a Virginia evangelical institution, Pence depicted Christians as under siege from the “secular left.”

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” he told the graduates. “You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of popular culture.”

“Decide here and now that you’re going to stand firm.”

(Corrects paragraph 61 to note that grants to University of California research projects were canceled by the Department of Health and Human Services.)

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“Brought to Jesus’: the evangelical grip on the Trump administration

The influence of evangelical Christianity is likely to become an important question as Trump finds himself dependent on them for political survival

Julian Borger in Washington

Fri 11 Jan 2019 07.00 GMT Last modified on Fri 18 Jan 2019 21.51 GMT

In setting out the Trump administration’s Middle East policy, one of the first things Mike Pompeo made clear to his audience in Cairo is that he had come to the region as “as an evangelical Christian”.

In his speech at the American University in Cairo, Pompeo said that in his state department office: “I keep a Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and his word, and the truth.”

The secretary of state’s primary message in Cairo was that the US was ready once more to embrace conservative Middle Eastern regimes, no matter how repressive, if they made common cause against Iran.

His second message was religious. In his visit to Egypt, he came across as much as a preacher as a diplomat. He talked about “America’s innate goodness” and marveled at a newly built cathedral as “a stunning testament to the Lord’s hand”.

['Toxic Christianity': the evangelicals creating champions for Trump