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New GOP Speaker: Separation of Church and State Is Only a ‘Shield for People of Faith’

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Experts are digging into the background of the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a little-known backbencher who has never headed a congressional committee but rose to become the third most-powerful elected official in the U.S. government Wednesday after two other Republicans failed to garner enough votes to win the gavel.

MSNBC’s Sarah Posner calls Johnson “the most unabashedly Christian nationalist speaker in history.” His Christian nationalism, previously known to few, is coming to light, especially when he told members of Congress in his first remarks after being elected Speaker that “Scripture is very clear” that they were “ordained” by God.

In a September, 2022 episode of his weekly podcast with his wife, “Truth Be Told With Mike and Kelly Johnson,” now-speaker Johnson claimed there is no wall to separate church and state, but rather, the Constitution erects a wall to protect religious people from the state.

The First Amendment, Johnson said, was “intended to create a shield for people of faith.”

READ MORE: Special Counsel Wants Trump Gag Order Reinstated Over Alleged Witness Intimidation

“But the sad irony is that over the last 60, 70, 80 years, radical progressives and leftists and atheist organizations have twisted the meaning of it,” Johnson continued. “And now they regard the First Amendment as a weapon to be wielded against the people of faith when it was supposed to be their shield.”

“See, the majority of the founders, having personally witnessed the abuses of the Church of England, were determined to prevent the official establishment of any single national denomination of religion. However, they very deliberately listed religious liberty the free exercise of religion of course, as the first freedom protected by the Bill of Rights, and here’s the key: They did that because they wanted everyone to really live out their faith as that would ensure a robust presence, moral virtue in the public square, and the free marketplace of ideas.”

Johnson also said, “If anybody tries to convince you that your biblical beliefs or your religious viewpoint needs to be separated from public affairs, you should politely remind them to review their history. And importantly, you should not back down.”

A 2021 Pew Research poll found, “even among White evangelical Protestants and highly religious Christians, fewer than half say the U.S. should abandon its adherence to the separation of church and state (34% and 31%, respectively) or declare the country a Christian nation (35% and 29%).”

Still, the claim the wall of separation exists only to protect people of faith is not new for Johnson.

In a 2016 broadcast of the “Disciple’s Voice of Hope with Alex T. Ray,” Johnson made very similar remarks.

“What’s happened, Alex over the last 60, 70 years, is that our generation has been convinced that there’s a separation of church and state. You heard that term all the time. And most people think that that’s part of the Constitution, but it’s not – remember, I’m a member of a constitutional lawyer.”

READ MORE: ‘Fascist Party at War With Americans’ Basic Freedoms’: Critics Blast GOP Election of New Speaker

“Now, what we always point out is that the phrase comes from a letter, it was a private letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, 1801. They write a letter and they say, ‘Mr. President, we’re so concerned that the government is going to come in and encroach upon our religious freedom, our freedom in the church to worship and to pray and to share the gospel, to share the truth as we understand and live in accordance with the dictates of our own conscience. Mr. President, what can you tell us? Is this a legitimate concern?’ So he writes back and he says, ‘Oh, listen, listen, my friends, my fellow countrymen, you have no concern, because we’ve given you the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights begins with religious freedom as the first and most fundamental liberty that we acknowledge that were granted by God, the right of conscience, the right to believe what you will, and to worship and pass it on your children.'”

“He says, ‘don’t worry there’s an impregnable wall of separation between church and state.’ In other words, the government is not going to encroach on the church and tell you what to believe or how to worship or take away your property or your rights or your right to get together and do and perpetuate your faith. And so he says, ‘Don’t worry, the First Amendment is like a shield to protect people of faith.’ But here’s what’s happened over the last several decades, that shield has been turned into a weapon to be used against people of faith.”

Johnson then portrays those who support the separation of church as condescending, and says, “so now they’ve convinced our generation because they say it enough, people begin to believe it and say, ‘Oh, no, there’s a difference between your religious life and real life,’ right? So they say, ‘on Sunday mornings, you guys get together, y’all go you know, go pray, you worship, you go to your little church building there. You get in your safe four walls, and you do your warm, fuzzy religious thing. You do your touchy feely, emotional, all the hand-raising and praising – you do all that stuff on Sunday. But don’t bring those ideas into the public square. Don’t bring those ideas Monday morning to the workplace at the water-cooler, don’t do that because you got to keep that separate over here,’ having heard separation of church and state.”

READ MORE: Texas Judge Fighting for ‘Right’ to Not Marry Gay Couples Cites ‘The Scriptures’

“Well, now wait a minute, the founders said religion and morality are the indispensable support to the whole Republic. Now you’re telling me I can’t even bring it in just one argument in the public policy arena? That’s crazy. It’s anathema. It’s, it’s opposite. It’s the opposite of how we were founded as a country and I’m telling you we’re losing those foundations at our peril.”

Watch Johnson from 2016 below or at this link.

 

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Why Are One in Five GOP Voters Still Voting for Nikki Haley Over Donald Trump?

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May 15, 2024

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Sixty-nine days after she suspended her presidential campaign, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is still drawing a consistent one in five Republican primary voters away from the indicted ex-president Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s primaries in Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia continued that trend, even though she has been nearly totally silent and even though Trump has already gained enough delegates to be the presumptive Republican nominee.

In Maryland Tuesday night, 47,597 GOP voters chose Haley over Trump, for a solid 20% of the vote. In Nebraska, Haley walked away with ⁦36,872 votes, 17.9% of the total. And in West Virginia, she took 21,123 votes, although that was just 9.4%. (All vote totals and percentages are from the Associated Press via Google and are current as of time of publication.)

All three primaries were “closed,” meaning open only to register Republican voters (Maryland and Nebraska) or registered Republicans and independents (West Virginia).

One week ago in Indiana the results were strikingly similar. 128,170 Indiana GOP primary voters – 21.7% – cast their ballot for the former South Carolina governor instead of the presumptive Republican nominee.

READ MORE: ‘Mouths of Sauron’: Critics Blast ‘Mobster Tactic’ of Trump Surrogates ‘Violating’ Gag Order

“Unexpected warning signs for Trump in busy Indiana primary,” Politico reported last week, noting, “Nikki Haley’s performance in the already concluded presidential race could be a sign of trouble for Trump in more competitive states.”

Overnight, Politico reported, “Nikki Haley’s zombie presidential candidacy is still drawing a sizable slice of the Republican vote in the suburbs,” in what it deems “Warning signs for Trump.”

“Donald Trump showed weakness in the suburbs in Tuesday’s primaries, while Joe Biden’s problem with the protest vote appeared to fade,” the news outlet noted. “It’s been a paradox for Democrats fretting about Biden’s standing in the polls: Republicans are more likely to say they’ll vote for Trump in general-election polling than Democrats are for Biden, but there are more protest votes in the primaries against Trump.”

On Monday, before Tuesday primaries, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina summed it up: “Trump is failing to expand beyond hardcore MAGA base.”

Pointing to Haley’s 20%, Lisa Quigley, who spent more than a quarter century as chief of staff to two Democratic U.S. Congressmen, observed: “These are highly engaged voters, who showed up in a primary, to vote for someone who was going to lose. They did it anyway. This is happening everywhere. They are key to victory in Nov.”

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen, as far back as March, also pointed to Haley voters as the key to Biden winning re-election.

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

“Nikki Haley won 2.9 million votes in the primary so far. Our Fox News voter analysis shows that somewhere between five in ten and six in ten of those Nikki Haley voters said they won’t vote for Trump in November,” Thiessen said, Newsweek reported. “If even a fraction of those voters deliver on that promise and stay home or vote third party or just split their votes or something, Trump loses.”

Meanwhile, Haley has barely broken her near-total silence, and has not endorsed Donald Trump.

“During a private, two-day donor retreat in Charleston, South Carolina, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador thanked a group of around 100 donors and her team gave a presentation on her campaign’s fundraising and strategy,” Politico also reported Wednesday. More importantly, Haley has not endorsed Trump nor offered the presumptive nominee any support – including her donor network.

 

 

 

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‘Terrific’: Trump Defends Kristi Noem After Shooting Her Dog to Death

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19 hours ago

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May 14, 2024

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Donald Trump came to the aid of embattled Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whose story about shooting to death her 14-month old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket has been denounced by Americans on the left and right for weeks.

Gov. Noem not only chose to put the story in her memoir, but has repeatedly defended her decision to drag the dog into a gravel pit and shoot her, killing her with one bullet without even warning her child, who asked when they returned home from school, “Where’s Cricket?”

Trump, speaking Tuesday on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” the successor to the late Rush Limbaugh’s talk radio program, did not appear to have a full grasp of the story or the massive outrage and upset Gov. Noem caused.

“I’m sure you’ve seen some of the Kristi Noem story. She might be the only person getting worse press than you on the left right now with the dog shooting story,” Clay Travis told Trump. “Is she still in the mix as a VP? Have you thought maybe she’d make more sense in a cabinet? How do you analyze stories like that as you go about making a choice?”

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

Noem, until the dog shooting story came out, was widely believed to be on Trump’s short list as a vice presidential running mate.

“Well, until this week, she was doing incredibly well and she got hit hard, and sometimes you do books and you have some guy writing a book and you maybe don’t read it as carefully,” Trump offered as a defense of the governor whose dog-shooting story came out weeks ago. “You know, you have ghost writers, do they help you? And they this case didn’t help too much.”

“Now, she’s terrific,” Trump continued, lavishing praise on Noem. “Look, she’s been a supporter of mine from day one. She did a great job of governor, as governor. And you know, you look at South Dakota numbers. She’s really done a great job.”

Trump did not say what numbers specifically, nor did he say on what Governor Noem did a great job. he also did not answer the question Travis posed about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, nor did he bring up any of the other controversies surrounding the book.

“And in some form, I mean, I think I think she’s terrific. A couple of rough stories. There’s no question about it. And when explained the dog story, you know, people, people hear that and people from different parts of the country probably feel a little bit differently, but that’s a tough story. And, but she’s a terrific person. She said she had a bad, she had a bad week.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Mouths of Sauron’: Critics Blast ‘Mobster Tactic’ of Trump Surrogates ‘Violating’ Gag Order

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‘Mouths of Sauron’: Critics Blast ‘Mobster Tactic’ of Trump Surrogates ‘Violating’ Gag Order

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22 hours ago

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May 14, 2024

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In his remarks outside the courtroom Tuesday, Donald Trump demanded Judge Juan Merchan rescind the tailored gag order placed on him that was designed to ensure the sanctity of the trial and the safety of witnesses, jurors, court staff, and their families.

“The gag order has to come off,” Trump told reporters Tuesday morning, adding his frequent “never been anything like this in the history of our country” claim.

Judge Merchan just last week reportedly cited Trump’s own words from his own book when defending his decision to keep the gag order in place and not modify it.

“When you are wronged, go after those people, because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it. Getting even is not always a personal thing. It’s just part of doing business,” Trump’s book passage reads.

But as The Washington Post reported Monday, Trump’s surrogates are saying “the forbidden stuff for him.” They “have helpfully stepped forward to offer a timely and convenient service: lodging those same attacks, while appearing at the trial in support of him.”

READ MORE: Trump Wails His Judge Was Appointed by ‘Democrat Politicians’ – That’s False

“Republican lawmakers have appeared at Trump’s trial — even entering and exiting the courtroom with him — and proceeded to say precisely the kinds of things he’s not allowed to.”

Because the “kinds of things he’s not allowed to” say violate the gag order.

Politico reports, “Trump’s surrogates continue launching verbal attacks that would violate gag order if Trump said them himself.”

But according to the text of Trump’s gag order, he is “directed to refrain from”:

“Making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding; Making or directing others to make public statements” about attorneys “in the case other than the District Attorney,” “members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or the family members of any counsel or staff member” or “any prospective juror or any juror in this criminal proceeding.”

The prosecution has not indicated it will, but it could ask the judge to examine the “directing others to make public statements” portion of the gag order.

On Tuesday, one of the most powerful elected Republicans in the country, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, became the most high-profile Trump surrogate on the planet.

RELATED: ‘Campaigning for Trump at His Criminal Trial’: Johnson Blasted for Going to NYC Courthouse

Critics are blasting Speaker Johnson, who is second in line to the presidency, for attending the trial Tuesday and for delivering remarks some are calling false, in support of the indicted ex-president and 2024 GOP presumptive nominee.

“When asked for his worldview when Mike Johnson became Speaker of the House and nobody knew anything about him he said, ‘you want to know my worldview? Go read the bible, that’s what I stand for,'” MSNBC’s Willie Geist said Tuesday. “And now today he’s at the courthouse defending the guy who’s on trial for allegedly paying off a porn star for the alleged affair he had while his wife was home with their infant son.”

Johnson and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) are among those who went and said what the judge told Trump he could not.

Johnson strongly defended Trump Tuesday morning. And following the Trump playbook, he attacked the prosecutor, the judge, and the judge’s daughter, which could be deemed a violation of Judge Merchan’s gag order against Trump if he decides Johnson’s remarks came at Trump’s request.

Award-winning journalist Laura Bassett, the former editor-in-chief of Jezebel, responded to that video, writing, “The guy who admitted that he and his son monitor each other’s porn intake is out here publicly lying on behalf of a man who cheated on his wife with a porn star and paid to cover it up.”

Calling it “Craven,” and “lawless,” Bloomberg Opinion Senior Executive Editor Tim O’Brien remarked, “House Speaker Mike Johnson is outside the NY courthouse right now and essentially helping Trump sidestep the court’s gag order by acting as his proxy by attacking the integrity of the trial and judicial process. He’s even targeting Justice Merchan’s daughter.”

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

Congressman Donalds, who is on the short list to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate, also attacked the judge’s daughter on Tuesday, from outside the courthouse.

Political commentator Bob Cesca observed, “If you’re wondering why Vance, Tuberville, and Johnson are there, it’s because of the gag order. They’re Trump’s voice. The Mouths of Sauron,” he wrote, referring to the near-entirely evil creature from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.”

“BTW, asking surrogates to attack witnesses and the judge’s daughter is a violation of the gag order,” he added.

Former Denver Chief Deputy District Attorney Craig Silverman remarked, “Note how Trump gets Vance and Johnson to violate the gag order for him. Mobster tactic. Make your Trump champions violate the law right along with you. Once they are in for a dime, they are in for a dollar and stuck with MAGA.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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