“They tried to destroy Donald Trump; the same gang that is going after Roy Moore is the same gang that went after Donald Trump”, Bannon said. And I have to tell you, I think at some time later after [Tuesday], a real, you know, review has to be done of how President Trump got the wrong information and came down on the wrong side of the football here.” (Not Strange: Judge Roy Moore Beats Trump pick)
Because the president does not have a web browser on his phone, he receives printed versions of news stories from sources curated by various trusted staff members. Two conservative news sites that reportedly have nor made the cut under [White House Chief of Staff] Kelly are Breitbart and The Daily Caller. (Report: Trump’s Chief of Staff Won’t let Him read Two Prominent Conservative News Sites)
Born into a fortune larger than the GNP of some countries, businessman Donald Trump increased it several times over. But despite his vast fortune, he has no access to a computer or other digital device that includes a web browser as a standard feature? Except that the report comes from the New York Times, I would have a hard time believing that any news outlet would actually treat such an incredible report as fact, especially given the President’s apparently uninhibited access to Twitter.
Be that as it may, if The Daily Caller has been excluded from the President’s daily information diet, that might explain his decision, to back GOP US Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s ruthlessly deceitful efforts to buy a win for Roy Moore’s opponent in the recent US Senate runoff election in Alabama. Trump did so even before Judge Moore topped other candidates in the first stage of Alabama’s recent special primary election. He then doubled down on his commitment during the runoff election Judge Moore won yesterday.
Judge Moore’s supporters had every right to be startled by the fact that President Trump was willing to hand away their State’s representation in the US Senate as a bargaining chip, intended to leave Senator McConnell beholden to him, despite their apparently testy relations. If he had been reading the Daily Caller, President Trump would have known that many voters in Alabama strongly support Judge Moore’s stand against the Federal judiciary’s usurpation of powers the Constitution reserves to them, or their State government. He would have realized that they back Judge Moore’s unwillingness to accept the denial or disparagement of the God-endowed rights they naturally retain, by Judges or Justices acting in violation of the Constitution’s 9th Amendment, which forbids any construction of the Constitution which does so.
Steve Bannon is right to advise President Trump to make sure he sees all pertinent information before he commits to political actions that run contrary to the agenda he espoused to win the White House. This is not only a political imperative, in the electoral sense. It’s imperative if he is to fulfill his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution, and see to the faithful execution of the laws. Since taking office, he has repeatedly avowed his determination to defend “religious liberty.” What sense, then, did it make to support a candidate whose speeches and ads defamed Roy Moore’s faithful determination to defend the religious liberty of the people of his state, as the Constitution’s 14th Amendment explicitly required him to do?
Thank God, voters in Alabama have thus far held firm in their resolve to insist on representation in the US Senate that will strongly defend their residual powers, rights, and privileges—as natural persons, and as citizens of the United States, just as the US Constitution requires. In the process they have set an example for voters throughout the country, who supported Donald Trump because he voiced their deep resentment against elitist faction leaders, in both parties, who have apparently abandoned their sworn duty to defend the nation’s Constitution, and secure both their God-endowed rights and the borders that define the jurisdiction within which that security is supposed to prevail. What is national security, if it does not include the core premises of right, and the exercise of right, including liberty, that comprise the common ground on which we stand together as one nation?
Roy Moore has not only voiced his determination to defend these premises. He has acted, at great personal, professional and political cost, to stand in their defense. He and President Trump ostensibly share the same spirit, and the same frank resolve to act accordingly. Perhaps the first source of information President Trump would do well to consult is the one the GOP voters in Alabama just recommended. Instead of accepting any secondhand opinions about Judge Moore, President Trump should spend some time with him, discussing the agenda they both profess to have in common.
I know from my own experience with him, that Judge Moore has seriously pondered not only the words of our Constitution, but the logic of right and justice, steeped in respect for the authority of our Creator, God, that makes sense of them. Frankly, this profound appreciation for the logic of our political creed is one thing apparently lacking, so far, among those who advise President Trump. Even when they faithfully present his positions to the world, they do so without reference to the reasoning, rooted in our special identity as a nation, that persuasively justifies them. This deficiency has even led some of them to show reticence that seems to justify the opposition of his critics, when they could be drawing on the common thirst for right, justice and decent freedom that motivates most Americans of good will, even when they oppose one another.
So, Mr. President, before visiting Alabama to campaign with Judge Moore as a candidate, why not arrange to spend some hours in conversation with him? You will find that the people of Alabama, like so many other good-hearted Americans, know a good person when they live with one. Frankly, they see in Judge Moore the same forthright qualities that inspired them to put their hopes in you. America’s Founders trusted in what they called the special ‘genius’ of the American people. That same trust, extended to your supporters in Alabama, could lead you to forge a relationship that becomes a strong link in the chain of causes that may yet restore our nation to the path of God’s Providence. What could be greater than that?
Perspectives expressed in op-eds are not those of The Daily Caller.