By Teri O'Brien –
As regular listeners to The Teri O'Brien Show know, recently I was thunderstruck to learn that one of my smart friends thought that I had endorsed Donald Trump. I'm not sure what I did to create that impression.
The truth is that I have issues with all three leading contenders.
I have discussed my belief that Sen. Ted Cruz is not an Article II "natural born citizen" and received boatloads of brickbats hurled in my direction for even raising the issue. Sen. Marco Rubio is also not an Article II NBC in my opinion, but that fact is secondary to my conclusion that we can't trust him on the existential issue of amnesty.
And then there's Mr. Donald Trump, a political bull in the china shop, upending the traditional way of doing things to the delight of millions of justifiably angry Americans.
The good news is that Mr. Trump is an Article II "natural born citizen." In addition, his plan to pause Muslim immigration is not unconstitutional. Nor is he afraid of Fox News' Megyn Kelly. The only people afraid of Ms. Kelly are the ones who worry that her ginormous false eyelashes will stab them through the TV, and I don't think Mr. Trump is one of those.
Since I have previously detailed my problems with Senators Cruz and Rubio, I think it's time to get some answers about the man who at times appears to speeding to the nomination like a bullet train.
Are you supporting Mr. Trump? Perhaps, then, you can answer a few questions for me, and other voters who are still trying to decide which candidate to support. I am going to refrain from discussing the current "Pope v. Trump" kerfuffle, which is just another episode of the repetitive, endless loop, cable tv daily soap opera, and not really an important matter. I will say that politically, it's a gift from God (no pun intended) to candidate Trump, but I'd prefer to stick to more substantive issues here.
- Sam Adams, one of our Founding Fathers, wrote "He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of this country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." In an interesting contrast, Donald Trump wrote in his book The Art of the Comeback, "If I told the real stories of my experiences with women, often seemingly very happily married and important women, this book would be a guaranteed best-seller." Of course, you know about the breakup of his first marriage, which was the result of an affair with Marla Maples. Do you find it troubling that Mr. Trump not only committed adultery, but bragged about it? Are you distressed about the effects of the infidelity that he proudly proclaims on the families of those married women? Do you consider Mr. Trump a "virtuous man?"
- During last Saturday night's CBS debate in South Carolina, Donald Trump said that Planned Parenthood does "wonderful things" for "women's health." Most conservatives understand the phrase "women's health" in the context of discussing Planned Parenthood is a transparent euphemism used to avoid the disgusting reality of what Planned Parenthood is really about; specifically, making big bucks, many of them taxpayer provided, from doing abortions. What specific "wonderful things" that Planned Parenthood does do you suppose he was referring to there? Do you agree?
- One of Mr. Trump's very prominent spokespeople is Katrina Pierson, who appears on cable tv almost as often as he does, which means she gets more air time than the My Pillow guy. Ms. Pierson has an interesting history on Twitter. As the Daily Caller reported, she has declared that Malcolm X is her idol, slammed Christians, accused Republicans of being racist, and "helped circulate a petition demanding George Zimmerman’s immediate arrest and encouraged her followers on Twitter to “Stand For Trayvon Martin.” More troubling, she admitted that in 2008, she voted for Barack Obama. As I have noted frequently here and on The Teri O'Brien Show, it was not possible for an intelligent, well-informed person not to have known in 2008 that Sen. Obama was anything other than a hardwired radical leftist and an enthusiastic proponent of income redistribution, government compelled racism, sometimes known as "affirmative action," with a well-known distain for the Constitution. Are you at all concerned that this woman is the person Donald Trump chose to speak for him? Does the fact that she chose Obama in 2008 give you any second thoughts that just maybe she is not the best person on which to rely when choosing a candidate to support?
- Of course, it isn't just Ms. Pierson who supports democrats. Donald Trump was a registered democrat from August 2001 to September 2009,, and his political contributions helped keep democrats Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in charge of Congress. He claims that he will repeal Obamacare, and yet, but for his contributions to these democrat leaders, perhaps Obamacare would never have passed. He says he wants to make America great again, yet he donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the very people who have been destroying it from within. Do you see any inconsistency between his enabling the passage of Obamacare and his claim now that he will repeal it?
- During last Saturday's CBS GOP debate, Mr. Trump appeared to channel Michael Moore and Code Pink, blaming George W. Bush for 9/11 and reciting one of the Left's favorite talking points about the absence of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq prior to our intervention there in 2003. He made no mention of the 17 U.N. resolutions flouted by Saddam Hussein prior to our intervention, the fact that regime change in Iraq had been official U.S. policy since 1998, or Hillary Clinton's vote in favor of intervening in Iraq. If it's not bad enough that he omits those very relevant facts, now Mr. Trump is clearly misstating reality, perhaps to justify his simplistic comments about the Iraq War, saying that Saddam Hussein “make a living off killing terrorists.” The absurdity of that comment is breathtaking. Saddam Hussein PAID and sheltered terrorists. As the 9/11 Report documents, National Security Advisor Richard Clarke said that if Osama bin Laden was driven from Baghdad he would "boogie to Baghdad" where he could be harbored by Saddam Hussein. Are you troubled by Mr. Trump's very disturbing comments about Saddam Hussein and 9/11?
As I have said many times, we owe Mr. Trump a debt of gratitude for raising the critical issues of immigration and refugee resettlement. That fact should not give him a pass on answering these important questions.
Trump supporters, I look forward to your answers.
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