Plus, Defending Faith, Family, & Freedom.   Fighting For Faith, Family & Freedom Thursday, August 1, 2024 To: Friends & Supporters From: Gary Bauer Are You Safe? In a recent interview, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall connected the assassination attempt on Donald Trump to the overall feeling of insecurity across the country. He said, “Back home . . . all that people wanted to talk about is the Secret Service failure. . . it’s because people back home don’t feel safe.” He’s right. Crime has consistently polled as a top concern among voters for the past few years. There is a growing sense that no one is safe because of the left’s ideological idiocy. During the 2020 riots, the Black Lives Matter movement convinced many left-wing politicians to “defund the police.” Law enforcement budgets were slashed. Officers retired in record numbers. Many cities can’t recruit new cops. Compounding the problem is a cadre of left-wing, soft-on-crime prosecutors who refuse to do their jobs. They seem more interested in putting criminals first and victims last. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris opened our borders. Millions of illegal aliens poured into the country, including violent criminals and terrorists. A migrant crime wave is forcing many businesses to close. Just this week, a vicious Venezuelan gang told its members in the U.S. to start ambushing cops. We’re not safe abroad, either. Americans have been evacuated from country after country as Biden’s foreign policy signals weakness to the whole world. A new report warns that America will lose the next war because we are unprepared to fight a major conflict. And the one agency that is supposed to be the best at safety can’t even keep a former president safe. (See below.) A Terrible Deal Not only is the Biden/Harris administration trying to appease foreign Islamic radicals, they are also appeasing Islamic radicals from the past. The Biden/Harris administration just agreed to a plea deal with three of the 9/11 terrorists currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, including the mastermind of that atrocity, Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. As a result of this deal, these Al Qaeda terrorists will never face the death penalty for their role in murdering 3,000 Americans. The Biden/Harris team wants to shut down Guantanamo Bay. So, they have been releasing the Islamic extremists held there in order to empty the prison. Now they just cut a plea deal with the worst of them. Families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, are absolutely furious. Some called it a “betrayal,” and it is. Daniel D’allara, who lost his brother, said, “We were promised a trial. We waited patiently a long time. I wanted the death penalty. The government has failed us.” Jim Smith, who lost his wife on 9/11, put it bluntly, saying: “I feel like I was kicked in the balls. The prosecution and families have waited for 23 years to have our day in court to put on the record what these animals did to our loved ones. . . They committed the worst crime in the history of our country. They should receive the highest penalty.” I can’t imagine the pain and anguish these families are feeling today. Thankfully, I did not lose a family member on 911. But I do have a personal interest in Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. He smuggled a letter out of jail threatening four high-profile Christian leaders, suggesting we should be killed because of our strong support for Israel. One was the late, great Jerry Falwell. Another was the late Pat Robertson. The third, for obvious reasons, does not want his name disclosed. I am the fourth. Standing With Israel While the Hamas wing of the progressive movement is doing its best to delegitimize Israel as an “oppressive, apartheid state,” a new Harvard/Harris poll suggests they are failing miserably. Here’s what the poll found: 80% of Americans support Israel in its war against Hamas. 66% believe Israel is doing everything it can to minimize civilian casualties. (That’s a very high number given all the extraordinarily biased reporting on Palestinian deaths.) 70% believe that Israel should agree to a ceasefire only after Hamas has been removed from power in Gaza. 66% support Israel’s right to retaliate against attacks by Hezbollah. Secret Service In Shambles The Secret Service is in total shambles. Noting that the agency has had 48% turnover in a year, Sen. Roger Marshall is calling for an independent commission to investigate the agency’s failures and a crisis leadership team to “turn things upside down.” Sen. Ted Cruz said that the decisions to deny extra security to Donald Trump and any security to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., were “political” and “partisan.” Cruz added: “The rational inference from the evidence we know now is it was political bias at the top of the leadership of the Secret Service that led to insufficient agents and insufficient resources being devoted to protecting President Trump.” Sen. Mike Lee said what many Americans are thinking: “Nobody wants to believe the worst. . . But when they lied to us repeatedly, then when they refused to answer the most basic questions, when they almost willfully declined to take any of the most basic precautions in order to protect the former president . . . one has to wonder.” Sen. Lee is right. There are too many questions the Secret Service has not answered because there is no answer that does not “convict” them. For example: Why was an ideal perch for a potential assassin left unsecured? Why was the shooter, spotted with a rangefinder and repeatedly identified as a “suspicious person,” allowed to wander around so long? Why, with all that going on, did no one say Trump’s speech should be delayed? Why did the FBI director plant the idea that Trump may not have been hit by a bullet? One-third of leftists don’t believe there was an assassination attempt. Why would the FBI director feed those delusions? Why, three weeks later, are they still unable or unwilling to answer basic questions? Coming Home There was breaking news this morning that “one of the biggest and most complex prisoner swaps in U.S. history” was underway. A dozen Germans and four Americans were released in exchange for eight Russians, including one high-ranking spy convicted of murder. The freed Americans are retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Washington Post columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, and Radio Free Europe reporter Alsu Kurmasheva. This is great news for their families, and we celebrate their return! But don’t miss the big picture here. Does anyone think Vladimir Putin made this deal 95 days before a very consequential election out of the goodness of his own heart? Of course, not. Putin is doing his best to give left a “win.” Why? Because he wants to keep left-wing policies in the White House. Putin knows that if Donald Trump returns to the White House, he will be given an ultimatum, and the war in Ukraine will end. Olympic Disgrace Every time the Olympics are held, it seems there is a new sport added to the lineup. This year, there is an Olympic event where you can watch men beating up women. A male boxer claiming to be a woman just beat a real woman in the ring. The fight lasted all of 46 seconds. When Angela Carini lost the match, she collapsed in tears. All those years of training and all her dreams were gone in 46 seconds. Carini later said, “I’ve never taken a punch like that.” This is the bitter fruit of modern progressive ideology. It started out insisting on women’s rights, among other things. Now, it insists on forcing women to fight men in order for them to compete in sports. Wifebeaters everywhere are excited to finally get their chance to compete in the Olympics. As Riley Gaines recently warned, this insanity is going to get women killed. Tune In To Family Talk Please tune in to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk radio show. On today’s broadcast, former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and I look back on the dramatic events of the past few weeks and discuss their impact on the election and our nation. Find station listings here. Or listen online here. Defending Faith, Family, & Freedom In this week’s Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast for the James Dobson Family Institute, I break down the debauched depiction of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. Listen to the podcast here. 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