Former President Donald Trump has attacked former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to do more to stop Democrats from "stealing" the 2020 election. Both were loyal to Trump, but not to him personally; rather, they were loyal to Trump when he was clearly defending the Constitution. When he began casting about for a way to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, they had to choose, and they chose well.
The 2020 election was neither free nor fair, but it was probably not fraudulent, at least on a scale that mattered. That was partly because Democrats legalized what would once have been fraudulent. If Barr did not investigate voter fraud, that is because there probably wasn't any serious enough to rise to the level of a federal crime. The bigger issues were new voting rules -- some of which were passed by Republicans -- and violence, and media/tech censorship, and so on.
Trump is at his best when he is articulating the case against Biden and the far-left that dominates the Biden presidency. He did that in his speech Saturday night. No one else does it better, which is why he is still the effective leader of the Republican Party. But Trump is at his worst when he lets the media bait him into bashing former aides and associates, as happened on this occasion with Barr. People want to fight the battles of the future, not the election of 2020.
This is my first broadcast from the new office and studio in Washington, DC, where I'll be for a couple of years my neighborhood back in L.A. cleans up -- and as we follow the Trump administration from a little closer up than usual.
Topics:
- The anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump
- The escalating tariff battle with various different trading partners
- The future of the Middle East peace talks, and ongoing antisemitism
- The Jeffrey Epstein files and whether they mean anything at all
- The continued crisis of the Texas floods, and stories of heroism and survival
And more!
Special guests:
- James Rosen - Newsmax chief Washington correspondent
- Bob Price - Breitbart News Texas reporter, on the ongoing floods
- Robert Cahill - Trafalgar Polling, on a new alliance of reliable pollsters
- Rabbi Yaakov Menken - Coalition for Jewish Values - on Israel & antisemitism
Tune in: 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call: 866-957-2874
This week’s portion tells the grand story of the prophet who tried to curse people of Israel and instead ended up blessing them.
I am reminded that these portions continue to be relevant anew, as this particular reading lent the title for Israel’s recent 12 Day War against Iran, “Operation Rising Lion.”
This week's portion includes the commandment of the red heifer -- one of the classic "irrational" commandments whose fulfillment is an expression of faith. It also includes the regrettable episode in which Moses strikes the rock.
I referred to this story in a wedding speech last night. Why was Moses punished for striking the rock in Numbers, when he struck the rock without incident in Exodus -- both for the purpose of providing water to the people?
The answer is that in the interim, the Jewish people had received the Torah, which is like the marriage contract between the people of Israel and God. In a marriage, you do not resolve things by breaking boundaries, but through love.
The additional reading, from Judges Chapter 11, is the story of Jephthah (Yiftach), a man whom the leaders spurn, but to whom they must turn to save the nation. The parallels to our present political circumstances are striking.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Fourth of July!
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