Jim Larew Weighs In on Iowa’s Justice and Liberty Event and Buttigieg’s Self-Proclaimed ‘Obama Moment’

On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy was joined by good friend and famed Iowan attorney Jim Larew to chat about last weeks Liberty and Justice event in Iowa and how it’s changed the pace of the campaigns.

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Pete Buttigieg Casts Himself as Moral Christian Alternative to Donald Trump in Fluffy Tennessean Interview at Exclusive Nashville Fundraiser

  If you were able to catch a glimpse of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg in Nashville on Wednesday, you were part of a select few. The progressive mayor of South Bend, Indiana stumped in Music City Wednesday — but only far-left progressives with cash to spend were there, as the event was pay-to-attend as The Tennessee Star reported in a “softball” preview story Monday that basically provided the candidate’s policy positions. The far-left Tennessean ran a glowing story Thursday. The story is here, in which the homosexual mayor who has said America was founded on white supremacy cast himself as a moral Christian alternative to President Donald Trump: “Voters who are guided by religious principles need to know they have a choice,” he said. People of faith “don’t have to stand with a president whose personal life flies in the face of what faith teaches us about how to conduct ourselves,” Buttigieg said. The venue also was announced at the last minute, The Star said. The Tennessean revealed that location was the Cannery Ballroom. Buttigieg did not exactly get grilled by any other media either. NewsChannel 5 had a six-paragraph story here. The only quote from Buttigieg was: “It’s important to speak to…

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‘Mayor Pete’ Buttigieg is Coming to Nashville Wednesday to Raise Campaign Cash

  Pete Buttigieg is the latest 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to plan a Nashville visit. Buttigieg will make a campaign stop in Music City on Wednesday, his campaign website says. The location so far has been hush-hush but will be announced this week. The doors, at whatever the location is, will open at 6 p.m. During a campaign visit in Nashville last week, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said that Nashville and Texas and other “places that formed the Confederacy” are bigoted and America was formed on white supremacy, The Tennessee Star reported. Former Vice President Joe Biden, a latecomer to the 2020 Democratic presidential race, visited Nashville on May 20 for his “American Promise” tour, The Star said. Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) visited Nashville’s Fisk University in April and inserted herself into the failed $9 billion Nashville transit referendum of 2018 when she said voters rejected the referendum because they wanted to use federal funds. If one wants to hear Buttigieg’s pitch directly, he or she will have to cough up some cash for the privilege. Tickets are available in various denominations from $25 to $1,000, and are available from the event page referenced above. In addition…

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Commentary: Crack-ups at the Crossroads of Intersectionality

by Victor Davis Hanson   Progressives do not see the United States as an exceptional uniter of factions and tribes into a cohesive whole – each citizen subordinating his tribal, ethnic, and religious affinities to a shared Americanism, emblemized by our national motto e pluribus unum. Instead, they prefer e uno plures: out of one nation arise many innately different and separate peoples. Progressivism’s signature brand is now tribalism: all of us in different ways are victims of a white male Christian heterosexual patriarchy – or a current 20 percent hierarchy that past and present has supposedly oppressed anyone not like themselves. In contrast, our differences define who we are, and are not incidental to the content of our characters. The salad bowl, not the melting pot, is the new national creed. America is to be a conglomeration of competing tribal parties in the fashion of the Balkans, Rwanda, or contemporary Iraq. How does the relative victimhood work politically? Progressive elites (oddly often white, but “woke,” males) serve as umpires who adjudicate familial spats and intersectional fractures. Like good cowboys, they ride herd, directing the squabbling and snorting flock in the right direction without losing too many strays on the way to…

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Warren Leading in Minnesota, Klobuchar Polling in Fourth in Home State

  A new poll shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leading the field in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in Minnesota. According to the recent Change Research poll, Warren attracted the support of 21 percent of respondents, while former Vice President Joe Biden came in second with 20 percent of the vote, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) placed third with 19 percent. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would vote for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in Minnesota’s Democratic primary, putting her in fourth place in her home state. That puts her in front of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who polled at 11 percent and four percent, respectively. Younger voters between 18 and 49 preferred Sanders over Warren, while voters between the ages of 50 and 64 preferred Biden as the nominee. Klobuchar polled stronger among older voters as well, receiving 19 percent of the vote among respondents aged 50 to 64. Female voters selected Warren, Biden, and Klobuchar as their top candidates, while male voters preferred Sanders, Biden, and Buttigieg. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) polled at zero percent in Change Research’s poll, along with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI-02) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). “Polling…

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Pete Buttigieg Says ‘the Black Church’ Is ‘Still Coming to Terms with LGBTQ Inclusion’

by Evie Fordham   Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said the black church is “still coming to terms with LGBTQ inclusion” during an interview with BET published Friday. “I’ve had the opportunity to meet with black queer faith leaders and found there is a much more rich and diverse dialogue going on in activist communities of faith. Especially when you think about how the black church has been an original template for what I would call the religious left on civil rights but still coming to terms with LGBTQ inclusion,” Buttigieg told BET. Buttigieg, who is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has attracted media attention in the 2020 presidential race for his thoughtful approach to issues but seems to be just as far-left as many other candidates. His interview with BET focused on issues of race and equity, and he discussed the importance of civil rights training and implicit bias training “in any workforce but certainly in a police department” in the BET interview. Buttigieg was forced in April to walk back comments he made in 2015 when he said “all lives matter.” “So at that time, I was talking about a lot of issues around racial reconciliation and…

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Buttigieg Tells Jewish Leaders That US Should ‘Guide’ Israel Away from ‘Harmful’ Policies

by Matthew M. Miller   Democratic 2020 candidate and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg told a group of Jewish leaders, Thursday that the U.S. should “guide” Israel away from “harmful” policies. “The right approach comes about when you have an ally or a friend [who] is taking steps that you think are harmful and you put your arm around your friend and try to guide them somewhere else. That’s part of how our alliance works. And I think American leadership is needed, in particular, with respect to our ally Israel at a moment like this” Buttigieg said to a group of more than 40 prominent Jewish religious and political leaders. The event was hosted in the D.C. offices of Jewish communications firm Bluelight Strategies on Thursday. Among those present were prominent Jewish activists, political and community leaders including “former Mideast peace negotiator Amb. Dennis Ross, Executive Director of the Washington Institute Rob Satloff, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Democratic pollster Mark Mellman and Alan Gross, the former USAID contractor who was detained in Cuba for five years,” according to The Times of Israel. During the meeting, Buttigieg reportedly expressed concerns with…

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Commentary: Pete Buttigieg and the Left’s False Piety

by Matthew Boose   When South Bend, Indiana Mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg accused Vice President Mike Pence of having a problem with his sexual orientation, the openly gay Episcopalian was employing a tired, but increasingly common, progressive sleight of hand. “If you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me—your quarrel, sir, is with my creator,” Buttigieg said. This was a political stunt steeped in prejudice against Pence’s religious beliefs. Of course, not only has Pence not attacked Buttigieg, but it would seem he has had nothing but nice things to say about him. Buttigieg’s “gotcha” exemplifies a common strategy of on the Left to shame others into accepting their ideas. Leftists, while loudly championing infanticide, have taken to co-opting a religion they don’t actually believe in to push their own agenda. Buttigieg’s message is predictable and banal, but it’s the kind of thing that impresses progressives who find TED talks edifying and consult “the data” to settle moral questions: Pence and all evangelicals who support Trump are hypocrites. If they were real Christians, they’d follow the Left’s interpretation of the Gospel, which is really just secular liberalism in faux-Christian garb. One…

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Pete Buttigieg Supports Pathway to Citizenship for the Millions of Illegal Immigrants

by Jason Hopkins   Democratic presidential nominee Pete Buttigieg said he supports a “pathway to citizenship” for the more than “10 million” illegal immigrants living the United States. “There are over 10 million people who are undocumented immigrants in this country who don’t fall into [the DACA] category and the reality is we can’t have comprehensive immigration reform that works unless it addresses the status for those 11 some million undocumented immigrants,” Buttigieg said Monday night during a CNN town hall forum. Buttigieg spoke highly of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, but noted that it only protects about 700,000 young illegal immigrants from deportation. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana wants to implement a measure that would give citizenship to the millions of undocumented adults living in the U.S. Eleven million is actually a low number according to other expert estimations. A Yale study, for example, put the number of illegal aliens living in the U.S around 22 million, twice as much as previous estimations. “What we need to do is make sure there is a pathway to citizenship for them too,” he said, claiming that there was broad consensus on the issue. The 37-year-old mayor…

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Klobuchar Hauls in $5.2 Million in First Quarter, But Trails High-Profile Candidates

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) revealed Monday that her presidential campaign raised $5.2 million in the first fundraising quarter of 2019, which ended Friday. The Minnesota senator currently has $7 million in cash on hand after transferring some funds from her Senate campaign account. Klobuchar announced her candidacy on February 11, meaning she was able to raise the $5.2 million in roughly seven weeks, but the figure pales in comparison to some of her more high-profile competitors. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), for instance, raised $6 million in just the first 24 hours of his campaign. Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, meanwhile, raised $9.4 million in the 18 days between announcing candidacy and the close of the quarter, according to Business Insider, which reports that O’Rourke raised $6.1 million in the first 24 hours. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who declared candidacy in January, raised a total of $12 million, while Sanders led the pack with $18.2 million in total donations. Klobuchar does have a slight lead over Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who raised $5 million since launching his campaign. Dark-horse candidate Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, raised $7 million in the first quarter of 2019. Klobuchar’s campaign said it had nearly…

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Unlikely Candidate Gaining Traction in US 2020 Race

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is riding in the back of a rented minivan to his last event of the day in South Carolina, munching on cold french fries and critiquing his stage performance so far. The enthusiastic crowds of hundreds who’ve packed his first two stops have been much larger than the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and his team expected. It’s “wonderful,” he says, but the cheering and prolonged applause are messing with his delivery. Sometimes he neglects to pause, and his next words are drowned out. Other times people start clapping when he doesn’t expect it. “I need to relearn the timing of my stump speech,” Buttigieg says. “I’ve been used to a format where I go in, there’s 50 people, I do my little spiel and then we have some Q&A and hopefully they walk away impressed. Now every one of these things we put on the calendar as a meet and greet is turning out to be a rally.” Buttigieg, a veteran and Rhodes scholar, was the longest of long shots when he announced a presidential exploratory committee in January. No mayor has ever been elected president, much less one from a community of…

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Court-Packing Emerges as Litmus Test in 2020 Democratic Primary

by Kevin Daley   A growing number of Democratic presidential candidates are entertaining a push to add seats to the Supreme Court, as Republican success at filling the courts with judicial conservatives has infuriated progressive voters. Democratic presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Kirsten Gillibrand have expressed willingness to consider proposals for expanding the composition of the Supreme Court as of this writing. The Trump campaign charged that those suggestions, called court-packing, keeps with other structural reforms to the U.S. political system some Democrats have endorsed since the 2016 election. “This is just what the Democrats always do,” the Trump campaign told TheDCNF. “When they lose, they try to change the rules. This is no different from when they attack the Electoral College every time they lose the White House. Now it’s court-packing. They want to change our institutions to fit their own political desires.” Another presidential candidate, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, advanced a more modest proposition. Speaking Monday night on MSNBC, the senator said term limits for Supreme Court justices might be appropriate, but he seemed reluctant to endorse expansion of the Court. Democrats frame the issue as a credibility…

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Rep. Green to File Constitutional Amendment Bill to Freeze Supreme Court Bench at Nine Justices to Counter Democrats’ Push to Pack the Court

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) says he will introduce a constitutional amendment to halt Democrats’ desire to pack the Supreme Court in a maneuver hearkening back to progressive president FDR. Green on Tuesday tweeted, “This Thursday, I will be introducing a constitutional amendment that would limit the number of Supreme Court justices to 9 – the number of seats since 1869. The Supreme Court must remain a fair and impartial branch of government not beholden to party.” This Thursday, I will be introducing a constitutional amendment that would limit the number of Supreme Court justices to 9 — the number of seats since 1869. The Supreme Court must remain a fair and impartial branch of government not beholden to party. https://t.co/QoHZZyIpb6 — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) March 19, 2019 Green also tweeted, “Schemes to pack the court are dangerous to the Founders’ vision of an independent judiciary that serves as a check on both the Executive and Legislative branches of government.” Schemes to pack the court are dangerous to the Founders' vision of an independent judiciary that serves as a check on both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) March 19, 2019 The…

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