Good morning!

Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff!

Today's newsletter includes:

• Bible Verse Of The Day
• Trump defense "eviscerates" House impeachment case
• CORRECTION:  Rock Hall Of Shame News
• A Showbiz Story That Might Become Historic
• New York's Governor Covered This Up, And No It Wasn't Because Of A Trump Tweet
• Bonus Podcast Episode
• America The Beautiful

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY 

Trump defense "eviscerates" House impeachment case

By Mike Huckabee

Trump’s attorneys did exactly what they needed to do in their argument on Friday, and it was astonishingly good. As Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said, they “legally eviscerated” the House managers’ case and “blew [it] out of the water.” Sean Hannity had a great segment Friday evening showing how it went down.

The defense accomplished this in about an hour –- dramatically less time than the House impeachment managers had taken to repeatedly present fake "evidence" and shamefully manipulate the emotions of those inside the Senate chamber. It conclusively debunked some classic lies told about Trump, such as the fake “fine people on both sides” quote. It featured an attorney we hadn’t seen before, the magnificent Michael van der Veen, who chastised House managers for having the nerve to claim the First Amendment didn’t apply in an impeachment proceeding.

And what better way to counter the Democrats’ deceptively-edited “movie” --- which I have labeled falsified evidence --- than with their own video, accurately depicting rhetoric much harsher and more violent than anything Trump has ever come close to saying.

Game, set, match. On CNN, they tried to dismiss it as a partisan stunt, “a Sean Hannity mix tape.” But what else could they say? No, it was breathtaking in the way it made its point.

THE EPOCH TIMES has a good summary of the proceedings. Note the description of Democrat senators’ response, rolling their eyes and “finding” reasons to excuse their own behavior while still condemning Trump.

The defense was able to show that a tweet used by the House managers had been deceptively photoshopped. Another choice moment was when Republican senators questioned an impeachment manager about Kamala Harris’s promotion of a fund, the Minnesota Freedom Fund, that bailed out rioters.

As reported in the WASHINGTON EXAMINER, the “trial” was poised to conclude on Saturday. (I had thought it was supposed to be in recess on Saturday, to accommodate the request by a Jewish participant for a recess from 5PM Friday until Sunday.)

But late Friday night, after the spectacular presentation from Trump’s attorneys that made them all look like fools, Democrats must have decided they’d seen too much of their own blood on the Senate floor, and they started talking about bringing in witnesses after all. I guess if I were an attorney and the last day of arguments had gone that badly for me, I would be thinking of something –- anything –- else to try as well.

After seeing a helpful report on CNN, Democrats started thinking they might have something to be gained by examining a phone call between Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy the day of the riot. Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Friday on MSNBC that “if they made the decision to call witnesses, we would welcome that.”

Recall that legal analyst Jonathan Turley had questioned the Democrats’ odd lack of interest in calling witnesses. Over and over, they referred to media reports instead of calling the people directly involved. On Thursday, according to USA TODAY, the Democrat managers were saying they had made their case.

If Democrats want to start calling witnesses now, they’ll have to get at least a 50-50 vote for that (with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said it would be up to the House managers to decide if they want to pursue it, implying that all the Senate Democrats would go along. One catch: if they do this, Trump's defense gets to call witnesses, too.

What some Democrats apparently want to do, after Trump’s attorneys slapped them down hard on Thursday by revealing their lies and falsification of evidence, is to dig into the phone call President Trump had with Rep. McCarthy on the day of the riot. Numerous Republicans were reportedly briefed on this call. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican who voted “yes” to impeach Trump, says he was told about the call by Rep. McCarthy. (Note: in a real trial, this would be called “hearsay.”)

Beautler has tweeted that McCarthy told him he’d called the President after the riot had begun and asked him to “publicly and forcefully” call it off. The President had told McCarthy that it was antifa doing the rioting. McCarthy had told the President that, no, these were Trump supporters. And the President had said, “Well, Kevin, I guess those people are more upset about the election than you are.”

It is true that Trump could have been more forceful in calling off the protesters; he appears in this secondhand description of the call to have blown it off with a quip. But did he even realize how serious it was when he said that? At some entrances to the Capitol, protesters apparently were waved in by Capitol Police as if they were expected. In other locations, the breach grew extremely contentious and even led to a woman being shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer. It sounds as if Trump had no idea it was this bad when he made that comment.

So, there are different ways this hearsay account can be interpreted, and none of them have to do with “incitement.” Of course, Democrats always assume the worst motives on Trump’s part, but it could simply be that he really did think antifa was doing it –- indeed, some antifa were involved –- and also that he didn’t yet know how much it had escalated.

The way to find this out would be to call Trump. Maybe if they hadn’t thrown the Constitution down the toilet and insisted on “trying” him as a private citizen, he would've been more cooperative.

According to the WASHINGTON EXAMINER, the “trial” will resume at 10AM ET on Saturday (so much for the request to honor the Sabbath), with up to four hours devoted to the question of whether or not to call witnesses and documents. If there is no successful vote to do that, they’ll go to closing arguments and could even hold a final vote as soon as Saturday afternoon.

Alan Dershowitz, who thought the Trump defense was lackluster on its first day, in which they argued against the constitutionality of the proceedings, gave them an “A+” for Friday. In his words, “they did a masterful job on narrowing the issues, making the senators focus on it, and I think it was a winning argument. I think they redeemed themselves.” Dershowitz believed as I do, that the key words were those the Democrats fraudulently cut out of Trump’s video, the “peacefully and patriotically” part.

"This is gonna go down in history as a terrible, terrible abuse of the Constitution,” he said. “Democrats put themselves above the law, putting a private citizen on trial...for making speeches protected by the First Amendment.” An acquittal will minimize the damage, he said but “already there’s been a lot of damage done to our Constitution and to the divisions in our country.”

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CORRECTION: Rock Hall of Shame News

By Pat Reeder, "Huckabee" Pop-culture Guru

This piece was mistakenly attributed to Mike Huckabee, but it was actually written by Pat Reeder, the "Huckabee" pop-culture guru!

The “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” is such a joke, it’s hardly even worth talking about anymore. But they released their list of 2021 nominees yesterday, and it contains the usual mix of deserving, on the fence, much too recent, and not even rock at all. They are: (deserving) Carole King, Devo, The Go-Go's, Iron Maiden, Todd Rundgren, (on the fence) Tina Turner, Kate Bush, New York Dolls, (too recent) Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, and (not rock at all) Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Fela Kuti, LL Cool J, Dionne Warwick and Jay-Z.

Who is picking these nominees? I love Dionne Warwick, but if she belongs in the “Rock Hall of Fame,” why not Perry Como and Englebert Humperdinck? And I’m sorry, but rap is not rock. There’s a popular false claim on the Internet, where ignoramuses are given the same megaphone as people who know what they’re talking about, that saying rap isn’t rock means you’re racist. No, it means you’re capable of discerning one musical genre from another. It’s no more racist than saying James Brown, for all his greatness, doesn’t belong in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, or that Beethoven is not be-bop.

Meanwhile, to prove the laughable uselessness of the “Rock and Roll” “Hall of Fame, here are just a few of the performers who are still not in it, many of whom have never even been nominated. Prepare for your jaw to hit the floor:

Ted Nugent; Dick Dale; Herman’s Hermits; Blue Oyster Cult; The Guess Who; King Crimson; Thin Lizzy; Robin Trower; Emerson Lake & Palmer; Paul Revere and the Raiders; Styx; Eurthymics; Tommy James and the Shondells; Boston; Steppenwolf (creators of the ultimate rock anthem, “Born to Be Wild”); Judas Priest; America; The Grass Roots; Jan and Dean; Motorhead; Neil Sedaka; Badfinger; the MC5; Grand Funk Railroad; Slade; Joe Walsh; Three Dog Night; Warren Zevon; Link Wray; Meat Loaf; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers; J. Geils Band; Bad Company; neither Johnny nor Edgar Winter; Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels; Peter Frampton, Johnny Burnette; Ten Years After; Pat Benatar; Johnny Rivers; The B-52s; The Jam (even though Green Day, who stole their entire act from the Jam, are in it); and three of my favorite bands, Mott the Hoople, the Monkees, and (I think the most outrageous snub of all time) Jethro Tull.

That’s right: Tupac Shakur, Linda Ronstadt, NWA, Public Enemy and ABBA are all in the “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” but Jethro Tull – one of the greatest, most innovative bands in rock history, with a career stretching over 50 years and more than 20 albums, including classics such as “Stand Up,” “Benefit,” “Aqualung,” “Thick As A Brick,” “War Child” and “Songs From The Wood;” and whose leader Ian Anderson continues to make brilliant solo albums like “The Secret Language of Birds” – is not. But they think Jay-Z deserves to go into the “Rock” Hall of Fame ahead of Jethro Tulll? Morons.

Then again, what can you say about an institution that supposedly honors rock music yet took 30 years to induct Deep Purple, when half the actual rock guitarists in the place learned to play by copying the riff from “Smoke on the Water?” By that time, they’d already inducted Madonna, Run-DMC, Whitney Houston and the Beastie Boys. What has their induction committee been smoking?

A Showbiz Story That Might Become Historic

By Mike Huckabee

Normally, I don’t write much about Hollywood’s leftist politics. If I covered every hyperbolic tweet from a celebrity OUTRAGED over a fact-deprived CNN story, that’s all this newsletter would be. But today, we have a showbiz story that just might become historic. If we’re lucky, and if we all work to make it so, this could be a turning point in the culture war on conservatives; the point at which the great silent majority stops being silent and finally stands up and screams, “NO MORE” to social justice “warriors” punching far above their weight.

It centers around Gina Carano, (former) star of the Disney Plus “Star Wars” off-shoot, “The Mandalorian.” Carano has a very unusual background. Born in Texas, she grew up in Las Vegas and excelled in sports at her Christian high school. She became interested in martial arts through a boyfriend and became one of the top female martial arts fighters in the world. She literally fought her way to the top before becoming an actress, fitness model and star of NBC’s “American Gladiators.” Bottom line: she’s not easily bullied.

With her background of rugged individualism, outspoken conservative opinions, and fighting like a real warrior, she was bound to incur the wrath of our currently dominant class of ultrasensitive, far-left, free speech-hating keyboard warriors. They’ve been trying to “cancel” her for a long time for her non-PC social media posts blasting the “cancel culture,” but her immense popularity protected her, especially after she landed on the megahit, “The Mandalorian.”

But this week, the baying Twitter mob finally got their prey when Disney fired Carano for a post in which she compared their demonization of people for their political views to the way the Nazis first started to demonize Jews. Here’s what she wrote:

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

The Twitter mobs screeched that it was OUTRAGEOUS that she would evoke Nazis to describe their treatment of conservatives (even though these same leftists often post about wanting to execute or round up Trump voters and put them in concentration camps…because THEY’RE Nazis. History is not their strong suit.)

Here’s Disney’s excuse for firing her: “…her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Yes, I agree: denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities is abhorrent and unacceptable. So why does Hollywood celebrate so many people who do that to conservative Christians and fire the one who pointed it out?

To be clear: I’m not defending this or any of Ms. Carano’s other comments. But are you old enough to remember when liberals used to say, “I disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”?

Over the years, I have strongly condemned anyone who makes Nazi analogies lightly. The Holocaust is a tragic chapter of history whose unique horrors should never be diminished by using them as cheap slander of a political opponent. Unlike the people pretending to be offended when it’s convenient, I’ve been to Israel dozens of times, visited with and worked to help Holocaust survivors, and stood multiple times inside the cursed grounds of actual concentration camps like Dachau and Auschwitz. Nobody who has been there could ever stomach dismissive talk about the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis. Such people should visit the Holocaust Museums in Washington or Jerusalem and learn how wrong they are.

But I don’t believe that’s what Ms. Carano intended. I think she was just trying to point out the worrying similarity between the very early tactics of the National Socialists and the current tactics of the Twitter socialists. Flinging around careless Nazi analogies is what her critics have been doing for years, and now they try to hypocritically weaponize fake outrage to silence her for warning the world of what they’re doing.

You can argue that her point was overstated or ill-conceived, but I don’t believe it was meant to belittle Jewish suffering, nor was it completely incorrect. Here’s a Holocaust survivor describing how the Gestapo turned neighbor against neighbor by making them informants on those who said or did the “wrong” thing. If that sounds eerily familiar, you’d better not say so out loud, thus proving Ms. Carano’s point.

It’s obvious that Ms. Carano (who was also dropped by her agency, to try to “cancel” her future employment) wasn’t fired for anti-Semitism but for offending the Twitter mob. Disney caved to loud leftist pressure, just like retailers dropping MyPillow. It’s a story that’s been told far too many times in recent years: One tweet, one joke, one misunderstood word, and you are fired, banished, doxed, silenced, “canceled,” with no hope of forgiveness, no matter how much you apologize. I keep asking, “Who declared these leftist Twitter trolls' insane opinions and proven failed policies to be unquestionable objective truth?” So far, no answer.

But Gina Carano is literally a fighter. She’s also very popular, and with a group that’s far larger on the Internet than Twitter crybullies: “Star Wars” fans. They’ve kept quiet for a long time, but now, Disney has awakened the Rancor (it’s a nasty monster from “Return of the Jedi,” for those who don’t have grandchildren.)

Upon the news of her firing, a hashtag quickly trended on Twitter: “#CancelDisneyPlus.” “Star Wars” fans began canceling their subscriptions in droves and posting furious comments and videos blasting Disney for its cowardice and hypocrisy. Here are just a few of the best ones…

https://youtu.be/ha9gO_i8B-g

https://youtu.be/1QCfxXPRpBs

https://nocturnal-lives.com/baby-yoda-cries/

They pointed out that if Disney was really offended by Nazi references and not just afraid of the Twitter mob, then why wasn’t “Mandalorian” lead actor Pablo Pascal fired for sharing a much more explicit (and factually incorrect) comparison of Trump’s border policies to Nazi camps?

As recently as Wednesday, an ABC News reporter covering the “impeachment” trial compared Trump to a “Fuhrer.” Yet he’s still employed, and ABC is owned by Disney.

And what about all the Democrat newsmakers they support, like Joe Biden, who used Hitler footage against Trump in a campaign ad. He also compared Trump to Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, father of the tactic of repeating a lie until everyone thinks it’s true, even while repeating the “very fine people” hoax, a lie about Trump that was repeated so many times, Biden thought it was true.

It’s ironic that the reason so many “Star Wars” fans liked “The Mandalorian” is that it was a return to old fashioned storytelling after the sequels ruined the original with preachy, in-your-face social justice political messaging and an unbelievable “strong woman” central character. Yet “The Mandalorian” starred a genuine strong woman who really did stand up and fight for justice, and they fired her for it.

"Huckabee" Preview

By Mike Huckabee

Snuggle up with your sweetie on this Valentine’s weekend and stay warm with a brand new episode of “Huckabee” on TBN! Scheduled guests (weather permitting!) include civil rights hero Clarence Henderson and North Carolina Senate candidate Mark Walker. Actor Nick Searcy will give us a sneak peek at his great new movie, “The Man from Nowhere.” NFL legend Jason Brown will tell us about the surprise twist God brought to his life. Mentalist Max Maven will astound you, as will the supernaturally goofy news stories of “In Case You Missed It.” We’ll top it all off with the fantastic vocal harmonies of Rockland Road.

It’s our Valentine gift to you, unwrapping at 8 and 11 EST, 7 and 10 CST, and Sunday at 9 EST/8 CST, on TBN. To find out how you can watch TBN, from local cable and broadcast channels to streaming, visit https://www.huckabee.tv and click on “Channel Finder” on the top menu. You can stream previous episodes, highlights and online-only “Digital Exclusives,” including extended interviews, “In Case You Missed It” and “Facts of the Matter” segments, and extra performances by our great musical and comedy guests, all at https://www.huckabee.tv. You can also find past shows, highlights and digital exclusives on YouTube and my Facebook page.

New York's Governor Covered This Up, And No It Wasn't Because Of A Trump Tweet

By Mike Huckabee

If Democrats believe that even a former President should be impeached simply for making a speech, a speech they falsely blame for five deaths, what should be done about a Governor who covered up the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes (over 13,000, and over 15,000 if you add assisted living and adult care facilities) for political reasons? We might be about to find out.

During a video conference call with New York Democratic leaders, Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to Governor Andrew Cuomo, blamed Trump tweeting that New York was killing people forcing nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients for Cuomo's people having to hide the truth (isn’t it amazing how all wrong behavior can be blamed on Donald Trump? I miss the days when people had free will.) After Trump tweeted that (correctly, I’d add), he directed the DOJ to investigate the New York nursing home deaths.

Ms. DeRosa said, “And basically, we froze…because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation. That played a very large role into this.” Which “explains” why they claimed there were only 8,711 deaths, as if that weren’t bad enough.

She continued, “So we do apologize. I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”

This is genuinely stunning. She admitted they lied about the death totals for purely political reasons because they were panicked over what they might have to say to DOJ investigators (here’s a wild idea: how about telling them the truth?) And the apology isn’t to the relatives of the people whose loved ones needlessly died due to state incompetence but to the politicians who might have been embarrassed at the truth coming out, and now are embarrassed that the lie are coming out.

Gov. Cuomo’s spokesperson issued a statement that again tried to lay blame for his own deadly decisions on Trump, for pointing out that Cuomo was making deadly decisions. You can read it at the link, but personally, I’ve heard enough out of these shameless people. If I wanted more meaningless, blame-shifting, self-aggrandizing lies, I’d buy Gov. Cuomo’s book about how brilliantly he handled the COVID-19 crisis.

Okay, New York Democrats, there are some actual grounds. When does the impeachment start?

Or better yet, I like this suggestion from Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost her in-laws to the coronavirus in New York nursing homes. Referring to Cuomo and all Governors who carried out the same policy, she said, “I believe all of them should go to jail.”

Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media couldn’t agree more.

At least, they’d have plenty of elbow room, since Democrats have been emptying out the jails nationwide. After all, we don’t want criminals to catch COVID-19.

Bonus Podcast Episode

A special conversation with immigration expert Mark Morgan, who worked under Presidents Obama and Trump and is now a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation and The Federation for American Immigration Reform. Among other topics, Governor Huckabee and Mark discuss what's wrong with our current immigration system, why immigration shouldn't be a partisan issue, the strange argument on the Left that a border wall is somehow inherently "immoral," how immigration policy has varied and evolved under past presidents, and the dangers that border patrol agents face every day.

To listen and subscribe to my Podcast, please go here>>>

America The Beautiful

God's creation is all around us. 

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