By Mike Huckabee
December 12, 2021
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By Mike Huckabee
Good morning! Here are the top stories from this week that I think you will want to read. Topics include:
- CNN & A Smollett trial update:
- The 2021 Huckabee Newsletter Holiday Entertainment Gift Guide:
- MAILBAG --- Answers to letters on "Salvation Army" story:
- Pelosi's Jan. 6 commission is shredding the Constitution
THE LATEST
1. CNN & A Smollett trial update:
CNN must’ve hated Monday even more than Garfield the cat does. The “news” network’s reputation, already covered with more mud than a Louisiana pickup truck, took several more hits on Monday.
First, newly-fired anchor Chris Cuomo threw CNN boss Jeff Zucker under the bus, claiming that Zucker was fully aware from the start of all the “help” Cuomo gave his brother Andrew. CNN issued a statement that Cuomo had made “a number of accusations that are patently false,”and “This reinforces why he was terminated for violating our standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.”
Also, Chris Cuomo is reportedly preparing to sue CNN for the $18-$20 million remaining on his contract. A CNN insider said they have no intention of paying him, that there’s a standard morals clause in the contract allowing for immediate firing if you do anything of disrepute, and there would be an uproar if the network paid him a settlement.
Frankly, if you can’t fire someone for doing what Cuomo did, then what can you ever fire anyone for? Oh, and in a related story, Cuomo announced that he will also no longer be doing his SiriusXM Radio show, “Let’s Get After It with Chris Cuomo.”
Meanwhile, the farcical trial of actor Jussie Smollett also produced an unexpected mudball aimed at CNN.
Smollett claimed in testimony that the reason he didn’t want to turn his cell phone over to Chicago Police was that CNN anchor Don Lemon texted him that the cops didn’t believe his story. So once again, a claim that a CNN anchor was abusing his inside journalist contacts to secretly help someone the network was covering.
If that doesn’t remind you enough of Chris Cuomo, recall that the openly gay Lemon is already facing a lawsuit by a man who accused him of sexual assault and battery in a Long Island bar. The accuser called CNN “a network rife with predators and perverts,” and “a predator-protecting machine.” He said they have tried to buy him off and scare him off, but he’s looking forward to forcing Lemon to testify under oath because he wants some accountability. He said, “They are complicit. This is who they are.”
And will Lemon face any repercussions from CNN? Many are skeptical…
All this had even some CNN staffers fretting on-air that all this negative news might damage CNN’s credibility and undermine the public’s trust in CNN.
Noooo!! Say it ain’t so! The network that spent four years breathlessly pushing the Russian collusion hoax, that told us Nick Sandmann was a racist who confronted a Native American and Kyle Rittenhouse was a murderer, and that claimed Joe Rogan treated his COVID with horse medicine might have lost the public’s trust?!
Hey, CNN, I finally have some much-needed good news for you. You can’t lose what you didn’t have in the first place.
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DAILY BIBLE VERSE
This verse was recommended by Ron and Jan H.
27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27 KJV
MORE NEWS
2. The 2021 Huckabee Newsletter Holiday Entertainment Gift Guide:
I’ve never been a fan of political boycotts of entertainment products, which can hurt workers who have nothing to do with the woke views that studio executives or stars spew. But I understand why many conservatives might not want to give their entertainment dollars to people who call them racists and want to put them in reeducation camps.
Still, we all need some entertainment to take our minds off of politics for a while, and to give to like-minded folks on our gift lists.
That’s why, last year, we created a list of entertainment gift options created by people who deserve your support (the original 2020 gift guide is here, and there are many albums, movies, comedy DVDs, downloads and more in it that are still great options for this Christmas).
https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=F17CD5C5-8004-4585-BAA1-1C19D1AABBCA
Since then, many more have come along, and we wanted to give you a place to find all these great entertainment options as “guilt-free” gifts or for yourself to enjoy. These artists are either openly conservative, Christian, defiantly non-PC or at least non-partisan (and that takes courage in this “toe-the-leftist-line-or-else” age.) Many were guests on my TBN show. As a bonus, we’ve included YouTube links to their performances, so this gift guide alone will be more entertaining than most late night TV shows!
All of them offer excellent products of high quality that won’t insult your beliefs or enrich people who do. Unfortunately, you won’t hear some of them much on radio or network TV. But why should they have to censor themselves to get approved by liberal Hollywood gatekeepers when there are at least 73 million of us who should be supporting their work?
This is by no means a comprehensive list. I'm naturally partial to people who are close to me and who've appeared on my show. Being on the list doesn’t imply that a performer holds any particular political or religious beliefs, other than not being hostile to others’ freedom to do so. If you’d like to suggest more, feel free to add them in the comments.
And remember, many of these are indie artists and studios that don’t have distribution through Amazon, so it might take a little time for orders to be filled. So please order soon for pre-holiday delivery. The good news: most indie musicians have their CDs in stock, not sitting somewhere on a slow boat from China!
Merry Christmas!
CLICK HERE>>>The 2021 Huckabee Newsletter Holiday Entertainment Gift Guide
3. MAILBAG --- Answers to letters on "Salvation Army" story:
We’ve received many letters in response to yesterday's story on the Salvation Army. (A follow-up story ran today.) Here are few that called out for responses.
From Larry (excerpt):
Love your show and your website, have for a long time. Just want to express a concern about people falling in the trap of using racist terms that are promoted by the left. You used one of the most racist terms in your article when you said " people of color." ...White is a color, it's just not one the racist democrats like.
It's just one of many things that non-Democrats fall prey to because they don't stop to think about a word before they just accept it and start using it.
As I said, we've always thought you were, and still are, one of the smartest people in the public eye that speaks for Conservatives and Christians. Best wishes.
From the Gov:
Thanks for writing, Larry, and for your kind words. We’re really sensitive to the language and how leftists try to shape it, and are glad to see you are, too. Keep in mind that commentaries include quotations, and these are run in quotation marks exactly as they were originally stated. The commentary you refer to included lengthy excerpts from a CRT-based publication, and that’s the term they used. I wouldn’t soften or censor what someone else said unless it was vulgar or otherwise over-the-line offensive.
We all have different ideas on how to use language respectfully to refer to race, and it continues to evolve. Personally, I’m baffled as to why leftists like the abbreviation “POC” for “people of color,” because it also stands for something offensive. But, again, I and my staff didn't use either of these; we were just quoting someone else.
From Jane (excerpt):
I am of heavy Irish descent. In fact I am Irish Catholic, which is amongst the Irish the most discriminated against, including by our own government (my grandfather was only allowed to work for the government if he professed himself to be an orange man)...I guess the existence of Irish slaves in the colonies (who were considered to be less valuable than the black slaves) is an inconvenient truth to yet another position that the Democrats take in order to control people. So, are there any non-woke charities out there that we can donate gently used items to?
From the Gov:
Thank you, Jane, for a history lesson that most people never receive. This is why it does no good for some groups to do a personal accounting of the accumulated grievances that were done to their ancestors. An ideology based on past victimhood poisons the present. As for non-woke charities, I’m sure there are still quite a few, and it’s always good to start close to home.
From Dale:
I am really disappointed that Huckabee would write something that can be damaging to the Salvation Army. They have already recanted and removed those Guides which could be wrongly construed. I will be canceling my daily Huckabee Newsletter because of this!!
From the Gov:
Dale, I hope you’ll stay. Actually, if you see the update today, the SA is “reviewing” those guides but has not recanted. Perhaps they will, and I’ll update the story if they do. But so far, they’ve blamed readers for believing they’ve promoted damaging ideas they actually HAVE promoted. This poison has turned some once-laudable organizations into something very different in 2021.
I did not specifically call for a boycott of the SA, and will not. But it would be a failure on my part not to report on what’s happening to major charities in the U.S. That’s the only way they’re going to be brought back to sanity.
Finally, this from Duncan:
News flash, woke people!!! EVERYONE has 'unconscious bias' about someone or something. If you claim to be completely conscious you better notify the Dalai Llama. He might have some advice for you to help you cope with total enlightenment.
It does behoove all of us to be aware of the possibility that we may be unaware of our faults. On the other hand, let's not let fear(s) paralyze us to living and growing. The most simple and central tenant of Christianity, ‘Treat thy neighbor as you would be treated,' pretty much says it all.
Thanks Governor for your ongoing clear common-sense publications. Keep it going!
From the Gov:
Thanks, Duncan. You have indeed said it all, so you get the last word.
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4. Pelosi's Jan. 6 commission is shredding the Constitution:
We’re not hearing a lot about Nancy Pelosi’s January “9/11-style” committee to examine events of January 6, but rest assured, it's still going on, and they are playing hardball. After all, they have domestic terrorism to combat! In fact, the chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, made a shocking statement about how he intended to deal with a subpoenaed Trump supporter who worked at the Justice Department, Jeffrey Clark –- someone who never entered the Capitol that day and has not been accused of any crime.
“Our charge is to get to the facts,” he said on MSNBBC. “Mr. Clark, through his attorney, has been deliberately avoiding us...Obviously, he is aware that something went on that’s illegal. And rather than be responsible and answer, he’s pleading the Fifth. But if he’s saying, ‘Okay, I’ll come, but I’ll plead the Fifth, then in some instances, that says you’re, part and parcel, guilty to what occurred.”
What??
Sure enough, the committee voted unanimously to recommend that Clark be charged with contempt of Congress.
Jeffrey Clark is asserting his constitutional right not to testify. That doesn’t mean he’s guilty of anything. It might mean, however, that he’s concerned his testimony might be twisted and used by these partisan crazies to make him LOOK guilty. He gets to make that call. Rep. Thompson’s remark, if made in a court of law, might be enough to trigger a mistrial. A similar remark by a prosecutor almost did that during the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Tucker Carlson opened his Monday show with a segment on this, saying of Rep. Thompson’s comment, “What you just saw is far more imminently dangerous to our democracy than anything that happened on January 6.” And he is correct.
Carlson also noted that Democrats on the committee (plus Liz Cheney) have subpoenaed AT&T for the phone records of Caroline Wren, who used to work as a fundraiser for Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham and who helped organize donations for the January 6 rally. This includes all records, including text messages, from November 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021. They also want her bank records and even everything she’s written in her own handwriting, including personal diary entries. Talk about an overreach --- this is monstrous.
And apparently this is just one example. Others who have yet to be accused of any crime are being treated the same way. Republican attorney Cleta Mitchell is another; she’s been informed by AT&T that the committee wants several months of her phone records. This is because she was on a phone call with President Trump and the Georgia secretary of state about problems with the vote in Georgia. (Oh, goodness, don’t tell me there might have been problems with the vote in Georgia!)
AT&T is complying with the committee’s requests.
Another Trump supporter targeted with a subpoena is attorney John Eastman, who worked with Trump in the election aftermath and spoke at the January 6 rally. On Friday, Verizon notified him that unless he gets a court order to stop it, they’ll turn over his personal text messages to the committee. The Washington Examiner has a report.
Eastman also plans to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, as his lawyer, Charles Burnham, has informed Rep. Thompson. His letter states, “Members of this very committee have spoken of making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice and described the Committee’s work in terms of determining ‘guilt or innocence.’ ...Dr. Eastman has a more than reasonable fear that any statements he makes pursuant to this subpoena will be used in an attempt to mount a criminal investigation against him.”
Burnham also objected to the “legal propriety” of the subpoena, saying that the “lack of a ranking minority member makes it impossible for the Committee to comply with clearly applicable House rules.”
So, why would there be no ranking member? Recall that Pelosi rejected some of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s picks for the committee –- which he was supposed to be allowed to make under the resolution that created it –- and herself selected anti-Trump “Republicans” Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to serve. McCarthy had wanted the too-effective Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks.
Thompson later named Cheney as co-chair of the committee for this show trial! Talk about a kangaroo court.
Eastman reportedly pressured Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results. Pence went ahead and did it, saying he lacked constitutional authority to refuse. It was also reported that Eastman spoke with legislators in swing states about sending alternate electors to the Electoral College.
Eastman appeared on Tucker’s Monday show, saying that not only has he not been charged with a crime, but there’s absolutely no evidence that he had “any connections or communications with anybody who is charged with a crime.” “This is the modern high-tech version of a general warrant [from English days of yore],” he said, the kind of thing that allowed fishing expeditions “to look for evidence of crime.” He said that in this case, “there’s no probable cause, there’s no linkage to any criminal activity that has occurred.” It’s the same for “hundreds of people on these subpoena lists that were sent to Verizon and AT&T, and probably every other phone company in the country. There’s no evidence at all, but they want to track Americans’ thinking, they want to know who your contacts are...about election integrity, and going back from before even the election occurred.”
The First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments are all being trashed here. Eastman accused Rep. Thompson of presuming people guilty instead of innocent as the Constitution requires. Even the Sixth Amendment, the right to counsel, is being violated, he said, when attorneys such as Cleta Mitchell have to give up phone records that surely include privileged communications. “They’re just shredding the entire Constitution,” he said, “and then claiming that it’s us that don’t support the Constitution. It really is rather extraordinary.”
Eastman says the committee has the weight of the “Justice” Department behind it now when it issues criminal contempt citations. “Normally those don’t go anywhere,” he said, and we’ve seen that is true when it comes to particular officials who’ve gotten away with lying. He also speculated that even the phone companies would prefer not to comply with what this committee is demanding they do, but that they know “they’re gonna be held in criminal contempt if they don’t.”
He said it will now take a court order to try and block “these unbelievably expansive and unconstitutional subpoenas of our private records and communications.”
“We have got to push back against this stuff,” he concluded, “or we’re gonna lose our country before our eyes.”
In related news, you’ll recall we’ve expressed strong suspicions that the FBI had agents mixed in with the crowd during Trump’s rally, spurring on the “insurrection.” Attorney Joseph McBride appeared briefly on Tucker’s Monday show, calling for the release of videos that he says will unmask these agents to reveal “the truth of that day.” He’s joined by a number of news outlets, including, believe it or not, The New York Times. The Washington Examiner has a report.
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