Since the beginning of the Ringside Politics TV and radio shows, we have enjoyed an annual Thanksgiving tradition of awarding our “Turkey of the Year” to recognize individuals who distinguished themselves in a particularly foolish way. It seems appropriate since turkeys are commonly regarded as one of the most dim-witted animals on the planet.

The winners are selected by our viewers and listeners and each year it is a robust competition with many deserving celebrities and politicians. Previous winners have included both Democrats and Republicans, so it is truly a bi-partisan award. Here is a partial listing of some of our past top turkeys: filmmaker Michael Moore, former House Speakers John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi, former President Barack Obama and former New Orleans Mayors Mitch Landrieu and, current federal inmate, Ray Nagin.

In 2018, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) was the clear choice for Turkey of the Year. Ryan is an establishment Republican who was a very weak House Speaker. His major accomplishment was the passage of the tax cut bill. He failed to deliver on an array of important issues such as border security and entitlement reform. He did not pursue an aggressive or conservative agenda. In fact, his weak leadership was one of the major reasons that the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. This led to the impeachment nightmare and the constant harassment of President Donald Trump, which probably delighted Ryan who take advantage of every opportunity to criticize the President.

This year, our viewers and listeners nominated several dozen individuals and groups, all with outstanding credentials to become our Ringside Politics Turkey of the Year. Nevertheless, the clear winner with the most votes and the best choice for our 2019 award is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Schiff has been suffering from a horrible case of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” for years. Ever since the President’s election, Schiff has been obsessed with his impeachment. He was so driven to destroy the President that he allowed some Russian comedians to prank him on a phone call promising to provide pictures of “naked Trump.”

After the President released the transcript of his call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Schiff realized that the details were too benign, so he fabricated the contents of the call in a “parody” speech to the American people from his seat as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

For weeks, he conducted secret impeachment hearings and interviewed witnesses in the basement of the U.S. Capitol. It was so biased and unfair that Republicans stormed into the hearings to protest the proceedings.

Eventually, the public phase of the hearings was announced, and all the news media eagerly anticipated the “Schiff Show.” In fact, all the major broadcast and cable news networks televised the hearings. Instead of producing bombshell testimony implicating the President in a crime, Schiff presented to the American people a collection of witnesses who relied on hearsay and did not ever directly talk to the President. Some of the witnesses had never met the President.

The result of the process is that millions of Americans were turned off by the entire stunt. Despite coverage on all the broadcast and cable news networks, only 13.1 million people watched the first day of the hearings. This is a sharp decline from the audience of over 20 million Americans who watched the Judge Brett Kavanaugh hearings or the 19 million Americans who watched the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey.

It seems the American people realize there are major problems with the impeachment process. The inquiry was approved by the House of Representatives without a single vote from a Republican member, while two Democrats voted with the Republicans against launching the inquiry.

Schiff has devoted all his committee’s attention to this witch hunt and failed miserably. After two weeks of public hearings on the impeachment of President Trump, the result is that more people are sympathetic of President Trump and fewer people want to impeach him.

The American people are becoming fatigued with this unfair partisan process. According to a recent poll by Emerson College, support for impeachment has fallen from 48% to only 43% in the last month, while opposition has increased from 44% to 45%. The Emerson College poll also showed that the President’s approval rating has increased from 43% to 48% in the last month.

While Schiff and his colleagues are focused on impeachment, the American people want Congress to address other issues. In a recent piece published in Vanity Fair, Ken Stern examined poll results of independent voters who ranked impeachment last among 11 issues. These independent voters were primarily concerned with fiscal health, the budget deficit, infrastructure among other longstanding concerns. Instead of dealing with these issues, Schiff and other House Democrats are trying to destroy President Trump.

Eventually, Schiff’s antics may cause a backlash against House Democrats, especially for those 31 members who represent districts won by Trump in the 2016 election.

Our country will soon know the outcome of impeachment and how it will impact the 2020 election. In the meantime, we know Congressman Adam Schiff is helping the very person he wants to destroy, President Trump. With such a misguided and failed mission, Schiff is a perfect choice for our 2019 Ringside Politics Turkey of the Year.

Ever since he burst upon the political scene, the political establishment has been targeting Donald Trump. First, they attempted to deny him the nomination, then they worked overtime to deliver the election to Hillary Clinton.

A phony dossier on Trump was prepared by Christopher Steele, a former British spy, using Russian sources. It was funded by the Clinton campaign and used to obtain approval for FISA warrants targeting Carter Page, a volunteer Trump campaign foreign policy adviser.

This sophisticated spying operation investigating “Russia collusion” failed to defeat Donald Trump and he still won the presidency against all odds. Thereafter, there was an effort to thwart his transition team as the spying operation continued into the start of his administration.

Donald Trump was framed by opponents both within and outside of his administration. After he fired FBI Director James Comey, a lying Deep State political operative, President Trump had to withstand a “witch hunt” led by a conflicted and biased Special Counsel Robert Mueller. When the Mueller report was completed, it was determined there was no “Russian collusion” and obstruction of justice could not be proved. Thus, President Trump was innocent because he certainly was not proven guilty.

It took two years and $40 million and a full-scale investigation from Mueller’s team of attorneys, filled with Democratic Party donors and supporters of Hillary Clinton, to determine that President Trump was not guilty of any crimes.

After the failed Special Counsel report was published and testimony of Mueller was a disaster for the Democrats, Trump’s enemies began searching for their next method of attack, all to destroy Donald Trump.

They have tried to investigate his family members, his businesses, his non-profit foundation, his tax returns and his supposed relationship with a porn star and a Playboy centerfold. None of the probes succeeded and the President continued to score approval ratings over 50%, according to the nation’s most reputable pollster, Scott Rasmussen.

After searching through everything related to Donald Trump and launching six separate House investigations, Democrats believe they have struck gold with the intelligence community whistle-blower complaint about the President’s phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart. Never mind that the whistleblower never heard the call or even read the transcript. The complaint was filed even though the Ukrainian Foreign Minister claimed the call was fine and no aid was withheld from the country.

The demands grew until the President released the transcript of the call on Wednesday. It showed the President asking about a prosecutor who was relieved of his duties after investigating the activities of Burisma, a Ukrainian oil company, that paid Hunter Biden, the former Vice President’s son, $50,000 per month.

In the call, the President said, “The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it … It sounds horrible to me.”

Not only does it sound “horrible” to the President, but to many Americans as well. Why was Hunter Biden cashing in on a relationship with Ukraine? He had no expertise in the oil business, and he had no specialized knowledge of Ukraine. His main qualification was that his father was Vice President of the United States. Imagine the liberal media uproar if one of Donald Trump’s sons had signed a similarly lucrative deal with a foreign oil company.

During his tenure as the Obama administration point person on Ukraine, former Vice President Joe Biden did demand that prosecutor Victor Shokin be relieved of his duties right before he was about to interview Hunter Biden. In a 2018 speech for the publication Foreign Affairs, Joe Biden boasted that he pressured the government to fire the prosecutor. He said, “I’m telling you; you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a b-tch (laughter). He got fired and they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”

For Joe Biden, someone “solid” was a prosecutor who would not investigate his son. Once again, Trump is investigated for potentially illegal activity being committed by his Democratic Party opponents. Only Hillary Clinton colluded with Russians, yet Trump was investigated. Only Joe Biden improperly pressured Ukraine, yet President Trump will probably be impeached. The effort is being led Democrats in the House of Representatives who are obsessed with destroying President Trump and could not care less about serving their constituents.

No wonder so many Americans have lost faith in our political and judicial systems. Everything is upside down and the one who is continually mistreated and unfairly investigated, President Donald Trump, is the person trying to “drain the swamp.” Unfortunately, the corrupt denizens of the swamp still wield incredible power and they want to keep it. Get ready America, another political battle royal is about to begin.

During the eight years Barack Obama served as President of the United States, the Democratic Party was united. He was the coalescing force that held the party together. By bringing in Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State at the start of his administration, Obama healed the wounds from the bruising 2008 presidential race. During his re-election campaign of 2012, Obama was not challenged for the Democratic presidential nomination and he won another term as President.

The Democratic Party unity started falling apart during the 2016 presidential race. The party was split between the progressive supporters of socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and the more traditional Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton. The split intensified after it was revealed that CNN political analyst Donna Brazile gave Clinton questions in advance of a debate. It was also discovered that Clinton’s campaign basically controlled the Democratic National Committee’s fundraising operation and had a lock on super delegates prior to her securing the party’s nomination.

Basically, Sanders never had a chance to win the party’s nomination in 2016. While many of the Senator’s followers eventually supported Clinton in the general election, a sizeable number either flipped to Trump, voted for the Green Party candidate Jill Stein or boycotted the election altogether and did not vote. It was certainly a contributing factor in Donald Trump winning the presidential election and shocking the political world by securing 306 electoral votes in the biggest upset in U.S. history.

As a new presidential election has begun, the Democrats are splintered among almost two dozen candidates. The members of the more traditional wing of the party are backing former Vice President Joe Biden, while the progressives are either supporting Sanders again, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) or one of the other left-wing candidates.

While Biden was the initial favorite in the early polls, his lead has been dramatically reduced since a poor debate performance. He has also been hurt by a string of gaffes that have exposed his flaws as a candidate once again. Biden has never been a very good presidential candidate and suffered overwhelming losses in his previous races in 1988 and 2008.

To blunt the criticism and stop the loss of support, Biden is working tirelessly to switch his positions on an array of issues to satisfy the angry progressives who don’t trust him or any old guard Democrat. For example, Biden withdrew his four-decade support of the Hyde amendment, which prevents federal dollars being spent on abortions. Biden changed his position after being condemned by Hollywood stars like Alyssa Milano and other progressives.

The Democratic Party split is apparent on many levels. New progressives are not only more liberal than Biden, Clinton and others among the elite of the Democratic Party, but this new movement also includes more women, more minorities and are younger.

The multi-faceted rupture is also quite apparent among Democrats in Congress. Relations are horrible between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the four progressive “women of color” who were elected in 2018: Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Talib (D-MI), and Ayanna Presley (D-MA).

These progressive women are not very supportive of Pelosi because they feel she has been too moderate and has been targeting them for unfair criticism. Ocasio-Cortez also questioned whether the Speaker assigned her to active committees and sub-committees to keep her “busy.”

This conflict reached a boiling point over disagreements related to a bipartisan border spending bill. The group of four, which Ocasio-Cortez calls her “squad” voted against the bill. Pelosi said that despite “their public whatever and their Twitter world” they only mustered four votes in opposition to the bill. According to Pelosi, this “squad” is only “four people” without much support in Congress, although they have a large social media following.

This insult led Ocasio-Cortez to label Pelosi a virtual racist. In an interview with The Washington Post, she complained that Pelosi’s criticism was “just outright disrespectful…the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”

The division will surely continue because Pelosi represents the type of Democratic Party Ocasio-Cortez and her “squad” are trying to destroy. It is the same schism that is apparent in the presidential race.

If Biden wins the nomination, with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as the top Democrats in Congress, the progressives will be completely shut out of the power positions in the party once again. At that point, there is real potential for the party to split apart. The progressive wing does not want to be appeased; they want control of the Democratic Party.

This Democratic Party infighting is great news for President Donald Trump. The longer it continues, the better his chances will be to win a convincing re-election victory in 2020.

 

While President Donald Trump is producing tremendous results for the United States economy, some left-wing analysts expect him to actually lose the 2020 election. According to polls by liberal media outlets CNN and Morning Consult/Politico, former Vice President Joe Biden is comfortably ahead of the President in a hypothetical 2020 presidential match-up.

While other pollsters show the President doing better in terms of his approval rating and getting credit for the strong economy, it seems his re-election bid in 2020 will be much closer than it otherwise should be. In reality, with an economy this strong, President Trump should be on the path for a landslide re-election.

Unfortunately, in our country today, the Democratic Party has some powerful allies who boost the political standing of their horrific candidates. The only reason the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee may even have a chance in the 2020 election is due to the tireless work of these powerful supporters.

Obviously, the mainstream news media has consistently been promoting the Democratic Party for decades. This includes the three major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, their cable news partners, CNN and MSNBC, and a bevy of powerful newspapers led by such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as news services such as Reuters and The Associated Press.

They are joined by the “Deep State” bureaucrats who are in powerful positions throughout our government and the ultra-progressive culture warriors that control Hollywood and our entertainment industry.

Despite the incredible influence of these powerful Democratic Party allies, they pale in comparison to the new “Masters of the Universe” who control several huge social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. This increasingly important ally for Democrats is getting ready to exert tremendous influence in the 2020 election. It can be argued that the left-wing bias of social media helped the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in the 2018 election. The “blue wave” in the recently concluded mid-terms is a mere appetizer for what the social media giants are preparing for the 2020 presidential election.

Their most important tool is censorship and they utilize that weapon on a regular basis. Every day, social media platforms ban conservative activists and media figures from their sites. This week, Alex Jones, controversial talk show host and commentator, was banned by Facebook. This follows his removal from other platforms such as YouTube and Twitter. Along with Jones, Facebook banned conservative commentators Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and others in an all-out attack on “far-right” and “fringe” personalities. Facebook even deemed the popular videos of conservative personalities Diamond and Silk as “unsafe to the community.”

While some of the opinions espoused by these commentators may be controversial, conspiratorial or completely inaccurate, they should be protected by the free speech rights enshrined in the First Amendment. The fact that these protections are eroding in our society is downright frightening.  An Orwellian suppression of free speech is not only a disservice to the American people, it also helps promote the prevailing liberal ideology that has not been banned by either social media or their partners in the mainstream news media.

The social media agenda is apparent to any objective observer. They will be working overtime to assist the Democratic Party between now and the election next November. The examples of such assistance are plentiful. For the past week, Hollywood conservative James Woods, a rare breed indeed, has been banned by Twitter. In response, President Trump tweeted an important question, “How can it be possible that James Woods (and many others), a strong but responsible Conservative voice, is banned from Twitter?”

Sadly, it is possible because these social media outlets do not care about fairness or freedom of speech. They only care about power and promoting their left-wing ideology. To win the 2020 election, it will be essential for these social media titans to continue to silence those voices who may be promoting President Trump or providing an alternative narrative to the liberal propaganda being promulgated by the allies of the Democratic Party.

The assault on conservative values is pervasive and dangerous. It not only includes the First Amendment, but the Second Amendment as well. On Saturday, Donald Trump, Jr. raised concerns about Google’s rejection of an advertising request by a pro-hunting group, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Trump, Jr. tweeted that Google was “kowtowing to left-wingers & blacklisting hunters from advertising on their platform. But we’re really supposed to believe that Big Tech isn’t biased?”

Clearly, “Big Tech” is biased against the right to bear arms and the free speech rights of a hunting group with a long tradition and a large following in Montana. Fortunately, some members of Congress are fighting back. On Friday, U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and U.S. Representative Greg Gianforte (R-MT) sent a letter to Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai insisting on a reversal of the advertising ban. It states, “We, therefore, demand you reverse these prohibitions and request that Google reexamine their policy interpretations on prohibiting hunting promotions. We also request a meeting to discuss the importance of Montana’s and the United States’ hunting heritage.”

Hopefully, these lawmakers will be able to convince Google to reverse their policy; however, it is just one battle in a continuing war with the social media giants. It is time for hundreds of members of Congress and political leaders across the country to challenge the daily assaults on the rights established for Americans in our all-important first two constitutional amendments.

If not, more our precious constitutional rights will be forfeited until the day arrives when those who strongly believe in these amendments may be imprisoned for espousing “dangerous” ideas. Liberty loving Americans must begin to immediately engage in this monumental struggle for it is about much more than the 2020 election, it is actually a fight for the future survival of our free nation.

It looks like another heavyweight Democratic presidential contender is on the verge of entering the race. Former Vice President Joe Biden is moving closer to making an official announcement that he will be a candidate in 2020.

If he runs, Biden will start at the top of the polls. The latest Emerson national poll has Biden and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont tied at 26%, leading the large field of candidates.

The 70+ year old frontrunners are followed by U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of California with 12% support and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke with 11% in the poll of Democratic primary voters.

In recent weeks, Sanders, O’Rourke and Harris have climbed in national support, while Biden has been stagnant. Once thought to be a strong favorite in the race, Biden is now the object of ridicule. At Thursday’s Bermuda Executive Forum in New York City, billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg mocked Biden. He said, “Joe Biden went out and apologized for being male, over 50, white. He apologized for the one piece of legislation which is actually a pretty good anti-crime bill, which if the liberals ever read it, most of the things they like is in that bill. They should have loved that. But they didn’t even bother to read it. You are anti-crime, you must be anti-populist.”

As Biden inches closer to an announcement, other curious rumors have been floated. Since he is 76 years-old, it was reported through anonymous sources that Biden was considering a pledge to serve only one term as President. It was also leaked that Biden had promised the position of his vice-presidential running mate to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, an African American female, who is three decades younger. This trial balloon was later dismissed as a “false” rumor by one of his aides.

It is curious that so many Democratic Party insiders want Biden to run for President again. He has never done well in this type of campaign. His presidential races in 1988 and 2008 were miserable failures. Of course, he was elected Vice President, but Barack Obama would have won with anyone on the ticket. He chose Biden because it was a “safe” choice, a rather boring, older, white liberal with no chance of overshadowing his boss.

As Vice President, Biden was relatively non-controversial, but he did make a number of embarrassing gaffes, which added to his reputation as someone who regularly makes cringe worthy comments. Running against Biden will be very easy as his opponents will be able to highlight his long history of bloopers.

He also has a history of being very touchy with women and young girls at public events. This inappropriate behavior might become a major issue in this #MeToo generation.

Biden relishes his role as a “tough guy” and he has threatened to punch out President Trump on numerous occasions. In reality, he is a Washington D.C. insider who has led an extremely privileged life as a United States Senator. He served for six terms, starting in the United States Senate at the young age of 29.

Biden cannot relate to blue collar Americans who have had to work tirelessly to provide for their families. As a United States Senator, Biden has never had to work much at all. It is one of the easiest and cushiest jobs in the world. He has spent his working life as a member of the “World’s Most Exclusive Club,” not exactly great experience for a candidate trying to win Rust Belt states in 2020.

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he played a major role in harassing good Republican Supreme Court nominees like Justice Clarence Thomas. When the Democratic Party needed an attack dog, Joe Biden was always willing to fulfill the role. For example, in the Vice-Presidential debate in 2012, Biden delivered an unhinged performance, barely giving his GOP opponent, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, a chance to respond.

In this year of progressive and socialist Democrats, Biden will find it difficult to connect with the angry mob of liberals who will be voting in the upcoming primaries. Despite his recent comment that he has the “most progressive record of anybody running” Biden has a typical liberal Democrat background.

Unlike the socialists who dominate the Democratic Party today, Biden has never advocated a 90% upper tax rate, eliminating private health insurance, infanticide, allowing 16-year-old children the right to vote, the $93 trillion Green New Deal, etc.

He is an old school politician which might not reflect where the Democratic Party is today. Biden will certainly garner media attention and raise funds, but he will find it difficult to excite millennial and progressive voters, the base of the new radicalized Democratic Party.

In his address to the nation, President Trump once again offered an olive branch to the Democrats. In exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall, he gave his support for a three-year extension of protection for the 700,000 immigrants who arrived in the country as children. This group was protected from deportation by former President Obama in his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

His previous offers to negotiate and compromise have been rejected by Democrats, who are being held captive by their far-left wing, which supports open borders. The President may soon come to the realization that the only way to end the government shutdown is to give up on a deal with the Democrats and declare a national emergency and start building the wall on his own.

With the 2020 presidential campaign already in motion, President Trump recognizes the importance of this issue to his chances of winning another term. It has been his most significant campaign pledge since the very beginning. In his announcement speech, Trump focused on the problem of illegal immigration. He famously said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with [them]. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” These remarks led to a swift backlash as he was universally denounced by the news media, Democratic and Republican Party leaders, Macy’s, Univision, NBC and other corporate giants.

Despite the uproar, Trump did not apologize, and this launched his campaign as a candidate who was not only fighting against political correctness, but also one who understood the problems of open borders. For decades, politicians of both parties had promised action in curtailing illegal immigration; however, they never delivered anything but broken promises.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill that granted amnesty to approximately 3 million illegal aliens. In exchange for supporting this measure, Reagan was promised that the bill’s “keystone” was a provision that would eliminate “job opportunities which draw illegal aliens here.” The bill created fines up to $10,000 per case for employers who “knowingly” hired illegal aliens.

Unfortunately, Reagan was sold a bill of goods as amnesty was awarded, but the crackdown on employers never materialized. Thus, the country’s illegal immigration population has grown from 3 million in 1986 to at least 22 million today, according to a September 2018 study released by Yale University and MIT.

President Trump realizes that the open border situation has become a full-blown crisis, while Democrats and their partners in the news media claim it is only “manufactured.” One group that truly recognizes the problem of illegal immigration and knows it is not “manufactured” is working class Americans, who have been negatively impacted for decades. These are the people who have lost their jobs or seen their wages reduced. While the business elites from Wall Street pushed unchecked expansion of illegal immigration and open borders, tax paying Americans on Main Street wanted our government to address a growing problem.

After decades of meaningless rhetoric, Donald Trump entered the political arena and effectively championed the issue of border security and a wall to win the presidency and shock the so-called experts. It is an issue tied to Donald Trump’s success, but, if he does not deliver on his promise, it will be the anchor that will bring down his presidency and destroy his chances for re-election. His large and loyal base of supporters is demanding that the President stand firm on his pledge to build a border wall despite the government shutdown.

A recent ABC News poll revealed that 82% of Americans have not been personally impacted by the government shutdown, so the media focus on the horrible consequences of the President’s position is not ringing true. Predictably, weak Republicans in Congress are starting to cave and demand the President reopen the government and deal with the border wall at a later time. This advice is political suicide for President Trump for he will never recover from breaking his campaign promise. If anyone doubts this outcome, just look at the 1992 presidential campaign when George H.W. Bush lost his re-election bid. A major reason for the defeat was that he reneged on his oft-repeated pledge, “Read my lips, no new taxes!”

A more important reason to stand firm on the wall today is that it will never be built if Trump relents to the pressure. Without a border wall, illegal immigrants will continue to stream into the country and Democrats will benefit as Republican states such as Texas will turn into liberal strongholds. This is exactly what happened in California and it is in the process of happening in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico. If this Democrat Party aspiration is ever realized, Republicans will have no chance of winning the presidency again and the dreams of a border wall will never be fulfilled.

The stakes in this battle are huge for the future of the Trump presidency, the Republican Party, and especially the country. For all of these reasons, the President needs to stand firm, withstand the pressure and, finally, build the wall, one way or another.