Campaign for Working Families

Monday, June 3, 2019 -- Prayers For The President, A Royal Welcome, Twitter & Tiananmen

 

Prayers For The President
 
President Trump made an unannounced visit yesterday to McLean Bible Church, just outside of Washington, D.C.  He received a very warm welcome from the church, one of the largest congregations in the metro Washington area. 
 
The president was there, according to a White House spokesman, "to visit with the pastor and pray for the victims and community of Virginia Beach." 
 
President Trump appeared briefly on stage during the service, and Pastor David Platt prayed for him and our nation.  As you know, I joined Reverend Franklin Graham and hundreds of other faith leaders in calling for Christians to pray for the president yesterday.  (It is worth noting that Pastor Platt was not one of the signers of Rev. Graham's call to prayer.)
 
That said, he offered an extremely moving prayer for the president and his family, for all leaders in government and for our country.  It was incredibly encouraging.  You can watch it here, if you missed it.
 
 
 
A Royal Welcome
 
President Trump is in Great Britain today.  He received a royal welcome from Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.  During his three-day visit, the president will take part in ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.  Tonight, the president and first lady will return to Buckingham Palace for a formal state banquet.
 
Tomorrow, Trump will meet with Prime Minister Theresa May, who in short order will no longer be prime minister.  Sadly, May could not muster the courage of Margaret Thatcher and she failed to deliver on what the people demanded -- Brexit, the withdrawal from the European Union. 
 
Meanwhile, Big Media is obsessing about major demonstrations against the president in London.  Here's what you need to know:  London voted overwhelmingly to stay in the European Union. 
 
It is now led by a Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, who is no friend of the president or the United States in my view.  On the eve of the president's visit to London, Khan compared Trump to "the fascists of the 20th century" and condemned his policies on immigration, as well as his pro-life values.
 
But Khan has far more urgent problems to contend with.  He is presiding over a crime-ridden city which many Brits no longer view as an English city.  After a decade of mass migration into Great Britain the situation is worse than ever.
 
In the rest of the country, there are millions of hard-working pro-American and pro-Trump British citizens who are tired of being ruled by London's socialist/Islamist alliance. 
 
By the way, this is not the first time London's leftists have showed their disdain for an American president.  More than 100,000 Londoners turned out to protest the state visits of Ronald Reagan in 1982 and George W. Bush in 2003.
 
 
 
Twitter & Tiananmen
 
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.  For weeks, thousands of Chinese students had been protesting in Tiananmen Square demanding more freedom. 
 
The communist regime had declared martial law in late May, and on the evening of June 3, 1989, Chinese soldiers began operations to end the demonstrations.  As the Soviet Union was the process of liberalizing, Beijing's dictators doubled down on their brutality.  Hundreds or even thousands were slaughtered in Tiananmen Square.  The exact figure is unknown.
 
I recall this history because it is a good reminder of what we are dealing with in China today.  Sadly, I have no doubt that if tens of thousands of students rallied in Tiananmen Square for more freedom today the results would be the same.  This is an oppressive communist regime that does not share our interests and our values.
 
Over the weekend, Twitter provided proof of that when it shut down more than 100 accounts that were critical of the Chinese government.  This mass censorship coming within hours of the Tiananmen anniversary was no coincidence.
 
Kudos to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who called out Twitter for becoming "a Chinese government censor."  Twitter issued a statement apologizing, sort of, for the account suspensions. 
 
Unfortunately, many major American corporations, including our social media companies, are in bed with really bad regimes in the world, including the Chinese communists.  They are sharing technology that they know is being used for oppression.  (Here and here.)
 
It is simply not believable that the censorship of these Chinese accounts was just a "mistake" or "an error," just as it is not believable that Twitter's domestic "mistakes" always target only conservatives
 
Progressive employees of U.S. tech companies have protested their companies' work with the Pentagon and ICE.  I'd like to see these same employees urging more resistance to the demands of Chinese communists.