What Newt’s Reading | December 2, 2020

What Newt’s Reading Julie Kelly points out how there are too many irregularities in the Pennsylvania voter tally. -Newt Something Rotten in Pennsylvania By Julie Kelly American Greatness Local newspapers reported that Pennsylvania election officials were debating how to alert voters that their mail-in ballots did not meet state requirements prior to Election Day. Behind the story, the bigger issue that rises to the surface is that, in inspecting mailed ballots prior to Election Day, election officials clearly violated election law. Out of the roughly 2.5 million Pennsylvanians who voted absentee this year, 2 million of them voted for Joe Biden, with a rejection rate 30 times lower than in 2016. While the president’s lawyers have focused on allegations of vote fixing through election software, the inconsistent ballot curing provisions between counties have produced results in the presidential contest that are inconsistent with down-ballot results. The Democratic state treasurer and minority leader of the state legislature both lost their races while Biden continues to maintain a significant lead over President Trump. Even though lame duck Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) has asked President Trump to concede, Americans deserve to know if Pennsylvania conducted its elections in accordance with law. So far, all signs indicate they did not do so. Ken Blackwell has an outstanding article on how Article II of the Constitution gives election authority to state legislatures. -Newt A Reminder: State Legislators Have Constitutional Power Over Elections By Ken Blackwell American Spectator Over the course of the election and its aftermath, liberal judges have stolen authority from state legislatures over election policy while conservative judges have repeatedly cowered to the political left. This is most clearly visible in Pennsylvania, where a Democratic governor and a liberal state Supreme Court undid the election security measures duly enacted by the Republican legislature. Given that Republicans control the majority of the state legislative bodies across the nation, they have the constitutional authority to demand recounts and investigate fraud allegations. Even though we have strayed from the enumerated powers of state legislatures, they possess overarching power over elections conducted in their states that governors and the mainstream media do not share. In states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, Republican state legislatures can conduct special legislative sessions to discuss the nomination of their state’s electors. State legislatures must work to reclaim their authority over elections from activist judges and liberal governors to protect their constituents from fraud. The pardon of General Flynn ends four years of political harassment, unjustified prosecution, and judicial abuse. -Newt A Pardon for General Flynn By The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal Gen. Michael Flynn’s pardon ends a disgraceful run of political harassment and egregious abuse by prosecutors. The FBI and Department of Justice pursued him relentlessly even though investigators on his case thought he was telling the truth and withheld exculpatory evidence from him. Former FBI head James Comey also bragged about how he exploited a trusting White House and an unsuspecting Flynn to have his agents interview him while not affording him basic courtesies. When the Justice Department finally moved to dismiss its charges against Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan tried to investigate the case himself, denying dismissal in an attempt to stall long enough for a Biden administration to reinstate the charges. While Flynn should have prevailed in court, he would never be given a fair hearing by Sullivan and a pardon was the only way to spare him any further pain. Newly elected Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, from Texas, will bring new ideas on how to solve border security and immigration reform issues to Congress. -Newt Rep.-Elect Tony Gonzales Helps GOP Hold Texas Border District: 'My Story Is the American Dream' By Marisa Schultz Fox News Tony Gonzales, a first-time Mexican-American congressman-elect, will represent a majority-Hispanic southern border district that the Democrats were unable to flip in November. Gonzales pledged to focus on border security and immigration reform issues that Republicans have tended to skirt away from in the past few decades. He was brought up in an abusive environment, spending many years in battered women’s shelters before he joined the Navy and earned a doctorate from the University of Maryland. Gonzales made clear that no establishment figure recruited him to run for public office and many media prognosticators projected his seat to lean Democrat, but he proved them wrong. On the subject of immigration, he has called for streamlining the legal immigration process and increasing the number of work visas. He is also supportive of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and supports a path to citizenship for illegal aliens in the country. All Americans should be applauding the Supreme Court's decision to protect their freedom to worship since too many governors have used the virus to needlessly infringe on our fundamental rights. -Newt Fireworks Over Religious Liberty By The Editorial Board Wall Street Journal The US Supreme Court recently issued an order enjoining New York from enforcing restrictions on attendance at religious services. In a case brought by the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel of America, the court blocked as discriminatory New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s arbitrary limits of 10 or 25 people in houses of worship in certain COVID-19 hot spots. In the per curiam opinion, the court wrote that, while it should defer to public health experts during a pandemic, the Constitution could not be forgotten even in a time of crisis. As Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in his concurring opinion, it was hard to believe that going to a church was dangerous while shopping for wine or a new bike was perfectly acceptable. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s vote was crucial in enjoining New York’s order given that the court had rejected previous challenges brought by religious institutions. While the 5-4 ruling is welcome, the fact that the order was not passed by a unanimous margin is disappointing. During this pandemic, Americans have endured extraordinary restrictions on their freedoms and the Supreme Court should take the mantle as a defender of those freedoms. Newt's Latest Podcasts: Order Newt's Latest Book: https://www.gingrich360.com/trump-and-the-american-future