Radio America Online News Bureau

Trump

American Pastor Freed from Turkey

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American pastor Andrew Brunson is headed home after two years of detention over what his family and the U.S. government say are trumped up charges of espionage and terrorism.

And a leading organization assisting persecuted Christians is applauding the Trump administration for its handling of the Brunson case while warning that religious freedom is eroding in Turkey.

Brunson was actually convicted in a Turkish court Friday and sentenced to three years and one and a half months of prison. However, the judge released him because the years in detention amounted to “time served.”

A tearful Brunson thanked the court. Earlier he made an emotional plea for release.

“I am an innocent man. I love Jesus. I love Turkey,” said Brunson.

Open Doors USA President and CEO Dr. David Curry says these were bogus charges from the start, trying to tie Brunson to the failed coup against Turkish President Recep Erdogan.

“(Brunson) has been a part of Turkey for over 20 years.  He been a faithful pastor there, great part of the community, good citizen.  This was a political issue.  They tried to use him as a pawn in a larger political game that did not work.  We’re grateful that the administration really held the line on this and was able to get him released,” said Curry.

Curry says the prosecution of Brunson was over politics and the pastor’s Christian faith, and the obvious mistreatment allowed for many different nations and groups to pressure Turkey for Brunson’s release.

He also says the Trump administration’s refusal to hand over another figure allegedly tied to the failed coup attempt is a major win.

“We can’t send a signal that hostage diplomacy is going to work.  It was a very good move not to give into that,” said Curry.

Since the failed coup in 2016, Erdogan has shown far less tolerance for Christianity.

“The increased raids on churches and these kinds of things that are happening in Turkey are sending signals that the environment is changing there,” said Curry.

However, Curry is most gratified that Brunson remains firm in his faith after this difficult ordeal.

“I think we take encouragement in that.  I think it is also a signal to us to really take the lessons of people who go through harder things than we do when we face discouragement or opposition or even  some sort of resistance or persecution.  Stand in Jesus.  It is the solution.  It’s the medicine we need for a broken heart.  I think Pastor Brunson is an example of that quite well.

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Dr. Curry’s analysis of the Brunson case, the reality for believers in Turkey and more.

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What Next at the UN?

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Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney says Nikki Haley is cut from the same mold as the most successful American ambassadors to the United Nations and says President Trump must find a successor who truly believes in his foreign policy.

Haley announced this week that she will step down at the end of 2018. Trump says he hopes to nominate a successor within the next few weeks.

Haley says the great accomplishment of the past two years is winning back respect, noting that other nations may not like our policies but they know we will keep our word.

Gaffney says Haley’s tenure at the UN reflected the Trump agenda very well.

“She has been a tireless defender of America against all attacks. She has been a catalyst for really tough love for the United Nations and its various corrupt and malfeasant entities,” said Gaffney.

“She’s very much in the mold of some of the truly great UN ambassadors from the United States: Jeane Kirkpatrick, Daniel Patrick Moynihan (and) John Bolton come to mind,” added Gaffney.

“I would hope very much that the president will replace her with someone with both a similar capability and in terms of clarity of their admiration and, indeed, love for our country and vigor in willing to defend her,” said Gaffney.

Gaffney says it is imperative for Trump to find a successor who shares his vision for the world. He says hiring someone who clashes with Trump on policy will be counterproductive.

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell was widely touted for the job until removing her name from consideration on Thursday. Gaffney is relieved Powell is off the short list given her performance at her previous job.

You don’t want somebody as an ambassador representing out government, representing this administration, representing this president who is at odds with the policies of the president.

“That was certainly true of Dina Powell during the time she served under H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser. I called them the insubordinate subordinates,” said Gaffney.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Gaffney’s assessment of how important the UN ambassador is and the three names he hopes are being considered to replace Haley.

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Ex-Commerce Secretary Assesses New Trade Deal

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Earlier this week, President Trump hailed a new trade agreement with our Canadian and Mexican neighbors, but is the agreement a good one for the U.S. and is it better than the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump has railed against for years.

Barbara Hackman Franklin served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce for President George H.W. Bush and was heavily involved in the original NAFTA negotiations.  She is very pleased to see the three countries reach a deal.

“I’m delighted that this negotiation is now done because I think the process of it was unsettling to investors, businesses, consumers.  Some of the rhetoric surrounding it was not real helpful so I think it’s a good thing that we got this done,” said Franklin, who is now president and CEO of Barbara Franklin Enterprises.

The biggest changes to the deal, known as USMCA, would impact the auto and dairy industries.  Franklin says the agreement could be very good news for American dairy exporters.

“Canada agreed to open its dairy market by eliminating some of the quotas and the pricing system that has been in place and has been problematic our dairy farmer.  Hopefully, our dairy farmers will be able to send more butter, milk, and cheese to Canada under this agreement,” said Franklin.

The changes for the auto industry could be very good for manufacturers and their employees.  Wages would be set at a minimum of $16 per hour and a significant majority of auto parts would be made in North America.  Some economists fear a wage floor would mean higher prices for consumers, but Franklin says it’s too soon to tell.

The major U.S. concession is maintaining the NAFTA provision on dispute resolution.

“Under this mechanism, it means that disputes can be solved by national panels, in other words panels of the two countries together, rather than going through the U.S. judicial process having to do with anti-dumping and countervailing duty,” said Franklin.

Trump badly wanted to change the policy but it appears to have been a deal-killer for Canada.

The deal is still not done and the clock is ticking.  The leaders of all three nations must sign the USMCA and Congress must ratify it.  Franklin says it is critical for Mexico to approve it before a change in its presidency on December 1.  She also says the midterm elections here could influence the fate of the agreement.

While Franklin is not a fan of Trump’s approach to trade negotiations and the uncertainty it creates, she is still hopeful that the USMCA and negotiations with China and the European Union end up boosting our economy.

“I certainly hope we’re going to end up in a better spot.  With all of these agreements, the proof is in the pudding and how it actually works,” said Franklin.

“My hope, always, is that whatever we do stimulates more trade because I believe that trade does help economic growth,” she added.

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Will Kyl Appointment Revive Obamacare Repeal?

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A leading health care policy expert is imploring congressional Republicans to renew the push for an Obamacare repeal or risk the full wrath of many of their constituents, and timing for such a move just got better.

On Tuesday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey tapped former Sen. Jon Kyl to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy created by the death of Sen. John McCain, bringing a staunch conservative back to the Senate perhaps the decisive vote on repeal legislation.

Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner is part of a coalition pleading with Congress to take up the issue again – specifically on a plan to send power out of Washington and back to the states to establish their own rules for their own health systems.

She says many lawmakers like the idea but are reluctant to bring it up just two months before Election Day.

“They’re so frightened of bringing health care up again after the failed vote in July of last year,” said Turner.  They’re afraid of bringing it up again and failing.”

However, Turner says they might have more to fear from doing nothing based on the scolding lawmakers are getting from voters this campaign season.

“Members are getting hammered on the campaign trail because they haven’t done anything to give people relief from the high costs and the limited choices of Obamacare,” said Turner.

She cited one Virginia voter who makes over $100,000 per year but is saddled with monthly health insurance payments of more than $4,000 per month because the Obamacare exchange only offers one plan.  The rising costs are more than eating up the raises and extra income from the recent tax cuts.

“That’s what they’re hearing on the campaign trail: people trying to do the right thing and the costs just go up and up and up,” said Turner.  “The markets are really imploding.  The pools are not stable.”

In giving power back to the states, Turner says Republicans would once again be trumpeting what most Americans have always known.

“One of the things we’ve learned is that the federal government just cannot manage anything as complex and diverse as health insurance markets in the fifty states.  We need to give them not only more power but new resources to begin to give people more choices of more affordable coverage,” said Turner.

Turner says 46-47 Republican senators are on board with the prescribed legislation while a handful of others are diving into the specifics.  She says Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, want specific provisions for their states.  Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, wants a bigger focus on health savings accounts, and other conservatives want regulatory relief.

Listen to the rest of the interview with Grace-Marie Turner to hear all of her thoughts on the health care debate, the midterm elections, and how the liberal and media push for single payer is a tacit admission from the left that Obamacare is a failure.

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White Nationalists Wither, Antifa Violence Largely Ignored, Omarosa vs. Trump

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David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are encouraged to see a pathetic turnout at the white nationalist rally in Washington D.C. on Sunday, and they hope the media will stop giving airtime to this fringe group.  They also call on the media to cover the violence of the leftist protest group Antifa the same way they cover the alt-right.  And they believe President Donald Trump hired Omarosa Manigault for the wrong reason– because she said “GREAT” things about him– which led to the fallout where she now calls him a racist.

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Placation vs. Change in Iran

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The Trump administration began reapplying economic sanctions against Iran Monday, the latest consequence of President Trump withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump withdrew the U.S. as a signatory of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in May, and the new round of sanctions is the first of two rounds of crippling sanctions designed to deter Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons and grant more liberties to its people.

“There’s the difference between the Obama administration and the Trump administration.  The Obama administration was trying to placate.  The Trump administration is trying to actually change Iranian behavior,” said retired U.S. Navy Captain Chuck Nash, who is also a Fox News military analyst.

This first tranche of sanctions forbids the importing of Iranian carpets, pistachios, and also voids licenses that allows Iran to buy American and European-made aircraft.  Another round of sanctions targeting oil and banks is set to take effect Nov. 4.

European leaders are furious with Trump for bringing the sanctions back, but Nash says they have little choice but to go along.

“They were looking to sell a tremendous amount of goods to Iran.  Those deals, now that the United States has pulled out, the administration has basically said, ‘Would you like to do business with the United States or would you like to do business with Tehran?  Pick one,'” said Nash.

And Nash says the Europeans could not circumvent the sanctions even if they wanted to.

“Look at aircraft for example.  There is so much United States technology in aircraft that there isn’t an aircraft manufacturer in the western world who can export to Tehran if the United States pulls the licenses for its technology.  It’s embedded in those platforms,” said Nash.

Nash says the sanctions are also meant to make life uncomfortable for another group inside Iran.

“That impacts the bazaaris, which is the mercantile class inside of Iran,” said Nash.  “They are the big supporters of the theocratic regime.”

Nash says the bazaaris were key allies of Ayatollah Khomeini during the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979.  But he says if the bazaaris feel the heat, the mullahs will also be sweating.

“When they start shifting because they’re under pressure, if things really start to happen, you’ll get the mullahs’ attention,” said Nash, who notes the Iranian economy is already hurting badly.

“In the last year alone, their currency, the rial, has lost 80 percent of its value.  Things have been going south in Iran for years,” said Nash.

He says the mullahs are sure to blame the renewed sanctions for the economic misery in Iran, but Nash doesn’t think the people will believe them.

“The mullahs are trying to tell the people, ‘No, no, no.  It’s not our gross mismanagement.  It’s not our spending money on militarization instead of working on infrastructure and other things in the economy.  No, no, no.  It’s the Americans pulling out of the deal.’  And the people aren’t buying it,” said Nash.

Nash says the Iranian leadership has funneled valuable resources into the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which pledges allegiance not to the government but to the Islamic Revolution, similar to how the SS pledged fidelity to Adolf Hitler instead of the nation.  That, in addition to the weak economy, is sparking large protests against the the regime.

Nash says Iranian leaders may soon have to make a very tough decision.

“The mullahs are probably going to be able to keep the lid on this but for how much longer?  And that’s the equation they have to balance.  ‘Can we really let the United States move on to the Nov. 4  exercise of sanctions, which would be the second tranche, where they then put sanctions against our banking industry and our energy sector?’

“When that happens, that could spell doom for the mullahs inside of Tehran,” said Nash.

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‘You Cannot Unring A Bell’

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A former high-ranking CIA official says President Trump’s refusal to stand by the U.S. intelligence community while on stage with Russia’s Vladimir Putin is “devastating” and believes Trump’s efforts to walk back those words on Tuesday was thoroughly meaningless.

Herbert E. Meyer served as special assistant to Reagan-era CIA Director William Casey and also as vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council.  He’s also an accomplished producer and author, most recently writing the booklet, “Why is the World So Dangerous.”

As a Trump voter, Meyer says the president’s inability to decide whether U.S. intelligence or Vladimir Putin is telling the truth about meddling in the 2016 campaign, is deeply disappointing.

“He’s done a lot of good things and I’m supporting him.  What he said in Helsinki was appalling.  There’s just no way around it.  He can apologize.  He can back off, but you cannot unring a bell.  What he said, the entire world heard it.  Sorry, that was devastating,” said Meyer.

Meyer says Trump’s logic in granting equal weight to multiple U.S. intelligence reports and Putin’s denials would be considered ludicrous in any era of U.S. history.

“If somebody got up and said, ‘I don’t know, some people say the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, but I was talking with the Japanese Prime Minister and he says they didn’t do it.  I have complete confidence in our military, but I’m not sure who attacked us at Pearl Harbor,’ we would say that man’s an idiot,” said Meyer.

In addition to the lack of confidence Trump’s comments inflict among the various intelligence agencies, Meyer says the president isn’t even consistent with his own allies in Congress.

“He trashed not only our intelligence community, but the committees in Congress, Devin Nunes’ committee for example, that issued an extensive report a month ago on what happened,” said Meyer.

Nunes, R-Calif., chairs the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Meyer says a damage to morale is significant damage to any organization and the intelligence agencies are no exception, but he says the repercussions are far more broad.

“It’s devastating, not just to the intelligence community.  It’s devastating to the United States.  If you are an ally of our country now, you can’t pay any attention to what he says, because if it bounces badly he’ll just say something else,” said Meyer.

On Tuesday, Trump read a statement indicating he did accept the conclusions of intelligence professionals that there was meddling in the 2016 campaign.  But Meyer says the clarification still carries two problems, starting with the fact that it comes too late.

“When he walks it back today, it’s meaningless.  It’s like saying, ‘I think you’re a liar.  Oh no, I don’t think you’re a liar.’  It just means that words don’t mean anything anymore,” said Meyer.

“Why should anybody pay attention to what he said (Tuesday)?  He’s only issuing a clarification because it blew up in his face.  I was just watching it on TV when you called me.  He doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.  He’s sort of mumbling it and reading it.

“He’s not only the country’s president, he’s the guy I voted for, and what he’s saying is just awful,” added Meyer.

Meyer is confident Putin is loving every minute of the controversy.  Her doesn’t believe Putin is changing any major policy or plans based on his perceived diplomatic victory, but there’s little doubt that the Russian leader considers Trump’s comments a big win.

“Putin’s primary objective in office is to humiliate the United States.  That’s what he wants to do.  Now you and I can say that doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what he wants to do.  If he could throw a banana peel under our feet, he would rather do that than have another one percent economic growth in Russia,” said Meyer.

Meyer says Trump is causing all sorts of trouble for himself by conflating Russian meddling with political collusion in his own campaign, when the two are distinctly separate issues.

“He folded the two of them together and made everything confused,” said Meyer.

So, is there an avenue for Trump to repair relations with our intelligence agencies?  Meyer’s short answer is no.

“The president and I are the same age.  Guys our age don’t change.  Sorry, what you see is what you get.  Words don’t mean anything.  He could say anything.  He can go out to Langley and give a speech and all that.  It doesn’t mean anything.  He stood on stage with the leader of Russia  and trashed American intelligence,” said Meyer, who finds himself wincing as an American and as a Trump supporter.

“He’s wounded himself and that’s very bad for the United States, whether you’re Republican or Democrat.  We have a president with a self-inflicted wound and that’s bad,” he said.

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Buckley’s Russia Lesson, Wallace Grills Putin, Excessive Summit Outrage

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America learn from the late National Review founder William F. Buckley that the left drew a moral equivalence between the USSR and the United States during the Cold War, and they warn President Trump not to make the same mistake. They also compliment Chris Wallace of Fox News for asking pointed questions about election meddling to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but they fear the interview and Putin’s weak answers will soon be forgotten. And they fret that the left has taken fair criticism of the Trump-Putin summit to preposterous extremes by labeling it as morally equivalent with 9/11, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kristallnacht.

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Russia Probe Needed, But Not A Special Counsel

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russians, accusing them of hacking key individuals and institutions and even, stealing the information of some 500,000 voters.

However, a former federal prosecutor says while it’s vital to know how Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 campaign, there’s still no connection to the Trump campaign and still no basis for why a special counsel is on this case.

Andrew C. McCarthy served as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and led the successful prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and others for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and plots against other New York-area landmarks.

He says the biggest question in his mind following the announcement of the indictments was whether Trump knew this announcement was coming.

Knowing now that Trump was aware, McCarthy finds it very interesting that Trump gave the green light for the news to go public just before his Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.

“It seems to me, since he was given a heads-up that this was happening, he had an opportunity to direct that the indictment not be unsealed.  He didn’t do that, which suggests to me that he and his advisers actually think that having this will strengthen their hand when they meet with Putin,” said McCarthy.

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictments against a dozen figures connected to the Russian intelligence and military communities.

The Trump administration quickly released a statement pointing out that no Americans, much less any Trump campaign figures, had any connection to Russia’s alleged meddling.

“Today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result,” said White House spokesperson Lindsay Walters in a statement.

“This is consistent with what we have been saying all along,” she added.

McCarthy says Trump’s argument that no campaign official has been charged when anything related to a Russian conspiracy clearly holds true.

“It’s perfectly natural and appropriate for them to say yet again that there are no indications in this indictment of any conspiratorial relationship between the Russians and the Trump campaign,” said McCarthy.

Just as when Mueller issued indictments against 13 Russian entities in February, known as the troll farm indictments, McCarthy says no evidence has turned up yet to justify the existence of a special counsel on this matter.

“When I see this indictment, I thought what I thought when I saw the troll farm indictment, which is why do we need a special counsel for this?  It doesn’t seem to me that there’s any reason that we needed a special counsel.

“The Justice Department, which was investigating Russian interference in the election – with the FBI – before Mueller was appointed, certainly could have handled these cases,” said McCarthy.

But McCarthy is also clear that he believes an investigation into Russian activity during the 2016 cycle is highly warranted.

“I don’t think anyone sensible has ever questioned the legitimacy of the investigation as it pertains to Russian interference in the 2016 election.  That ought to be something that everybody agrees needs to be done and needs to be run down,” said McCarthy.

He’s also chiding the president for regularly tweeting condemnations of the Mueller team.  While McCarthy believes Trump sees the investigation is a ‘witch hunt’ specifically as it relates to his campaign and not to possible Russian involvement, he says the persistent denunciation of Mueller is a bad move.

“I think we all know when he says that what he’s talking about is the allegation that his campaign colluded with the Russians, of which there remains no evidence, much less charges.

“But I don’t think it’s helpful that if he knows you’re about to release a set of charges that confirm what all of us have suspected for some time, which is that the Russians did conduct this operation against our election, I don’t know that that’s the best time to be taking shots at the prosecutor,” said McCarthy.

But do these indictments advance the plot much into the Russian meddling?  McCarthy doesn’t think so.

“Other than putting some names and some interesting specifics like the Bitcoin aspect of it and the fact that they made that into a money laundering conspiracy, I don’t think that we’ve learned a lot that we didn’t know already on the basis of what we’ve been told by the intelligence community regarding its investigation,” said McCarthy.

But while we may not have learned much today, McCarthy says Mueller clearly has learned some new tactics.  After the troll farm indictments, the special counsel got a bit of a surprise that he made sure didn’t happen again this time.

“The problem that Mueller ran into in the troll farm case is that he indicted three of these companies that really turned out to be Kremlin fronts.  Much, I think, to his surprise and chagrin, one of them retained counsel in Virginia and showed up and demanded to get the discovery and get ready to go to trial,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy says it’s highly unlikely that any of the 12 Russians indicted on Friday will ever face prosecution.

So why go through the indictments?

“I think the point is to try to file a conclusive U.S. government investigative document that puts to rest any claim that Russia is not responsible for any of this,” said McCarthy.

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Kennedy Responsible for Some ‘Real Horrible Decisions’

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As Washington gears up for one of the most contentious Supreme Court nominations in recent memory, many political figures and pundits are applauding the tenure of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, but Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver says Kennedy leaves a dark legacy on the moral fabric of America.

Shortly after the news of Kennedy’s retirement was announced, President Trump lavished praise on Kennedy.

“He’s been a great justice of the Supreme Court,” said Trump.  “He is a man who has displayed great vision.  He’s displayed tremendous vision and tremendous heart.”

And Staver admits that Kennedy has been a key voice and a vital vote on critical issues, including this month’s rulings in favor of Christian cake baker Jack Phillips and crisis pregnancy centers in California.  Kennedy also authored a stinging dissent against the decision from Chief Justice John Roberts that saved Obamacare.

“Certainly, he was on the right side of many cases and even the most recent cases that came out of the U.S. Supreme Court.  He was a fifth vote in that particular case or cases and made a huge difference,” said Staver.

But he says the cases where Kennedy got things badly wrong leave a lasting impact.

“I’m going to remember Justice Kennedy for some of the real horrible decisions that he ultimately inflicted because they have caused significant harm and even death,” said Staver.  “Between the LGBT agenda, culminating in the marriage decision, and particularly the abortion decisions, that really is the legacy of Justice Kennedy.”

On abortion, Kennedy ruled both for and against federal bans on partial-birth abortions, striking down the legislation in 2000 but upholding it in 2007.  However, it’s Kennedy’s role in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that deeply distresses Staver.

That case gave justices the opportunity to solidify or reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that legalized abortion nationwide.  Staver says Kennedy was initially part of a majority that would have reversed those rulings.

“For thirty days, (then-Chief Justice William) Rehnquist was writing the opinion and Kennedy was right there with him.  But he succumbed to lobbying pressure from Justices (Sandra Day) O’Connor, and (David) Souter.  After 30 days, he changed his mind,” said Staver.

“He flipped from the five in the majority to overrule the abortion case to flipping it and the minority became the majority.  Five individuals ultimately voted to uphold the abortion decisions, albeit somewhat modified,” said Staver.

He says Kennedy bears significant responsibility for the abortions since that day.

“The babies who have lost their lives since 1992, Justice Kennedy is the reason for that.  He is the reason for the people who have lost their lives and all the families that have been broken,” said Staver.

Kennedy also took the lead in multiple decisions related to the LGBT agenda.  He authored the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision striking down state sodomy laws and the 2013 United States v. Windsor ruling which struck down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act.  His majority opinion two years later in Obergefell v Hodges declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

“In June 2015, he authored a horrible decision that has no basis in the Constitution, no basis in the court’s precedents – just an imposition of his will – in which he overturned marriage laws that understood the natural definition and order of marriage being between two people of opposite sex.  He struck it down and ushered in so-called same-sex marriage,” said Staver.

As the Senate braces for a monumental political fight over Kennedy’s successor, Kennedy’s place on the high court also resulted from a nasty political fight.  In 1987, President Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, but the nomination went down to defeat after a fierce Democratic opposition led by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

Kennedy was ultimately Reagan’s third choice.  Staver says history would be much different if Bork had been confirmed.

“What a big difference the decisions would have been if Robert Bork had been confirmed instead of Kennedy,” said Staver.  “If you would have had Bork on the bench in 1992, you wouldn’t have abortion from 1992 to the present.  You wouldn’t have same-sex marriage from 2015 to the present,” said Staver.

President Trump will likely announce a nominee within the next few weeks and says it will come from his public list of 25 possible choices.  While Staver says the list is generally strong, some are preferable to others.

“No, I’m not mostly fine with whoever the president chooses.  Each one of these have to be individually vetted.  Not everybody is at the same level as (Justice Neil) Gorsuch,” said Staver.  “We need to have another person just like that, who has that commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution.”

Staver would not name any preferences for the nomination but he did single out one name he would be very disappointed to see in appeals court judge William Pryor.

“Pryor’s on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He had some bad decisions with regards to the LGBT agenda, where he injected an activist viewpoint on his particular decision,” said Staver.

He says Trump and Senate Republicans have to get this pick right, as a litany of critical issues could come before the court in the coming years.

“If they do, abortion will become history.  We will stop the bloodshed of innocent children.  We need to make sure we have the right person with that judicial philosophy,” said Staver.  “The clash between the LGBT agenda and religious freedom and free speech, all these different things, plus more.  The second amendment, so many other things.  Our basic freedoms are on the line,” said Staver.

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