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Feb. 23, 2021 - Epoch Times
21:17
Trump Attacks Mitch McConnell in New Statement; Plans to Back Primary Challengers | Facts Matter
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Good evening.
Last night, President Trump released this statement, which is probably the most scathing letter from him that I've read thus far.
And in it, he asserted himself as the leader of the Republican Party.
He basically threw down the gauntlet and called Mitch McConnell a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack who was responsible for the Republicans' loss of the Senate in the previous election.
And he also said that Mitch McConnell cannot be trusted on China because of his family's ties to the communist country.
Let's unpack this together and then discuss what the future holds for the Republican Party.
This is your daily Facts Matter update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
Now, let's start today's discussion with this super-strong statement towards Mitch McConnell that was released by President Trump just last night.
Now, before we actually read this statement, though, let's talk a little bit about the context, the broader context surrounding this statement.
At the end of the impeachment trial, which was last Saturday, so just a few days ago, Mitch McConnell ultimately voted to acquit President Trump.
However, he actually went out onto the Senate floor and gave a scathing, long speech criticizing President Trump.
Here's what Mitch McConnell said in part.
President Trump was practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.
No question about it.
The people that stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.
Furthermore, in that speech, Mitch McConnell went on to say, So there, he was suggesting that President Trump could still face litigation for allegedly inciting a mob that broke into the Capitol.
And it didn't end with that speech from Mitch McConnell, because later he also wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he said this, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unhinged falsehoods he, meaning President Trump, shouted into the world's largest megaphone.
His behavior during and after the chaos was also unconscionable.
Now, although Mitch McConnell is the Republican leader in the Senate, his remarks allegedly did not represent the viewpoint of the majority of the party.
In fact, Senator Ron Johnson, who is a Republican from Wisconsin, he said this during an interview.
You got Leader McConnell voting not guilty, not to convict, but then just providing a scathing speech on the floor of the Senate.
That does not reflect the majority of our conference.
Senator Johnson then went on to say that while Mitch McConnell has the right to express his opinion, he has to realize that as our leader, what he says reflects on us.
I didn't particularly like it.
And now that we have the broader context, let's get back to this statement that was released by President Trump just yesterday.
Let's read through it together.
The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political leaders like Senator Mitch McConnell at its helm.
McConnell's dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill and personality, has rapidly driven him from majority leader to minority leader, and it will only get worse.
The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle.
They've never had it so good, and they want to keep it that way.
We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell's Beltway First agenda or Biden's America Last.
Now, after this, President Trump then goes into some detail about the last election, about how he received more votes than any other sitting president, how he helped to flip seats in the House as well as to save seats in the Senate, and then he goes on to say this.
I single-handedly saved at least 12 Senate seats, more than eight in the 2020 cycle alone.
And then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both U.S. Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600.
How does that work?
It became the Democrats' principal advertisement, and a big winner for them it was.
McConnell then put himself, one of the most unpopular politicians in the United States, into the advertisements.
After that, President Trump then goes on to talk about his regret during his tenure as president.
He says, Likewise,
McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family's substantial Chinese business holdings.
He does nothing on this tremendous economic and military threat.
And then, adding a little insult to injury, President Trump then went on to say this.
Mitch is a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack.
And if Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.
He will never do what needs to be done or what is right for our country.
Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse making America great again and our policy of America first.
We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership.
This is a big moment for our country, and we cannot let it pass by using third-rate leaders to dictate our future.
Now, there is quite a bit to unpack here.
Let's start with President Trump's assertion that Mitch McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family's substantial Chinese business holdings.
Now, what is he referring to here exactly?
Well, for the answer, we have to look at Mitch McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao.
If she looks familiar to you, that might be because she was the former Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration.
And she made some headlines a few weeks ago, or maybe about a month ago, when she publicly resigned from her post and criticized President Trump after the Capitol breach on January the 6th.
Now, Elaine Chao is actually the daughter of James and Ruth Chao, who started a billion-dollar shipping company, and she is also the sister of Angela Chao, who is a businesswoman.
And so, just for a clarification, that makes Angela Chao Mitch McConnell's sister-in-law.
And interestingly, the World Tribune reported that ten days after Donald Trump was elected as president back in 2016, Angela Chow, who is again Mitch McConnell's sister-in-law, was appointed to a non-executive position on the Bank of China's board of directors.
In that same report, it also states that James Chow, who is Mitch McConnell's father-in-law, also sits on the board of the China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which is actually one of the largest defense contractors in all of China.
In fact, there was an executive order passed by President Trump back in 2020, I believe in November of last year, which prohibited American entities from owning any shares in companies like the China State Shipbuilding Corporation because of their links to the Chinese military.
And according to that report from the World Tribune, Mitch McConnell's father-in-law actually sits on the board of that company.
Furthermore, Angela Chow is the CEO of the shipping company that her father founded.
It's called the Foremost Maritime Group.
And according to Forbes, Forbes magazine, even though this company describes itself as being an American company with offices located in New York, it actually conducts its business almost exclusively in Asia.
Foremost's fleet sails under flags registered in Liberia and Hong Kong, not the United States.
Now, there are a lot more connections like this, such as reports of Elaine Chao's father being a former classmate and close friend of Jiang Zemin, who was the president of China for several years back in the late 90s and early 2000s.
If you're interested in going deeper into this story, I'll throw the link into the description box below this video for you to check out.
And while you're down there looking for those links, take a quick moment to smash that like button.
You already know that videos that are like this, talking honestly about what's happening in this world right now, Are routinely censored by big tech.
However, when you smash that like button that's below this video, you are forcing the algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people, letting them know the truth far and wide.
And by the way, this is a great opportunity to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which I will do from the Sound Studio.
The sponsor for today's episode is AMAC, which stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
Now, I do consider myself a mature American citizen.
However, I'm about 20 years too young to join AMAC. However, if you or somebody else in your family is 50 years old or over, I would consider joining them because there are three main benefits to joining AMAC. The first one is the money-saving benefit.
Basically, if you're a member, they give you a ton of perks to restaurants across the country, to retail shops, on insurance plans, on vitamins.
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And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine, and it's really good.
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So you can click on the link in the description box below this video, or you can go to amac.us forward slash facts matter.
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AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring this episode, and now Roman in the studio, back to you.
Now, in regards to the China connections of Mitch McConnell that we just discussed, all of it doesn't necessarily mean that Mitch McConnell is compromised by China in any way.
It just means that he married into a very rich Chinese family.
However, when you're dealing with the Chinese Communist Party, which is one of the biggest threats to America today, at least in my opinion, it is critically important to know about the connections that our elected representatives have to China.
Now, the other part of Trump's statement that is really important to highlight is the fact that even though he no longer holds official office, many still see him as the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
For instance, one poll found that three out of four Republicans want to see Trump play a big role in the Republican Party moving forward.
Another recent poll, we mentioned it in a previous episode, found that 70% of Republicans, 70%, would consider joining a new party, a new political party, if President Trump were to start one.
However, this statement here makes it sound like that is not the route that President Trump will be going down, at least in the near future.
Because right here he says, We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful and compassionate leadership.
And so here, when he mentions backing primary rivals, this likely implies that he will work on the Republican primaries and back candidates within the party that align with his agenda in order to try and transform the Republican Party from within, from the inside, rather than move on and start his own political party.
Now, yesterday, Senator Lindsey Graham gave an interview to Fox News where he made some comments regarding the rift between Mitch McConnell and President Trump.
He said this, If Mitch McConnell doesn't understand that, he's missing a lot.
Now, in terms of a different approach that could be taken, Lindsey Graham said this.
And by the way, when he refers to Kevin McCarthy, that is the Republican leader in the House of Representatives.
He said this.
We need to knock this off.
Kevin McCarthy is the leader of the House Republicans.
He has taken a different approach to President Trump.
I would advise Senator McConnell to do that.
Now, what he's probably referring to here is the fact that Kevin McCarthy initially criticized President Trump after the Capitol breach, but he later toned down his rhetoric and traveled down to Florida to actually meet with President Trump and discuss working together to help the Republicans take back the Senate in 2022.
So we'll actually have to see what comes of it all.
Only time will tell how this all plays out.
And by the way, I want to mention something.
I will actually be going down to CPAC in Florida in about, I think it's a week from now.
And while I'm going to be down there, I'm going to be speaking with the people.
I'll be speaking with the speakers as well as the attendees because I'm super interested in getting people's opinions.
What's the future of America?
What's the future of the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement?
What's the future of conservatism in this country?
Do people still back the Republican Party?
Do they still see the Republican Party as representing the same values of conservatism that are espoused by President Trump, for instance?
I'm really interested to go down there and ask people what they think.
Now, by the way, if there's any question that you want to ask either the attendees or the speakers, please let me know in the comments section below.
I'm working on putting together my questions now for next week, and I'd love to hear your suggestions.
Before we move on, I actually wanted to talk about a few stories that we didn't get to talk about in the in-studio filming of today's episode.
And the first thing I wanted to cover was that Rush Limbaugh unfortunately died earlier today.
It looks like he died from complications with the cancer that he was living with.
And I spoke to a few people here at the Epoch Times and our prayers are with his family.
In this obviously trying time.
Now the other thing I wanted to mention is that here Mitch McConnell made a statement to the media that I didn't get to talk about in the relevant section.
So he actually told Politico that he will not back candidates supported by Trump If he believes they lack credibility.
He said that, quote, this is Mitch McConnell saying it, quote, He goes on to say, So this is interesting.
I think over the next year, potentially two years, we'll be seeing a battle inside of the Republican Party for the future of the party.
Basically, will it go back to sort of a Bush-era Republican Party, or will it move towards a Trump-era Republican Party, sort of centered around the Trump policy, the Trump agenda?
So that'll be a very interesting...
Story to follow, and we will follow it and keep you abreast of any developments.
And by the way, all the stories we'll be talking about will be in the description box below this video.
Now, it looks like Parler is back up online, although only on the web.
It looks like their app is still offline.
So basically, the company, Parler, has moved to a new server farm.
Which is something their new chief executive officer, Mark Meckler, said in a statement.
Now, of course, their previous CEO was kicked out.
That made some fanfare.
There's some back and forth as to why that actually was.
You can read about it.
I think we discussed it two episodes ago.
But according to the new CEO, here's what he said, quote, We are off the big tech platform so that we can consider ourselves safe and secure for the future.
Although he did not disclose which server provider he is currently hosting.
So there you go.
You can now go back to Parler and tweet without, well, parlay without having to think about being censored.
Now, there was an interesting story that came out of Washington, D.C. here.
I don't quite understand the details of it here, but basically what happened is, according to U.S. Secret Service officials who actually spoke to the Epoch Times, well, their spokesperson spoke to us.
He said that at approximately 5.20 p.m., two individuals approached U.S. Secret Service uniformed police officers near 15th and Pennsylvania Avenue, which is close to the White House.
And one of the individuals disclosed the possession of a weapon and was immediately detained.
And the second individual disclosed the location of an additional weapon in a vehicle nearby.
So apparently these two people came up to Secret Service agents and just said that we have weapons.
The spokesperson who said to us that...
We said to who spoke to us said that the vehicle was located and the weapon was seized the first person the first suspect was arrested having a BB gun while the second suspect was arrested for carrying a handgun without a license now It says here that according to the police report, the suspects told agents that they, quote, were there to meet with the President of the United States and had a letter to deliver to him, end quote.
The names of the arrested suspects were not provided.
It's kind of an odd story.
I don't know if there's more to it after the fact, but we'll see.
I don't know.
It seems like maybe people who weren't totally all there in the head.
That's just me saying it.
Who knows?
But that highlights this issue here, that the National Guard troops are still deployed in Washington, D.C. And according to this report, the protection of Washington, D.C. through the National Guard will cost the taxpayers $483 million.
That's nearly half a billion dollars.
So that is quite a lot of money for the militarization of the U.S. Capitol.
Now, another story that came out the other day was that Vice President Harris is actually assuming some presidential duties in regards to We're good to go.
So basically it goes on to say here that Harris, quote, expressed her commitment to strengthening bilateral ties between the U.S. and France, this was with France, and to revitalize the transatlantic alliance.
Macron and her agreed on the need for close bilateral and multilateral cooperation to address COVID-19, climate change, and support democracy at home and around the world.
There was apparently no mention of President Joe Biden during that phone call.
So, a very similar phone call with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Now, what's interesting here isn't necessarily the topics they discussed, but the fact that vice presidents very rarely call heads of state.
In fact, according to this report here, the last vice president, Mike Pence, did not share calls with either Trudeau or Macron, though he did visit with heads of state on a number of occasions.
So, we actually reached out to the White House for comment on this issue, but have yet to hear back.
So, these are some of the stories.
All the links will be in the description box below this video.
And now, Roman in the studio, back to you.
Now lastly, I'd like to touch upon the subject of big tech censorship.
As you might know, we publish this show, Facts Matter, across multiple platforms.
YouTube is, of course, the main platform, but we also publish on Rumble, and I have a program on NTD Television, which is our sister media.
On that TV program, my episode of Facts Matter is followed by Deep Dive.
Now, Tiffany Meyer, she is a great reporter for NTD.
She makes two programs almost every day.
One is Deep Dive, and then the other is China in Focus, which is probably some of the best China-related news you'll find anywhere.
And so this morning, I was very surprised to learn that her Twitter account had been permanently suspended by the platform, by Twitter.
In fact, I almost literally couldn't believe it, because on her Deep Dive Twitter account, she doesn't post any commentary, she does not post any spicy memes, and instead, what she does is that twice a day, she posts a link to her episodes, to one of her two episodes, to China in Focus and to Deep Dive.
That's it.
And yet this morning, her account was suspended.
Why?
Why?
Well, here is a generic statement that she received via email from Twitter saying that she, quote, violated our rules against platform manipulation and spam.
Now what does that mean?
Well, it goes on to say, you may not use Twitter services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people's experience on Twitter.
So what does that exactly mean?
You may not use Twitter's services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information.
I mean, when you post something on Twitter, doesn't that naturally amplify that information?
Now again, Tiffany was not even really an active user.
All she did was, twice a day, she posted a link to her two episodes.
But, honestly, I don't need to tell you what's going on here.
You probably already know.
The Vice group of censorship is just getting tighter and tighter every single day.
Tiffany's Twitter page shared only links to her new episodes.
So that her fans could actually know when they were published, click on them, and go watch them.
Nothing else.
And yet she was blocked.
And what's going to happen?
Well, likely one of two things.
Either nothing, nothing will happen, and no one will know about it, or several days, weeks, or months later, Twitter will come back and say that it was a system error and reinstate her account.
It's funny how those system errors tend to work.
And so I'll say this.
If you'd like to support honest, traditional journalism that dares to call into question the established narratives, then I'll throw a link into the description box below this video to a page where you can subscribe to The Epoch Times.
It only costs a few dollars every month, but by subscribing, you will get access to uncensored, honest reporting, you will get access to our deep analysis, our awesome opinion content, which, by the way, we seriously have some awesome, great opinion pieces over at theepictimes.com pretty much every single day.
It's a place like...
America should be.
It's a place for American public discourse that's uncensored.
And lastly, you will get access to all of our video content.
So if anything ever happens here on this platform, you will have access to Deep Dive with Tiffany Meyer.
You'll have access to Facts Matter as well as Crossroads, American Thought Leaders, and all the rest.
Again, that link will be in the description box below this video.
I hope you click on it and subscribe.
Now lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
Subscribe to this YouTube channel while you still can.
And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.
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