Within days of Biden Inauguration, Coronavirus seems less threatening

Fairfax, Va. -Within days of President Joe Biden taking office, mainstream media outlets and Democrat politicians are singing a different tune about the Coronavirus. National Public Radio headlined a dire story on January 19, “As Death Rate Accelerates, U.S. records 400,000 lives lost to Coronavirus.” Two days later, they headlined a story,“Current Deadly Coronavirus Surge has Peaked, Researchers Say.”

In a similar change in attitude, politicians on the Left are now eager to reopen the economy and end the lockdowns. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in reaction to the turnaround.

“Wow.  Amazing, it is a miracle. What could have happened on January 20^th to change the media perspective on the Coronavirus so completely?  It is a mystery, but it clearly was miraculous.  But not nearly as miraculous as the decisions by New York Andrew Cuomo, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and now California Governor Gavin Newsom’s declaration that we have ‘turned a corner’ on the virus. All are either opening or encouraging the opening of their respective jurisdictions.  Clearly, reopening their economies will boost GDP and lower unemployment as people get back to work.

“What is stunning is the callousness of these Democrat politicians. It appears they were more concerned with crippling the Trump economy than they were with public safety.  Here is the truth.  Texas and California have roughly the same outcomes as each other, even as one has had a relatively open policy and the other has been engaged in draconian shutdowns.  Also, New York’s outcomes are significantly worse than Florida’s in spite of the Sunshine state being virtually entirely open with an emphasis on protecting the most vulnerable, while New York shut everything down making it so you practically needed a VISA to visit loved ones in the Empire state.

“Even a World Health Organization official urged that lockdowns only be used to regroup and reorganize rather than as a primary tool against the virus. Yet, Newsom and Cuomo continued punishing the people of their respective states with ill-advised, anti-science lockdowns until President Trump was clearly out of the way.  After all, ‘Orange Man Bad and must be demonized’ is the doctrine that the left worships at. The governors did everything they could to kill jobs while The Donald was in the White House with no thought whatsoever to the havoc they wreaked on the people in their states.

“Now these ‘leaders’ will want Congress to give them billions to make up for lost revenues due to their imprudent and unscientific lockdowns, and the Senate must tell them not only no, but Heck NO!”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

Jan. 21, 2021, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement on the latest Covid vaccine distribution figures:

“The Biden administration would be better suited to making official statements, holding public press briefings and providing real data to the American people rather than speaking through anonymous sources to CNN to score political points, which is beneath the White House when thousands of people are still dying every day.  With 17.5 million total doses have already been administered according to the CDC all the current occupants of the Oval Office need to do to get to their proclaimed 100 million Covid vaccine doses in 100 days goal is maintain the same pace of roughly 850,000 vaccinations a day that were already occurring daily when President Trump left office on Jan. 20.

“We support efforts to get the vaccine to as many Americans who want it as possible so the nation can finally put the Covid pandemic behind us, which, thanks to Operation Warp Speed by the Trump administration and innovative pharmaceutical companies, in 2021 we are in a position to do precisely that no matter who sits in the White House. The federal plan was always to purchase and manufacture millions of doses before final approval by the FDA occurred, and that is exactly what has occurred with distribution ramping up daily and millions of doses already administered. The Biden administration should build on that and credit the Trump administration for making reaching their meager goal a slam dunk.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

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On his first day in office, President Joe Biden is calling for the Justice Department to look into reinstating a controversial Obama-era practice that allowed prosecutors to make settlement agreements that resulted in defendants paying outside groups instead of victims or the government. The $17 billion Bank of America settlement is a perfect example of the misuse of settlements as Bank of America was required to give millions of dollars to third party activist groups.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in opposition to the policy:

“Joe Biden waded deep into the swamp on his first day in office as he took action seeking to restore an Obama-era practice of enriching liberal interest groups rather than actual victims in settlements resulting from federal lawsuits.

“President Trump’s first Attorney General Jeff Sessions had put an end to the practice of the Justice Department designating certain liberal groups as the beneficiaries of forced corporate contributions when they pled guilty in a government lawsuit enriching far left advocacy groups hundreds of millions of dollars in payola.  In that 2017 decision, General Sessions released a statement saying, “When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people—not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power.’

“While it may surprise those who voted for the invisible man during the presidential campaign that Biden would make it a first day priority to resume Justice Department shake downs of corporations to elicit funds for his supporters, it certainly didn’t surprise me.  The swamp loves the wash, rinse, repeat money cycle where the government shakes down a wealthy individual, diverting the money to a liberal interest group, which then supports the liberal politicians and policies.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

Effort to end western nations from capitalizing Chinese military

Fairfax, Va. – President Donald Trump this week added restrictions to Executive Order 13959 which will prohibit Americans from selling or purchasing securities in Chinese companies that pose a threat to our national security. The aim of the order is to ensure U.S. capital does not contribute to the development and modernization of China’s military, intelligence, and security services.

In a related move, Canada announced this week it will prohibit the importation of goods produced wholly or in part by forced Chinese labor. Canada’s seven measures are aimed at ending the human rights abused against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning, who has led a national coalition to divest U.S. capital from China, issued the following statement:

“I applaud President Trump and our allies in Canada for taking steps to end the West’s unwitting funding of China’s human rights abuses and their growing military threat.

“China has been financing it’s growing military with Western capital.  Not only is this a national security threat, but it is a moral affront as many of those same companies employ child and slave labor. Americans should never capitalize slavery and yet these investments in Chinese companies do just that.

“What’s more Canada’s action is significant as it hits at the product supply chain for goods made using child and slave labor.  It is essential that importers know that the West will not tolerate the continued importation of goods made with child and slave labor.  The Trudeau government’s action is a great step toward ending these human rights abuses.

“With Joe Biden taking over the U.S. presidency, China hopes that their relationships with many close to him will take the heat off of them to end their concentration camps, forced labor and involuntary organ harvesting for their flourishing transplant industry.  The crackdown on the Communist Chinese Party is one of many Trump policies that the president-elect should embrace and expand rather than going back to the days of turning a blind eye to the abhorrent abuse of Muslims, Christians and the Fulan Gong at the hands of the Communist party regime.

“It is also essential that Biden expand the Trump administration’s determination to end the capitalization of Communist Chinese companies, which are nothing more than proxies for their military industrial complex.  The world is simply too complicated for Biden go back to applying policies that seemed like a good idea in the year 2000 to today’s reality of a rising China with eyes on global domination.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

The people will decide if the House GOP’s Impeachment Ten were wrong

Fairfax, Va.--Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement blasting U.S. Reps. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), Tom Rice (R-S.C.), Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), John Katko (R-N.Y.), Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.) for voting to impeach President Donald Trump:

“Ten House Republicans stuck their collective thumbs into the eyes of 74 million Americans who voted for President Donald Trump by voting for impeachment less than a week before the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 20. While these Republicans will undoubtedly be hailed by the New York Times, Washington Post and Silicon Valley tech titans as heroic, the real question is how will their constituents view this vote. As for Americans for Limited Government, we pledge to make certain that the people living in their districts are not only aware of the vote, but its implications related to the future of the country. It is up to these citizens to contact their elected representatives and let them know how they feel.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

Get that man a mirror!

Fairfax, Va. – This week the official policy arm of Twitter tweeted a strong rebuke of the government of Uganda for blocking social media apps in the run-up to an election in that country. This comes just days after Twitter banned President Donald Trump for life. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in reaction:

“When you google the word hypocrite, you might be surprised to see the image of scruffy Silicon Valley billionaire named Jack Dorsey as the first result. Dorsey, who just spent three months banning points of view he doesn’t agree, had the audacity to complain about Uganda doing the same thing.

“Perhaps someone should get Dorsey a mirror. While I have no expectation that his behavior will change, at least he might shave and comb his hair.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

Amazon, Google and Apple owe Parler reinstatement and restitution

Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Rick Manning today issued the following statement responding to reporting from journalist Glenn Greenwald that “planning [of the Capitol riot] was largely done on Facebook,” not Parler:

“Liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald reports that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was largely planned on Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. While Silicon Valley Big Tech has baselessly taken down Parler.com and banned the app from smartphones, the truth is that, according to Greenwald, not a single user of Parler has been arrested for their involvement in the Capitol riot. Just as it was wrong to take down Parler, it would be equally wrong to destroy Facebook’s availability due to their platform’s being used as an organizing tool for political violence.

“If Amazon, Google and Apple held Facebook to the same standards that they’ve falsely held Parler to, Zuckerberg’s company would now be similarly deplatformed. Americans for Limited Government abhors Big Tech’s knee-jerk abuse of power against Parler on false claims that they were advocating violence. Those companies that arbitrarily cost Parler — a rapidly emerging competitor to Twitter — millions of dollars should immediately take action to reinstate Parler’s presence on their platforms, and to settle the lawsuit Parler has filed against them. The lesson America should learn from Big Tech’s abuse of political power is that these companies need to be subjected to antitrust actions to prevent their market dominance from again being misused in the future.”

Background: 

“Courts Must Immediately Stop Big Tech Censorship,” Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning, Jan. 9, 2021

“The purge has begun. Cancel culture is going to be worse than ever as the social tyranny rises.” By Robert Romano, Jan. 12, 2021

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org.

Fairfax, Va. – Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued the following statement in reaction to Big Tech collusion to censor competition.

“The collusion of Amazon, Apple and Google to shut down the social media sharing site Parler – Facebook and Twitter’s competition –  is a continuation of their attack on the free expression of ideas.  Silicon Valley has moved from being a model of American innovation to being arbitrary arbiters of thought.  Their actions to shut down competing ideas must be met with immediate state and federal anti-trust action, which the Supreme Court should hear as soon as they are filed.  The actions Amazon, Apple and Google have taken are dangerous and show that the concentration of power in their hands has turned them into tyrants deciding what people should see and think. These companies should cease and desist from their abuse of power immediately.”

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for  Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org

Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning  today issued the following statement cautioning against removing President Donald Trump from office in his final days, either by Congress or the Cabinet, as doing irreparable damage to the Union:

“Those who are seeking to politicize and exploit the tragic storming of the Capitol yesterday are playing a dangerous game. What happened yesterday was a national tragedy and must never happen again. Political violence can never be justified. Rather than further dividing the country more than it already is, it is time to help the country to heal and move forward so that the orderly transition of power can occur as it should. If Congress or the Cabinet were to even try, let alone succeed in removing President Trump from office in the final days of his term, millions of Americans will be disenfranchised, further dividing the nation and undermining the Union and lighting the fuse of a dangerous powder keg that may be impossible to snuff out. It is an abyss that must be avoided at all costs.

“Everyone is familiar with the Democrat axiom to never let a good crisis go to waste, let me be clear to everyone considering playing politics as usual, this is not a “good crisis” it is an existential threat.  As DC politicians consider any rash, precipitous move, I would urge them to review the words that the President actually spoke at the rally on January 6, “We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” [emphasis added]

To view video click here. 

Prior to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, at his national mall speech, President Trump explicitly called for protesters to be peaceful.

While people were still inside the Capitol at 3:13pm on Jan. 6, President Trump immediately denounced the violence and urged everyone to remain peaceful: “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” [emphasis added]

Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for  Limited Government at 703-383-0880 or email media@limitgov.org