The narrative increasingly circulating in this hyper-partisan election season is that the coronavirus outbreak is President Trump’s fault.  Sen. Bernie Sanders actually presided over an event yesterday in Michigan on the eve of today’s primary there to promote that meme.

Interestingly, one of the most important actions Mr. Trump took to mitigate the pandemic’s spread here was the restriction on travel from countries in which the Wuhan Flu has been present.  Unfortunately, that order’s effectiveness has been undermined by our inability to secure the nation’s borders. Who bears principal responsibility for insisting over the past three years that particularly our southern border must remain porous?  The answer is, of course, congressional Democrats like Sen. Sanders.

Can anyone honestly say under present circumstances that they prefer gaping holes in our ability to monitor and control who enters our country over having “The Wall”?

This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump is cleaning house at last. After more than three years of being sabotaged by Obama holdovers, establishment Republicans and even some overtly Never-Trumper individuals inside his administration, he is creating vacancies and filling them with experienced, capable people who actually want to help him succeed.

A case in point was the singularly transformative appointment Mr. Trump made last Friday with his designation of Rep. Mark Meadows as White House Chief of Staff. By so doing, the President has secured the services of a principled conservative with proven leadership skills and integrity undiminished by his extensive Washington experience – someone he can unhesitatingly trust for sage political and policy counsel.

Donald Trump and his administration will not be the only beneficiaries of Mark Meadows’ important new role. The United States of America and all her people will benefit massively, as well.

This is Frank Gaffney.

One of the few silver linings to the very dark cloud that is the coronavirus pandemic may be that American businesses, consumers and policymakers are alarmed by our country’s yawning dependence on Communist China for seemingly everything.

That includes virtually all of our medicines – a national security, as well as public health, nightmare. Even if deliveries are restored, it’s now obvious that we cannot responsibly trust, let alone rely upon, a hostile power like the Chinese Communist Party for anything we have to have.

Beijing’s propagandists recently declared that we have no alternative to such dependency and dared the United States to try to free ourselves from it. Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmitt is warning that the federal government must invest to help us do so. So must Wall Street financiers who have been underwriting with our money Chinese competitors and threats.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Ronald Reagan understood that “Personnel is policy.” This simple phrase captures an eternal truth: The right subordinates usually determine a leader’s success or failure.

Few administrations have more clearly validated this adage than that of President Trump. For over three years now, he has gotten an amazing amount done for the country, but it has despite having a large number of insubordinates on his staff. Mr. Trump recently charged a trusted aide, John McEntee, with systematically replacing those “Swamp creatures.”

Such efforts have  been extended to the United Nations, as well. Communist China has managed to put its operatives in charge of an unprecedented four UN agencies. Thank heavens, Trump loyalists led by Trade Czar Peter Navarro have just blocked the world’s worst perpetrator of IP theft from securing control of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

This is Frank Gaffney.

If you thought the deadly coronavirus that broke out in Wuhan, China and has afflicted and/or locked down millions of Chinese and increasingly citizens of other countries around the world actually originated in the PRC, think again.

Claudia Rosett warns at PJ Media that the Chinese Communist Party’s vast propaganda machinery is beginning to cite – and, thereby, amplify baseless “speculation” that U.S. military athletes participating in sporting events in Wuhan last October brought the disease with them.

Such blame-shifting must be vigorously countered. A good start was yesterday’s announcement that Chinese propagandists operating under journalistic cover in America will be reduced by about a third, down to an amount closer to the number of actual reporters from the U.S. allowed in China. But we better do more to prove the Chinese Communists’ responsibility both for the virus’ outbreak and its egregious mismanagement.

This is Frank Gaffney.

On Saturday, President Trump announced an end to the longest war in U.S. history. Unfortunately, the deal just struck with the Taliban risks repeating what happened after Henry Kissinger’s secret bilateral negotiations with North Vietnam.

The then-Secretary of State promised “peace with honor.” But his deal left in place in South Vietnam large numbers of armed military forces poised to finish conquering our allies there. The North Vietnamese quickly did just that.

The President and our country need an insurance policy lest a similar nightmare unfold shortly at the Talibans’ hands in Afghanistan. Nothing in the deal precludes skilled, volunteer veterans helping the Afghan military and a self-defense and governance organization modeled after the one called CORDS that actually worked in Vietnam.

Mr. President, give peace – and the Afghan people – a real chance, not another short-lived and fatal “decent interval.”

This is Frank Gaffney.

While Americans are focused on China’s coronavirus and the financial pandemic now afflicting their pension plans, the Chinese Communist Party’s puppet government in Hong Kong is seizing the day.

Three leaders of massive demonstrations last August have been arrested, a seemingly small addition to the 7,000 protestors Beijing’s proxies are believed to have previously taken into custody. But the prosecution of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Hong Kong’s freest newspaper, Apple Daily, and opposition politicians Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, suggests that Chinese dictator Xi Jinping intends to institute a wider crack-down in their city.

The coronavirus is not only distracting us, it is discouraging Hong Kong’s freedom fighters from massing in the streets. It behooves the U.S. government, therefore, to redouble its efforts to protect them and their movement by impressing upon Xi that further oppression will entail real costs.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr gave the latest in a series of positively Churchillian speeches about the challenges facing our country before the National Religious Broadcasters. Notably, he brilliantly channeled the most insightful chronicler of our country’s formative years, Alexis de Tocqueville.

General Barr recalled de Tocqueville’s warning that – in the absence of key checks that have protected our nation from the dangers of “totalitarian democracy” – we would inevitably be reduced to the tyrannical rule of an intolerant majority. The two men agreed that the most important of such checks were: a national grounding in faith and morality; limited government in a federalized system where power is entrusted to leaders most accountable to the people; and an independent, free press.

While our Attorney General professed optimism that we will restore these checks, the hour is late to do so.

This is Frank Gaffney.

American investors are among those feeling ill as U.S. capital markets respond to the spreading coronavirus. For example, 401k plans were hard hit yesterday, with the distinct possibility of further losses as disruptions in Chinese supply chains increasingly afflict businesses here. 

Let’s be clear about who’s to blame for this potential financial pandemic. Primarily, it’s the Chinese Communist Party.  Among other things, it failed to act for a month, contributing to the virus’ deadly spread throughout China and beyond.

Then, there are the Wall Street financiers and their enablers at the Securities and Exchange Commission who have exposed millions of U.S. investors’ funds to huge losses in non-transparent, risky and sometimes malevolent Chinese companies’ stocks and bonds. As those bets prove to have been predictably reckless, they must be held accountable along with their friends in the Chinese Communist Party.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Phil Haney was a “bug guy” and a national treasure – an entomologist who proudly described how his skills in classification and following the focuses of his intensive research to “the nest” helped protect America against Sharia-supremacists, at home and abroad.

Phil was a founding member of the Department of Homeland Security where he performed such work brilliantly for Customs and Border Patrol for fifteen years. During much of that time, he was highly acclaimed by his superiors for ferreting out some 300 terrorists.

But in the Obama administration, his work was unwelcome, harassed and punished. Phil was subjected to nine different investigations, but fully exonerated each time. He retired and courageously blew the whistle on the Islamists and leftists who are still endangering us all.

Phil Haney died of a gunshot wound last week. Freedom is less secure today as a result.

This is Frank Gaffney.