The acquittal of Donald Trump yesterday represents an opportunity for a fresh beginning – a chance to put partisanship aside in the wake of the crushing repudiation of a politically driven impeachment and in the interest of a nation much in need of unity.

Don’t hold your breath. For one thing, this is, of course, an election year. With the campaign for the White House and down ballot offices on the line, the country will be preoccupied with politics non-stop from now until November – and probably beyond.

Worse, those who have repeatedly tried to thwart Mr. Trump are not just deeply hostile to him personally. They seem determined to achieve a “fundamental transformation” of America and see him as their principal impediment. 

All we can hope for is that the impending election will mandate a course that keeps America sovereign and free.

This is Frank Gaffney.

The state of the Union was on full display last night in the U.S. House of Representatives. On the one hand, the President masterfully made the case that the United States is strong today economically, militarily and in terms of our energy security and preeminence internationally.

Yet, the Union is afflicted by the deep antipathy towards Mr. Trump and his America First policies evident in the repeated refusal by Nancy Pelosi and her caucus to applaud good news about our country. The extent of their Trump Derangement Syndrome was captured as the Speaker peevishly tore up the President’s speech.

Despite such partisan rejectionism, we are indisputably stronger as a nation. But not as much as we need to be in this dangerous world. It will likely take an election that rejects the Left and its anti-American agenda fully to restore our Union.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Rush Limbaugh’s announcement yesterday that he has advanced lung cancer came as a terrible shock to all those of us who have learned from, been inspired by and treasured the nation’s most influential conservative talk radio host.  

While there are countless examples of Rush’s impact, my most personal and prized memory was when he turned his attention – and that of his vast audience – to the need to oppose Bill Clinton’s unverifiable, defective Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Thanks in no small measure to his forceful denunciation of the accord, it became the only arms control agreement in history to be rejected by an actual majority of the United States Senate.

Nearly as shocking as Rush’s awful news was the appalling glee with which it was greeted by some of his many detractors. Shame on them and heartfelt thanks to you, Rush.

This is Frank Gaffney.

One of the nation’s most perceptive pollsters has just conducted a national survey of likely voters to assess their knowledge of, and concerns about, China. John McLaughlin’s findings are riveting and affirm a central reality about the upcoming election:

The next Commander-in-Chief – irrespective of party or political philosophy – is going to find that contending with the Chinese Communist Party is Job #1 in the national security, the economic and probably the public health portfolios. What do candidates for the job know of the myriad threats posed by China – and what would they do about them?

Fortunately, by a seventy-seven point margin, those polled want the presidential candidates to answer such questions. And majorities in every tested demographic would support a candidate who offered a more robust response to the China threat.

This is Frank Gaffney. Check out The China Poll at PresentDangerChina.org.

The long national nightmare of what amount to successive coups against Donald J. Trump appears to be nearing an end. The US Senate seems likely shortly to vote to acquit him of charges that House partisans used recently to impeach the President. The outcome of this, latest effort to remove Mr. Trump from office was never really in doubt. But thank heavens, it will shortly be behind us.

Or will it? Democratic operatives remain determined as ever to destroy this President politically. Some are actually talking about trying to impeach him again. Others want him removed from ballots across the country. And, failing that, they all seem determined to use the President’s impeachment to defeat him at the polls in November.

Enough already. An acquitted President is a not guilty one. Let the voters decide if he should be re-upped.

This is Frank Gaffney.

One of President Trump’s most important – yet least applauded – initiatives is an executive order he issued last March to protect our electric “grid” and other critical infrastructure from electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) attacks that could destroy these assets and our country.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of observing firsthand a very exciting and promising effort to operationalize the President’s guidance. Local government officials, the business community and leaders of the nation’s largest military base have joined forces to have San Antonio, Texas become the first city in the country to make its grid resilient against EMP and other threats.

While much remains to be done, their shared commitment to create a template for action that will protect San Antonio’s infrastructure and people – and serve as a model for the rest of Texas and America – is as exhilarating as it is urgently needed.  

This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has made the Palestinians an offer he hopes they can’t refuse.  The “Vision for Peace” he unveiled yesterday at the White House offered them the prospect of a state of their own and $50 billion in exchange for recognizing the State of Israel and committing to live peacefully side-by-side with it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, his chief rival in their nation’s past and upcoming elections, have endorsed the President’s vision.

What passes for the leadership of Palestinians – an unsavory assortment of thugs, corrupt politicians and jihadists – have, however, categorically rejected it. It seems a safe bet that many other Palestinians might be more favorably disposed, but they lack the power and physical security to have any impact.

Consequently, for now, there is a one-state solution for Mideast peace and it’s called Israel. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

There’s reportedly a facility in the Chinese megacity called Wuhan that’s close by the open-air market we’re told is ground-zero for a deadly coronavirus outbreak that just might have a lot to do with the disease’s provenance.

It’s called the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory and it is supposedly one of the most secure complexes of its kind. This lab is ominously situated on a military base that U.S. and Israeli experts think is associated with an illegal Chinese biological warfare program. Potent coronavirus samples were stolen from a Canadian lab by Chinese spies last March, shipped to Wuhan and perhaps weaponized there.

Xi Jinping boasts of transforming his country with a “Made in China” initiative. If these reports prove true, his Chinese Communist Party may have made – and accidentally unleashed on its own people and the world – a pandemic of unprecedented destructiveness. 

This is Frank Gaffney.

The Trump Department of Defense has reportedly objected to a proposal advanced by the Trump Department of Commerce aimed at denying the sale of American technology to Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party’s favorite instrument for its worldwide digital hegemonism.

Evidently, the Pentagon has bought the bizarre argument made by some U.S. suppliers of chips, microprocessors and other sophisticated electronic gear that they won’t be able to afford to do the research and development to beat Huawei’s fifth-generation wireless networks unless they help the Chinese make theirs better.

Fortunately, there’s an alternative to such an obviously self-defeating gambit. We can free up ample financing to underwrite the patriotic innovation and production needed to support superior American 5G systems – and other industries – by redirecting the trillions of dollars Wall Street has been investing in Chinese companies, many of which are engaged in malevolent activities.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Democratic House impeachment managers have repeatedly told Senators this week that President Trump endangered the country and compromised its national security. That’s a transparent lie – and with its endless repetition, the partisan falsehood is being transformed into a Big Lie.  

The pretext for this claim is that the withholding of U.S. military assistance from Ukraine for a few weeks imperiled our nation. While providing the Ukrainians with the means to defend themselves against Russian aggression is a good thing to do, refraining from doing so obviously would not jeopardize America’s security, let alone be an impeachable offense. After all, Barack Obama refused to do it throughout his presidency.

The case could be made that many of those accusing Donald Trump of compromising our national security have actually serially done so themselves. His coming acquittal should put the spotlight on their misdeeds.

This is Frank Gaffney.