President Donald J. Trump holds a Bible after walking from the White House Monday evening, June 1, 2020, to St. John's Episcopal Church, known as the church of Presidents, that was damaged by fire during demonstrations in nearby LaFayette Square.
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
By Fred Lucas
The Daily Signal
WASHINGTON—Citing the federal arrests of pro-life activists, former President Donald Trump vowed to establish a task force to investigate anti-Christian bias if he is elected to another term.
“Joe Biden has weaponized the Justice Department to viciously prosecute pro-life activists,” Trump said of the current president on Saturday during remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 15th annual Road to Majority Conference in Washington, D.C.
“I will also create a new federal task force on fighting anti-Christian bias,” Trump later added. “Its mission will be to investigate all forms of illegal discrimination, harassment, and persecution against Christians in America. It’s taking place at a level that nobody can believe. This is not America any more that we are living in.”
Trump specifically talked about the case of Paulette Harlow, a 75-year-old woman sentenced recently to 24 months in prison for singing in front of an abortion clinic after she was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act.
Harlow told The Daily Signal earlier this month, “I felt like it was a tremendous privilege to stand in the court on behalf of the unborn, who have no voice.”
For its part, the Biden administration has said the FACE Act is in place to protect the health and safety of women seeking abortions.
Trump delivered a wide-ranging speech, talking almost 90 minutes about the border crisis, the economy and inflation, and crime. He also talked about his own legal problems, which he said were bogus.
He was in front of an enthusiastic crowd that interrupted his speech several times with chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump,” and “USA, USA.”
Trump said he has more political wounds than any other president, but noted Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson come closest.
His remarks come days before the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden on Thursday.
This was Trump’s ninth speech at the Road to Majority Conference.
He is banking on comparing the strong economy under his watch with the lagging economy and inflation under the Biden administration. Biden, meanwhile, is beginning to primarily campaign on Trump’s felony conviction in New York last month.
Trump began talking about the targeting of pro-life activists as a contrast with his position that abortion is a policy that should be decided by the states—not the federal government.
He talked about the three justices he appointed to the Supreme Court who voted with the court’s majority in 2022 to scrap the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide.
“Thanks to these justices, we have what the pro-life movement has fought for for 49 years and we’ve gotten abortion out of the federal government,” Trump said. “Now, the people will decide, and that’s the way it should be. Some states will be more conservative. Some states will be more liberal.”
Trump insisted Democrats don’t want people in the states deciding.
“If the radical Democrat extremes get their way, they will have a federal law on abortion to rip the baby out of the womb in the seventh, eight, ninth month, or even execute the baby after birth,” Trump said.
The “execute” reference, Trump said, was about former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who had seemingly supported the idea of allowing a baby who survived an abortion to be killed.
Trump said he is pro-life, but made exceptions for the life of the mother, rape, or incest.
“Every voter has to go with your heart and do what is right. We have to get elected,” Trump told the audience.
Trump is scheduled for a rally in Philadelphia, and wasn’t originally on the conference’s speaking list. Trump said that his campaign staff encouraged him to cancel out of the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, and he joked, “I don’t have the courage to do that.”
Trump told the largely Christian crowd that not enough Christians turn out to vote.
“Christians go to church, but they don’t vote that much,” Trump said. “Do you know how much power you’ll have if you vote? Just this time. In four years, I don’t care.”
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]
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