“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
The spread of coronavirus has filled hospital beds, caught political leaders by surprise, and cost thousands of average people their lives.
The government’s orders to practice “social distancing” or “shelter in place” threaten to unleash a tidal wave of unemployment, going out of business sales, and foreclosures.
If there’s a silver lining in the outbreak of this global pandemic—and it’s hard to think of many—it’s this: More people have turned in prayer to the Lord.
President Donald Trump named last Sunday a National Day of Prayer for the matter, and millions of people of every faith bowed their heads to ask for God’s mercy and healing.
Most people were thankful that the president showed his softer side—but not one far-Left congresswoman.
“F—k a National day of prayer,” said a message retweeted by Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, “we need immediate comprehensive action.”
Tlaib is a democratic socialist and a member of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Squad,” along with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-M.N., and Rep. Ayana Pressley, D-Mass.
The original tweet she sent out to her followers without comment was written by David Hogg, the Parkland High School student who turned his survivor status into a platform to demand gun control.
“Don’t let this administration address COVID-19 like our national gun violence epidemic,” Hogg seethed.
Don’t let this administration address COVID-19 like our national gun violence epidemic. Fuck a National day of prayer, we need immediate comprehensive action.
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) March 15, 2020
Hogg and others on the leftist fringe have smeared anyone who offers “thoughts and prayers” as a superstitious fool who’s too stupid to know that all real answers come from the government. It was only a matter of time before they attacked believers for praying about the coronavirus.
Tlaib’s retweet spurred a massive backlash, with many hurling the curse words back at her.
Some conservatives wondered why Tlaib—who has always said she’s proud to be the first Palestinian Muslim woman in Congress—would paint such a negative picture of the faith that’s shared by the majority of the American people.
“I think it’s odd that someone so attached to her own religion would dismiss prayer so easily,” wrote Brandon Morse at RedState.
Americans have volunteered, donated sacrificially, and gone above and beyond for others…and when they see they’ve come to the end of their strength, they pray.
The tweet shows “just how bigoted and nasty she can be toward people not like her,” Morse said.
Other people decided to fight back against her prejudice.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue asked Congress to reprimand Tlaib for her remarks.
Tlaib—who called President Trump a “motherf**ker” the day of her election—has a “reputation for using filthy language,” Donohue wrote in a letter to House Ethics Chairman Rep. Ted Deutsch, D-Fla.
But this time, it’s different. She insulted “entire collectivities” of religion, including “Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and people of all faiths.”
“At the very least, the House Ethics Committee should reprimand her,” Donohue wrote, so it wouldn’t “send the wrong message to millions of Americans.”
Staring an embarrassing congressional reprimand in the face, Tlaib tried to walk things back.
“Let me be clear,” she wrote in a follow-up Twitter message. “My retweet was not to be an attack on prayer. It was to bring attention to the need for meaningful action to combat this public health crisis.”
Doesn’t that still imply that American people’s prayers aren’t meaningful?
Tlaib went on to say the action she wants is the government to cut people checks and end evictions for those who don’t pay their rent.
Let me be clear as someone who has been praying through this all & as someone who attended the National Prayer Breakfast. My retweet was not to be an attack on prayer. It was to bring attention to the need for meaningful action to combat this public health crisis.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) March 16, 2020
Donohue wasn’t buying her non-apology. She just wanted to avoid the consequences of her actions, he said.
“Let me be clear, Rep. Tlaib: You are fooling no one,” he wrote. “You not only have a record of offending people, your anti-Semitic comments have mobilized friends of mine like Rabbi Aryeh Spero to hold a sit-in at Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s congressional office to protest your bigotry (and that of your fellow ‘Squad’ member, Rep. Ilhan Omar).”
“Your record of hate speech is incontestable,” Donohue said.
America is facing a pandemic—a physical, economic, moral, and spiritual crisis. This is a time for Americans to come together, not play politics or claim that supporting government action makes them holier-than-thou.
Tlaib needs prayer. So do all Americans.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”