Editor note: In 2020, we saw a nationwide push to “defund the police”. While we all stood here shaking our heads wondering if these people were serious… they cut billions of dollars in funding for police officers. And as a result, crime has skyrocketed – all while the same politicians who said “you don’t need guns, the government will protect you” continued their attacks on both our police officers and our Second Amendment rights.
And that’s exactly why we’re launching this national crowdfunding campaign as part of our efforts to help “re-fund the police”.
For those looking for a quick link to get in the fight and support the cause, click here.
Law Enforcement Today recently reported on churches in Virginia which were apparently violating IRS regulations regarding nonprofits by showing videos of Kamala Harris. IRS regulations, upheld by case law expressly prohibit churches from engaging in any political campaign activity.
Apparently that matters not to Democrats, who called in another heavy hitter Sunday, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
According to Newsmax, Abrams visited three black churches on Sunday in Norfolk, Virginia to campaign for Democrat Terry McAuliffe, former governor of the state who is running again. Nobody panders like Democrats.
Abrams, who has still not conceded the 2018 governor’s race in Georgia, also joined McAuliffe, at an early voting station for a rally. She urged residents of Virginia to vote, noting “what you say in 2021 will show the world who we are in 2022 and 2024 and beyond.”
Abrams and McAuliffe appeared maskless, which appears to violate Gov. Ralph Northam’s emergency order they must be worn. This is especially dangerous for Abrams, who clearly has comorbidities which makes her susceptible to the coronavirus.
On Sunday Abrams told a church audience that in he past, she believed combining politics and church was wrong (apparently unaware that it also violates IRS regulations).
However, she claimed, her parents told her church and politics always intersect, with her mother allegedly telling her “Politics is always in the church” while her father allegedly said the Bible was “one of the most intense political texts ever written.”
According to Yahoo News, Abrams was permitted by at least two of the churches to speak from the pulpit during which she pushed McAuliffe’s candidacy.
Both Second Calvary Baptist Church and Faith Deliverance Christian Center allowed Abrams to speak.
“I am the daughter of not one but two pastors,” Abrams said at Second Calvary.
The pastor wore a black T-shirt that read “VOTE” and told his congregation the election is “a very important election.”
The pastor at Faith Deliverance, Sharon Riley claimed “God had a plan” for Abrams in her losing her 2018 race saying that her work for “voting rights” has made her one of the most “significant” Americans.
Her work has paid off handsomely for Abrams, who was in debt when she started her 2018 gubernatorial campaign and now owns two homes totaling $1.4 million. Gotta love politics.
McAuliffe has been calling out the so-called “big guns” as the Virginia race has tightened significantly lately, with Republican Glenn Youngkin closing to a dead heat with the former Clinton adviser. The Cook Political Report last month changed the race from “leans Democratic” to “toss-up.”
Among those who have come to the state to campaign for McAuliffe includes “DOCTOR” Jill Biden, former (and current shadow) President Barack Hussein Obama, and the current occupant of the White House, Joe Biden.
The appearance of McAuliffe and Abrams outside an early voting location could constitute illegal electioneering under Commonwealth of Virginia Codes. According to § 24.2-604, it reads:
- During the times the polls are open and ballots are being counted, or within one hour of opening or after closing, it is unlawful for any person (i) to loiter or congregate within 40 feet of any entrance to any polling place; (ii) within such distance to give, tender, or exhibit any ballot, ticket, or other campaign material to any person or to solicit or in any manner attempt to influence any person in casting his vote;
In case you missed it, below is our report on the insufferable Kamala Harris’s video message to Virginia (black) churches from earlier this week.
DIG DEEPER
The following contains editorial content which is the opinion of the writer, a retired Chief of Police and current staff writer for Law Enforcement Today.
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VIRGINIA- Pandering– catering to special interests without any principles, such as a politician who says to whatever group he/she is addressing just what they want to hear to win their support, contributions, or favors.
Pander, meet Kamala Harris.
Gateway Pundit reports that Kamala Harris has recorded a video, which will be played at some 300 black-only churches in the Commonwealth of Virginia to coerce black voters into voting for feckless Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor.
The effort, which was originally reported by CNN should present some legal problems for the McAuliffe campaign, but in 2021 America, where we operate under two disparate systems of rules and justice, we won’t hold our breath.
First, an excerpt from the CNN report:
More than 300 black churches across Virginia will hear from Vice President Kamala Harris between Sunday and election day in a video message that will air during morning services as part of an outreach effort aimed to boost McAuliffe. [emphasis added]
In the video, first obtained by CNN, Harris said her time growing up in Oakland’s 23rd Avenue Church of God taught her it was a “sacred responsibility” to “lift up the voices of our community.”
“I believe that my friend Terry McAuliffe is the leader Virginia needs at this moment,” says Harris, before praising McAuliffe’s “long track-record of getting things done for the people of Virginia.”
Harris implores congregants to vote following church service. The McAuliffe campaign has embraced “Souls to the Polls,” block-party style events featuring top campaign surrogates after church near polling locations, to drive voter turnout.
This election is the first year Virginians will be able to vote on Sunday.
As a point of information, Harris was seven years old when her parents separated and she moved to Montreal. It is extremely doubtful that Harris, now 56 remembers what she was taught as a young child in a church in Oakland. That doesn’t matter because Harris, just like her boss Biden, isn’t immune to a bit of exaggeration.
Further, Harris is being pushed as being an “African American.” From her biography:
“Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in California. Her mother, a Tamil Indian named Shyamala Gopalan Harris worked as a breast cancer scientist. Her father, a Jamaican named Donald Harris, serves as a Stanford University economics professor.” [emphasis added]
Black, yes. African American? Hardly.
Yet, the McAuliffe campaign is sending her out, using her “race” to pander to black voters. How condescending and demented is that? Sadly, the pandering will probably prove effective.
That brings us to the legality of what is being done. Remember, churches are tax-exempt organizations. As such, churches are strictly prohibited from engaging in political campaign activity. It appears, by playing a campaign message from Harris during church services touting the campaign for a single candidate, the McAuliffe campaign and Harris are operating in violation of the law and IRS regulations.
In an IRS publication which addresses “Charities, Churches and Politics,” it addresses a 1954 law approved by Congress, with an amendment introduced by then Sen. Lyndon Johnson which prohibited “501 (c)(3) organizations—which includes charities and churches—from engaging in any political campaign activity.”
In fact, the IRS notes that Congress has revisited the ban since that time and has in fact strengthened the ban, with the latest update coming in 1987 whereby Congress clarified that the prohibition included statements opposing candidates.
In defining 501(c)(3) organizations, the IRS specifically defines such an organization as one:
“…which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”
Seems pretty clear. By playing a video by Harris, touting the campaign specifically of McAuliffe, his campaign is clearly in violation of IRS rules. While IRS rules do permit churches or other nonprofit organizations to advocate or lobby for (or against) issues in the political arena, they cannot actively campaign for specific candidates or they risk losing their 501(c)(3) status.
Under the IRS regulations for 501(c)(3) organizations, the IRS writes:
The regulations further provide that activities that constitute participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate include, but are not limited to, the publication or distribution of written statements or the making of oral statements on behalf of or in opposition to such a candidate. [emphasis added]
There is also case law affirming the IRS regulation regarding nonprofits, in this case churches and campaign activity.
Branch Ministries v Charles O. Rossotti CA 95-0724 (PLF) saw the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issuing summary judgment dismissing the church’s case and upholding the constitutionality of the ban on political activity. The plaintiffs had alleged they were being targeted due to conservative views and their First Amendment right to free speech was being infringed.
The court wrote: “The government has a compelling interest in maintaining the integrity of the tax system and in not subsidizing partisan political activity, and Section 501(c)(3) is the least restrictive means of accomplishing that purpose.”
Fox Business reports that included within the behemoth $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill is nearly $78 billion in new funding for the IRS which will have tens of thousands of new IRS hit men otherwise known as agents to target low and middle-income taxpayers with more than $600 in the bank. Meanwhile, it’s simply fine and dandy for Democrats to skirt IRS regulations on conducting political campaigns within our churches.
As former NBA star Charles Barkley famously said a couple of years ago:
‘We need to start holding you Democrats accountable,” Barkley said on Michael Smerconish’s SiriusXM radio show. “Because they’ve been taking black people’s votes—and they only talk to black people every four years. All of these politicians only talk to black people every four years because they want their vote.”
Pandering—Democrats are experts at it.
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