Last Friday Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) spoke at a rally for Sam Clovis’ U.S. Senate campaign at the Airport Holiday Inn and Conference Center in Des Moines, IA. Approximately 300 people were in attendance.
Jan Mickelson of WHO Radio opened the rally. He joked that he was not endorsing Sam because he “wouldn’t want to do that to anybody, especially somebody he likes as much as Sam.” He discussed the state of the electorate and introduced Congressman Steve King.
Referring to the crisis our country is now in Mickelson said, “There are only a handful of people that I know in the political class in our immediate influence to have the skill sets to deal with a time like this. A handful. Most of them are posers, wannabees, and people who think they can buy access to the political process with 30 second commercials. Very few have given the candle power that these problems need to be addressed. We need right now leader who recognize that as an economy and as a culture we are in deep shinola. While at the same time these same people with clarity and optimism say what needs to be done to restore the American dream. As I said I can count people like that on one hand. Sam is on that list.”
Congressman Steve King (R-IA) was present at the rally to intrdouce his friend Congressman Gohmert.
Congressman Gohmert gave a low-key speech addressing his background and different issues the campaign asked him to highlight. Gohmert who had a recent exchange with Attorney General Eric Holder over the House finding Holder in Contempt of Congress. “Anyone who is that cavalier with the truth and the facts has no business being the Attorney General of the United States,” Gohmert said.
He stated the Constitution, referring to a quote by John Adams that said the Constitution is only fit for a moral religious people, Gohmert state, “it is only fit for a people who cling to their God and their guns.”
Gohmert, a former judge, rebuked the Supreme Court over their Obamacare decision which he stated was deeply flawed due to it first saying that the individual mandate was a penalty and not a tax so the Supreme Court would have jurisdiction to hear the case, and then later calling that mandate a tax making it constitutional. “I am sorry folks, but any Supreme Court that would play that kind of mental gymnastics to approve an unconstitutional bill does not have the moral authority to continue deliberating on such bills. It’s time that we make clear to the Supreme Court ‘you can’t keep putting out decisions that violate the conscience of anyone who believes in the Constitution. You have got to get serious about your jobs,’” Gohmert said.
Clovis gave an impassioned speech. He talked about the pastors who have endorsed him whom he prays with . He said those times lift him. Choking up he said, “It lifts me, because there are things going on in this country that are shameful, there are things going on in this country that strike at the very heart of who we are as a nation, and that is one of the reasons I am running for the United States Senate.”
Clovis gave a defense of the right to life. “In our history, we can go from Mosaic law to the birth of Christ to where we are today passing through Thomas Aquinas, Althusius, John Locke, Montesquieu – all the great thinkers to Jefferson and Madison and Adams and all the great founders and one thing is consistent in that. In all the things that are talked about and all the things that we deal with – the first is life, the second is liberty. Those two come in that order because if we do not protect life from conception to natural death we fail with every other factor we have in our life,” Clovis stated.
“I am astounded that we have candidates that are running for public office that do not have the courage to stand up and make a stand, take a stand, and be accountable for what they believe. If they can not do that they do not have a right to serve the people of Iowa,” Clovis added.
He tied religious liberty with tax policy. “Any of us who believe in religious freedom understand that liberty is there for us. Because that is what it is there to protect – the exercise of conscience. We have right now a government that is assaulting our churches and assaulting our religion and assaulting our faith. If you think the Catholic Church is where it is going to end you’re wrong. It’s going to be after the Baptists and then the Methodists and everybody else in this country. And someday a preacher is not going to be able to stand up to the podium and say anything because it is considered hate speech. The United States IRS is going to be after them, and that is why we have to repeal the 16th Amendment and abolish the IRS and go to the Fair Tax,” Clovis asserted.
Clovis’ campaign manager Chuck Laudner told Caffeinated Thoughts that Sam was on a roll since the Iowa Press debate, and the rally was a reflection of that.