TRUMP SECURES REQUIRED DELEGATES, RNC STILL WON'T CLOSE THE DEAL (THE COUP)

TRUMP SECURES REQUIRED DELEGATES, RNC STILL WON'T CLOSE THE DEAL

AFTER TRUMP COLLECTED MORE THAN 1237 DELEGATES, RNC & GOP ESTABLISHMENT LEADERS STILL PLAY HARDBALL.

Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Youtube

It's Official people!

Billionaire Business Mogul Donald J. Trump has finally secured the required 1237 delegates to be officially crowned as the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee. Actually Trump garnered more than 1237 delegates.

However RNC officials and GOP Establishment leaders have yet to agree with Voters that Trump is IT!

When GOP party leaders catch up with the Voters who elected them into public office?

Are RNC and GOP party officials still planning a Coup this July at the RNC convention in Cleveland?

Stay tuned.

***** Mister 1,237: North Dakota delegate puts Trump over the top

John Trandem wanted to be the delegate who would put Donald Trump over the top, giving him enough delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination.

But when he was contacted by an Associated Press reporter, the AP delegate count stood at 1,235 — two delegates short.

"I'm happy to be No. 1,237," said Trandem, a small business owner from North Dakota. "But I won't commit until you're at 1,236."

Trandem is an unbound delegate, meaning he is free to support the candidate of his choice. All 28 Republican delegates in North Dakota are unbound because the state party declined to have a primary or caucus.

Trandem, who lives north of Fargo, was reached on his wife's mobile phone. He was on his way to an event where he and other North Dakota delegates would meet Trump, giving the billionaire businessman enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Wanting to break the story first, reporters were calling and emailing unbound delegates across the country.

Trandem was for Trump, but he didn't want to say so unless he was Mister 1,237.

No problem, he had a solution. He handed the phone to another delegate, state Rep. Ben Koppleman, who was riding with him.

After Koppleman confirmed he was committed to Trump, Trandem took the phone back.

"Are you at 1,236?" he asked.

Yes, he was told. "Then I'm the one!"

Minutes later the AP declared that Trump had secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Later on Thursday, both men shook hands with Trump before sharing a stage with him during a news conference in Bismarck, North Dakota.

2016 GOP CIVIL WAR MAY COST THEM THE WHITE HOUSE - HATING TRUMP (HILLARY WINS)

2016 GOP CIVIL WAR MAY COST THEM THE WHITE HOUSE - HATING TRUMP:

GOP CIVIL WAR MEANS HILLARY CLINTON WINS BY DEFAULT.

As the Nov 2016 Presidential election approaches, it's quite obvious to the naked voter eye that a Civil War is brewing among GOP Establishment leaders.

Voters want DONALD TRUMP but GOP Establishment leaders want JEB BUSH or MARCO RUBIO.

There are rumors floating of a possible Coup at the RNC Convention in CLEVELAND if TRUMP is the party Nominee.

This divisive Civil War may indeed cost the GOP to lose the White House again.

Due to this brewing GOP Civil War HILLARY CLINTON Won't have to campaign as hard and she just might capture the White House by default.

Without UNITY no organization will stand successfully.

Without UNITY no Family or Marriage will survive.

Without UNITY no Political party will Win general Elections.

Will GOP Establishment leaders wake up before it's too late??

~ The GOP Establishment’s Civil War

A free-for-all between Christie, Rubio, Cruz and others, while Trump hovers above it all.

What everyone’s waiting for is the winnowing. New Hampshire and Iowa will force some Republican candidates out. When we know who’s still in we’ll have a surer sense of the contours of the race.

It is still true that the party has never had a year like this, with the ground shifting beneath its feet. It’s hard to see this clearly because on the surface the things you expect to see happening are happening.

The candidates are starting to throw hard punches. They’re all trying to show they can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee—a necessary talent if you make it to the general election. No point in hand-wringing or telling them to stop on the grounds that what they’re doing will produce, for the Democrats, a badly bloodied GOP nominee.

Best and worst have come from Chris Christie, who has a way of keeping things lively. 

Earlier he counseled his fellow contenders not to savage each other—don’t waste your ammo, keep your eyes on the prize. Good advice. This week Marco Rubio’s PAC unloaded a spot slamming Mr. Christie on the old charge he embraced President Obama during Hurricane Sandy.

The governor answered Wednesday on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. He called Mr. Rubio “a first-term United States senator who has never had a tough race.” He continued: “This guy’s been spoon-fed every victory he’s ever had in his life. That’s the kind of person that we want to put on stage against Hillary Clinton?

I don’t think so. She’ll pat him on the head and then cut his heart out.” It was wonderfully colorful and malicious and reminded me of Sen. Bob Kerrey, who said of Bill Clinton in 1992 that he wouldn’t win in November because he hadn’t served in Vietnam: “He’s going to get opened up like a soft peanut.”

Democratic presidential primaries in those days were fierce. They’re not anymore, because the new Democratic Party, the one of the progressive left, has only a single unifying principle: winning. Hillary Clinton’s opponents haven’t laid a glove on her, and won’t.

Mr. Rubio has turned stern and indignant, as if he’s decided the base is angry so he’ll enact anger too. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, he darkly alleges, are “isolationist candidates” whose intent is “weakening our military and intelligence capabilities.” Mr. Paul responded by comparing Mr. Rubio to Rahm Emanuel.

More touchingly, Jeb Bush again warned the base about Donald Trump. “It’s very fun to talk about the theatrics,” he said on “Morning Joe.” Mr. Trump has tapped into “angst and anger,” but “his views are not the views of a conservative.”

Mr. Trump’s supporters don’t care if he’s classically conservative. Doctrinal purity is not the story this year. The GOP base is a big jumble.

Democrats are likely less unified than they think. On the rightward and leftward edges of both parties they hate political correctness, illegal immigration, Wall Street.

A new playbook is emerging while some contenders seem to be reading from the old playbook and wondering why the plays they’re calling aren’t working.

And the GOP is struggling. In Virginia the state Republican Party wants a so-called loyalty oath in the March 1 presidential primary.

Virginia is an open-primary state—any registered voter can vote in either primary—but the GOP apparently wants to discourage independents and Democrats from voting for Mr. Trump. So they’ve decided voters should sign a statement of affiliation with the GOP before they get to cast a ballot. 

This is so idiotic it’s almost unbelievable.

When Democrats and independents want to vote in your primary you should be happy.

 Politics is a game of addition! You want headlines that say “Massive GOP Turnout.” You don’t greet first-time voters with an oath but with cookies, ginger ale and balloons. Ronald Reagan reached out to Democrats in 1984: “Come too, come walk with me.” We still speak of Reagan Democrats.

I do not understand the inability or refusal of Republican leaders to take Mr. Trump seriously.

 They take his numbers seriously—they can read a poll—but they think, as Mr. Bush said, that his support is all about anger, angst and theatrics. That’s part of the story, but the other, more consequential part has to do with real policy issues.

The establishment refuses to see that, because to admit it is to implicate themselves and their leadership. Political consultants can’t see it because they don’t think issues matter—not to them and certainly not to the dumb voters.

But issues do matter, and Mr. Trump has functioned this year not as a great communicator or great compromiser but as the great disrupter. He brags that he has brought up great questions and forced other candidates to face them and sometimes change their stands—and he has.

He changed the debate on illegal immigration. He said he’d build a wall and close the border and as the months passed and his competitors saw his surge, they too were suddenly, clearly, aggressively for ending illegal immigration.

Mr. Trump touched an important nerve in opposing the political correctness that has angered the American people for a quarter century. He changed the debate when he asked for a pause in Muslim immigration until America “can figure out what’s going on.” In the age of terror, that looked suspiciously like common sense.

Americans do not want America to become what Europe is becoming.

You only have to look at what is reported to have happened in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve to get a sense that Europe’s establishment, with its politically correct thinking, is losing control.

Angela Merkel is a great lady and most of her leadership has been sound as a drum, but she will probably lose her job eventually because of her epic miscalculation in accepting more than a million Middle Eastern refugees.

Her decision was no doubt driven by heart and sympathy, but it reminds me of the fall of Margaret Thatcher. In 1989 Thatcher moved to impose a change in the British tax system. This caused resentment and then unrest. She wouldn’t back down, and the next year she fell. Years later she told me what she’d learned.

People are afraid, she said; they live closer to the margins than we understand. When you propose a big change you can leave people feeling as if the rug is being pulled from under them. That’s a big thing to learn, and she spoke of it with humility.

She lost her job by being too tough. Ms. Merkel has imperiled hers by being too soft. But the lesson is the same: know how close to the edge people feel, how powerless, and respect their anxiety. Don’t look down on it, and them.

Back to the Republicans. It reflects badly on the party that Donald Trump—whom one journalist this week characterized as a guy running around with his hair on fire—had to become the party’s 2016 thought leader.

Bernie Sanders has, in a way, had the wit to see this, which is why he said he is reaching out to Trump supporters.

Reaching out. What a concept.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Youtube

REINCE PREIBUS IS CONFIDENT ABOUT BLACK & LATINO VOTER OUTREACH; PROMISES NO PARTY COUP

** REINCE PREIBUS IS CONFIDENT ABOUT BLACK & LATINO VOTER OUTREACH; PROMISES NO PARTY COUP:

DONALD TRUMP'S CHARISMA ATTRACTS MINORITY VOTERS TO GOP.

GOP'S 2016 GROUND GAME FOR NON-WHITE VOTERS IS EXPANSIVE.

~ Republican Party Chairman Says Donald Trump Is Among ‘Varsity’ Candidates

Reince Priebus also promises to be an honest broker at convention

Donald Trump may be giving some in the Republican establishment heartburn, but Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus claims he sees no reason for concern in the bombastic GOP front runner’s candidacy.

“Look at our debates. We’re blowing the doors off these debates,” Priebus told TIME of the Republican nomination race this cycle.

“They’re becoming like World Series–type events that we could never have predicted.

And that will be a good thing for our party, we have to break into the culture of America and we’re doing it.”

Calling Trump a “varsity” candidate, Priebus predicted in advance of this week’s meeting of the 168 members of the RNC that Trump would acquit himself well in a general-election matchup, maintaining that Trump has been a positive force within the GOP primary. “I think that we’ve got sort of the varsity team of candidates out there,

” Priebus said of the 12-person field, adding that the entertainment value has increased the party’s visibility. “I think any one of our candidates can plug into what we’re building and win a cultural vote in this country.”

Priebus’ support comes even as Trump has torn up the 2013 Growth and Opportunity Project report Priebus commission to lead the party back from defeat in 2012.

The document called for more aggressive outreach into minority communities, particularly to Hispanic voters, and explicitly called for comprehensive immigration reform — a position at odds with Trump’s hard-line stances.

In response to the report, the RNC has invested tens of millions of dollars in a permanent field and data operation, which Priebus confidently argued is larger than Hillary Clinton’s vaunted operation. “I think we’re bigger,” he said. “We’ve got more.”

Priebus also maintained he’s unconcerned that the rancorous primary will affect the ultimate nominee, saying it will be “ancient history” in just a few months. “We don’t event remember what happened in August [2015],” he said.

“In a vacuum everything gets over-analyzed, but in the long run I think once you get to a nominee we’re going to have an eternity to bring everything together and get everybody on the same page.”

TIME:  Do you have the sense that this primary process is affecting the party’s chances in the general?

Reince Priebus: We’re charged with putting the ground game and the data operating and the turnout operation together whether voters are excited about the election in 2016 or they’re not excited about 2016.

So, by staying out of the primary, we’ve sort of reaped the benefits from the overall excitement of the base.

Now whether that’s for one candidate or the other is a different story. Those disagreements probably deserve a different analysis.

But as far as recruiting volunteers to get the work done that we need to do, our interest and the interests of our volunteers is off the charts.

And in terms of the rhetoric, you seem unconcerned.

Yeah, I’m confident pulling the party together on message and in elbow grease when this is all over.

Because you know the truth is, when you get to June, July, August, September, October, a month is like a year and a week is like a month. And it’s like an eternity.

And so while we bite our nails and wonder about whether a tough primary is bad for our general-election prospects, or some people think it’s good.

The truth is, I don’t think it matters because there’s so much time involved once you get to a nominee that it’s all sort of ancient history.

Even as I sit here today, July and August is like ancient history.

We don’t event remember what happened in August.

So my point is, in a vacuum everything gets over-analyzed, but in the long run I think once you get to a nominee we’re going to have an eternity to bring everything together and get everybody on the same page.

Does the Clinton operation keep you up at night?

No, because I think we’re bigger. We’ve got more.

And it doesn’t keep me up at night because I know that even if we were able to get to parity with Obama, Mitt Romney would have won.

Even if Romney was able to get to 60%, he would have won.

The problem we’ve got is that if you don’t have a data operation that’s worth a dime, and you’re not in Hispanic, black and Asian communities on a year-round basis, and you’re not targeting your base voters and faith voters and veterans on a year-round basis, you can’t win.

Certainly you can’t win if it’s within a field goal.

You have to get the race within a field goal, and then a sophisticated infrastructure can take you over the top.

So that’s what we’re trying to make sure, that we never embarrass people again with an operation that isn’t up to par with our opponents and that’s what we’ve done.

And we’ve done a good job of it, and no RNC has done better — ever — not even in a presidential year have they done what we’re doing, even by a long shot.

So you need the right candidate to get you in field-goal range. Are you worried that any candidates now can’t get there?

No, I think it’s the opposite. I think that we’ve got sort of the varsity team of candidates out there.

I think any one of our candidates can plug into what we’re building and win a cultural vote in this country.

And that’s our job.

Our job is to make sure whoever that they’ve got something that’s far better than what we had four, eight years ago, and we do.

You’ve said that a lot of the turmoil in this cycle is due to the number of candidates. Is that still the case?

Yeah, certainly, when you have 12 varsity candidates left it makes everything a little bit more complicated, there’s no doubt and I can’t deny that that’s not true — it is true.

But it doesn’t mean that, by the end of March or mid-April, the end of April, that it isn’t going to be very clear.

There’s only so much money to go around, there’s only so long everyone can keep fighting, and at some point I think there’s going to be real clarity, and I think the timing is going to be similar to the timeframe that it’s been in the past.

I know the rules pretty well, I’m pretty confident in how delegates are allocated, I helped write a lot of the rules and I believe that clarity will come very soon.

But you’re planning for a multi-balloted convention.

You obviously prepare for any scenario.

Any serious organization would do something like that, and we’re confident in the process that is in place and also the rules governing the convention and the allocation of delegates.

But, the other thing is we’ve written the rules, we’ve argued over the rules for years, so we understand them.

It’s not like we’re sitting here in a vacuum in a world outside of our own universe.

In other words, we live this world every day.

We have a legal department, I was the former general counsel, I’ve been chairman for six years.

There aren’t too many people who know more about how the rules work than I do or my legal staff, so it’s not like I need some sort of expert help to understand our own governing rules or how our convention might run.

Some supporters of Donald Trump and others have suggested that the RNC could rig the convention.

Either way you’re putting a lot of faith in the convention committees.

Any candidate can come and get a lesson on what the rules are — the RNC and the convention.

The rules are the rules, they’re written, they’re clear, and they’re going to be followed.

There really isn’t — if someone has a majority of delegates in order to win the nomination, they’re going to be the nominee.

The only question is if that isn’t the case, then you’re taking floor votes. And I think that’s highly unlikely, but that’s what would happen if it did.

What of those concerns about fixing the system?

Ultimately if you’ve got the votes on the floor, you’re going to be the nominee. And I think people who’ve known me as chairman — now in my sixth year — I’m about as straight up as anyone that’s anyone that’s ever sat in this office.

I don’t think too many people look at me as a game player, and I’m certainly not hanging out on K-street at cocktail receptions.

A topic in the news today: Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Is he constitutionally eligible to be President?

Listen, I don’t get involved. I’m not going to get in the middle of all these candidate issues. It’s a bad place for me to be. I’ll let all these folks argue about this stuff, and I’m going to stay out of it.

Is there a lesson that the entire GOP can learn from the Trump phenomenon even if he’s not the nominee?

I certainly think that broad truths are something that people are starving for in the country, and I think people are looking for genuine and authentic people, and it’s really important to always be authentic and genuine.

But I also think there are some unique qualities that he has in that he can get earned media in ways that a lot of people aren’t able to do, and that may be unique to him too, so it’s not necessarily something that other people can simply copy.

I think the key is, we’ve got so many good candidates out there that as long as we get to a nominee and we bring the party together, which I’m confident we can do, having all of these unique voices all on the same page, I think that will be very valuable when you consider the fact that Hillary Clinton, her numbers are in the ditch.

From all the analysis and all the talking that’s going on in the Republican primary, the fact is, Hillary Clinton’s numbers are atrocious.

When you’ve got people who don’t trust you, who think you’re a liar, and now we’re getting more emails dumped from the State Department, she’s got big problems.

We’re in great shape to win and I think that one lesson that’s going to come from this primary is that drama and intrigue are a good thing in America today.

Boring and old news is a bad thing.

And so I think that’s the lesson that people are going to take from 2016.

*** GOP ESTABLISHMENT PLANNING A COUP TO BLOCK TRUMP'S NOMINATION (POLITICAL RUMORS):

DO ESTABLISHMENT LEADERS CARE ABOUT WHAT VOTERS WANT??

~ Commentary and Article below by The Young Turks & TIME Magazine

GOP leaders met this week to discuss what to do if they end up next year with a contested convention... if they have to use political tricks to block Donald Trump.

The GOP apparently doesn’t mind ignoring the will of their voters. Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola (Think Tank), Jimmy Dore (The Jimmy Dore Show Podcast), and Mark Thompson, hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down.

"More than 20 top GOP officials discussed at a dinner on Monday the party’s strategy in the event of a brokered convention amid Donald Trump’s consistent lead in the polls.

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) listened as several longtime party members argued the establishment must lay the groundwork for a floor fight if Trump storms through the presidential primaries, five sources familiar with the meeting told The Washington Post.

The sources said Priebus and McConnell were mostly silent during the deliberation and did not signal support for an explicit anti-Trump effort.

But both men did acknowledge that a stalemated convention is something the party should be ready for.”*

Sources: Fox News, The Hill, TIME, TODAY, The Young Turks, Youtube

JEB BUSH LOSES 2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION TO DONALD TRUMP (POLLS)

JEB BUSH LOSES 2016 GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION TO DONALD TRUMP:

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

National Polls reveal DONALD TRUMP is supported by more than 32% of American voters.

National Polls also reveal JEB BUSH supported by only 3% of American voters.

The 2016 RNC Convention will take place JULY 18-21 in CLEVELAND, Ohio.

Who will be crowned as the GOP Presidential nominee?

Millions of voters believe TRUMP will walk away with this prize.

So how did Political Royal Family candidate JEB BUSH lose his bid for the 2016 GOP Presidential Nomination to a Loud Successful Business Mogul from NYC named DONALD TRUMP?

~ New year, old targets:Trump hits Clintons, Bush on Twitter

Donald Trump is picking up where he left off in 2015 when it comes to his favorite Twitter targets.

The brash billionaire and GOP front-runner fired off several attacks against Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and his latest foe: former President Bill Clinton.

Early in the morning, Trump called the former Florida governor a "sad case" with "no chance."

".@JebBush is a sad case. A total embarrassment to both himself and his family, he just announced he will continue to spend on Trump hit ads!" Trump tweeted.

He then hit the former secretary of state over her opposition to his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.

"Hillary Clinton said that it is O.K. to ban Muslims from Israel by building a WALL, but not O.K. to do so in the U.S. We must be vigilant!"

Later in the day, the real estate mogul went on to compare her to Bush, using his favored "low energy" diss.

"Hillary Clinton doesn't have the strength or stamina to be president. Jeb Bush is a low energy individual, but Hillary is not much better!"

Finally, he attacked Bill Clinton -- who will soon appear on the campaign trail to support his wife's presidential bid -- by calling him a "hypocrite" on women's issues.

"I hope Bill Clinton starts talking about women's issues so that voters can see what a hypocrite he is and how Hillary abused those women!"

Trump had recently said that the former president's alleged abuse of women and extramarital affairs were "fair game" for attacks.


~ Jeb Bush Sinks Down Political Hole As Donald Trump Remains Republican Frontrunner

One year ago, some people thought that there was a strong chance Jeb Bush would become the Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election. 

Unfortunately for Mr. Bush, that isn’t looking very likely according to the polls. In fact, no matter how much he tries to attack his opponents, Jeb Bush keeps sinking further and further.

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal asked if Jeb Bush could save his presidency.

 They first described his major problem.

“Yet Jeb Bush, who aspires to be the third President Bush in three decades, so far hasn’t found a sizable GOP market.

Often wobbling rhetorically, humbled by the crowded field, beleaguered by an insult-comic billionaire, his aura of inevitability vanished, if it ever existed.”

The article then notes that a comeback would be almost impossible, especially given that Jeb Bush has a 27.5 percent to 53.3 percent favorable/unfavorable rating, which is worse than the same rating for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. 

However, according to the New York Times, Jeb Bush still plans to save his candidacy.

“Jeb Bush and his supporters still have a pile of money to spend, remnants of $100 million raised when he seemed early last year to be a sure bet…And allies have just begun a new ad campaign in Iowa.”

Other campaigns appear to have counted him out altogether. But, in extensive interviews over the past week, aides to Mr. Bush and important allies described a long-shot plan to pull off what seems all but impossible: winning the Republican nomination for president. 

The plan has six elements: keep attacking, avoid embarrassment in Iowa, do well in New Hampshire, woo Lindsey Graham, and — perhaps most importantly — use the family network to help.

Speaking of attacking, that’s just what Jeb Bush’s Republican running mate is doing.

 Trump’s Twitter account lit up on this weekend with some nasty tweets.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump will release his first TV ad on Monday. The Washington Post says it raises the temperature of the GOP race.

“Donald Trump’s ad begins with a shot of President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Then comes a U.S. battleship launching a cruise-missile strike. From there it moves swiftly through an explosive montage: The suspects in the recent California terrorist attack. Shadowy figures racing across the U.S.-Mexico border. Islamic State militants.”

The ad, even though it hasn’t been released, has been both praised and ridiculed on Twitter — in other words, it’s good PR for Trump.

Many Republicans, even ones who aren’t thrilled with Trump, believe that he is winning and Bush is losing because Trump “has balls.” Do you think Donald Trump will end up taking the Republican nomination? Do you think Jeb Bush is really finished? Give us your thoughts in the comments section.

Sources: CNN, Inquisitir, NBC News, Twitter, Youtube

DO I LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST TO YOU? - LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

DO I LOOK LIKE A TERRORIST TO YOU? - LAS VEGAS AIRPORT

A NATION DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND.


For the last six years extreme PROFILING of BLACK Passengers and BLACK Travelers has increased.

TSA Personnel, Airport Security,  Train Station Security and Bus Station Security Personnel appear to be practicing extreme PROFILING of BLACK citizens in the United States, even when those BLACK citizens are dressed in normal, regular attire.

Regardless of how Courteous, Polite and Hospitable BLACK people behave when traveling, they are frequently treated with Disdain by TSA or Security Personnel.

In fact BLACK citizens who travel are frequently treated as if they are HOMELESS people seeking Shelter.

However rarely does TSA Personnel, Airport Security,  Train Station Security and Bus Station Security Personnel question WHITE Travelers or request to see their Traveling documents until they are actually Boarding.

It's quite obvious that this extreme PROFILING and Disdain towards BLACK citizens who travel is a result of Pres OBAMA'S Racially-divisive POLICIES.

Whether anyone wishes to admit it or not, many of Pres OBAMA'S Policies have divided this nation more so than ever.

Especially in the area of RACE RELATIONS.

A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand.

~ Reps. Black, Flores Introduce Bill to Reverse Discriminatory TSA Policy Ahead of Holiday Travel Season

Congressman Diane Black (R-TN-06) and Congressman Bill Flores (R-TX-17) have introduced H.R. 4026, the Nondiscriminatory Transportation Screening Act.

The legislation would allow Americans to use gun license permits as permissible identification for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) purposes while maintaining strong protections for gun owners’ privacy rights and prohibiting government tracking of individuals who choose to present this identification at airport screenings.

The bill comes ahead of the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday season, where 25 million Americans are expected to board flights to travel destinations throughout the country.

Currently, the TSA explicitly bans the use of handgun licenses at airport checkpoints, despite the fact that these licenses meet all criteria for “verifying identity documents” under current law. Black and Flores released the following statements:

“We all understand the need for stringent security standards at our nation’s airports, but there must also be a place for commonsense.

It is mind-boggling that the TSA has reportedly accepted Costco membership cards at airport screenings, yet its website expressly prohibits the use of handgun carry permits. 

Why the double standard?

Handgun licenses are a government-issued form of identification and no one has given me a valid reason why they cannot be accepted at TSA checkpoints.

Americans who exercise their Second Amendment freedoms have bared the brunt of much hostility from this Administration over the last seven years.

As a handgun carry permit holder myself, I believe this should be a simple, bipartisan step we can take to stop the government’s marginalization of gun-owners and alleviate confusion for millions of American travelers this holiday season,” said Congressman Diane Black.

“As travel continues to be a vital piece of our nation’s economy, TSA should accept approved government issued concealed handgun licenses as a valid form of identification.

The requirements to obtain a concealed license are similar and often times stricter than that of obtaining a standard ID card. Earlier this year, the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution petitioning Congress to allow the TSA to accept concealed handgun licenses.

Concealed handgun licenses contain all of the identifying information required by the TSA. 

It is time they recognize these licenses as acceptable forms of identification.

The Nondiscriminatory Transportation Screening Act provides a commonsense approach for the TSA to update its policies on permissible verifying documents,” said Congressman Bill Flores.

Credits: House.gov, Essence, YouTube