Not long after former President Trump endorsed Abe Hamadeh in Arizona’s Congressional District (CD) 8 for Congress, it became clear that others would enter the race. Like the now two-time candidate, Hamadeh, Senator Anthony Kern, Speaker Ben Toma, and Blake Masters have all been previously endorsed by President Trump in other races. But only one– former U.S. Congressman Trent Franks, who represented CD 8 for 15 years, has already worked with Donald Trump, and was a strong and consistent protector of the President and his policies.
CD 8 is the premier conservative Republican district in Arizona. Trent Franks has lived there for more than 39 years. His main opponents, Abe Hamadeh and Blake Masters both moved into the district from Scottsdale and Tucson respectively, only a few months ago, for the singular purpose of running for office.
If Franks wins the primary, it will be to Trump’s electoral advantage. No one is more capable or is more determined to pull the 8th Congressional District of Arizona together on behalf of Trump than Congressman Franks — in a state that has proven to have a critical though unpredictable general election outcome for the nation.
However, it is the past actions of Franks that will very likely prove more vital to President Trump’s future. Franks’ behind-the-scenes role is the stuff of future history books.
It is well documented in Peter Baker’s biography of George Bush, “Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House”, in media reports, and in other sources, that Congressman Trent Franks had a significant role in Congress in the current make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Beyond his crucial involvement in the Bush appointees to the Supreme Court, Franks also led the effort in Congress, (over the objections of Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell) to pressure the Senate to finally change their debilitating motion-to-proceed-to-consider procedure on Supreme Court appointments. This vital change was the only thing that prevented Democrats from successfully and indefinitely blocking the confirmation of Trump judicial appointees, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney-Barrett.
This is the Court that has now preserved presidential immunity in the Constitution and will also rescue Donald Trump from the gross miscarriage of justice by the Biden DOJ. It will not only ultimately overturn President Trump’s guilty verdict on 34 felony counts for what amounts to a staffer mislabeling one check in internal business records, it may be the Court that ultimately rescues America.
Franks explains, “Based on glaring historic precedents, President Trump’s legal team should immediately be pursuing an “all writs on all fronts” strategy. If asked directly, I am convinced the Supreme Court will be disposed to preempt and end this ongoing treasonous and rampant stupidity emanating from the blue states, before it ends America. The Justices are human beings, and they know they cannot escape the eventual duty to review this trampling underfoot of the U.S. Constitution in this farcical New York kangaroo court case.”
President Trump would be wise to consider Franks’ advice in light of yet another major backstory that potentially impacted then candidate Trump’s life and career. In what infamously is known in political circles as a convenient “October surprise”, only one month out from the 2016 presidential election, the Washington Post released the famous tape of Donald Trump and television host Billy Bush having “an extremely lewd conversation about women.”
During a special conference call convened for Republican members of Congress shortly after the tape was released, then Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan announced that he was planning a press conference to openly disavow Donald Trump and withdraw his endorsement of him.
Many in the Republican conference shared the Speaker’s belief that the Billy Bush tape had doomed Trump’s chances in the election and that redirecting all Republican resources to build a Republican firewall in Congress against a Hillary Clinton presidency was the wisest course.
Thankfully, during the call with the Republican Conference, Congressman Franks and four other Republican members talked Speaker Ryan off the ledge. Franks made a plea to the Speaker based on what a Hillary Clinton presidency would do to the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and to, “a half a million little unborn women every year for the foreseeable future.” Franks said, “If Trump only has a five percent chance of winning, then we [Republican members] should all be willing to lose our own elections to give him that chance.”
If the Speaker’s radioactive press conference had proceeded as planned, Donald Trump would most certainly have lost the 2016 presidential election, changing the entire course of history.
The conversation was heated but, after hearing from these five members and with most of the other 200+ Republican members of the House listening on the line, Speaker Ryan acquiesced and agreed to cancel his plan. (Ryan still refused to appear with Trump.)
A short time later, Franks went on the offensive in media interviews making an impassioned defense of Trump while many of his colleagues ran for cover.
Then, less than two weeks before the 2016 election, still desperate to give Trump every possible advantage in the face of many polls that indicated he would lose, Franks, his brother, a mutual friend, and I created a very powerful pro-life commercial about Hillary Clinton’s extreme “abortion until birth” stance on the issue.
Together they pooled $50,000 of their own money to strategically place the commercial in Facebook ads in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada in order to have strategic impact on those important races. The ad targeted known pro-life, registered, but intermittent, voters to motivate them to vote. The ad went viral and received a measured 21 million full views in those critical states where Trump won by razor-thin margins.
Franks recently summed it all up by explaining, “Donald Trump sometimes demonstrates all of the tact and diplomacy of a World War II torpedo, but if he had never been president, the Constitution would be vapor right now, Roe versus Wade would still be standing, and ISIS might still be butchering their way across the Middle East. If we do not elect him president again, Biden and the lunatic left will continue to weaponize what remains of American government into total oblivion. Regardless of who Trump endorsed, I categorically endorse him for a thousand reasons central to the survival of America and human freedom.”
It appears that Statesmanship still lives.
Sidney Hay is a veteran Arizona GOP Public Affairs Consultant. She has consulted with and managed ballot measure campaigns, campaigns for Congress and multiple U.S. Presidential campaigns.
A guest post by
Sydney Hay
A longtime Arizona public affairs consultant, Sydney Hay has a long list of policy enactments to her credit. She has consulted on or managed many campaigns including successful ballot measures and campaigns for federal office.
Featured Image Photo by Fine Photographics on Unsplash
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