Trump reveals American hostage in Venezuela is coming home

An American held in a Venezuela prison for two years is coming home, President Trump and U.S. lawmakers announced Saturday morning.

Joshua Holt, a 26-year-old American from Utah, was held in a Venezuelan prison in Caracas without a trial on weapons charges which he denied. He had traveled to the South American country to get married to a woman he met online.

"Good news about the release of the American hostage from Venezuela. Should be landing in D.C. this evening and be in the White House, with his family, at about 7:00 P.M. The great people of Utah will be very happy!" Trump said in a tweet.

Trump said in a follow-up tweet that he is "looking forward" to greeting Holt at the White House this evening.

Looking forward to seeing Joshua Holt this evening in the White House. The great people of Utah are Celebrating!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

The release comes after Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who recently won re-election in a contest that the U.S. and other countries panned as a "sham," in Caracas on Friday. According to the Associated Press, Corker was accompanied by Caleb McCarry, an aide who took part in backchannel talks with a Maduro associate to secure Holt's release.

Following Trump's tweet, lawmakers from Utah and elsewhere in the U.S. applauded Holt's release.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, explained that he had been hard at work for two years to secure the release of Josh and Thamy Holt, and credited Corker for his "pivotal efforts," along with offering plaudits to the Foreign Relations Committee and McCarry.

BREAKING: Senator Hatch has secured the release of Utahn Josh Holt from Venezuela. #utpol pic.twitter.com/q9bPIVHgmk

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) May 26, 2018

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., also a member of Foreign Relations, heralded the release as being "UNCONDITIONAL."

In a video posted to Facebook last week, Holt, from prison called on the American people to help secure his release.

“I’m calling on the people of America – I need your help to get me out of this place,” Holt said. “I’ve been begging my government for two years. They said that they are doing things but I’m still here and now my life is threatened. How long do I have to suffer here? How long do my kids have to go asking for mommy and daddy?”

His mother, Laurie Holt, recently told Fox Business that her son had been set up and was being held hostage for being an alleged spy for the U.S. She also said her son told her that a prison riot had broken out and he feared for his life.

“There were a lot of videos that were sent from different individuals inside the prison,” she said. “One of them actually sent me a video of Thamy and Josh still behind the bars in their cell and you can see it – the side where some of the people … had sat and pounded into the cement to try to open up the doorway to get in to kill him.”

Holt's release comes two weeks after three Americans were freed from North Korea, secured by the Trump administration as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the country amid planning for a now-canceled summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-reveals-american-hostage-in-venezuela-is-coming-home

>>1549118

Peace and Unity, finally

Democrats and the media are losing the culture war

It must be written somewhere that in the age of Trump, Democrats and the national media are required to stake out thoroughly stupid positions in the culture wars.

Abstaining isn’t an option.

The New York Times ran three pieces this week opposing the NFL’s new policy requiring players to stand for the national anthem during games, or remain in the locker room if they won’t.

The Times’ liberal columnist David Leonhardt called the rule “unpatriotic” because it “reject[s] a basic American value.” (Making a statement about your special interest during a short patriotic song, you see, is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind.)

The paper’s editorial board injected its favorite topic, race, writing that the NFL “capitulated to a president who relishes demonizing black athletes.”

And in keeping with the Times’ long tradition of publishing conservative voices so long as their opinions are weak, the paper gave space to anti-Trump writer David French to denounce “the conservative mob” for approving of the NFL’s policy.

By “conservative mob,” French apparently means the large majority of Americans who don’t approve of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.

PBS White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor tweeted Wednesday that the “NFL is publicly siding with President Trump by requiring players to now stand during the national anthem and stop protesting police brutality.”

If the NFL is “siding” with Trump and the “conservative mob,” it’s only because that side is more popular than the Times’ editorial board.

Trump first charged into the kneeling issue during a campaign-style rally on Sep. 22, 2017.

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” he said.

After Democrats and liberals in the media criticized him for his comments, a Reuters poll showed public support for his position soar.

On Sept. 26, half of Americans said they disagreed with NFL players kneeling during the national anthem and just 40 percent said they agreed with it. By Oct. 2, nearly 60 percent said they disagreed with the kneeling and the portion that agreed with it shrunk to 30 percent.

A more recent Washington Post poll published this week said that 53 percent of Americans said it was “never appropriate” to kneel during the anthem.

Trump himself isn’t even that popular with the public, which should indicate that he was at least onto something.

Media: No thanks, we’ll reflexively take the losing side because it feels good!

The exact same episode played out last week when Trump used the words “animals” to describe illegal immigrant gang members.

Democrats spent days defending the dignity of MS-13, the violent gang network made up mostly of Central American immigrants known for cutting up their victims with machetes.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tweeted in response, “When all of our great-great-grandparents came to America they weren’t ‘animals,’ and these people aren’t either.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., responded to Trump’s comments by noting that “We are all God's children.”

And CNBC’s John Harwood tweeted, “however repugnant their actions, MS-13 gang members are human beings…”

A Harvard-Harris poll this week showed that more than half, 56 percent, of Americans said it was “fair” to call MS-13 members “animals.” That’s compared to 44 percent who said it was unfair. (The poll didn’t ask if respondents would instead prefer to call them “God’s children.”)

There are real feelings that Americans have about their culture, what it is, and how it should be preserved.

Democrats and the media don’t get it, so they’re picking fights they will inevitably lose.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/democrats-and-the-media-are-losing-the-culture-war