Trump, Robert E. Lee, Some Nut Hates Republicans, and Our First Debate Last Night

Statement

Yeah, I know. That's a really long title for the blog this week. But a lot's happened since last week. So without further ado, let's get to it.

As I'm sure you know, President Trump came to town last Friday. And since I kind of had a ringside seat as the whole thing unfolded, I thought I'd share what I saw. He flew in on Air Force One (a smaller plane than the Boeing 747 he uses for international travel) into Lunken Airport. My Wife Donna and I, along with Mike Odioso, the President of the Green Township Republican Club, and Alysha Johnson, Co-Chair of Hamilton County for Trump, got to greet the President as he came down the stairway from the plane. He then walked over to the press traveling with him and answered some questions. Then he greeted a lot of enthusiastic folks there to welcome him, and then attended a fundraiser for my campaign inside one of the hangers, before caravaning to the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Ohio for a rally.

And what a rally it was! If you haven't attended one, I'd highly recommend it (unless you're a liberal -- in which case you'd probably just be offended -- probably more than once.) After he had spoken for some time, President Trump invited Congressman Jim Renacci, who's running against Sherrod Brown for the Senate, up onto the stage to speak to the enthusiastic crowd. Jim spoke for a while, I'd say about 5 minutes or so. And I thought he did a nice job.

Then the President said some nice things about me, and invited me up onto the stage. Now I'd been told he might do so, so I'd spent a couple hours earlier that day writing and re-writing a speech, which I thought was pretty good. But I didn't give it (If you'd like to read it, here is the speech I had prepared.) Here's more or less what I did say:

"God bless Warren County, and Hamilton County and Butler County (part of Butler County was in my Congressional District, but isn't anymore. However,I knew a lot of people from Butler County were there, since it's close by.) And God bless President Trump. And I never thought I'd be saying, this but God bless Kanye West!" (Who'd just had an interesting visit at the White House.) The Crowd went wild. Then I told a joke "how many liberals does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they prefer to stay in the dark." The crowd seemed to like the joke. Then I thought to myself, you know what, all these people are here to see the President, not me. So I put my prepared speech back into my pocket, wrapped up with a "God bless President Trump," shook hands again with the President, and walked off the stage. And people seemed to like that too.

Anyway the President's speech was great. The people who attended seemed to have a great time, even though the weather could've been better -- all around thumbs up. Except for one thing. My opponent, Aftab Pureval, apparently got his sensitive feelings offended. Because President Trump, in trying to pay a compliment to Ohioans, mentioned some of our great Ohio President's, like William McKinley, and Ulysses S. Grant. Here's what President Trump actually said:

"So Robert E. Lee was a great general and Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia, he couldn't beat Robert E. Lee. He had all of these generals. They looked great. They were the top of their class at West Point. They were the greatest people. They didn't know how the hell to win. And Lincoln said "I don't care what problem he has. You guys aren't winning.' And his name was Grant, General Grant. And he went in and knocked the hell out of everyone."

So my opponent goes to a church in Avondale on Sunday and says the following: "Donald Trump came to our community, came to our city, came to our neighborhood and praised Robert E. Lee, a Confederate General. Our Representative, Steve Chabot, did he call him out? Did he criticize the President for celebrating a man like Lee? No. He praised him. He said a vote for Chabot is a vote for Trump. That's exactly right a vote for Chabot is a vote for Trump." A. I didn't say what Mr. Pureval says I said. B. The President wasn't saying that what Robert E. Lee stood for was great, but that he was a great general, who was winning battle after battle against the Union, before Ohio's own Ulysses S. Grant, came along and defeated him. And C. Mr. Pureval needs to get a grip.

Okay, switching gears. I was driving on Delhi Pike near River Road the other day when I saw what appeared to be half of one my yard signs hanging on a telephone pole. I turned around to see what the heck was up, and saw that there was writing on the back of it. Here's what it said:

So someone had obviously stolen one of our yard signs; ripped it in half; written their message of hate on it; and stapled it to a telephone pole to share this message of hate with the public. Seems to fit right in with the incivility being spread by the likes of Maxine Waters, Kathy Griffin, Michael Moore, Eric Holder, ANTIFA, and most recently Hillary Clinton, who basically said we can have civility back again -- after they take over.

And finally, we had our first of three debates last night at the American Jewish Committee Center in Amberley Village. My opponent and I, as well as Congressman Brad Wenstrup and his opponent, participated. Seemed to go fine. Hopefully, those who were present or watched it on TV (it was broadcast live on channel 12) found it useful in determining who they will vote for in 3 weeks (or of course they could vote earlier by absentee ballot, or by going to the Board of Elections.) Obviously I'm biased, but I found several things quite interesting. First, my opponent, Aftab Pureval, lied flat out when he denied that he'd filled out a questionnaire saying he was against making the middle class tax cuts permanent. Here's the actual questionnaire showing that he lied.

CCV-Screenshot-Pureval-Tax-No
And I brought to Mr. Pureval's attention, the fact that several local county elected officials had come out against Issue 1 the day before -- Republican Prosecutor Joe Deters, Democratic Sheriff Jim Neil, and Democratic Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco. I told Mr. Pureval that I was opposed to Issue 1, and noted that he had been silent about his position, and asked him whether he was for it or against it. He remained silent. Seems like the voters in our congressional district, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, have a right to know about a candidate's stance on the most important drug-related issue on the ballot this year -- what with opioid, heroin, and drug-related deaths being such a critical issue facing us. But apparently Mr. Pureval feels otherwise.

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