Happy Thursday! Today’s Brew is being poured by guest barista Gayle McQueary, and we start with some used — but tasty! — grounds from yesterday’s social media feed.

The Hits Keep Coming and Falling Flat

The Atlantic’s recent hit piece on former President Donald Trump — disparaging him as a dictator who has a “disdain for America’s military” — is getting blowback from the family of Vanessa Guillen, whom the article references. Guillen was an Army specialist who was murdered by fellow service member, Aaron David Robinson and his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, at a Texas military base in 2020. General John Kelly — with whom The Atlantic conducted its only live, on-the-record interview for the piece — blasted Trump as “Hitler.” (How original.)

Wow.
I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members. President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today. https://t.co/o8cDrKOKBV

— Mayra Guillen (@mguilen_) October 22, 2024

Even former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who was part of discussion about helping the heartbroken Guillen family, has spoken out about the article’s inaccuracies.

I was in the discussions featured in the Atlantic’s latest hit piece against President Trump. Let me say this.

Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false.

He was nothing but kind, gracious, and…

— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) October 22, 2024

Yesterday afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris decided to weigh in on the article — yet, not from the campaign trail or in response to a reporter’s question, which might have been somewhat normal. Rather, she staged a press conference in front of the vice president’s mansion in Washington, D.C., standing behind a podium bearing the official seal of the Vice President’s office, during which she doubled down on the article’s false claims and took zero questions from reporters. What?

Kamala Harris comes out of the VP residence, stands behind the Official VP Seal, talks about The Atlantic hit piece and doesn’t take questions.

She just put Gen. Kelly’s word against the Guillen family. Smart? Not smart? pic.twitter.com/fG1JbPmIGw

— The Stream (@Streamdotorg) October 23, 2024

Did her campaign managers not think the optics of this through? For one thing, Harris is personal friends with Laurene Powell Jobs — widow of Steve Jobs and current owner of The Atlantic. For another, Kelly doesn’t need her to defend his statements; he’s perfectly capable (maybe even more capable) of doing so himself. And for another, accusing Donald Trump of seeking “unchecked power” while standing behind the official seal of the vice president’s office veritably screams “wannabe dictator.”

This is part of a longstanding pattern of collusion we have seen between leftists and the legacy media. The Left makes unsubstantiated claims about Donald Trump; the legacy media reports on them as if they are fact; and then the Left points to the published articles to substantiate its claims and garner more power unto itself.

Could this whole press conference be just another example of the bad “actors who want a certain outcome” in this election? If you ask journalist Mark Halperin, he would say yes. On Tuesday,  Halperin released a video talking about all the misinformation currently being bandied about in an effort to “try to affect the end of the race.”

Some journalists, he said, “are looking for their own Comey event.” When information is readily available at our fingertips, it can be hard to know which stories to believe.

Eyewitness Accounts

Firsthand accounts of events are generally trustworthy. Take, for example a piece published yesterday on The Stream, “The 2024 Election through the Eyes of Patriotic Refugees.” First-time Stream contributor Michele Le’s account of her parents’ experience of immigrating to the free U.S. after the terrors of Vietnam in the 1970s is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming.

“My parents’ gratitude and loyalty to America compels them now to speak of the dangers they see threatening this constitutional republic,” she writes.

Every day they see the rise of communism in their adopted homeland. When my parents came to this country, they knew they had been given a blessing by Almighty God. No other country holds the promise of human flourishing so reliably as the United States of America. There would be no need to worry about the government taking citizens to jail in the dead of night for political dissent. There would be no need to worry that private property would be unilaterally taken without compensation, as was common in North Vietnam and post-war communist South Vietnam.

Please read the article and pay attention to the warnings from those who know the danger that lies ahead if our nation becomes the Harris-Walz Amerika.

Infiltrated Churches

Meanwhile, Communist infiltration isn’t just a problem within the federal government these days. It’s now being promoted in our churches, as the American Association of Evangelicals has warned us in excruciating detail. Please read our story about this, then sign the group’s letter exposing the insidious George Soros-funded “rent-a-pastor” agenda. (The Catholic Church has its own issues with leaders aligning with the globalist agenda in the person of Pope Francis, as The Stream has pointed out in numerous articles from Jules Gomes, William Kilpatrick, and others.)

These far-left foundations know that biblically solid Christians will vote Republican to protect both the unborn and children being indoctrinated in public schools by perverse ideology — but not if they can confuse and divide the Body of Christ first.

Pray for Citizens

If you’re worried about the erosion of free speech in the good ol’ United States, it’s only because you have good reasons to be.

Our friends at the First Liberty Institute are now representing a South Carolina man who was told by local police that he needed the city’s permission before speaking. On June 20, Ernest Giardino was standing at a public intersection in the town of Chapin, holding a sign declaring the Gospel message of salvation, just as he had done for eight months without issue.

First Liberty Senior Counsel Nate Kellum said it best: “No one needs the government’s permission to express their faith in public.”

See the letter First Liberty sent Chapin’s civic leaders here — and pray for Mr. Giardino wherever you happen to be standing.

Setting the Standard

On a happier note, Dr. Michael Brown shares the story of his wife’s recent experience volunteering with Samaritans Purse to help Hurricane Helene survivors in western North Carolina — and compares it with what happened when previously volunteering with the Red Cross. See what is possible when the Body of Christ steps up like they should, without fear from the government, to do the work of Lord and live out the Gospel! It brings the Kingdom and sets a new standard of excellence in the world.

Along The Stream…

Coming up later today, look for a one-two punch from the aforementioned Jules Gomes and William Kilpatrick as they discuss recent developments within the Catholic Church: respectively, “Pope Francis Renews Secret Pact with China Despite Spike in Religious Persecution” and “Pope Francis and the Fast-Approaching Future.”

On a lighter note, we’ll have the second installment of Washington Bureau Chief Al Perrotta’s three-part special election edition of Al’s Afternoon Tea: “10 Key Moments from the 2024 Campaign Season, Part 2.” It is quite fun, if we do say so ourselves.

Gayle McQueary is The Stream’s social media specialist. She has a background in production and is a scary judge of exploiting military families and dictator wannabes.