When Guatemalan President Alejandro Gammattei Met Vice President Kamala Harris, He Politely Schooled Her Bigtime
Harris must have realized that it was a huge mistake for her to have come to Guatemala, because she could not credibly rebut President Giammattei's explanation that it was the Biden-Harris administration, not Guatemala, that had put the cartels in position to sell the message in Guatemala and elsewhere that now was the time to enter the United States illegally because President Biden was welcoming, especially to children hoping for free education and free health care.
The President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, is an impressive and determined man. He suffers from multiple sclerosis, needs crutches to walk, survived COVID-19 and became president of Guatemala in 2020 on his fourth try. He is emphatically pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, an organization that champions Vice President Harris.
"CNA Staff, Nov 5, 2020 / 02:48 pm (CNA).- Guatemala’s Interior Ministry rescinded Wednesday an agreement it had made last month allowing Planned Parenthood to establish and operate branch office in the country.
"The Nov. 4 statement repealed the agreement of Oct. 7, stating it was 'not in accord with the interests of the State of Guatemala.'
"Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei announced the repeal Nov. 2, declaring he would not allow Planned Parenthood to operate in the country. Giammattei’s response was in reaction the initial agreement authorizing Planned Parenthood, which became official that same day.
“'I recognize life from conception and therefore I will not tolerate in my administration any movement that violates what is established in our Political Constitution of the Republic, that goes against the values with which I was raised and that conflicts with my principles as doctor,' Giammattei said.
“'I am a faithful defender of life and I am emphatic in stating that I will not endorse in my administration the creation, registration or start-up of any organization that goes against life,' the president underscored.
"PublinewsGT confirmed Nov. 3 that the Interior Minister, Oliverio García Rodas, submitted his resignation, which was accepted.
“'Oliverio García Rodas, taking responsibility, informed me in the evening that he had made the decision to resign due to the error he had committed and considering that it was strongly opposed,' the president said.
“'I reiterate the government’s commitment to respect life from conception, since it is something that my faith and the Political Constitution of the Republic profess,' Giammattei told the press.
"When the initial agreement authorizing Planned Parenthood was made public Nov. 2, various political and citizen groups voiced their opposition, and lawmakers from the Viva party called for the Interior Minister to resign.
"The Family Matters Association of Guatemala issued a statement thanking Giammattei 'for his firm statement' defending and protecting 'the lives of Guatemalans from conception, as established in our Magna Carta.'
"AFI Guatemala pointed out that Planned Parenthood 'is responsible for more than 350,000 abortions in the United States annually. It’s public knowledge that Planned Parenthood’s major source of income is from abortion' and that company executives have acknowledged its involvement 'in the sale and trafficking of organs of aborted babies,' the pro-life organization said.
"2020 has been a hard year — but if anything, that makes us more excited for this year’s presidential election. With the selection of Sen. Kamala Harris of California as Joe Biden’s nominee for vice president, we might have our greatest-yet reason for optimism about what comes next.
"Throughout her career, Kamala Harris has been a defender of reproductive rights and health care. She has stood up for the principle that when it comes to our health, our bodies, and our futures, WE decide, not politicians. And she has stood up for communities — especially people of color and those with low-incomes — hit hard by the T
rump-Pence agenda of less access to abortion, birth control, and health care.
"Biden’s selection of Harris makes it clear that in the White House, their administration would not only protect reproductive rights — but also advance and expand them. That’s reason enough to get excited about Harris, but let’s not stop there. Here come nine more!"
Number 8 was"Speaking Up for Immigrants
"A daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has fiercely defended immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S. In her maiden speech as a senator, she spoke out against Trump’s Muslim Ban and other executive orders targeting immigrants — saying Trump had 'created deep uncertainty and pain for our refugee and immigrant communities.' Harris has supported clean passage of the DREAM Act — and wrote legislation to lift the ban on DACA recipients working in Congress."
When President Biden tasked Harris with getting President Giammattei on board, Harris was doomed to fail and fail she did.
The Peter Principle is the principle that members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which they are no longer competent.
Harris's trip to Guatemala demonstrated that Harris's political success in California as its Attorney General and then junior United States Senator culminating in 2020 with her recognition as the most liberal United States Senator, nomination as the Democrats' 2020 vice presidential nominee and election to a trifecta of accomplishments--first female vice president, first African-American vice president and first Indian American vice president--was no guarantee that she was competent to be vice president, much less president.
Viewers who watched former Democrat presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard humiliate Harris is a memorable debate must have had concern that Harris was out of her depth in running for president and Harris dropped out of the Democrat presidential nomination race before the 2020 primaries, but President Biden must have felt that she was needed to solidify his leftist support (even though she had exposed and humiliated him over his opposition to forced busing as as remedy to "systemic racism" in the very memorable first Democrat presidential candidates debate) in order to win the presidency on his third try.
Perhaps fittingly, it was President Biden who put Harris is position to be exposed as unfit for the vice presidency, by reversing President Trump's border policies, creating a readily foreseeable and unprecedented crisis for the United States, and tasking Harris with dealing with the crisis that the Administration denied was a crisis. Harris avoided going to the border like the plague, but more than two months later Harris finally traveled to Guatemala and then Mexico to meet with the presidents of those countries.
Even before Harris arrived at the Guatemala City airport to Trump Won and Go Home signs, Giammattei refused to play along with the fiction that what was and still is an unprecedented crisis at the southern border of the United States was caused by corruption and poverty in the Triangle Countries (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).
When Giammattei and Harris met in Guatemala, Giammattei skillfully schooled Harris on how the policies of the Biden-Harris administration had caused the unprecedented crisis, especially the messaging of the Biden-Harris administration for which the Biden-Administration had only itself to blame.The Biden-Harris claim that but for corruption and poverty illegal entries across the southern border of the United States would not happen because people prefer to stay in their birth country and only leave due to corruption and poverty should have struck Harris in particular as nonsense, because that was not why her own parents came to the United States.
President Giammattei was so effective that Harris took his advice and publicly said after their meeting that potential migrants should not come to the United States.
Months earlier, on April 13, President Giammattei had told MSNBC:
"I believe that in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, messages were confusing.
"They were compassionate messages that were understood by people in our country, especially the coyotes, to tell families, ‘We’ll take the children."And children can go, and once children are there, they will call their parents."
Giammattei added that he had seen "coyotes" carry out "horrible acts" and criticized the United States for not properly responding to the surge of migrants.
Harris futilely tried to present her meeting with Giammattei as a success: “We had a robust, a candid and a thorough conversation about the many issues that are priorities for each of our countries,” including migration, Harris said.
Harris added that the two discussed ways to invest in Guatemala and improve conditions so people stay.
“The president and I discussed the fundamental belief that most people don’t want to leave home,” she said.
To those considering the journey north, she was clear: “Do not come. Do not come.”
Harris must have realized that it was a huge mistake for her to have come to Guatemala, because she could not credibly rebut President Giammattei's explanation that it was the Biden-Harris administration, not Guatemala, that had put the cartels in position to sell the message in Guatemala and elsewhere that now was the time to enter the United States illegally because President Biden was welcoming, especially to children hoping for free education and free health care.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.