One more time, American people, I reach out to you as President and, in particular, to those who have supported me.
I have done my best. I have fought the good fight. I must now lay down the mantle of authority with which so graciously you entrusted me and pass it to another.
No, there are no tricks up my sleeve to stay in power as others would have you believe. I am a fighter, but I primarily fight for you and I would only do our cause more harm than good by taking any action other than supporting a peaceful transition.
We have made incredible progress in making America great again. This is not my legacy but all of ours. What we accomplished as we worked together was amazing. You know what we have done, and I won’t take the time to go over it again, but it shows that our best days can still be ahead of us.
For those of you look at my defeat as a setback, it is!
Yet, we all have setbacks. We have individual setbacks and struggles that sometimes bring on anger, depression, despair, even hopelessness. It can cause people to do irrational things and act out in ways they later repent. Anyone who has gone through these periods knows we can come out the other side stronger, resilient and wiser if we hold on, take one day at a time, learn from what transpired and do the right thing. Today, I am here to do that.
Nations, like people, go through the same cycles. We can learn from them and better ourselves. No, my loss of the Presidency is not the end of the Republic. No, it is not the end of our movement. No, it is not the end of making America great again. In fact, it is the beginning.
It is, however, a wake-up call, too.
A wake-up call to every patriot, every lover of liberty and every loyal follower of the Constitution. We can and must do better.
We need to commit ourselves here and now to working within our own communities to make sure our election laws are cleaned-up. The courts and Congress have made it clear that states are the final arbiters of their elections. This being the case, we need to get to work in our own back yards. You have work to do. Freedom is not a spectator sport.
I have carried the ball as far as I can in this quarter. Now, it is up to you.
No, I am not done, but my efforts will be made elsewhere as I will discuss in a few minutes. As for you, you can make your biggest impact on Making America Great again by making sure that state legislators do their jobs.
For too long, they sat idly while governors exceeded the spirit and letter of emergency powers in ways never used. You cannot have been represented in your state if your legislatures were not involved in the actions your governor has taken. This is not representative government, but an overreach of the executive some would call tyranny. And precedents set, if not challenged and reined in, have dire consequences.
The Judiciary doesn’t seem to care about your liberty. It has too often sided with the wayward executives in according them the broadest interpretations of emergency powers that were never theirs.
We cannot rely on our judges. They think that if it isn’t important enough for supposedly the most powerful branch in government, the legislative branch, to become involved and represent the people, then why should they? Many judges have forgotten their role and are too pressured by current public opinion to be the true arbiters of justice they are meant to be.
Our legislators? They have become lazy and soft, all too often hiding when tough decisions need to be made and punting to the Executive or Judiciary. They love their titles and attention but shirk from the nitty-gritty tasks of legislating. This must end! And the only way it ends is if they feel the pressure of the people. I am here to tell you that the only way we will get this country back and continue the path of making America great again, is through our state legislatures.
It is clear to me now that this is a blessing. We don’t want the federal government to be the end-all be- all.
We don’t want power coming from a centralized government full of the swamp, a place where the average citizen feels disenfranchised and insignificant. We can all, on the other hand, make a significant impact within our states and community. We can all put pressure on our state legislators to stand up, do their jobs and represent those who elected them.
In this way, we can clean up voter rolls, institute clear and unambiguous voting rules, lessen the chances of fraud and rebuild the trust needed to continue as a Federal republic.
In saying this, I admit my shortcomings.
I erred in asking Vice-President Pence to take a larger role in rejecting certified states electoral college votes, and I should not have led you to believe he had this power or duty. In hindsight, he was right. He did not have the power to unilaterally reject certified electors from contested states. Nor do we want him to have that power.
My true belief was I was fighting for what is right, but we cannot save the Constitution by stretching it to our own will. We serve it and, in so doing, it has served us for close to 250 years. There is be a role for him and Congress to play, but it wasn’t as I had sought.
I am not saying the election was fair or Constitutional. In my mind it was not. I did everything in my power within the time I had to prove my case but the states, the courts and Congress have decided differently than I would have chosen, and I will abide by their decisions.
The lowering of voting standards and the heightening of opportunity for fraud under the excuses of COVID, among other things, allowed it to happen. I believe this is what allowed Biden to win.
Had the state and federal Constitution been followed, I am convinced we would have won. Only the legislative branches in the states can make changes to the voting standards of their own states. We saw this reality ignored in swing states by the judicial and executive branches. We tried making this argument at the state level. We tried to argue this at the federal level, and even in the highest court in the land — and they failed to act.
In many ways, I think they failed to act because it is the legislatures of the states that should have kicked back and protected their turf, yet they did not.
But, this is not the first election in our illustrious history that has been uncertain and from my point of view unjust, and probably will not be the last. Each time we, as a nation have been able to rise again and do better and be better from the lessons we have learned. We need to do the same now.
So, what are we to do?
What we are not to do is what happened on January 6th.
Those who rioted and stormed the capitol didn’t help but only hurt the cause and gave our opponents the ability to spin the truth. The intent of the rally was to show the American people that they are not alone in their frustrations and that we need to find a way to move forward. As I have said, asking the Vice-President to do the work that ought have been done at state levels was misguided. We do not want any Vice-President with that kind of power, especially one about to take office.
I am here today to recommend a course that we can follow, and I have outlined it already above.
Become active locally and work within your states to make sure this never happens again. It is only a complete loss if we do nothing, say nothing, fix nothing. Make sure your legislators do it! If they don’t, kick them out. And make sure these state legislatures protect you from the excesses that may be coming out of DC. Democrats are the ones who tried to kick back against federal power for my entire presidency; let’s help them by now making sure our states protect their people from any violations of rights by Washington.
And I am certain if we clean up the voting mess and the Democrats govern as they say that we will win back the house and the Senate in two years.
On this special day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let us not forget what he taught.
That the way forward is not with hatred, violence, coercion or racism but with love, peace, liberty, love, and a reverence for and belief in our American ideals. He knew we could make progress despite many setbacks.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. never gave up on the goodness of this nation and its lofty ideals. He did not despair when setbacks and darkness loomed. Instead, he pressed forward with bright hope for the future. If he set the proper example, held firm to his core beliefs, did the hard work that needed to be done despite all ridicule and derision, and stayed the course, he believed, all would be well.
A great man indeed and he deserves this day that we remember his teachings and legacy. He made the world a better place. That is what we all want to do. Let us heed his counsel and do as he did in not measuring a person’s worth by the color of the skin, gender or any other identity other than the content of character. In the end, we are all God’s children and equal in His eye. So, why are we not equal in each other’s?
The danger today is clear and present. There are those among us trying to kindle the flames of hatred and racism. They try and exacerbate and vex racial relations at every opportunity for personal gain or power. We need to be aware of these people, like no others, as they are the ones who threaten our peace because peace, to them, is loss of station and influence.
America is the greatest nation that has ever existed.
We have made more progress and provided more opportunities for men and women of all creeds, colors and backgrounds to reach their potential than anyone else, ever. Why? Because, we maintained liberty as our first principle.
We are in danger of losing this.
We have seen as of late the restricting of liberties, curtailing of speech and shaming of those who do not fit a group-think narrative. This will only hurt us moving forward.
As such, I am announcing today that I will be starting new social media and network news platforms that will compete against — and win — the ongoing fight to maintain American values as protected under our Bill of Rights.
I will be doing my part and trust you will be do yours. I will also be setting up networks in each of the 50 states that will help organize and coordinate the efforts to take back our state legislatures and make sure we have men and women representing us deserving of the honor and obligation to serve you.
At this moment, I endorse Mike Pence as my choice to be the Republican candidate for President in 2024.
He, too, has fought the good fight, stood strong in the midst of innumerable attacks, proven his ability time-and-again, and most importantly, showed his commitment to the Constitution and rule of law.
He is the one to support, early, and if we do so, there is nothing that can stop us from continuing our journey together,
God bless. Let’s get to work.
Jeff Utsch, of Tucson, AZ, is an instructor at the Leadership and Freedom center in Gettysburg PA and can be heard on iHeart Radio’s Podcast, Constitutional Conversations, with KFYI 550-AM host James T Harris, of The Conservative Circus. Jeff@freedomexpoaz.com