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Stutzman defends Trump at local Defenders meeting
Marlin Stutzman, who represents Indiana’s Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, traveled all the way from his farm in the Northeastern Indiana community of Howe on Monday evening, with son in tow, to speak at the Defenders of Liberty monthly meeting.
Hosted within the Dixie Chopper Business Center at the Putnam County Regional Airport, the political gathering consisted of dozens of area residents with heavily conservative leanings and featured the congressman as its latest guest speaker ahead of November’s presidential election.
Others present who hold political offices were Republican candidate for District 24 John Crane and current District 44 State Rep. Jim Baird.
Stutzman introduced himself and spoke on nationwide politics before fielding questions from the audience.
“Where do we start?” Stutzman asked after describing his trip to Greencastle. “Where do we try to wrap things up and make sense of a lot of this?
“And why is Hillary Clinton running for president?” Stutzman continued. “Why is she running? I’ve found the answer: Because it’s easier to run for president than it is to run from law enforcement.”
Speaking on the recently televised presidential debate, Stutzman went on to say that he is a strong supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“I think that this is important,” Stutzman explained. “No person is perfect -- we have people that are probably less-close to perfect than the people we would really like to have -- but I don’t label this election as a ‘crossroads’ anymore.
“I believe we’ve already crossed the road and we’re going down the hill, and any election we have is (meant) to turn things around and go back marching up the hill toward freedom, liberty and the Constitution that (have) been trampled on over the past 10 years.”
Many in attendance echoed his comments with phrases like “amen” and “that’s right,” and Stutzman himself admitted that he was indeed “preaching to the choir.” However, he went on to say that President Barack Obama is not the only one to blame for the issues that currently face the nation.
“This is the most important election of our lifetimes,” Stutzman said. “We have to turn things around. The damage that Barack Obama has done and the lack of fortitude and backbone of Republican leadership in Washington (D.C.) has led us to a very, very grim situation.
“The Democratic leadership is gone, I mean that’s a lost cause right now,” Stutzman added. “But the Republican leaders ... are running as fast as they can away from Donald Trump right now -- but if you’re running away from him, where are you running? It’s eventually going to benefit Hillary Clinton.”
He also added that his support for Trump is focused on the candidate’s policies, not his shortcomings.
“There are a lot of other things that I don’t like, personally, but you look at the policy, and that’s what I think is more important for me, for you, for our families,” Stutzman said. “There are a lot of things you’d like to change about ‘other people,’ but you can’t. So what we have to focus on is the policy and which policies are going to be best for our state, our communities, our families, our economy and our defense of this nation.”
One question that stood out from the questions-and-answers portion of the meeting concerned gun control.
“Where do you stand on gun control?” one concerned resident asked. “That female said she’s going to take them away from us.”
“Well, hold on to them with two hands,” Stutzman replied. “I have an ‘A-plus’ rating with the NRA ... and I started the Second Amendment Intiative after the shooting in Connecticut, and every time there’s a shooting like that -- it’s tragic. No one wants to see anything like that happen.
“But what I did, and what I felt, is that we need to take the opportunity to explain why mass shootings only happen in gun-free zones,” Stutzman continued. “Let’s start looking at the statistics ... gun crimes are on the decline, except for in Chicago and in Washington, D.C., where they have some of the strictest gun laws. If there’s one place that we’re actually winning in the courts, it’s on the Second Amendment.”
After taking many questions from the audience and answering them to much appreciation, Stutzman ended his visit by speaking personally to members who wished to talk with him further.
For more information about the Defenders of Liberty group, visit greencastledefendersofliberty.com. For more information, and for those with questions for Congressman Stutzman, visit stutzman.house.gov.