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Governor Inslee booed off stage over mask order .....
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AUGUST 2020
LIVING LIBERTY A Publication of the Freedom Foundation
Withe discusses opt-out campaign, COVID abuses on Mike Huckabee’s national TV show
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Freedom Foundation PO Box 552 Olympia, WA 98507
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ormer Arkansas governor and two-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who served as guest speaker last year at the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon banquet, returned the favor on June 20, asking National Director Aaron Withe to appear as a guest on his Trinity Broadcasting Network talk show. In a wide-ranging interview, Withe discussed the Freedom Foundation’s traditional role as a watchdog over government employee unions, as well as its recent work challenging governors anxious to enhance their powers on the pretense of battling the COVID-19 virus. “(The Freedom Foundation) has been fair enough about saying, if you want to join a union and you want your union dues to go to liberal politicians, you have every right to do that,” Huckabee noted. “But you’re also telling people if they don’t, they can say, ‘I don’t want to participate.’” “The Supreme Court made a decision two years ago in Janus v. AFSCME that allowed public employees to opt out of their union and stop paying dues,” Withe said. “The problem is, all across the country, people are still unaware of their rights. Who’s going to tell them? The government isn’t going to tell them, and the union certainly isn’t. “It takes a group like ours to actually go
By JEFF RHODES, Managing Editor
out and tell workers they can leave their union,” he said. “What happens when people find out they can keep their money in their own pockets instead of handing it over to union bosses who often live rather large?” Huckabee asked. “When we speak to people face to face, 40 percent will opt out on the spot,” Withe answered. “The problem is, we have to talk to each and every public employee in the country to tell them they have these rights,” he said. “On top of that, you have the unions making it so difficult for people to get out. We have hundreds of people we’re representing in lawsuits who just haven’t been allowed to leave the union.” Huckabee then switched gears, noting that the Freedom Foundation has “had some battles of late with (Washington) Gov. Jay Inslee over the Coronavirus.” “Inslee was cooking the books about the COVID death rate in Washington state,” Withe responded. “What we actually come to find is that 13 percent of the people reported to have died of the Coronavirus actually died of something unrelated. “The state admitted there were people who died of gunshot wounds being counted as COVID deaths just because they had tested positive for the disease at one time,” he said. Withe concluded by characterizing Inslee’s mandatory mask rule as a “complete overreach. You can’t make this stuff up.” “The Freedom Foundation does some pretty awazing stuff,” Huckabee acknowledged.
