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Opinion

Readers talk about Stormy Daniels, Robert Jeffress, Rex Tillerson, Russia 

Readers share their opinions on the latest news involving our president.

Trump wouldn't get clearance

If being subject to blackmail makes one ineligible for a top-secret security clearance, then Donald Trump, if he was not president, would not have received a clearance. Stormy Daniels has demonstrated his vulnerability to extortion.

Plausibly, but yet to be proven, so may have Vladimir Putin. The president's position not only grants him access to all government data but also protects him when he shares secret information with foreign governments. He famously demonstrated this in May 10, 2017 when he disclosed highly classified information to Russia's foreign minister and ambassador without punishment or censure.

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Now, with the disclosure that several of the White House staff have been unable to receive the top-level security clearance needed for their work, I have heard that Trump can grant them clearance regardless of their earlier qualification problems. This does not seem right.

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David Schriftman, Murphy

Jeffress forgets Scripture

Re: "Jeffress defends Trump support -- Allegations of adultery with porn actress don't matter, pastor says," Wednesday Metro & State story.

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As an old-timer who grew up in the days of George W. Truett and W. A. Criswell, I'm dismayed at the current pastor's misguided meddling in politics. Robert Jeffress' comments about President Donald Trump are in the "Kool-Aid" category, reminiscent of Jim Jones.

Has he forgotten the stories in Scripture where Israel was ruled by wicked kings? Immoral, bullying, fatally insecure rulers like Manasseh, Ahab and Herod resulted in national chaos and subjects who turned away from God to worship gods who let them give in to their sinful natures.

So yes, the moral character of our president does matter!  Sorry Jeffress, but you need to either resign as pastor or stop speaking for true evangelicals. We will not support a man who sees women as sex toys and wants only "Yes men" as listeners and gofers -- not advisers.

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James Gordon Graham, Dallas

Hypocrisy in action

Even after Access Hollywood tapes showing President Donald Trump talking crudely and after payments to porn stars, Pastor Robert Jeffress continues to support our president. One wonders how anyone continues to attend his church with the level of hypocrisy this "Christian" displays.

Another of these so-called men of God, James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, told his supporters in 1998 that President Bill Clinton did not deserve evangelical support because he was a liar, immoral, lacking in character and motivated by "raw political power."

While that same description would fit the current resident of the White House, it seems all is forgiven now that the philanderer is a Republican.

Hans Voorn, Frisco

Church for adulterers

Anyone whose committed adultery or thinking about it, you need to join the First Baptist Church of Dallas, and when you get caught just deny it and tell your spouse that your pastor (Robert  Jeffress) supports you.

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Larry Strauss, Plano

Does church ignore morality?

What could Pastor Robert Jeffress do that might shake up the good people at First Baptist Church of Dallas? Jeffress has been a brashly outspoken Trump supporter from early campaigning, seemingly heedless of all Trump's well-documented immorality: his womanizing, cheating, lying and all the rest. Jeffress says, "Whether the president violated the commandment or not is totally irrelevant to our support of him."

How can that be? Well, apparently Jeffress believes the ends justify the means when he says his support of Trump is because of the president's "policies and strong leadership." In other words, Jeffress' support of Trump is selective, seeing only what Jeffress is willing to see, while blinding itself to all the rest.

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Can we assume that is also the case of the First Baptist Church congregation? Are they likewise so selective morally that they can will themselves into ignoring immorality as long as they get what they want?

Brian Baldwin, Dallas/Oak Lawn

Jeffress doesn't represent me

Once again First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has made it clear that his god is President Donald Trump and not Jesus Christ. His condoning support for the president's adulterous affair with a porn star is simply another reflection of his devotion to an amoral leader.

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The tragic reality, however, is that his assertion that evangelicals are not "compromising their beliefs in order to support this great president" is correct. For so many white evangelicals represented by Jeffress, their core beliefs are in line with the president's policies and pronouncements of racism, xenophobia, extreme nationalism, homophobia, sexism, greed and dishonesty. They have abandoned the gospel of Jesus for the gospel of Trump.

As the pastor of a small Baptist church, I become weary of having to explain over and over again why pastors like Jeffress do not represent the Jesus I preach.

Cecil Larry Pool, Midlothian

Desensitized to firings

Re: "Trump ousts Tillerson -- Texan 'proud of the opportunity ... to serve my county' A hawk who pleased Trump, Pompeo moves to diplomacy," Wednesday news story.

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Another high-level member of the Trump administration has been fired. How do we react? Or do we react at all? It is going to take an effort on our part, as citizens, to not become desensitized as we learn, almost daily, that another person of responsibility reporting to Trump is no longer active.

We need information, we need facts, we need reasons, we need justification when a government official is terminated. Without knowledge, it is too easy to look the other way, shrug our shoulders, and forget our duty as citizens.

Work hard to not accept the desensitization that is the outcome of too many terminations. React, please!

Janet Meyer, Far North Dallas

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Trump's an embarrassment

Regarding the firing of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, this is just more proof that President Donald Trump is totally unqualified, undignified, a bully, untruthful, crass and incapable of knowing how to deal with people, especially foreign leaders.  He is so embarrassing as leader of our country. He must have been standing behind the door when common sense was handed out.

I have lived through many presidents  -- from Franklin D. Roosevelt to the present time and I've never been so disgusted with behavior of our leader. There is no dignity at all.

Darcus Littrell, McKinney

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Just another chaotic day

With the talks with North Korea coming up and with the State Department already severely shorthanded, this was not a good time to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Also, with three employees fired (including Tillerson -- just call it the Tuesday Massacre) and yet another scandal (this time involving Kellyanne Conway, who has flown on 11 ultraexpensive private flights for government business), it was just another day at the office for the chaotic Trump administration

Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach, Calif.

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Tillerson deserved better

Take note of something: The same President Donald Trump who claimed that he would have faced off with the gunman at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting did not have the intestinal fortitude to look former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the eye and tell him he was fired and why.

Certainly a man with the dignity and gravitas of Tillerson is entitled to a proper one-to-one meeting before getting the boot.

Scott Mashburn, Dallas

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No collusion makes Page 4

Re: "GOP report: No collusion -- House panel draft can't find evidence of any Trump campaign link," Tuesday news story.

Relative to President Donald Trump, his supporters and the GOP, The Dallas Morning News has managed to turn unbiased journalism on it head, in my opinion. Now, a report by the GOP intelligence committee found no collusion in the 2016 presidential election by Trump with Russia. What does The Dallas Morning News think of that report? Not only was it placed on Page 4, but it says it "hands Trump a convenient talking point."

If there is no collusion and if Russia did not sway millions to vote for Trump, that means The News' candidate lost the 2016 presidential election fair and square.

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Don Skaggs, Garland

Congressional collusion

Paradoxically, the House Intelligence GOP committee members have concluded they could not find any evidence of collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia to sway the 2016 presidential elections, when I believe these congressmen colluded among themselves to cover up for Trump.

To their eternal infamy, congressmen Devin Nunes, Michael Conaway and the other GOP members of the committee will be remembered for their betrayal of the trust placed in them by the American public.

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Their blatant malfeasance and collusion now qualifies them as targets for special counsel Robert Muller's investigation.

Tony Torres, Garland

Trump doesn't know facts

I read our president's daily tweets. He is arguably the best-connected person in the world as to intelligence and he should be able to get the facts or an expert opinion about anything that has occurred in modern history.

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Yet he routinely cites, in his tweets, non-mainstream news sources that do not have access to the same intelligence and resources, as proof that neither he nor anyone in his campaign colluded with the Russians. And he does this in a manner that portrays that he has no knowledge of the facts. This causes me great concern as to whether he is really "connected." The world is watching.

Charles J. McRaney, Dallas

Impeachment ahead

Tweet to President Donald Trump: "You're impeached."

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Tom Englander, Farmers Branch