In politics there are some things we have seen before, and some things we have not.
Abraham Lincoln was criticized for giving a pardon to a family member. So, family pardons are not new. Mr. Biden, we have witnessed controversial pardons before.
How about President-elect Donald Trump's recent victory over the legacy press? Now, that is different. It was historic. Did you hear about "that story" on the news? Trump settled for $15 million, plus a million dollars in legal fees, from ABC News in a defamation lawsuit.
But first, let's start with Lincoln.
If you have been in politics long enough you will have a family member who would vocally oppose you, despite your having the same parents or grandparents. That just happens.
But can many top this? Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-law, Benjamin Helm, was asked to assist the Union during the Civil War, but the West Point and Harvard grad from Kentucky (Lincoln's original home) rejected his brother-in-law's offer and became a general for the Confederate army. So, while Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, were fighting to keep the Union intact and end slavery, the husband of Mary's sister was trying to secede from the Union.
After General Benjamin Helm was killed in battle and after the Union prevailed in the Civil War, offers of pardon went out to southern residences, as part of Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction Act. The pardons excluded military officers, unless they promised to take a new oath of allegiance to the United States of America. Well, the general's wife, Emilie Todd Helm, refused to do so.
She made her way north to join her sister and brother-in-law in the White House, however. Blood is much thicker than water, right Mr. Biden? Emilie Todd Helm lived in the White House with the man her husband fought to defeat.
Critics and military officers of the Union were outraged that a "rebel" was living in the White House. Lincoln replied, "General Sickles, my wife and I are in the habit of choosing our own guests. We do not need from our friends either advice or assistance in the matter."
Soon thereafter, Lincoln granted his sister-in-law a full pardon and she returned to Kentucky.
Yes, we have seen the expected in politics, now for the unexpected.
Trump had a very unusual victory of sorts, one that was not widely reported by the legacy or liberal media outlets. He forced ABC News to settle a defamation lawsuit caused by one of their high-ranking reporters, George Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos claimed that Trump had "raped" a person. The evidence, however, pointed toward a sexual abuse accusation. Calling someone a rapist just prior to an election is apt to chase voters away from that candidate, especially women voters. To no avail, however, as Trump did well with the women vote, except for the near unanimous Black women support for Vice President Kamala Harris.
It takes a lot to be able to pull off that kind of success with the media. Here's one common saying during a different political era: "Do not fight the media; they buy ink by the barrel." In other words, the media will write story after story on the controversy, only making matters worse for you. Media personalities had positioned themselves over time as the ultimate arbiters of information. If you have read it in the newspaper or heard it reported in the broadcast media, it had to be true. I lived through that era.
In fact, my surprising and unprecedented win for Congress in 1990 in a 92% white congressional district made me the instant aberration, fluke, and target of the liberal media. After all, white people were too racist to vote for a Black guy (yeah, right). It was not long before the second largest paper in my congressional district, in an attempt to oust me from office, ran a front-page story claiming that the FBI was investigating me. The headline letters equaled the size of about 1/8 of the newspaper above the fold. It resulted in dozens of other papers and the state's television stations parroting the headline.
I had to request and demand a letter from top officials at the Department of Justice refuting the story. I had to present the letter to the editor of the newspaper. Only then did they give me a minuscule retraction. But the damage had already been done. Despite their efforts I still won re-election.
As part of Trump's victory over ABC News, the outlet had to fork over a million dollars in lawyer fees.
Most, if not all, Black or white candidates for office do not have a spare million dollars or more to throw at a media outlet regardless of the fact these outlets may be lying through their teeth. So, in the public's eye the man in the "black hat - the villain - actually is able to win.... though I would argue their victory is often short lived.
Yes, history often repeats itself, but sometimes, just sometimes, you get to see something that has never happened before.
I commend Trump for this victory. But we all get the omnipresent bias of the media.
I just want Trump to devote all of his energy and resources to fighting for Americans - for their prosperity, well-being, and peace in the world.
Merry Christmas.
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