Peggy Noonan and David French used to be serious people, but like their heroine Ms. Liz Cheney, Trump broke their brains.
A couple decades ago, Noonan wrote an outstanding biography of Ronald Reagan, but since then seems to have lost her way in the bewildering forest of finely appointed Republican donor tables — a dismal copse of Egyptian cotton, hors d’oeuvres, and Napa Valley wines. A boor like President Donald Trump just won’t do. So institutional Republicans and their flacks continue their desperate search for a worthy successor to the Bush family dynasty. The farcical January 6th Committee gives them the perfect platform from which to hawk Trump Derangement Syndrome tropes.
In a recent opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Noonan penned a puff piece beatifying fellow suffragette Cassidy Hutchinson. Noonan peddles the “me too” sentiment from the very first sentence, “Only a woman would have done what Cassidy Hutchinson did because only a woman in a place of such power and prestige, would have registered everything and taken such close notes instead of spending that time swanning around being important.”
Why Noonan decides to begin her piece by lending the weight of her diminishing credibility to a disgusting progressivist fiction about misogyny says volumes about who Noonan is today. Trump is a litmus test. He’s political class kryptonite that sends Washington apparatchiks running in every direction with bulging eyes, gibbering behind bubbling lips. Anyone who drives inside-the-beltway swamp creatures to such hysteria has got to be good for the country. And, appealing to the favorite cat-call of The Squad places Noonan firmly in the Pink Pussy Hat club with the likes of Madonna calling for violence against a sitting president.
There are plenty of male “witnesses” that festoon the Jan 6th committee’s list of commentators, not the least of which is former Attorney General Bill Barr — he doesn’t seem to have spent much time “swanning” around the White House. The way Noonan constructs her piece, it seems she’s more concerned about the gender of the “witness” than the substance of the “testimony.”
Hutchinson is hailed by Noonan as a modern day Joan of Arc, standing in her burnished armor before the glowering stares of the Jan 6th inquisition. Hutchinson stood no chance of being burned at the stake. In fact, she faced an entirely sympathetic audience and provided most of her statements via video. Noonan dumbs down the concept of courage beyond meaning.
At the moment, whether Hutchinson lied is beside the point. One of her most sensational claims is about Trump attempting to wrest control of the presidential limousine from his Secret Service driver. Anyone familiar with dignitary protection understands the complete absurdity of this statement on its face. However, Noonan finds it completely plausible because “woman.” And she has no problem with Hutchison’s statement being complete hearsay. Noonan quotes former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy excusing the inclusion of hearsay since the Jan 6th committee is allegedly a fact-finding body impartially searching for “reliable, admissible evidence.” McCarthy says “hearsay is not only allowed but encouraged.”
That’s all well and good, but the narrative here is very clear. Though Noonan acknowledges Hutchinson’s story as hearsay, she’s already convinced herself that it must be true — or, at least, desperately wants it to be true. The tenor of the entire piece is a rhetorical indictment of President Donald Trump. Why include the statement in such juicy detail if you’re simply doing the job of blind justice?
Sadly, for Noonan, the entire “Trump tried to wrest control of the presidential limo” story has been completely discredited and not via hearsay. Secret Service Agent Bobby Engle — the man Hutchinson said, under oath, witnessed the attempted limo takeover — flatly denied the event occurred. Both Engle and the limo driver have stated they’d testify before the Jan 6th committee. Oddly, no subpoenas have been issued to elicit the testimony of either agent. Officially, the Secret Service has stated that no such attempted hijacking of the limo occurred. For Mr. McCarthy’s edification, this is known as direct testimony, is viewed as far more reliable, and is actually admissible in a court of law.
But, Mr. McCarthy’s indirect point is well taken — the January 6th Committee is not a legal proceeding, rather a highly politicized kangaroo court presided over by nine political hacks. Their records speak for themselves and the two minority members are confirmed establishment RINOs.
Noonan brings David French into the fray by quoting him extensively from a recent Dispatch article. French tries hard but you can only make so much out of “because she said.” French said, “Earlier this afternoon she [Hutchison] gave the most extraordinary congressional testimony I’ve ever seen.” High praise in light of actual congressional testimony concerning the real, lifelong consequences of infanticide, or the devastating effects of “gender reassignment” procedures. But let’s put all that aside, since we have a chance to whip up Trump Derangement Syndrome.
French goes so far as to dredge up Brandenburg v. Ohio, a 1969 Supreme Court case. He attempts to apply the fact pattern in Brandenburg, statements made by a member of a KKK leader, to Donald Trump’s remarks on January 6th. French mentions statements made by other members of Trump’s cabinet and supporters, but only Trump’s remarks were imbued with the sinister quality of potentially producing “imminent, lawless action.”
Here’s Trump’s speech from that day in its entirety. Read it, listen to it, and decide for yourself. You don’t have to be a lawyer to know if Trump was stumping for “imminent, lawless action.” You’ll read or hear a lot of common, typical political rhetoric used by both sides of the aisle. Here’s a sentence for your consideration: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Unless you’re frothing at the mouth for Trump’s political destruction, you won’t discover anything criminal.
Noonan and French are apoplectic when it comes to the former president. Donald Trump is everything they aren’t. He is ascendent, while the tired Mitch McConnell/Lindsay Graham wing of the Republican Party wanes. America is tired of a political class that exists only to serve itself, expand the reach and complexity of the state, and politely lead us into the national debt abyss. Noonan and French serve the interests of the kleptocratic bureaucracy whether they know it or not.
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