On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel stopped by our own Guy Benson’s radio show on Fox Radio to discuss her new book, Resistance (At All Costs): How Trump Haters Are Breaking America. Remember when this was all tin foil hat rhetoric from the Right? Nope. They exist. Yet, Strassel noted that it’s not necessarily represented by the likes of fired FBI Director James Comey and former Obama CIA Director John Brennan—though there are many questions concerning their conduct during the 2016 election. The difference is that both men are political appointees and are subject to scrutiny. They can also be fired. Strassel zeroes in on the folks who are still entrenched in our institutions, causing them to degrade with their resistance antics. You don’t know them. They’re not mentioned a lot on MSDNC, I mean MSNBC. They’re the faceless paper-pushers and unelected bureaucrats who are actively trying to derail this administration’s agenda simply because they’re still angry over the 2016 election. This self-righteous cadre of rebels think Trump is a cancer to our institutions, so their response is to assist in that effort. The irony is thick here. Strassel notes that the former acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ refusal to enforce and defend the president’s executive order on immigration, erroneously called the Muslim ban, was the catalyst for the rest of these clowns to think if she defied Trump, so can we.
As for the latest impeachment fever taking hold on the Hill, Strassel says that any measure of success when you execute this political tool has to be grounded in whether you can convince a solid majority of Americans that the president of the United States committed a “high crime or misdemeanor” that is so severe it requires removal from office. The Democrats have not met that standard. And no, even with the Trump-Ukraine fiasco, a majority of voters are not on board with impeachment. Strassel added that she’s leery of polls for two reasons: one being that they were totally wrong during the 2016 cycle, and two, the amount of die-hard Trump supporters who just toy with pollsters when they call.
For those who need reminding, Democrats are up in arms that Trump had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he allegedly threatened to cut off military aid unless a corruption probe was opened into Hunter Biden, son of the former vice president, who was sitting on an energy board, being paid $50,000/month despite having zero experience in this line of work. Oh, and this occurred when Joe Biden was in office. The Trump White House released the transcript of the call, which showed no quid pro quo. And the whistleblower report that brought this circus to town was written reportedly by a CIA agent, who was cited for bias since this person is a registered Democrat, had worked on the National Security Council staff for the Obama White House, worked for a 2020 Democratic candidate, and had contacted the staff of Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, who knew about the contents of the report before it was formally filed. The report is not based on first-hand knowledge; this person didn’t even listen in on the call. It’s based on second-hand accounts, hence the numerous errors. At the end of it all, the Left is mad because Trump made a phone call.
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On another front, Guy and Strassel discuss the Trump Derangement Syndrome that’s pervasive with the Russia origins probe led by Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham, two men with reputations and records that are beyond reproach. The media and the Democrats are trying to tarnish this investigation. Intelligence officials from the previous regime are lawyering up. The investigation has not only been expanded, but it’s now a criminal one. And James Clapper and John Brennan, Obama’s top spies, are said to be on the interview list. Strassel added the intense reactions to this investigation are ones not exhibited by those who aren't afraid about what could be revealed. She also said that the FBI opened a counterintelligence probe into a presidential campaign in 2016.
That deserves some scrutiny, especially when all that came of this was one of the biggest nothing burgers in political history. The vast majority of the allegations being investigated, the reason for the probe, was based on a political opposition research file that was compiled by an ex-British spy who was financed by the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Based on the errors in the documents—the infamous Trump dossier—there was no effort to verify it, and it was used to secure spy warrants on Trump officials.
These are troubling times—and Democrats and their minions are doing a nice job ensuring that the integrity of our government, which they see themselves as champions of in the face of Trump, is irreparably damaged because…'orange man—bad.'
The two then discuss the absurd, unethical book deal signed by the anonymous senior official who wrote an op-ed in The New York Times declaring that there was an anti-Trump deep state. The media has done a swell job indulging in these anti-democratic antics, which Strassel also hits on in her book.
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