It's the biggest political hoax since Titus Oates's allegations of a "Popish Plot" to assassinate King Charles II in 1678. Oates's charge of a Jesuit conspiracy swept through London and led to the execution of four innocent men before Oates was proved a fraud.
The full consequences of the great political hoax of our time -- the charge that former President Donald Trump was colluding with Russia -- are not yet fully apparent.
Yet they are surely serious. We have heard from many Democrats and those in media that Trump's claims that he actually won the 2020 presidential election tend to delegitimize the government and distort the political process. They have a point.
It's a stretch to call the streaming of Trump supporters into the Capitol on Jan. 6 an "insurrection," but as I wrote at the time, Trump's words that day "were uttered with a reckless disregard for the possibility they'd provoke violence that any reasonable person could find impeachable."
But Trump is not the only losing candidate who has cast doubt on an election result recently. While he has faced the derision of most of the news media and the disagreement of some in his party, that wasn't true of the utterly baseless charges that Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin's Russia.
It took some time for Oates's Popish Plot to be revealed as a hoax and for many who believed it to acknowledge it as such. The Russia collusion hoax now seems to be unraveling, but we have yet to see many confessions of error from Democrats or their friends in the press.
The latest in the unraveling comes in special counsel John Durham's indictment of Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI general counsel when he denied he was acting "for any client" in forwarding bogus documents that supposedly showed communications between Trump's business and a Russian bank.
Sussmann is entitled in court to the presumption of innocence. But the facts alleged in the 27-page indictment are powerful evidence of a concerted attempt by Hillary Clinton's campaign, including those reporting to the candidate herself, to delegitimize the candidacy and, after his surprise victory, the presidency of Trump by charges as false as those of Oates.
"Here is where the prosecutor appears to be going," writes former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy in the New York Post. "The Trump-Russia collusion narrative was essentially a fabrication of the Clinton campaign that was peddled to the FBI (among other government agencies) and to the media by agents of the Clinton campaign -- particularly, its lawyers at Perkins Coie -- who concealed the fact that they were quite intentionally working on the campaign's behalf."
The agents include the investigative firm Fusion GPS and the purported Russia expert Christopher Steele. During the campaign, the FBI obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretapping warrant on Trump adviser Carter Page and therefore gained access to the whole campaign. After Trump took office, an FBI lawyer lied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to renew the warrant. He was indicted by Durham and pleaded guilty, though astonishingly was given no jail time.
The Clinton campaign's duplicitous encouragement of an FBI investigation led to an October 2016 Slate story -- the beginning of multiyear media charges that Trump was colluding with Russia. Clinton herself immediately tweeted a statement by her foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan, now President Joe Biden's national security adviser, saying, "We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia."
What followed were more than two years of frenzied pursuit of bogus Russia collusion charges by Democrats such as Rep. Adam Schiff, by the New York Times, MSNBC and countless others until the case collapsed with special counsel Robert Mueller's report in April 2019 and his congressional testimony that July.
Few peddlers of this hoax have apologized. New York Times editor Dean Baquet admitted that "we're a little tiny bit flat-footed" in August. Have we heard as much from the likes of Schiff or MSNBC's Rachel Maddow? If so, I missed it.
Trump is charged with violating the political norm of not challenging a close election result. The thought is that if you question an election result, you weaken the legitimacy of, and unnecessarily distract, a president and you weaken the United States.
It's a norm that Richard Nixon observed in 1960 and that, after litigating unsuccessfully, Al Gore observed in 2000. It's not a norm that Clinton has observed in 2016 or in the years since.
She and her advisers damaged the nation by promoting false charges against a duly elected president. She owes the nation an apology, just as Oates owed England an apology 343 years ago.
Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.
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27 comments:
This is absolute garbage propaganda. Why are there so many of these opinion pieces that attempt to rile up the GOP base? So much for "A website of news, commentary, culture, & jackassery in the Jackson, Mississippi area."
I agree.
Hillary and her team own an apology for their false claims about Russian influence, etc and et.al. over the 2016 election.
But Michael omits that Donald J Trump owes the same apology for his continuous claims about the false election conspiracies in 2020.
Just as every one of Hillary's (and her Democratic counterparts) claims about the 2016 election were without basis, leading of course to a final resolution with an impeachment resolution out of the House of Representatives, were without ANY merit,
Every one of Donald J Trump's claims about the 202 election were totally without basis. Nothing in Trump's bombastment, press conferences, and all the other crap they have said has been supported by anything they filed in court.
Yes, Donald J Trump won in 2016. WHY? Because the voters did not like Hillary.
Yes, Joe Biden (despite himself) won in 2020. Why? Because the voers did not like Trump.
A few states, with small margins in all six of them, made the decision.
Trump loved those close states in 2016. He wants to contest (without basis or reason) those same states in 2020.
Elections matter. And we live with what we do.
Russia didn't do it. Hillary might have tried to get them to help, but it didn't change it..
Biden didn't do it, Trump did. And he lost. And then he cost the country the control of the Senate by his idiotic ranting in Georgia.
Barrone did a good job focusing on this finding by the special prosecutor. But he stopped short of the idiocy that has taken over elections in our country
11:47- are you completely oblivious to current findings in AZ and GA? Did you sleep through the 2020 election? Do you think the American people are that naive and gullible that if you just say that 2020 wasn’t stolen, that people will just forget what they witnessed? You’ve lost your influence that I guess you thought you must have had at one time.
11:47 - Hillary is guilty but so is The Donald. Are you familiar at all with logical fallacies?
This is not a political comment.
Ms. Clinton, if that's what you call "her," is the most aesthetically-offensive humanoid in the history of mankind. I say "mankind" loosely, assuming, perhaps too much, that Ms. Clinton would display 46 chromosomes.
Its crimes are against womanhood, humanity, all that is decent and holy. Anyone who seriously doubts that Bill Clinton is demonic, should consider the actual physical mechanics of breeding "the little lady." The horror, the horror. He should have to register as a sex offender.
Hilary, what a critter!
For those who believe Trump didn’t get help from Russia let’s remember he publicly begged for this to happen. The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Russian president Vladimir Putin had ordered the 2016 Democratic National Committee cyber attacks and the subsequent leaks of stolen material damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
The DOTR can not come soon enough for the traitors in our midst.
America is under control of a foreigner occupation government.
Life Free or Die
@11:47pm
"Every one of Donald J Trump's claims about the 2020 election were totally without basis."
As with the impeachment farce - time will tell. No Trump lover here, but he's ended up right about pretty much everything he's predicted over time.
What is with the obsession with Hillary Clinton?
You know she lost the election BEFORE this last one.
Get over it. She’s not in public office.
@ 11:47pm
Well stated 👍🏽
12:27 Trump lost Az. at least 3 times even with a bogus recount by the “Cyber Ninjas “. Ditto for Georgia . The United States is turning Bluer and as long as Republicans continue to infringe on voting and women’s rights it will continue. Mid terms are usually brutal to the president’s party, with Trump as the de facto leader it might not hurt the democrats he has proven he can foster a lost.
Hillary does indeed owe the American citizens an apology. Her lust for the Presidency and her place in America's good history is the key to all that is happening now. To the posters above: Many of us are sick of deflecting in the media. When a topic is presented, your antipathy for Trump is brought forward. You switch the theme thereby protecting Hillary and Bill and becoming part of the problem.
Obama convinced Hillary to drop out and the 'apple'of the Presidency in 8 years was promised. When Trump upset their global plans for America the greatest misuse to ever occur of the media, of the law, and of lies was unleashed.
We are now living in the Era that Hate built. Each of you that hates Trump is responsible for what is happening now.
Regardless of why you hate does not matter any longer; you just hate and Trump is the focus of your hate. Like a druggie you cannot relinquish your hate and it spews out and contaminates everything.
The deeds that the Biden people are accomplishing are pretty awful and will change American in many ways. When your family is damaged by Biden's actions you will probably still hate Trump because you have been programed that way!
to all the "well Trump did...."...are you saying it was ok for queen bitch to be vile and dishonest because DT did wrong too?
Adam Schiff and Rachel Maddow...he said a mouthful there.
Biden was elected without a shadow of a doubt. If you do doubt it, just listen to the stadiums full of people chanting his name! Tell me when that has happened before?
Trump never violated anyone’s rights except law abiding gun owners when he signed his EO banning bump stocks.
Alls I know is that ammo is being stacked high and deep by Trump supporters at high prices. I am not really a Trump supporter myself anymore because he was just too zionist for me. Letting his unelected Chabad Lubavitch son-in-law implement Middle East policy crossed a line with me. That and how he loved having his picture taken with Kanye and Kim a little too much.
For those of you commenting that the AZ audit shows Trump lost - I urge you to actually study - not scan, not read through, not just look at - the audit results rather than accepting the spin put on it by the media. I do data analysis as part of my job so I was interested to see their methodology and what they found. What it shows, and what the media is NOT reporting floored me. The number of duplicate votes, the number of mail in votes from prior addresses, the fact that they counted way more mail in ballots than the acutal number that were mailed out just to start with....
America, we have a problem.
I'll agree the Trump-Biden election was not stolen in the traditional sense. No recounts etc will result in enough fraudulent ballots to overturn the election. The election was stolen before the first ballot was cast by:
1. Countless investigations by numerous federal agencies and courts alleging charges these agencies knew to be false. These allegations no doubt cost Trump votes (cheat)
2. A Main Stream Media that breathlessly reported "facts" about Trump they knew to be false in a concerted effort to influence the election again costing votes (cheat)
3 Normal election laws that were turned on their heads in the name of the blessed Corona including vote harvesting and extended times before and after the election to cast votes. These new rules were gleefully used to benefit one side to the detriment of the other and worked so well the Dems are now trying to make them permanent and nationwide all while falsely claiming any state that disagrees a Jim Crow state. (Lies)
4 Democratic politicians knowingly spewing lies and hate toward Trump (Adam Schiff and pals) in an effort to turn the public against Trump.
These are all forms of election fraud in my opinion and would probably serve Trump better using this form of election stealing. I know some of this goes on on both sides but this was taken to extremes dy the Dems in the 2020 election. --- So, yes the election was stolen but now how Trump thinks.
There was a reason Hillary Rotten Clinton was and will never be President. Besides the obvious things she cannot be truly controlled by her own party. And that is that. They need puppets and like her or not...she showed every day that she was rogue. Why else would they pull a green senator to run against her for the nomination ? This article was pointless and HRC apologizing will never happen.
So the GOP majority Senate Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Mueller Report requires an apology as well?
An apology for hiring opposition researchers would put both parties on their knees permanently.
But, Mr. Barone not so cleverly uses the Steele document to whitewash all the other disturbing Trump/Russia connections and omits how many Trump folks were convicted of violating laws regarding foreign campaign contributions and influence.
Mr. Barone is wasting his time anyway. He doesn't have to keep Trump supporters on board. Trump was right about one thing...he could kill a sainted num on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and Trumpsters would believe any excuse.
It's all about accountability you luddites. If you or I are a day late paying taxes, they start seizing assets. If you question your superiors for malfeasance, you go to jail. The DC crowd thinks its aristocracy and the rules are for thee but not for me. If her name was Smith and she lived in TN, she'd be serving 10-20. Government, taxes and $ is all smoke and mirrors. When confidence evaporates, so does the smoke. This all has to change before the confidence is gone for good
9:01...guess you've never seen videos of stadiums filled with supporters of Soviet / German / Asian dictators?
11:04 Guess you didn't get the sarcasm. I bet they weren't yelling the same things as our American's lately. You apparently haven't seen the videos I am referring to.
In the past, politicians were elected based more so on merit, goals and their plan for our future.
Today, they are elected based on WWE-style commercials about how much they utterly hate their opponent.
So when they do win...they are basically forbidden from ever reaching across the aisle and actually passing bills that benefit average Americans.
Because THEY polarized the base so drastically just to get elected on empty emotion.
They tied their own hands to get in office and they don't really care about anything other than big interest money.
Hillary and DJT both took part in that plan.
12:23 don't forget our current idiot in chief. He talked trash about every one of his opponents before he was selected by the DNC. I'm talking low down dirty blows during the debates. Now he wants them all to play nice. The democratic party is imploding with who can out socialist the most. Andrew Yang or Pete Buttigeg would have been much better options than Joe Biden, but he is the old white man democrat status quo the woke white people of the party keeps putting up and electing telling you it's in your best interest.
You’ll never convince the imbeciles here that Hillary was to blame. Even those who know it’s true somehow try to convince themselves that it’s Trumps fault for somehow thinking his election was taken. It didn’t matter that despicable democrats cost Americans over a hundred million in worthless hearings and bullshit accusations. Yes this is all Trumps fault somehow. Just more absolute garbage from people who look in the mirror a fail to see the trash they’ve become!!
12:23 here, and you nailed it 2:30.
Biden is an ever more apt example. Agreed.
Politics of all shades is absolute lunacy now.
We are literally letting the asylum inmates govern us...and making them millionaires in the process.
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