Why conservatives think American cities are hellscapes

Over the last week, President Donald Trump has tried his best to make a spectacle of sending federal agents and the National Guard into Washington to combat a nonexistent crime surge. The act has been a clear attempt to shift focus away from both his administration’s ongoing cover-up of its files on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and the deterioration of the economy because of Trump’s tariff policies.

Violent crime in Washington hit a 30-year low last year, and that trend is continuing this year. However, Trump, a serial liar, has tried to counteract reality with conspiracy theories about crime statistics, and his conservative base is eating it up—but why?

Groundwork for crime narrative

In 2015 and 2016, as he pivoted from pushing the racist “birther” conspiracy theory about then-President Barack Obama and ran for president himself, Trump repeatedly claimed the country was in the middle of a dangerous crime surge, though the violent crime rate remained low. After he won the election, he used his inaugural address to speak about so-called “American carnage,” which he attributed in part to immigration—reinforcing the falsehood that Latino immigrants are mostly criminals.

Former President George W. Bush, right, and President Donald Trump, shown in 2018.

Trump’s demagoguery had deep roots in the Republican Party. Former President Ronald Reagan blamed societal ills on mythological welfare queens, and former President George W. Bush curtailed civil liberties and pushed for the invasion of Iraq based on fears of terrorist attacks from al-Qaida.

The conservative movement loves to connect fear of crime to rhetoric about racial minorities. It preys on deep-seated bigotry and motivates conservative voters to get out and vote, all as a way to stop the “other” from gaining control and allowing the spread of crime.

In more recent times, conservatives have circulated lies about the murder of Black teenager Trayvon Martin, and some right-wing circles have even celebrated his killer, George Zimmerman, as a hero. This resurfaced during Trump’s first term with the murder of George Floyd and the nationwide protests against police brutality that ensued. Instead of taking these organic expressions seriously, the right saw it as an affront to Trump and labeled even the most peaceful protests as riots blessed by top Democrats.

Trump loses to Biden, and the right doubles down on “crime”

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he and the right were thrown off-balance. Reeling from this loss, he pushed for the violent attack on the government on Jan. 6, 2021, and then spent the next few years blaming Biden for a crime surge that began on his watch, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump, alongside his propaganda allies at Fox News, saw crime begin to decline under Biden but kept pushing the lie that it hadn’t. To do otherwise would have undermined years of attacks against Democrats and would be an acknowledgement that the right’s “tough on crime” approach had not worked.

Then-candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Colorado last October.

The right blamed this supposed crime wave on migrants, reinforcing the conservative movement’s nativist, racist message. And they used the narrative to reinforce a long-held conservative bias against cities, which the right has railed against for their successful progressive policies and their racial and cultural diversity.

Much of this doesn’t make logical sense. The facts do not align with putting crime, racial minorities, and liberal policies all in a pile together. It makes even less sense when we remember that Fox News is headquartered in New York City, the metropolis Trump himself is a product of.

But the right loves conspiracies, and it is far easier for them to argue that liberal policies celebrating ethnic unity also promote crime than it is for them to live in reality.

Trump pulls the trigger

Trump understands his core audience more than he understands anything else in the world, and while complex ideas are out of his grasp, he is fluent in the language of bigotry.

Insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

By invoking crime, particularly at a moment of political vulnerability, he understands that he is activating long-simmering conservative resentments. By raising the idea of a crime wave occurring in cities with large Black populations, the tensions raised within the MAGA movement about Epstein can be eased, at least temporarily. 

This is why Trump can open prison cells and release Jan. 6 rioters who were tried and convicted, and also continue to proclaim that he is for “law and order.”

Right-wing lawmakers and media have sold conservative voters on a false narrative for so long that those voters truly believe Trump and his cohorts are fighting crime—even as they continue to cover up for an accused sex trafficker and pedophile.

Democratic leaders can bring tons of facts to conversations about crime, but most of the right is too far gone. They are too steeped in propaganda and paranoia to give reality a chance.

They were always going to believe the lies from Trump and the rest when it comes to crime. It was only a question of when it was going to happen.

House Republican wants to have attorney general arrested just because

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, best known for fabricating her entire life story, told Fox News that she has a plan to get the sergeant-at-arms to arrest Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

“Several months ago, I introduced a resolution for something called inherent contempt of Congress. This is something that Congress has the authority to do, and it hasn’t been done since the early 1900’s,” she told host Maria Bartiromo on Monday. 

Luna was responding to questions about the Justice Department’s announcement that it would not prosecute Garland for not turning over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

“And what that allows Congress to do is really be the punitive arm and really hold Garland accountable by using the sergeant-at-arms to essentially go and get him,” Luna went on, “as well as the tapes, bring him to the well of the house and really be a check-and-balance on the Department of Justice.”

Like most of what Luna says, there are all kinds of facts being misrepresented here. For one, her assertion that she introduced her inherent contempt of Congress resolution “several months ago” is belied by the fact that she actually announced it on May 7. And while that is technically more than one month, it is far less than several months. Though, to be fair, her announcement could have been missed, since it came the same day that Stormy Daniels was testifying … in Trump’s criminal trial.

The sergeant-at-arms is "the chamber’s primary law enforcement official and protocol officer, responsible for maintaining security on the House floor and the House side of the U.S. Capitol complex.” 

The case from the “early 1900’s” that Luna is referring to is something some legal scholars felt was more apropos to the unwillingness to comply with requests from Congress by the Trump administration.

The Teapot Dome scandal, which involved President Warren G. Harding’s Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall’s no-bid contract to lease federal oil fields in Teapot Dome, Wyoming, happened in 1922. Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty was heavily criticized at the time for not more thoroughly investigating Fall, who was later convicted of taking a $100,000 bribe.

The scandal escalated to the Senate committee subpoenaing Mally S. Daugherty, the attorney general’s brother. 

When Mally Daugherty refused to show up to testify before Congress, the Senate Sergeant at Arms David S. Barry deputized John J. McGrain to arrest him and bring him to Washington to testify.

The Republicans’ fixation on getting audio, despite having already received the entire transcript of Hur’s interview with Biden, has been a transparently political endeavor. Hur, a Republican, released a 375-page report in February saying that no charges were warranted and that Biden had likely kept the documents as a private citizen by “mistake.”

Since then, House Republicans voted to hold Garland in contempt. Speaker Mike Johnson vowed to take the Garland contempt case to court after the DOJ announced it planned no further action. But whether Johnson will bring Luna’s resolution to a vote remains to be seen.

There has been very little tangible action that has come out of the GOP’s neverending political theater. This past year it spent an inordinate amount of time attacking Biden’s border security while trying to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas—a stunt that failed miserably. 

Luna’s newest resolution is the GOP’s latest political stunt to create a cloud of doubt over Biden’s reelection campaign against convicted felon Trump.

Hopium Chronicles' Simon Rosenberg joins Markos to discuss the “red wave-ification” of the economy and how prepared Democrats are for November. There is still work to do but we have a better candidate—and we have the edge.

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Hunter Biden is convicted, but the GOP is still big mad

You might think that Republicans would be thrilled that there’s now a convicted felon in the Biden family, but it’s still not enough for them. From wanting to take down the rest of the “Biden crime family” to calling Hunter’s conviction a Justice Department ploy to make it look like there’s not a “two-tiered system of justice,” the GOP is still angry and thirsting for revenge for Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies.

Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who can’t stop hilariously failing to impeach President Joe Biden, kicks it off with a tweet:

🚨STATEMENT🚨 Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was smoked out after scrutiny by a federal judge. Today’s verdict is a step toward accountability but until the Department of Justice investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated…

— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 11, 2024

Comer’s commentary reflects the sentiments of the Trump campaign

“Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit. As for Hunter, we wish him well in his recovery and legal affairs,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement

But it wasn’t long until the campaign retracted its statement and reissued it without the well wishes for Hunter.

The “Biden crime family” and demands for prosecutions are a major theme among the GOP. 

“Now, it’s time to bring Hunter and the Biden Crime Family to justice for the allegations of influence peddling,” Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina tweeted.

“Hunter Biden’s firearm conviction is simply a smokescreen,” says Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana. “What I'm concerned about is how Joe, Hunter, and James Biden have been enriching themselves by trading away America's interests to our enemies.”

On the other hand, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is accusing the DOJ for not prosecuting Hunter hard enough. 

“Never forget DOJ tried to avoid this trial & verdict by giving Hunter a sweetheart plea deal. Until the judge exposed them,” he tweeted.

Then there’s the conspiracy theorists, like Stephen Miller, who accused the DOJ of “running election interference for Joe Biden.”

“That’s why DOJ did NOT charge Hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (FARA) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. Why? Because all the evidence would lead back to JOE,” he tweeted.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, added to that, tweeting: “And yet Dems will now point to Hunter’s conviction as evidence that ‘there’s no lawfare.’” 

But Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia takes the cake for political paranoia: 

Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is nothing more than the Left’s attempt to create the illusion of equal justice. Don’t fall for it.

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) June 11, 2024

There’s no small amount of cognitive dissonance about the rule of law in this crowd. Like Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, who intoned that “today’s verdict is a step towards ensuring equal application of the law, regardless of one's last name.”

Except, of course, for the equal application of the law to someone named Trump. 

“The fix was in for this fake ‘trial’ - the George Soros-backed DA and a leftist judge worked to tilt the scales of justice against President Trump,” Smith tweeted

Then there’s the pathetic toadying for Trump from Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good. 

“Hunter Biden is convicted of an actual crime. Donald Trump was railroaded by a political prosecutor and a biased judge,” Good tweeted

Trump has endorsed Good’s primary opponent. 

Yet no one in the GOP is complaining about a "rigged jury" or a “corrupt judge” in Hunter’s conviction. And neither are the Democrats.

“I've not heard a single Democrat anywhere in the country cry fraud, cry, fixed, cry, rigged, cry, kangaroo court or any of the many epithets that our colleagues have mobilized against the U.S. Department of Justice and our federal court system,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said

Similarly, Biden has responded to the conviction with a dignified and loving statement in support of his son. 

"Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden said. “So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.”

As for the verdict? 

“I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” Biden said.

Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30. What are potential voters saying about this historic news? And what is the Biden-Harris campaign doing now that the “teflon Don" is no more?

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11 times Donald Trump escaped justice—until now

Donald Trump is an enigma inside a riddle wrapped in 34 felony convictions, so it’s difficult to work out exactly where he goes from here. Conventional wisdom tells us the presidential campaign of a traitorous Putin sympathizer with this much legal baggage should officially be over, but this is Trump we’re talking about. The dude makes no apologies, has no shame, and continually respawns like a Grand Theft Auto character on a 24-hour killing rampage. 

And since the Republican Party is now basically the Jonestown Cult without the complimentary beverages, few GOP luminaries—including elected officials—will dare gainsay him.

Indeed, in the wake of his conviction, the party of law and order is queuing up to kiss his arse in perpetuity. And Trump himself is trying to divert attention from his own crimes by claiming that New York—and the nation as a whole—is hopelessly steeped in lawlessness because Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is only paying attention to this one case.

(Actually, the crime wave that started under Trump has now ebbed, and crime as a whole is close to a 50-year low—except among former U.S. presidents, of course. Among that admittedly narrow cohort, it’s up approximately 100%.)

Ah, but now is not the time to be complacent. Trump’s goose might look cooked, but one thing we’ve all learned over the years is that no matter how grotesque and silly he might appear at any given moment, he keeps coming back. He’s sort of like Jason Voorhees that way. Or Infrastructure Week.

Indeed, we’ve seen this movie many times, and it’s always set us up for sequels. Which means we’re not done fighting this cancer—not by a long shot.

Here are 11 times it looked like the Trump train had—or should have—officially derailed, only for some weak-kneed enabler (I’m looking at you, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell) to lift it back onto the tracks and send it on its merry way. (Note: This list is not chronological, and it’s by no means exhaustive.)

1. The “Access Hollywood” tape

For many, this was the first time it looked as though Trump was cooked for sure. You can’t gleefully admit to serial sexual assault and still be elected president, right? Right?! It’s over! Let’s spike the ball right here—on the 10-yard line. What could possibly go wrong now?

Ah, memories. As we now recall, this seismic October surprise was ultimately papered over with the infamous Jim Comey letter, and Trump was elected our 45th—and first future felon—president. 

2. His campaign launch

Many forget that Trump’s campaign stumbled right out of the gate when he infamously declared that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists. The remarks were offensive (and false) enough to prompt NBC to sever ties with their star reality show host. Sadly, they weren’t quite offensive enough for Republican primary voters. Indeed, his remarks probably gave him an edge over his opponents, who were still relying on dog whistles as Trump was blithely blowing an airhorn.

3. Mocking a disabled reporter

There have been numerous instances involving Trump saying or doing something so beyond the pale, it felt like no one outside the fringiest of fringes could possibly still support him. And yet they did.

In November 2015, he cruelly mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a condition that “can impact the function and range of motion of joints and can cause muscles to atrophy.” 

It was the ugliest thing most longtime political observers had ever seen, and yet it somehow failed to dissuade millions of Republican primary voters, who proudly nominated him as the Republican presidential candidate in July of the following year.

As long as I live, I will never understand how this alone wasn’t the end of it. pic.twitter.com/2MaLkBJ2Xo

— Damien Owens (@OwensDamien) November 15, 2016

4. Disrespecting Gold Star families and John McCain

In July 2015, Trump downplayed GOP Sen. John McCain’s military service, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

Roughly a year later, he was disrespecting military families again (well, their lost loved ones were suckers and losers, right?). After Gold Star father Khizr Khan, whose son died in the line of duty in Iraq, spoke on Hillary Clinton’s behalf during the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Trump showed once again that he has the impulse control of an Arby’s grease fire.

In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump first claimed that, contrary to what Khan had said in his address, Trump actually had made sacrifices for his country by employing “thousands and thousands of people.”

Then he attacked Khan’s wife, Ghazala, saying, “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably—maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

Oh, boy! He won’t survive this one! He’s like a shark with three barrels stuck in him! It’s over! Right?

5. The Mueller probe

We all thought this investigation would enfeeble Trump beyond hope of recovery, didn’t we? And then Bill Barr happened.

After months of waiting for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to drop his report on Russian election interference, we did get some real answers about the Trump campaign’s extensive contacts with the Russians involved in ratfucking the 2016 presidential election—and we also discovered that Trump had gone out of his way to obstruct the investigation. But Barr furiously spun the report’s findings, and nothing much came of them.

Trump continued to claim his innocence, even after a later Senate investigation definitively proved collusion between Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian intelligence officer. But by that time the public had largely moved on.

6. Charlottesville

We all recall when Trump both-sidesed Nazis. Nazis! How the fuck can you both-sides Nazis?!

Well, Trump can—and he did.

“You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,” Trump said in the wake of the violent white-ring Charlottesville protests.

Seriously, dude, these are NAZIS! World War II—and pretty much every war movie filmed in its wake—made very clear that these are the bad guys.

Ah, but Trump loves to move the Overton window, and sadly, Nazi apologia was not a bridge too far for the GOP. 

7. Extorting Ukraine/first impeachment

You’d think withholding congressionally approved military funds meant to aid a democratic ally caught in a life-or-death struggle with a hostile authoritarian regime would be enough to get you impeached and convicted. Especially if you were doing it to compel that ally into digging up dirt on your likely future opponent.

You’d think.

Well, you’d be wrong, because … Republicans.

The Government Accountability Office determined that Trump had broken the law in withholding the funds, but that wasn’t nearly enough for the law-and-order party, which continued to pretend Trump was the most brutally persecuted—and unluckiest—human in history.

8. The Helsinki Surrender Summit

If you had any doubts about Trump’s lickspittle obeisance to Russian war criminal Vladimir Putin, they were put to rest after this sorry incident.

At a joint press conference with Putin in July 2018, Trump took the dictator’s word over the findings of our own intelligence agencies (who had determined Russia interfered in our elections).

“[Putin] just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he said.

For once, Trump’s remarks actually seemed to scandalize stalwart Republicans. As The Associated Press wrote at the time, “The reaction back home was immediate and visceral, among fellow Republicans as well as usual Trump critics. ‘Shameful,’ ‘disgraceful,’ ‘weak,’ were a few of the comments. Makes the U.S. ‘look like a pushover,’ said GOP Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.”

But, in the end, nothing really changed, as Republican spines dissolved faster than Lindsey Graham’s dignity at the Mar-a-Lago omelet bar

9. Jan. 6 and the Second Impeachment

Okay, he’s really done now, right? Right?

Violently attempting to overthrow the government is so egregious, even Graham dropped the ocher abomination. (Sadly, a little more than a month later, he came groveling back.)

Unfortunately, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, while clearly upset by Trump’s outrageous attack on democracy, refused to back his conviction, preserving his eligibility for future office. And before the month was over, Rep. Kevin McCarthy—apparently assuming Trump was the ticket to a long and rewarding speakership—helped rehabilitate his image among the “fuck your feelings and our 245-year-old democracy crowd” by hurrying to Mar-a-Lago to sample every square inch of Trump boots.

Thanks, guys!

10. The E. Jean Carroll judgment

Yeah, Trump was found civilly liable for lying about sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll in a department store. And, sure, he’s being forced to cough up $83 million. What of it?

Trump assured us Carroll wasn’t his type, and as we all know, Trump never lies. The fact that he later thought an old picture of her was a photo of his ex-wife Marla Maples is irrelevant, and definitely not something you should spend any time thinking about. Especially if you’re a Republican.

MAGA ‘24, baby!

11. Four—four!—felony cases ... and 4 million Republican yawns

It might seem like a cop-out to shove all of these into one catchall category, but when you really think about it, one felony charge should have been enough. And yet Republicans were able to ignore 91 with unprecedented aplomb.

Besides, two of those four felony cases were related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and install himself as a dictator, and Republicans had already established that they don’t care about such picayune matters.

Also, who doesn’t steal box loads of highly sensitive government secrets and randomly stack them in a heavily trafficked ballroom at a country club? That’s what the U.S. is all about. If they can go after Trump for that, they can go after you for doing the same thing. Think about it. It’s just common sense.

And if it’s this easy to ignore 91 felony charges, ignoring 34 convictions should be a doddle, now shouldn’t it? 

Of course, both President Joe Biden and Trump have stressed that the real verdict will come on Nov. 5. And they’re not wrong.

As we’ve clearly seen, we voters are the only ones who can put an end to this feral fuckery. No doubt y’all are happy about this verdict—I know I am—but there’s “happy” and then there’s “cosmically orgasmic.” We haven’t attained the latter yet—and we won’t until Trump is permanently consigned to the Walmart parking lot dumpster of history.

In other words, now is no time to get cocky. We need to run through the tape all the way through November—which means our work has just started.

We can all do something to help push Biden over the goal line, whether that involves donating or getting out the vote (phone-banking, door-knocking, postcard-writing, talking to friends, etc.). But the last thing we can be is complacent. We all remember how we felt when Clinton lost in 2016—it’s far too early to let our guard down. Too much is at stake.

So by all means, celebrate over the next couple of days, but then get back in the trenches and fight like your life depends on it. Because, you know, it very well might.

Daily Kos’ Postcards to Swing States campaign is back, and I just signed up to help. Please join me! Let’s do this, patriots! Democracy won’t defend itself.

Every day brings a new prognostication that is making President Joe Biden's campaign operatives worry or freak out. Is Donald Trump running away with the election? No. Not even close.

It’s Year 5 Of The Biden Crime Family Coverup

By Frank Miele for RealClearWire

A truism that came out of the Watergate scandal is that often the coverup is worse than the crime. But that is not the case in the unraveling Bidengate scandal. The alleged crime here is so bad that it is probably the worst ever committed by an American president.

Yet the coverup should be studied, too. It deserves superlatives for its longevity, inventiveness, and sheer audacity. The strategy has been simple: deny, deflect, destroy. Deny the facts. Deflect with distractions, and when all else fails, work tirelessly to destroy Trump, who was among the first to raise questions about the Biden family’s shady dealings. At Year 5, it may be the most successful coverup in modern history, especially since so many of the facts have been in plain sight for the entire time.

So what exactly is Bidengate? A decade-long influence-peddling scheme that saw Joe Biden, the former vice president, using his son Hunter as a conduit for millions of dollars in payoffs from foreign entities in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere in exchange for favorable treatment. The most famous instance of this scheme was the millions of dollars paid to Hunter Biden for his role as a board member of the corrupt Burisma energy company in Ukraine. Even Hunter acknowledged that his only qualification for being on the board was his last name.

Trading on one’s name to gain employment is not a crime in itself, but using your father’s public office to influence U.S. policy is definitely against the law – especially when the clout is used to protect your corrupt foreign employer.

That’s just what happened in March of 2016 when Vice President Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if prosecutor general Viktor Shokin were not immediately fired. Biden even bragged about this escapade a few years later when he told the story to the Council on Foreign Relations.

It’s hard to know whether Biden’s threat to withhold aid was approved by the State Department or whether it was “on the fly” diplomacy, but we do know that Shokin has publicly stated that he was fired because he was investigating Burisma’s alleged corruption, and that after he was fired there was no further substantial investigation of Burisma. Quid pro quo.

Another famous mantra from the Watergate era is “Follow the money.” It almost makes you think Biden was taunting his accusers, quipping to a reporter on June 8, “Where’s the money?” when asked about allegations of corruption.

“That’s what we want to know,” the reporter should have demanded, but of course there was no follow-up question. There never is.

Biden’s cheeky response suggests he had reason to think that he could count on the source of any ill-gotten wealth being kept private. And he may have had good reason for that belief.

On July 20, a little more than a month after Biden asked “Where’s the money?”, Sen. Chuck Grassley released an unclassified FD-1023 FBI informant form alleging that Biden and his son Hunter had split a $10 million payment from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma. Among the many intriguing breadcrumbs in that document was the informant’s claim that the payment to the Bidens was so well disguised that it would take years to uncover:

Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the “Big Guy” (which [the FBI source] understood was a reference to Joe Biden). [The source] asked Zlochevsky how many companies/bank accounts Zlochevsky controls; Zlochevsky responded it would take them (investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e. illicit payments to Joe Biden).

So that’s one possible answer to Joe Biden’s taunt: “Where’s the money?” Perhaps it’s well-hidden.

Related: Jill Biden’s Ex-Husband Comes Back To Haunt Her – ‘I Can’t Let Them Do What They Did To Me To President Trump’

There are so many flashing red warning lights in the Biden scandal that a casual observer would be forgiven for assuming he was in Amsterdam. Case in point: The FBI informant reported in his June 2020 statement that Zlochevsky had called Joe Biden the “Big Guy” in 2019.

That’s the same gangster nickname that one of Hunter Biden’s business associates used to refer to Joe in an infamous email on the “Laptop from Hell” when discussing what percentage of capital equity was being held by Hunter for Joe in a Chinese investment scheme. The laptop was in FBI hands since December 2019, but the email in question wasn’t circulated in public until the New York Post published it on Oct. 15, 2020. The informant’s use of the phrase prior to that time is strong circumstantial evidence that the FBI’s trusted human source was indeed privy to confidential and damning information about Biden.

But what’s truly maddening about the Biden coverup is just how long it has lasted while more and more evidence has mounted. Recent congressional hearings unearthed a trove of detail about bank payments to Biden family members, and IRS whistleblowers have laid bare the protection racket that the FBI and DOJ have been running for the Bidens. Most of that is just confirmation of what we already knew.

Remember, the first time most Americans heard about the Bidens’ bribery schemes was in September 2019 when the transcript of a phone call between President Trump and then-new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was released. In it, Trump raised the issue of former Vice President Biden’s alleged corruption and asked Zelensky to cooperate with U.S. authorities by “looking into” rumors of criminal activity by the Bidens.

Imagine if Congress had opened an inquiry then into the question of Hunter Biden’s huge salary for sitting on the board of Burisma Energy, the company controlled by oligarch Zlochevsky. Hunter Biden might be in prison now, and his father would have retired to Delaware to live out his final years in shame.

Instead, Democrats in Congress put Trump on trial for daring to notice that which must not be named – the influence-peddling scheme run by Joe Biden and his kin. The impeachment was America’s crash course on Ukrainian corruption, but somehow the mainstream media missed the story and tried to convince the public that Biden was the victim. They hid the evidence then, just as they did last week when Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal fell apart.

Related: Hunter Biden Pleads Not Guilty After Plea Deal Falls Apart

The Democrat-adjacent media seem to have a hard time understanding the case against Hunter Biden – and Joe Biden – even after five years. It’s not uncommon to hear cable news anchors lamenting that the Republicans are persecuting Joe and that they haven’t proven the president did anything wrong.

Either they don’t understand the meaning of the word proven, or they don’t understand our system of justice. It is not the job of Congress or reporters to prove anything, but rather to investigate and unearth evidence. For anyone who has eyes to see, there is a mountain of evidence against both Hunter and Joe Biden. But what we are still waiting for – what the nation is waiting for – is justice. To get that, we need a prosecutor who will present the evidence to a jury and ask for a verdict. Then and only then will the president’s guilt be proven or unproven.

How many more years do we have to wait?

Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.

The post It’s Year 5 Of The Biden Crime Family Coverup appeared first on The Political Insider.

Nancy Pelosi Hints Attack On Her Husband May Lead to Retirement

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicates that the recent brutal hammer attack on her husband in their San Francisco home has her pondering retirement.

Her comments came during her first sit-down interview since the attack, an appearance with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about whether you’d retire if Democrats lose the House,” Cooper said, referencing the Democrats’ expected midterm shellacking on Tuesday.

While declining to make an announcement, Pelosi acknowledged, “The decision will be affected about what happened over the last week or two.”

Cooper continued to press: “Will your decision be impacted by the attack in any way?”

“Yes,” she replied.

RELATED: Report: Paul Pelosi’s Hammer-Wielding Attacker Is an Illegal Immigrant

Pelosi Prepping for Retirement?

Ever the master manipulator, Pelosi is already trying to control the narrative following the midterm elections.

Rather than admitting she’s about to be retired due to a Republican red wave, she wants to be able to say that political violence caused by Trump and his supporters forced her to step aside.

Pelosi even said she agrees with President Biden that there is a direct correlation between the hammer attack and January 6th, calling it a “copycatter” event “inflamed by the same misrepresentation.”

“There’s no question. It’s the same thing,” she added.

RELATED: Fox’s Jesse Watters Slams Gavin Newsom After CA Governor Accuses Him of ‘Aiding and Abetting’ Paul Pelosi Attack

She’s an Outstanding Master of Resources

Aside from discussing retirement, Nancy Pelosi went on endlessly rave about why she was allegedly the true target of her husband’s hammer-wielding assailant.

“I’ve been a target for a long time. Because I’m very effective,” she bragged. “I’m a great … master of the legislation.”

“On the political side, I’m an outstanding, shall we say, a master of the resources necessary, intellectual, financial, political to win elections,” Pelosi added.

“So they have to put a stop to me, right, because they know that I’m about having our members succeed.”

Here again, notice the use of the word “they.” Pelosi is attempting to portray the attacker as more than a lone lunatic who broke into their home late at night, and rather, a representative of the pro-Trump movement.

She’s a master alright. A master manipulator.

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Former President Donald Trump has a different term for her.

“I think she’s an animal, too, to tell you the truth,” Trump said at a rally Monday night, after referring to MS-13 gang members as the same.

Trump would go on to point out how the media will run with his ‘animal’ comment and link it to the attack at Casa de Pelosi.

“They’ll say, ‘What a horrible thing. He called Nancy Pelosi an animal,’” he predicted.

Trump was commenting on impeachment efforts led by the House Speaker.

“I will never use the word bullshit again. But what she did to us in this country … ” he lamented.

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Such an abuse’: Bill Barr delivers obvious facts to Fox News about Mar-a-Lago stash of documents

By now, you’ve probably heard that the disgraced former president, Donald Trump, seems to be something of a criminal. No, I’m not talking about his racist landlord violations from the 1970s. No, not his dubious interactions with contractors throughout the 1980s and 1990s. No, not his shady personal bankruptcies of the 1990s and 2000s. No, not even his two impeachments and the fact that there are numerous campaign violations that many believe need more criminal investigations. Trump seems to have broken a slew of laws surrounding the handling, hoarding, and possible treason of taking classified documents to keep at his private golf club and residence at Mar-a-Lago.

The Republican Party, sans a few neocons, is struggling to regain primacy in the toilet bowl that is the Republican Party circling the sewer of fascism. On Friday, former Trump attorney general Bill Barr went on Fox News and took a ginormous rain on the right wing’s parade by making the case—not once, but twice in a two-minute span—that Donald Trump had earned and deserved the search and seizure of government documents from Mar-a-Lago.

Yes, the guy who just a few months ago said he would still vote for Donald Trump were he to run in 2024, the guy who allowed Donald Trump to skate past clear recommendations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller that he should be investigated more thoroughly for breaking federal laws. That Bill Barr. And yes, that Fox News.

RELATED STORY: All you need to read from the memo Barr claimed cleared Trump on obstruction is a single footnote

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Let me premise this by saying that I personally believe Fox News is hedging its bets here. Murdoch and the brain trust at Fox News have already lost favor with Trump after being the news outlet to call Arizona for Biden in 2020. They have had to walk back their full-on dismissal of Trump, as the current GOP leadership didn’t have the backbone to stand up to Trump and offer their base a worthwhile alternative.* Letting Bill Barr come on and slam Trump while vapid hosts made faces and threw softball defenses up is a way for Fox News to have clips if and when Donald Trump ends up in an orange jumpsuit.

On Friday, Barr spoke to two vacuous Fox News mouthpieces and began by pointing out that the idea that Trump could or would make a blanket declassification was ridiculous, and that even if he did, it wouldn’t be much of a defense against any real legal challenges. Barr said he was “skeptical” of that claim in the first place, “because frankly, I think it’s highly improbable; and second, if in fact he sort of stood over scores of boxes, not really knowing what was in them, and said ‘I hereby declassify everything in here,’ that would be such an abuse, show such recklessness, that it is almost worse than taking the documents.”

One Fox deplorable decided the best tactic here was to ask Barr about how the FBI went to Donald Trump’s private residence to get said folders and files. You know, the old GOP chestnut: How could a rich, conservative white guy possibly break the law? Barr did a good job of pointing out that it seemed pretty clear the FBI had a very good idea that there were a lot of very serious documents in a very not-secure location, and Trump wasn’t willingly giving them back.

He then gave a very simple answer that maybe some of the people watching from their MyPillow recliners could maybe understand:

"People say the search was unprecedented. Well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take classified information and put them in a county club. How long is the government going to try to get that back, you know? They jawbone for a year. They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that—they feel. And the records are starting to show that they were being jerked around."

"People say this was unprecedented. Well, it's also unprecedented for a POTUS to take all this classified information & put 'em in a country club, ok? And how long is the govt going to try to get that back?" -- Bill Barr bodies Trump on Fox News even as anchors try to defend him pic.twitter.com/7HqOvf9xvp

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 2, 2022

*In the GOP leadership’s defense, they have no meaningful alternative to Trump. Trump is worth 1,000 Ted Cruzes or Josh Hawleys because Trump will unashamedly lie about giving conservative voters everything they want (lower health insurance costs, more and better jobs, all the oil they can guzzle). Most Republicans have spent the last few decades attempting to pretend they had policies that might do that in the face of failure after failure.

RELATED STORY: The classified documents in that DOJ photo were all found in Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago office

Colorado Pregnancy Center Set On Fire, Vandalized Hours After Roe v. Wade Decision

A pregnancy center in Longmont, Colorado was vandalized with spray paint and set on fire early Saturday morning, just hours after the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade

According to authorities, fire broke out around 3 a.m. Officials also said that the building sustained fire damage.

RELATED: Cameras Capture Biden’s Cheat Sheet Showing Hilarious Instructions: ‘YOU Take YOUR Seat’

Other Damage And Who Might Have Caused It

In addition to the fire, which authorities are investigating as arson, the front entrance to the building had been vandalized with black spray paint with symbols often used by Antifa, and a statement reading, “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you.”

That phrase has been found at the scene of other attacks, like the firebombing in Buffalo, New York.

Radical pro-abortion activists groups like “Jane’s Revenge” and “Ruth Sent Us” have taken credit for some of the attacks.

Protests and violence broke out in several cities over the weekend following the new landmark Supreme Court decision.

RELATED: Biden State Dept. Refusing To Cooperate With Afghanistan Inspector General Review

Ramping Up Violence

The violent rhetoric and protests by leftists pro-abortion activists has been escalating since a draft of the decision was leaked in May. While speculation abounds as to who might have leaked the document, there has been no recent information on the incident.

Earlier this month, an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanugh was thwarted when a California man was arrested near Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland carrying such items as knives, a pistol, ammunition, pepper spray, and zip ties.

Since then, there have been attacks on crisis pregnancy centers and churches in at least 20 states and Washington D.C. The attacks have ranged from graffiti on the walls of centers and churches in Washington state and in the south, Molotov cocktails hurled at the pro-life Wisconsin Family Action Center, and a firebombing previous to the one in Colorado taking place in Buffalo, New York.

Abortion protesters also essentially held Arizona lawmakers hostage Friday night as they attempted to breach the State capitol building. Elected officials were told not to exit the building and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd.

Other Supreme Court Justices have had protests take place outside their homes. 

RELATED: CNN’s Ana Navarro Uses Relatives With Down Syndrome, Autism To Defend Right To Have Abortions 

When Rhetoric Meets Reality

Back in 2020, then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appeared to threaten Justices Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch should any abortion laws be rolled back.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

After the decision on Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called the Court “illegitimate” and encouraged pro-abortion activists to go “into the streets” to fight the ruling.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), also previously known for encouraging confrontation after former President Donald Trump’s election, also joined protesters outside the Supreme Court building,

“The hell with the Supreme Court—we will defy them. Women will be in control of their bodies.” Then, referencing the crowd, said to reporters,”You see this out here? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The FBI is assisting in the investigation in Colorado.

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Report: Cuomo Being Investigated For Retaliating Against Sexual Harassment Accusers

State investigators are reportedly looking into whether Governor Andrew Cuomo and his aides committed a crime by retaliating against his sexual harassment accusers.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is conducting a wide-ranging probe of Cuomo and his inner circle and their actions following the initial allegation.

“Several witnesses said state investigators were particularly focused on the question of retaliation and whether the governor or any of the aides around him broke any laws or state rules in response to women coming forward,” according to the Washington Post.

Of interest is whether or not Cuomo or his aides illegally released a personnel file of Lindsey Boylan, a former aide who was the first to accuse the Democrat governor of sexual misconduct.

Boylan has claimed that Cuomo forcibly kissed her on the lips and suggested “let’s play strip poker.”

A total of 10 women have accused Cuomo of some form of sexual misconduct, the most serious of which involved an unnamed female aide who said the governor groped her at the Executive Mansion in November.

RELATED: Every Court Of Appeals Judge Who Would Vote In Cuomo Impeachment Trial Was Appointed By Him

Did Cuomo Commit A Crime By Retaliating Against Accuser?

Following Boylan’s bombshell accusations which kicked off several other reports, Cuomo’s office released some of her personnel files to the media.

The Washington Post reports:

After Lindsey Boylan, a former state employee, first alleged harassment by the governor on Twitter late last year, he talked with advisers about how to handle the allegations, which he has denied, according to people familiar with the conversations. The governor’s office ultimately released to reporters some of Boylan’s personnel records, which showed complaints against her as a state employee, according to people familiar with the decision.

The newspaper cites sources familiar with the line of questioning by investigators as saying they are probing “planned or actual retaliation against other women who came forward or were considering coming forward.”

The file was released following a meeting with advisers – a meeting that Cuomo denies having – on how to handle the allegations leveled against him.

It shows Boylan being labeled a bully and accusing her of speaking to co-workers as if they were children.

Boylan claims the release was part of a smear campaign to discredit her claims.

RELATED: Fox News Janice Dean Slams ‘Despicable’ Cuomo Over $10,000 Per Ticket Fundraiser This Month

Cuomo Denies Committing A Crime

In a statement to the Washington Post, Governor Cuomo’s acting counsel denies that releasing the personnel file of his accuser amounted to a crime.

“With certain limited exceptions … it is within a government entity’s discretion to share redacted employment records, including in instances when members of the media ask for such public information and when it is for the purpose of correcting inaccurate or misleading statements,” the attorney said.

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo has also been embroiled in controversy for having advised his brother on how to deal with the sexual harassment allegations, an egregious breach of journalistic standards even for that network.

Cuomo, as per multiple sources for the Post, “joined a series of conference calls that included the Democratic governor, his top aide, his communications team, lawyers and a number of outside advisers” on “how to respond to sexual harassment allegations.”

The Washington Post report links to a separate article regarding Chris Cuomo’s involvement in strategy calls but does not specifically reference him as part of the effort to release Boylan’s personnel file.

Governor Cuomo has thus far survived the many investigations and impeachment inquiries he is currently facing, though his political future remains in question.

The scandals embroiling him are wide-ranging and numerous, including:

  • Forcing nursing homes to take on COVID-positive patients.
  • Hiding the data on those deaths and stripping numbers from DOH reports.
  • Numerous sexual misconduct allegations including a police report involving forcibly groping an aide.
  • Bullying and threatening fellow lawmakers and members of the media.
  • Under investigation for a $5.1 million book deal profiting off the pandemic by having aides write and edit portions using state resources.
  • Provided priority COVID-19 testing for his family and associates, also allegedly using state resources.

Still, the Washington Post report states that some in his inner circle believe “the attorney general’s office will release a report that does not include criminal charges” with respect to the sexual harassment scandal.

They do, however, fear being portrayed as “an unprofessional office where women were judged on their looks and subordinates were subjected to demeaning comments.”

James has interviewed at least a dozen current and former staff members as part of the sexual harassment probe.

 

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Liz Cheney Calls For Criminal Investigation Into Trump

In her first interview since being ousted from leadership, Representative Liz Cheney continued to divide the Republican Party, calling for a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump.

Cheney (R-WY) made the statement in a discussion with Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today Show Thursday.

The Political Insider previously reported on Cheney’s comments creating a new conspiracy theory that Trump would “unravel the democracy to come back into power.”

But, as is typical of those Republicans afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome, she took it a step further, calling for a criminal investigation into the former President.

Cheney accused Trump of having incited protesters at the Capitol in early January despite his statement to supporters that they “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

“For reasons I don’t understand, the leaders within my party have decided to embrace the former president who launched that attack,” Cheney claimed.

“I think the American people have to know,” she continued. “And certainly any president who did what we know this former president did has got to be investigated criminally.”

RELATED: A Defiant Liz Cheney Ousted From Leadership, Attacks Trump and His Supporters

Liz Cheney Wants A Criminal Investigation Of Trump

Cheney’s obsession – and that’s just what it is, an obsession – with Trump is something truly remarkable to behold.

She may want to toss a picture of Rachel Maddow on her mirror and practice making statements like this beforehand. And if it sounds like something the MSNBC host would say when you’re practicing in the mirror, you’re no longer a Republican.

You’re a messenger for the corrupt mainstream media.

Any doubts about her being removed from leadership should no longer linger, if they were even there in the first place.

Cheney has spent months focusing extensively on Trump and his supporters, rather than addressing party unity or shared conservative goals.

Rather than voting her conscience on impeachment and moving on, she has continued to eviscerate Trump and his millions of supporters. Those supporters being the very people who make up the Republican Party’s continued existence. 

Just recently, Cheney accused Trump voters of believing “the big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and vowed to campaign on impeaching him “every day of the week.”

In an op-ed for the Washington Post last week, Cheney encouraged Republicans not to embrace Trump’s “cult of personality.”

Trump “must not ever again be anywhere close to the Oval Office,” she told Guthrie.

RELATED: Lindsey Graham Warns Anti-Trump Republicans They’re Going To Wind Up ‘Getting Erased’

Her Own Big Lie

And while Cheney likes to reference ‘big lies,’ Fox News host Bret Baier had to call her out on one she helped promulgate as a useful idiot for the media last summer.

A major election-time story involving claims that Russia put bounties on American troops in Afghanistan imploded last month when the White House revealed that U.S. intelligence does not have conclusive evidence that the reports were ever true.

Cheney helped push that story.

A Politico report at the time read, “in her latest rebuke of Trump, Cheney openly questioned whether the president was aware of reports that the Russians offered Afghan militants bounties to kill U.S. troops and demanded the administration take a more aggressive posture toward the Kremlin.”

Baier asked Cheney if she had any regrets about “taking part in spreading the story.”

“I said, if these reports are true, then the White House must explain why they did not brief the President or Vice President,” she replied in a tense exchange.

“So, you know, I remain concerned about the intelligence,” she added, unwilling to let the false news story go.

Cheney, who suddenly has a singular focus on the well-being of the nation, helped Democrats undermine the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief all to the benefit of our enemies.

Hardly somebody who belongs in Congress, much less a leadership role.

Following her ouster on Wednesday, Trump issued a statement blasting Cheney as “a bitter, horrible human being.”

 

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