Victor Davis Hanson
Finally, unlike the Biden revenge tour, the Trump prosecutions will earn mostly negative press. The media is for the most part left-wing. It has never apologized for spreading the collusion hoax, popularizing the laptop ruse, smothering the collaboration of the FBI and social media corporations to silence 2020 campaign-cycle news accounts unfavorable to Biden, or spreading “walls-are-closing-in-on” propaganda about the 91 indictments of the Biden lawfare spectacle.
Trump knows that holding his former enemies to account for their alleged illegality will earn leftwing hysteria, media condemnation, and dissent from his own ranks.
In contrast, Biden’s lawfare crusade whipped up leftist elation, media exuberance, and uniform “jail the SOB” applause from Democrats.
Indeed, the Left and the Never Trump Right already, in preemptive fashion, have screamed for Trump not to do to his enemies as Biden did to him. And there is some logic to that warning, if for no other reason than that the Old Testament “tat” is always seen as worse than the “tit” that started the destructive cycle.
The first weaponized indictment that has no precursor often unfairly receives the benefit of the doubt that it does not merit. The second is judged de facto guilty of weaponization that it may not deserve.
In sum, Trump is not just pursuing his enemies for what they did to him.
If he were, Biden would see an FBI SWAT team in his front yard—ready to debank Hunter and rifle through Jill Biden’s underwear drawer.
If he were, the RNC would be rounding up red-state attorneys general to keep a Newsom or Harris off their 2024 state ballots.
If he were, Hillary Clinton in his first term would have faced credible indictments and jail time.
If he were, Ilhan Omar would be facing campaign-finance indictments along with immigration violation warrants.
AOC would face Alvin-Bragg-style bootstrapped, federal charges for receiving improper political gifts. And Nancy Pelosi long ago would have been indicted for her insider stock megaprofits.
We await the decisions of juries, judges, and prosecutors to determine the nature of the Trump administration federal indictments and the culpability of the defendants.
But again, what if there had been no Trump indictments?
Then the message would just as well have been that national security advisors need not follow their own national security rules. FBI directors and intelligence agency heads can serially lie with impunity under federal oath. And the attorneys general of states are free to misstate, misrepresent, and lie on government forms for their own financial advantage without exposure.
To sum up, so far there is no comparison between a handful of Trump DOJ “lawfare” indictments and the past 91 state, county, and municipal indictments of Trump—as well as the other efforts at debanking him, storming his home, de-balloting him, threatening his person, nearly killing him, and fining him half a billion dollars.
High-profile officials like national security advisors and attorneys general have to be above suspicion of leaking or mishandling classified files or lying about mortgage and tax data.
So far, lawfare is being conducted almost always in blue states where the conservative targets are themselves targets of judges and juries. In contrast, convicting a left-wing former official in a blue jurisdiction is far more difficult than convicting a fellow Trump-hater.
The Left that began lawfare has never come forward to apologize or even ask both sides to cease.
Instead, many Democratic officials have promised to resume lawfare once they are back in power. You see they do not see weaponizing the justice system to destroy political enemies as “lawfare.”
Rather, the Left is unapologetic about a one-sided, any-means-necessary, and valuable progressive tool to eliminate toxic conservatives—one that could never boomerang on their own morally superior, brilliant, and understandable leftist grandees.
Discussion (3)
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As Rush Limbaugh used to say, you cannot negotiate with leftists; they must be defeated. One has to hope that for the good of the country there will be enough thinking voters to do just that. We cannot be rid of these idiotic and increasingly violent leftists any too soon.
The Comey case looks like a steep hill to crime, not because he's innocent of lying to Congress, but because it'll be very difficult to prove in a bias DC courtroom. But the Letitia James mortgage fraud case seems pretty straightforward. She has multiple counts of fraud against her that are easy to prove and simple to follow. Ditto John Bolton's indictments for using classified information to sell a book. Unfortunately, Comey, James, and Bolton will be treated as martyred victims of a vengeful Donald Trump by the mainstream media and the true nature of their crimes will be obfuscated and distorted. In the 1960s Left wing radicals were a small group living on the fringes of society. Now almost every Blue state and local official, including DAs and Secretaries of State, are woke loons hell bent on using their power to take down Conservatives in general, and Trump in particular. Can the system still be relied on to administer justice fairly and impartially?