Strange Bedfellows
Never has it been truer that “politics makes strange bedfellows.” Within the GOP, former Presidential candidate and Utah Senator Mitt Romney is the poster-child for an establishment politician. Despite being ostensibly a Republican, Romney twice voted to impeach Trump. It is not a stretch to say that Romney is not a fan of Trump, whom the Senator has described as “unqualified” and “unfit.” Nevertheless, even Romney not only recognizes but openly criticizes the prosecution turned persecution of Trump as being politically motivated.
Ask yourself: Would there be any prosecution had Trump been successfully impeached — had his candidacy not been anticipated in 2024? Would the motivation have existed to charge Trump based upon events, which date back more than six (6) years — charges which another DA in the same office investigated but chose not to prosecute — upon facts which the Justice Department also investigated, but chose not to act upon? What then is the motivation if not political?
Some would argue that Trump’s actions tainted the 2016 election, as if any election today is not tainted either by the lies, deceit, and obfuscations of the candidates themselves or by favored constituents or special interest groups, who seek to benefit from a particular candidate’s ascendency to office. See “Steele Dossier,” which was funded by the DNC and the HRC campaign. The since discredited “opposition research” served as the basis for allegations of “Russian collusion” and as the foundation for Trump’s initial impeachment.
What of the now infamous “Hunter Biden Laptop,” which loudly hints at graft, corruption, and influence peddling within the Biden political dynasty? There was a concerted effort by mainstream media outlets not only to bury but to actively discredit the laptop story in the lead up to the 2020 election. Biden followed the convenient but discredited narrative, which was conjured up by HRC’s campaign, in initially blaming the laptop story on Russian disinformation. Either Biden deliberately lied about his son’s laptop, or he demonstrated a level of ignorance, which itself should be disqualifying.
Fox News reported:
During the final 2020 presidential debate against former President Trump, Biden said the laptop was a “Russian plan” and a “bunch of garbage” that “nobody believes.” Just weeks before the 2020 election, Jen Psaki, who later became White House Press Secretary wrote, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
The concerted disinformation campaign was successful, and Biden won the election. However, years later all major news outlets (reluctantly) acknowledged the legitimacy of the laptop and the information contained thereon.
What we have here ladies and gentlemen is a distinction without a difference. Politicians lie with such regularity that the trope and trait is hardly noticed today. Michael Kinsley once famously defined a gaffe as when a politician tells the truth. Truth is so rarely expressed in Washington that even the accidental utterance of truth is, in fact, noteworthy.
To his credit, Romney truthfully identifies the DA’s actions as being politically motivated, and Romney is correct that such actions discredit our system of “justice,” which is increasingly used as a political weapon.
