The Scandal Continues I
In the past 48 hours, there have been several reports about serious corruption at the highest levels within the Obama Justice Department and FBI. Of course, you won't hear about any of this on the nightly news broadcast from the left-wing media. So I will summarize it for you.
Buried in the inspector general's report against fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is the stunning revelation that a top Justice official, the principal associate deputy attorney general, called McCabe in August 2016 and essentially demanded that the investigation into the Clinton Foundation be stopped.
According to the inspector general's report, McCabe claimed that he "pushed back, asking 'Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?'"
McCabe stated that the call was "very dramatic," adding that "he never had a similar confrontation like the PADAG call . . . in his entire FBI career."
But before you start feeling sorry for McCabe, investigative reporter Sara Carter writes that McCabe attempted to shut down the initial investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server in 2015.
Carter writes: "McCabe was overseas when he became aware of the investigation and sent electronic communications voicing his displeasure with the agents."
Why would he do that? At the time, McCabe's wife was a Democrat candidate for the Virginia State Senate. Her campaign received more than $450,000 from Clinton confidante Terry McAuliffe.
The Scandal Continues II
Late last month, we reported that text messages from FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were still being discovered and revealed to the public. We know the pair exchanged about 50,000 messages, but there was a significant gap of time when the FBI's system failed to preserve the messages.
I am pleased to report that appears to be some progress in retrieving those messages. Last night on Fox News, Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, told Sean Hannity:
"Well, I do believe that we'll get those. I can tell you, the Department of Justice is working very closely with Chairman Gowdy and Chairman Goodlatte to try to make sure that we get them. But there is a critical gap . . . that we believe will be very enlightening.
"In fact, some of that we believe will put some context to Director Comey's claims that he was just an innocent bystander in all this. We don't believe that the facts are bearing that out."
Speaking of James Comey, there is a new twist in the investigation into whether the fired FBI director leaked classified memos about his conversations with President Trump.
It turns out that the professor Comey gave the memos to was in fact working (without pay) at the FBI under "special government employee" status and with a security clearance. That raises some questions about whether Comey can be prosecuted for leaking classified information to another FBI employee.
Nevertheless, Comey obviously feels he is facing some legal jeopardy. He just hired former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to defend him. By the way, Fitzgerald is the prosecutor who persecuted Scooter Libby, whom President Trump just pardoned.
Officers Down
Yesterday afternoon, two Dallas police officers were shot at a Home Depot when they responded to call for assistance. One of the officers died this morning. A loss prevention officer at the store was also shot.
Overnight in Somerset County, Maine, Deputy Sheriff Eugene Cole was gunned down. In Florida last week, two sheriff’s deputies were shot and killed while having lunch.
And in New York recently, law enforcement announced that MS-13 has issued threats to assassinate a cop in retaliation for "too many arrests."
Since the beginning of 2018, nearly three dozen law enforcement officers have died while on duty. In fact, on average one police officer has been shot and killed every week so far this year.
Polls show most Americans respect and support law enforcement. But our police officers have been subjected to a relentless barrage of demonization by journalists, politicians and entertainers.
The most recent example is the singer John Legend, who tweeted that police shoot black people without cause. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick gave a speech last week in which he decried what he called "the lawful lynching of black and brown people by the police."
It is notable that all of this hateful rhetoric against law enforcement is coming from the political left. I know not every liberal believes America's police officers are violent racists. According to a Gallup survey, 39% of liberals (compared to 67% of conservatives) have confidence in law enforcement.
But where are the responsible liberal leaders condemning this outrageous and deadly rhetoric against the men and women on the thin Blue Line?
Liberal Hypocrisy
House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi was confronted by a student yesterday at Georgetown University whose parents have benefitted from the Trump tax cut "crumbs." The student told Pelosi that the extra money helped his parents hire more employees at their business, pay their mortgage and pay for his college tuition.
Pelosi responded that she continued to oppose the tax cut because "83 percent of the benefits . . . go to the top one percent."
First of all, that is a lie.
Second, the Trump tax cuts made the tax code even more progressive.
Third, Pelosi is a hypocrite. Liberal politicians are in federal court suing to overturn the tax cuts. Why? Because they claim the new code is unfair to the top 1% who were taking big federal deductions for their high state and local taxes.
Expanding Our Media Presence
We need your help growing our social media audience. Please follow me on Twitter. Encourage your friends and family members to follow me too. Get my thoughts on the day's headlines before you get the "End of Day."
Don't miss my daily radio commentaries on current events and cultural news called "The End of Day Report." My commentaries can be heard from 6:00 to 6:02 pm (CT) on the Bott Radio Network. Click here for a list of station locations. You can also listen live online at BottRadioNetwork.com.