Trump Was Right

Slowly but surely, the truth is coming out.

When Donald Trump claimed last month that the Obama Administration had his "wires tapped," the media rushed to shut down the debate. Twenty-four hours after Trump's tweet, Obama's Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was on "Meet The Press." Clapper told host Chuck Todd, "There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign."

Asked directly whether he could confirm or deny the existence of a FISA court order, Clapper said, "I can deny it." Clapper also said he would have known if other government agencies had asked for a wiretap.

Clapper probably wasn't the best messenger given his past troubles with the truth.

The Washington Post dropped this bombshell today, "The FBI obtained a secret [FISA] court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump." Of course, nowhere in the story did the Post acknowledge that Trump was right about the monitoring of his associates.

The campaign adviser who was the subject of the FBI's surveillance is Carter Page. According to the Post, Page never met with Donald Trump. But in the process of monitoring Page, the government likely picked up a lot of interesting political intelligence on Donald Trump and other Trump associates.

Previous reports suggested that communications among Trump's transition team was picked up through "incidental collection." Well, a FISA court order is a far cry from "incidental collection."

Moreover, the Post also notes that the 90-day warrant "has been renewed more than once by the FISA court." We know from FBI Director James Comey's testimony that the FBI launched an investigation of Russian interference in the election last July. Assuming the FISA warrant was issued in July, then its renewal would have continued well into the transition period.

Meanwhile, Fox News reported last night that the House Intelligence Committee is expanding its investigation of Susan Rice amid growing frustration with the FBI's continued stonewalling.

Sessions Gets Serious

While the media continue to pursue the narrative that Donald Trump cannot accomplish anything, day by day the Trump Administration is rolling back the last eight years of disastrous policies.

For example, Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited the southern border yesterday and announced new initiatives intended to seriously address illegal immigration. Attorney General Sessions bluntly warned:
 

"For those who continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of duty to enforce our laws, and the catch and release policies of the past are over."

In stark contrast to the Obama Administration's abuse of "prosecutorial discretion," Attorney General Sessions yesterday directed federal prosecutors to charge repeat illegal entry offenders with a felony. Illegal immigrants caught with fake documents or IDs will be charged with aggravated identity theft.

While Obama's weak policies invited massive waves of illegal immigration, Trump's tough stance is having an immediate effect: Border crossings have fallen to their lowest levels in 17 years!

President Trump is already producing positive results. So much for the media's "do nothing" narrative.

More Progress

While Congress is out of session for the Passover and Easter holidays, members are working hard to reach a deal on legislation to repeal Obamacare.

Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told USA Today that he was preparing a proposal for Speaker Paul Ryan based on discussions with members of the moderate GOP Tuesday Group. USA Today also reports that Vice President Mike Pence has been actively involved in the talks.

Meadows stressed that his plan has not been approved yet, but he added that they were in "final negotiations" and he was "optimistic" about the direction of the talks. He even suggested that if everything comes together, "the House may cut short its recess and go back to Washington to vote" on an Obamacare repeal bill. Stay tuned.

Syria, Spicer & Pelosi

There is no denying that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has one of the toughest jobs in Washington. Dealing with the hostile left-wing media day after day is a brutal task. And sometimes our thoughts just don't translate well into words.

That said, Spicer really stepped in it yesterday during his daily White House briefing. While discussing the conflict in Syria, he made a number of historically inaccurate and offensive statements. The controversy dominated the evening news and distracted everyone from the administration's message that Syria's Bashar al-Assad is an evil dictator.

To his credit, Spicer was quick to own his mistake. During an interview with CNN, Spicer said, "I mistakenly used an inappropriate and insensitive reference to the Holocaust, for which, frankly, there is no comparison. For that I apologize. It was a mistake to do that."

Among those demanding Spicer's scalp was House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. But ten years ago this month, then-Speaker Pelosi snuck into Syria and met with Bashar al-Assad. After her meeting she said, "We were very pleased with the assurances we received from [Assad] that he was ready to resume the peace process."

Perhaps Pelosi should sneak back into Syria to speak with the victims of Assad's latest sarin gas attack to find out what happened to her "assurances" of peace.

Anti-Semitism At Tufts

The student senate of Tufts University has brought great shame upon their school. On the eve of Passover, student senators voted 17-to-6, with eight abstentions, to pass a resolution sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine demanding the university divest from companies that do business in Israel. Or, as the resolution put it, companies which have committed "human rights violations against Palestinians."

I'm curious whether these student senators who are so concerned about alleged human rights violations have ever voted to divest from Chinese companies. Have they ever examined the human rights records of Iranian companies? Women aren't allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. What about Saudi companies? Of course they haven't.

That Israel was singled out proves that human rights was not the primary motivation of this Students for Justice in Palestine resolution. This was nothing more than vaguely camouflaged anti-Semitism, just like all such anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) efforts.

Thankfully, the administration of Tufts University issued a statement critical of the resolution as well as its offensive timing.