Protecting Election Integrity

On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that North Carolina has removed 747,000 names from their voter rolls within the past 20 months.

The article reports:

Most people removed from North Carolina’s voter rolls were deemed ineligible to vote after moving from one county in the state to another while failing to register their new address, according to The Hill. Others taken off voter rolls did not participate in the 2016 and 2020 federal elections.

NCSBE revealed other reasons voters were removed, including death, felony convictions, out-of-state moves and personal requests, according to the outlet.

…State officials identified nine potential non-citizens — which some believe is an undercount — as registered to vote in North Carolina, WRAL reported. However, an NCSBE spokesperson said Thursday that investigations are underway as it is currently unknown whether the nine are illegal immigrants.

North Carolina is among seven battleground states thought to sway the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 0.6% in North Carolina as of Thursday, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

President Trump won North Carolina in 2020; however, the victory margin in the governor’s race (won by Democrat Governor Cooper) was only about 250,000. Illegal votes could easily make a difference in state races. I don’t necessarily see North Carolina voting for Kamala Harris despite what the polls say.

Election integrity is an issue. We need all states to clean up their voter roles and to make sure that mail-in voting is protected from fraud.

Needless Deaths From Covid

When the original Covid virus came to America, experts stated that the elderly and those with preexisting conditions would be the most vulnerable. That was probably their only truthful statement during the entire epidemic. One of the things that happened in some states, New York being one of them, is that elderly people with Covid were sent back to nursing homes while they were still contagious. This defies common sense. This significantly increased the death toll in some states. One group investigating the mistakes that were made during the pandemic is the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. On Monday, The New York Post posted an article on some of the findings of that Committee.

The article reports:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly himself “edited” a state report that deflated New York’s COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes — which his top aides pressured health officials into releasing, despite knowing the issue would turn into a “great debacle,” according to the stunning results of an investigation by a US House committee.

Cuomo’s office “absolutely” signed off on the disastrous directive early in the pandemic forcing coronavirus patients back into nursing homes — leading to as many as 9,000 excess COVID deaths — the final congressional report and witness testimonies exclusively obtained by The Post show.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic conducted the probe and majority staff released the findings ahead of a public hearing with the 66-year-old ex-governor on Tuesday.

The investigators accused Cuomo in a memo Monday of making “demonstrably false” statements as part of a “cover-up,” citing conflicting testimony from his top aides.

“This is going to be the great debacle in the history books,” wrote Cuomo aide Stephanie Benton in a June 7, 2020, email about the nursing home death count. “Don’t u [sic] see how bad this is? Or do we admit error and give up?”

The article concludes:

Other language in the state report was constantly being edited by Cuomo through one of his top aides. More quotes from the White House were worked in strategically, giving the impression that Cuomo was helpless in the face of the bureaucracy and was simply “following the lead” set by Washington. These were not minor corrections. This was, as Cuomo’s own aides put it, a coverup, plain and simple. Some might readily identify it as fraud. Sadly, it’s probably too late at this point to restore any sort of justice to the families who lost their elderly loved ones in this fashion. Andrew Cuomo appears to have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He’s been caught engaging in all manner of shady dealings, but he always seems to skate away at the last moment by the skin of his teeth.

There were other resources available for Governor Cuomo to place the elderly who were recovering from Covid–Samaritan’s Purse had set up a field hospital in Central Park, and there was a hospital ship docked in the city. I am not sure whether the Governor used either facility. People died because of incompetency or a lack of common sense on the part of the Governor.

Texas Is The Example

On Saturday, Just the News posted an article highlighting the actions of Texas in dealing with the gang violence in Uvalde County.

The article reports:

Thirty-three members of violent gangs were arrested as part of a multi-agency operation targeting transnational and organized crime in the border town of Uvalde, Texas, and surrounding area in Uvalde County.

“Gang violence has no place here in Texas, we will bring the full force of justice down on these famous criminals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when directing Texas Department of Public Safety to surge resources there to root out organized crime in September 2022.

Nearly two years ago, a multi-agency operation began, made possible through additional state funding and criminal investigative oversight from DPS targeting an extensive organized crime network operating at the Texas-Mexico border. The investigation focused on the selling and distribution of narcotics, weapons, extortion, aggravated assaults and organized criminal activity of multiple gangs associated with transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels.

The article notes:

After an extensive investigation, 33 gang members were arrested, including from the Latin Kings, West Texas Tango, Tango Blast, Tango Orejon, Tango Aguilon, Texas Syndicate, Paisa, Texas Mexican Mafia, Maniac Latin Disciples, and San Antonio Walked Down Gang, according to a statement from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

The 38th Judicial District handed down 68 state indictments related to narcotics trafficking and engaging in organized criminal activity. The U.S. Western District, Del Rio Division, handed 17 federal indictments related to racketeering and conspiracy.

Texas DPS criminal investigators have identified gang activity “as a growing and serious problem in Uvalde and the surrounding area.”

Joining them in the investigation were investigators with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, Uvalde Police Department, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The 38th District Attorney’s Border Prosecution Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s office are prosecuting the case.

The investigation targeted the Uvalde area nearly 10 years after a joint operation in 2015 vanquished major gang operations there resulting in the Latin Kings being disbanded, the sheriff’s office said. Since that time, gang activity increased with the “most recent gang activity involve[ing] some of the children of those former incarcerated gang members.”

The only way to deal with the problem of the open southern border is to arrest the people who are involved in the criminal activity related to the open border. We need to arrest them, deport them, and seal the border. None of that will happen under a Biden-Harris administration or under a Harris-Walz administration.

Is Anyone Paying Attention?

Every day on Facebook I see people posting about how we are not taxing the ‘rich’ enough and billionaires should pay their fair share. No one has yet explained to me what business it is of mine how much anyone makes or is worth or how much tax they pay. What we should all be more concerned about is where our tax money is going and what we can do the help the government spend less of it.

On July 30, Judicial Watch posted the following:

Less than a year after Judicial Watch reported that the Taliban has established fake nonprofits to steal millions of dollars in U.S. aid to Afghanistan, a new investigation reveals that the terrorist group has also received hundreds of millions in development assistance from Uncle Sam because the State Department fails to properly vet award recipients. At least $239 million have likely filled the coffers of the extremists running the Islamic republic since the 2021 U.S. military withdraw, according to a report published this month by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). The money was disbursed by State Department divisions known as Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) and International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to implement development projects intended to help achieve American foreign policy and national security goals in Afghanistan.

Investigators found that the State Department failed to comply with its own counterterrorism partner vetting requirements in Afghanistan before awarding at least 29 grants to various local entities. The agency has a system to identify whether prospective awardees have a record of ethical business practices and is supposed to conduct a risk assessment to determine if programming funds may benefit terrorists or terrorist-affiliates before distributing American taxpayer dollars. In the more than two dozen cases examined, the agency did not bother and failed to keep proper records. “Because DRL and INL could not demonstrate their compliance with State’s partner vetting requirements, there is an increased risk that terrorist and terrorist affiliated individuals and entities may have illegally benefited from State spending in Afghanistan,” the SIGAR report says. “As State continues to spend U.S. taxpayer funds on programs intended to benefit the Afghan people, it is critical that State knows who is actually benefitting from this assistance in order to prevent the aid from being diverted to the Taliban or other sanctioned parties, and to enable policymakers and other oversight authorities to better scrutinize the risks posed by State’s spending.”

The watchdog found issues with 29 awards distributed by DRL and INL. For instance, DRL failed to properly screen the recipients of seven awards totaling about $12 million, investigators found. INL did not provide any supporting documentation for 19 of its 22 awards totaling about $295 million so there is no way to determine if they complied with the vetting requirements. The State Department acknowledged that not all its bureaus have complied with document retention requirements, which makes it conveniently impossible to fully assess the magnitude of its transgressions. The explanation offered for INL not retaining records is “employee turnover and the dissolution of the Afghanistan-Pakistan office,” according to the report. SIGAR points out that, given the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, it is critical that U.S. government activities adhere to the laws, regulations, and policies intended to prevent certain transactions with terrorists.

Do you think we could lower the deficit by giving less money to terrorists?

 

Will Congress Actually Uncover What Happened?

On Tuesday, Real Clear Politics posted an article about some of the decisions that may have paved the way for the assassination attempt on President Trump.

The article reports:

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers, to former President Trump’s rallies and events – despite repeated requests by the agents assigned to Trump’s detail in the two years leading up to his July 13 attempted assassination, according to several sources familiar with the decision-making.

Rowe succeeded former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned last week after bipartisan calls following her widely panned testimony before the House Oversight Committee. But both Rowe and Cheatle were directly involved in decisions denying requests for more magnetometers, additional agents, and other resources to help screen rallygoers at large, outdoor Trump campaign gatherings.

It was Rowe’s decision alone to deny counter sniper teams to any Trump event outside of driving distance from D.C., these sources asserted.

Rowe and FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate are set to appear Tuesday before a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees.

The article concludes:

America wasn’t a banana republic. Is it becoming one? After the years of hoaxes and lawfare, the only thing keeping us from saying it is the reserve of credibility is empty. 

Director Rowe must go. He is exactly the wrong person to be in charge of this investigation since he should be one of the people investigated. Don’t be fooled by his empty mea culpas. Admitting that there was a failure is the easiest thing to do because it is incontrovertible. He is engaged in a coverup of something, and we need answers from somebody not involved. 

Was there a government plot to assassinate the former president? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and unless you can prove that Majorkas or somebody similarly high up actually was involved in this event, I am not convinced. 

But he and those around him clearly were involved in stripping the security around Trump. They denied resources, incited violence, and waited for somebody to take an opportunity. 

And on July 13th, that happened. 

Will the security for President Trump be better in the future? I sure hope so.

A Disturbing Pattern We Have Seen Before

On Wednesday, Finbold posted an article some interesting stock transactions that took place between July 1 and July 12. These transactions raise even more questions about the assassination attempt on President Trump.

This could be an entirely innocent coincidence based on the legal cases against President Trump and the other non-violent attacks on him. I don’t know. However, in any case, it is something we need to be aware of.

The article reports:

After an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, which sent shockwaves through the U.S. political landscape, Trump Media (NASDAQ: DJT) shares surged more than 60% in the early trading hour on Monday before retracing by 20% to the valuation of $36.89 at the latest close on July 16.

However, a fact bound to raise a few questions is that short positions against Truth Social stock doubled between July 1 and July 12, going from 7 to 15 million shares, in what was a record of shares shorted for DJT stock since its trading debut.

This surge indicates that individuals or large organizations anticipated a significant drop in the stock’s value by July 15, a scenario that would likely have materialized had President Trump died in Pennsylvania.

This sort of stock shorting has happened before.

The article notes:

A similar occurrence was observed on September 11, 2001, when substantial bets were placed against the stocks of major airlines, American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL) and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL), the day before the attacks. 

Subsequent investigations revealed that a single entity and an insider newsletter had tipped off investors, leading them to place fortuitous bets against the top two U.S. airlines, which suffered significant losses following the hijackings.

Hmmm.

What Happens Next?

On Wednesday, Red State reported that the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees have referred Hunter Biden and James Biden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for making false statements to Congress. Considering the politicization of the DOJ, this could get very interesting.

The article reports:

In a letter dated June 5, the committees wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel David Weiss (whose office is currently in the middle of trying Hunter on federal firearms charges) to make criminal referrals for making false statements to Congress. The referrals arise from James’ February 21 transcribed interview and Hunter’s February 28 deposition.

The letter reads, in part: 

The Committees attach to this letter a referral for criminal charges against Hunter Biden and James Biden, under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (false statements), and, additionally, for Hunter Biden under 18 U.S.C. § 1621 (perjury). As the attached referral shows, Hunter Biden and James Biden made provably false statements to the Oversight Committee and the Judiciary Committee about key aspects of the impeachment inquiry, in what appears to be a conscious effort to hinder the investigation’s focus on President Joe Biden.

It sets forth specific instances of false and misleading statements made by Hunter regarding his relationship to and role in Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC, as well as his testimony regarding the infamous “WhatsApp” incident wherein he threatened a Chinese business associate and claimed his father was there with him.

The article also reports:

And for the coup de grâce, the letter notes: 

The Department of Justice should consider Hunter Biden’s prior alleged criminal activity when evaluating whether to charge him for the false statements described in the attached. Because Hunter Biden was federally indicted in two different jurisdictions at the time of his Congressional deposition, he was also subject to two federal court orders stating that he could not commit any crimes while on federal supervised release.

This puts Attorney General Merrick Garland in an awful position. So far, the only crimes that have mattered under the Biden administration have been Republican crimes (whether they were actual crimes or not). It will be interesting to see what happens next.

A Very Odd Story Out Of North Carolina

This story is just now making the news.

According to WRAL News posted May 23:

A Fort Liberty soldier shot and killed a utility worker he believed was trespassing outside his home in Moore County, authorities say.

According to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office, around 8:15 p.m. on May 3, deputies were called to a home on Dowd Road in Carthage.

For those who may not know, Fort Liberty was formerly Fort Bragg. There are a few very weird details about this story.

Red Voice Media reports on May 25:

According to reports, two individuals identified as Chechen men were discovered near the soldier’s residence. The family alleges that one of the suspects, 35-year-old Ramzan Daraev from Chicago, was taking unauthorized photographs of their children. As the family confronted the intruders in a wooded area of the property near a power line, a violent altercation ensued, resulting in Daraev being shot multiple times at close range. Another man, identified as Dzhankutov Adsalan, was found in a vehicle at a distance from the incident and was subsequently questioned and released. The investigation is being led by the Moore County Sheriff’s Office.

Fox News reported on May 23:

Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Daraev was working as a subcontractor for Utilities One, a company based in New Jersey, at the time of his death. Investigators are still working to verify his official employment and immigration status.

At the time of the incident, Daraev was not in possession of any utility equipment, utility clothing, or identification. The incident has been reported to the U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Sources tell Fox News that “power company employment is often a cover for status/action” that U.S. intelligence agents use for surveillance of foreign targets overseas.

Another Fox News report stated that the network had unsuccessfully tried to reach the ‘power company’ through telephone calls and emails but had gotten no response.

 

 

Has Anything Been Done To Correct This?

On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit posted the following headline:

BOOM! Georgia Election Board: Investigator Joseph Rossi Details How Georgia 2020 Hand Count Audit and Machine Count Audit Found to Be in Violation of Law – ENOUGH VOTES TO ALTER ELECTION!

This is an amazing headline considering that there were people indicted because they challenged the results of the 2020 vote in Georgia.

The article reports:

Emerald Robinson at The Absolute Truth on Frank Speech reported late in early April that the long-awaited report from an investigation (SEB2023-025) into errors found in both the hand count and a machine count from the 2020 presidential election in Fulton County is officially on the agenda for a May 7th State Election Board meeting.

The investigation found violations in both the hand audit and machine count, according to citizen investigator Joe Rossi.

Earlier today Joseph Rossi testified in front of the State Election Board meeting.

Joseph Rossi:  Now, I’d like to speak directly to those who have fought factually, respectfully, and relentlessly for the truth over the last three years. As a 410.24, I got another one of these certified letters from the state election board. Every time I get one of those letters, my wife sets it on my desk, and she says, You got another one of those certified letters? I hope you’re not being indicted this time. But anyways, as of that letter, it has now been factually proven that both the hand audit—this is really, really important— and the certified machine count—yes, the certified count—have both been found to be in violation of Georgia election law. Based on these findings, to those that have fought factually, respectfully, and relentlessly, I’ll close with one word, vindicated.

It is becoming very obvious that the 2020 election was not ‘the most secure election in American history.’ I have three questions–how do we keep this from happening again, what is the Constitutional remedy for a stolen election, and when are the people responsible going to be held accountable.

When An Agency Gets Too Big For Its Britches

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed under President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. It was headed by William J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan. It was a strategic part of the Allied war effort. In one instance, a group of agents stopped the German U-boats from sinking the oil tankers as they were leaving Venezuela to supply allied troops with oil. The agents found the person with the shortwave radio who was telling the U-Boats when the tankers were leaving port. The OSS was an important part of the war effort. The OSS was the root of what is now the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Unfortunately it does not seem as though the patriotism and devotion to America and its principles of government that was part of the OSS has carried over to the CIA.

On Wednesday, The Gateway Pundit posted two articles about the latest videotapes released by investigative reporter James O’Keefe. The first article deals with the videotape, and the second article deals with the reaction to the videotape by some in Congress. Basically, the videotape is of a CIA operative saying that the CIA intentionally withheld information from President Trump during the Trump administration. The CIA has responded to the videotape by claiming the agent is lying. Based on the past behavior of the CIA, we can all draw our own conclusions. The actual video is included in both articles.

The first article reports:

Amjad (Amjad Fseisi, a project manager working in Cyber Operations for the CIA with top-secret security clearance) reveals to OMG’s Undercover American Swiper that intel agencies not only kept intelligence information from a sitting United States President and Commander-In-Chief, they also used FISA to spy on President Trump and his team and are still monitoring President Trump according to Amjad who says, “We monitor everything.” Amjad adds “we also have people that monitor his ex-wife. He likes to use burner phones” – information only an insider with access to highly sensitive information would state.

“We steal it [information]” and “We hack other countries just like that,” Amjad, who states he currently works on the CIA’s China Mission Center, explains how intel agencies obtain information. He also describes a broken intelligence system where “We don’t share information across agencies” because the CIA is “very reluctant” to share information with the “careless” NSA.

O’Keefe Media Group’s bombshell undercover footage supports earlier reports by investigative journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag that revealed how the American intelligence community illegally ran a spy operation against then-candidate Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016 and illegally acquired intelligence that was later used to justify the Federal Bureau of Investigation (@FBI) official probe, “Crossfire Hurricane,” which in turn led to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that ultimately did not find evidence of Russia collusion by the 2016 Trump campaign.

Contractors like Fseisi hold the duty to withhold sharing confidential or national security information. In denying his statements, Fseisi may have realized he could be held liable for violating internal agency provisions and federal laws like the Executive Agency ethics provisions, which restrict what he may share with others outside of his contracted-to agency. Additionally, any government worker or agency head who withheld information from a superior (i.e. President Trump) may violate: (a) obstruction of justice by deception (18 USC 1512); (b) conspiracy to obstruct (18 USC 371); and false statements (18 USC 1001). Agency regulations may also provide offenses related to insubordination, reflecting poorly on the agency in public, or misrepresentation or dishonesty.

The second article reports:

Conservative Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) isn’t wasting any time getting to the bottom of this very serious and disturbing story. Rep. Gaetz has already formally called on the Weaponization Subcommittee to IMMEDIATELY launch an investigation into the BOMBSHELL report by James O’Keefe’s OMG Media Group.

Amjad claims that the CIA withheld information because they considered President Trump a ‘Russian asset.’ That was not their decision to make. Have they considered the Chinese money flowing into the Biden family where there is NO product or service involved?

That Was Then; This Is Now

I love it when the hypocrisy of the Biden administration is called out, and they trip over their tongues trying to change the narrative. Last week there was a glaring example of that.

On Friday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

White House: ‘Imprudent’ to Compare Israeli WCK Strike to Afghan Strike ‘Three Years’ Ago in ‘Different’ Circumstances

The article reports:

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to questions on how the 2021 U.S. strike in Afghanistan that killed an aid worker is different from the Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers are different by stating that it’s “imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two different conflicts.” And there was an independent investigation of the Afghanistan strike, “and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence.”

Host Martha MacCallum asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:25] “When we left Afghanistan, we had a similar, tragic Hellfire missile attack that landed and killed ten people, a man who was carrying water, bringing water as part of humanitarian aid, and, at that point, when you were asked, what are we going to do about that, who’s accountable for that? This is what you said, John.”

She then played video of Kirby saying, “None of their recommendations dealt specifically with issues of accountability. … So, I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29 airstrike.”

MacCallum then asked, “So, there were seven children that were killed by that U.S. Hellfire missile, no accountability, you said, was part of the plan. So, why is this so different than what we did there?”

Kirby answered, “Well, look, these are events that happened three years apart, two different geographic locations, two different countries, two different sets of circumstances, two different types of threat[s] that were being evaluated, and [two completely] different militaries that were involved, with two different chains of command. So, I think we’ve got to be careful comparing both events too closely. We, too, had an independent investigation, Martha, of that incident, and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence. The Israelis, similarly, have said the same thing about this event this week with the WCK strike, that they’re going to make some systemic changes. Now, we’re glad to hear that and we’re going to be watching to see what those changes are and how they can put them into effect. But these are two different events.”

Translation–it’s different when we make the mistake.

Where Is Congress? Where Are The Courts? Who Is Representing The Citizens?

I remember a time in America when if you committed a crime you went to jail. And everyone who committed that same crime went to jail. And if you committed a serious crime like murder, you were kept in jail without bail. Well, those days are gone. Murderers are let out without bail, and January 6th prisoners have been in jail for more than three years with no bail and no trials. Some of the January 6th defendants are guilty of simply walking through the Capitol after the Capitol Police opened the doors for them. Meanwhile, people guilty of serious crimes are walking free.

On Saturday, Red State posted an article about former Trump aide Peter Navarro. Peter Navarro is serving jail time because he ignored a congressional subpoena.

Meanwhile, the article at Red State reports:

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes laid into Department of Justice lawyers Friday for telling DOJ Tax Division attorneys to ignore congressional subpoenas even as prosecutors sent former Trump aide Peter Navarro to prison for doing just that.

Does the law apply to everyone or are only Trump supporters subject to the law?

The article notes a Politico report:

Politico reports that she was appalled by the blatant hypocrisy:

“There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Reyes said, referring to the recent imprisonment of Peter Navarro, a former Trump trade adviser, for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”

“I think it’s quite rich you guys pursue criminal investigations and put people in jail for not showing up,” but then direct current executive branch employees to take the same approach, the judge added. “You all are making a bunch of arguments that you would never accept from any other litigant.”

The article concludes:

The DOJ’s position on this matter once again shows their blatant two-tiered view of justice—Peter Navarro sits in a Miami prison cell for defying a subpoena, but Hunter Biden is walking around a free man and enjoying the White House Easter Egg roll despite blowing off his own order to appear. Meanwhile, the Department is counseling its own lawyers to defy the House. 

Politico called the judge’s takedown of the DOJ a “remarkable, frenetic thrashing,” and I for one hope they get plenty more of that as more and more people wake up to how profoundly they’ve politicized and weaponized the department.

Does anyone in Congress or in Washington have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for the rule of law that all of us are supposed to be living under?

 

 

Destroying Democracy To “Save It”

First of all, America is not a democracy–it it a Representative Republic, and the people in Congress are supposed to be there to represent the voters and serve the people. Unfortunately, many in Congress have decided that their power and their will are more important than the will and the people. They know best, and if the people are going to vote ‘wrong’, they have to be overridden. On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit revealed the plan the uni-party has to keep President Trump from being President again.

The article reports:

RINO Representative Mike Gallagher (WI) will exit the House as early as next month.

Gallagher, who is currently serving as the chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, last month announced that he will not seek reelection.

Instead of serving out the rest of his term, Gallagher will retire early leaving the GOP with a one-vote majority!

But it’s worse than that.

Gallagher announced he will leave in mid-April. If Gallagher would have left before April 9th he would have triggered a special election in his district. Because he is leaving after April 9th but still in April, there will be no special election so the seat will remain empty.

This ensures that Republicans will lose another seat in Congress.

This is how the Uniparty works.

They do everything they can to screw their voters.

So what happens next? The plan is for one or two uni-party Republicans to leave before November. At that point the Democrats take control of the House. All investigations of the Biden crime family end. Evidence might mysteriously go missing. President Trump is charged with violating the 14th Amendment and prevented from taking office. At that point we  have lost our Republic.

I hope that the above scenario is pure fiction. However, based on what we have seen during the past three years–SWAT raids on people who simply walked through the Capitol on January 6th, prisoners denied bail or hearings for four years (with no one defending their Constitutional rights), and the totally politicization of our justice system–I am not ruling anything out.

If This Is True, Is It Over?

On Thursday, The Federalist reported the following:

Democrat Fani Willis’ legal troubles extend beyond recent revelations that she deceptively hired her otherwise under-qualified, secret, married lover to run the political prosecution of former President Donald Trump and other Republicans in Georgia. A new book from Mike Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman admits that a widely misunderstood phone call, on which Willis’ political prosecution rests, was illegally recorded. That means the entire prosecution could crumble with defendants having a new avenue to challenge Democrat lawfare.

Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election is a fawning political biography of Willis. For context on the bias of the authors, Isikoff was an original Russia-collusion hoaxer, and his articles to that end were used to secure warrants for the FBI to spy on innocent Republican presidential campaign advisers such as Carter Page.

The article explains the problem with recording the phone call:

However, the person who recorded the phone call wasn’t in Fulton County or even in Georgia. That’s a problem. Jordan Fuchs, a political activist who serves as Raffensperger’s chief of staff, was in Florida, where it is illegal to record a call without all parties to the call consenting to the recording. She neither asked for nor received consent to record.

This could get interesting. If it were anyone but Donald Trump, the case would be thrown out immediately. However, since Donald Trump is involved, the evidence may be ignored.

 

The Overlooked Smoking Gun

On Sunday, The Liberty Daily posted an article by Peter Roff of the Daily Caller News Foundation. The article dealt with one point in the Special Counsel’s Report of President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents that seems to have been overlooked.

The article notes:

Nonetheless, by focusing on what special counsel Robert Hur wrote about Biden’s failing memory in his report on his mishandling of confidential government files dating from his time as vice president, they missed the more significant nugget in Hur’s explanation of why there would be no indictment.

Remember, the Biden Justice Department indicted former President Donald J. Trump over the same issue. The outcomes were different, Hur explained, not just because Biden couldn’t remember things but because he cooperated with the investigation while Trump didn’t.

That should about blow the case out of the water. It all but confirms Trump was singled out for special treatment, as he claimed. The case against him is political, and it’s okay for America to move on because there’s really nothing to see.

As a former president and as a citizen, Trump has rights. He doesn’t have to turn over every document they ask for to the government. Every departing chief enters into a negotiation regarding what they can take with them when they leave. The rules are not at all clear.

They’re obviously not supposed to take any of the furniture that was there when they moved in with them (one recent first couple apparently missed that memo). As far as any documents go, the president and the National Archives are usually allowed the time necessary to work out who gets to keep what.

The former president was not afforded the same luxury as his predecessors. His suggestion the Biden Justice Department rushed the case into court to damage him politically now looks stronger.

I am not a lawyer, but there is another aspect of this that is troubling. Let’s say someone robs a bank and puts the money in an interest-bearing account hidden somewhere. After five of six years in prison, they figure they can live on the interest, so they give back the money. Are they then not charged with the crime? That’s what this sounds like (other than the obvious unequal justice under the law).

What Was Actually In Those Documents?

Putting aside the fact that a Senator or Vice-President shouldn’t have classified documents in his home or garage, let’s take a look at what some of those documents were and how they might be related to other issues.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden retained documents related to Ukraine that were classified as “secret” and “confidential,” according to a report by Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Hur, released on Feb. 8.

The 388-page report states that the FBI found a folder labeled “VP Personal,” containing two documents—a telephone call sheet and talking points for a call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which occurred on Dec. 11, 2015—marked as “secret.”

There is a handwritten note from President Biden in the upper-right corner of the sheet asking his executive assistant to “get [a] copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please.” The document was labeled “confidential” and “EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY.”

Additionally, one appendix in the report states that President Biden kept a memo with the subject line “U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine,” from September 2014. The results of the classification review indicate the memo was “confidential.”

President Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration at the time. His son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of directors of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in May 2014.

Nothing like breaking the law to help and unqualified family member in his job.

The article concludes, reminding us:

Burisma contacted the source to seek assistance in buying a U.S. company to merge with, in the hope that it could go public in the United States.

After the disclosure of an investigation into Burisma by Ukraine’s prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in 2016, the source informed Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, that it could negatively affect the company’s prospective initial public offering.

Mr. Zlochevsky replied that Mr. Hunter Biden “will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” according to the document. Mr. Shokin resigned in March 2016.
President Biden in 2018 bragged at the Council of Foreign Relations that he got Mr. Shokin dismissed.

“‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he said about his interaction with Ukrainian officials, referring to a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

Mr. Shokin has said that the threat was cited when he was ousted. He said in a sworn statement that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked him to resign because of “pressure from the U.S. presidential administration, in particular from Joe Biden.”

But as of now, there will be no consequences for President Biden ignoring the laws he should have been enforcing.

Victor Hanson’s Statement On Special Counsel Hur’s Report

Victor Davis Hanson’s Twitter statement on Special Counsel Hur’s report:
Biden is Too Demented to Be Found Guilty of Crimes,  But Not Too Demented to Be President? Special Counsel Robert Hur just found Joe Biden was guilty of violating national security laws in removing classified documents— after examining then Senator and Vice President Biden’s some 15-year habit of removing classified files to his offices and residences, where they were stored in unsecured fashion.
Period. End of story.
Hur then as a disinterested Special Counsel, not a local county prosecutor on a limited budget, logically would have indicted and prosecuted Biden.
It really is a jury’s decision to determine whether Biden was guilty or innocent, or whether he is pardoned/exempted by reason of dementia.
It is not the role of Hur, as a prosecutor and advocate for the state, to imagine how difficult his case might be to prove someone so incapacitated like Biden was guilty, as Hur’s own research and investigations had otherwise indicated that he was.) Is mindset, intention, or mental status a normal consideration of violations of national security laws, or is it the act itself?
So we are back to the James Comey defense: Hillary was guilty but in Lord and Savior Comey’s judgement no jury would likely convict a presidential candidate of such stature of violating national security laws. (NB:  After her reprieve, Hillary immediately claimed such extenuating circumstances were proof of her innocence! And Biden in a nanosecond likewise claimed he is now exonerated too, as was the administration’s plan all along).
Finally note the following:
1) The Left, Hur, and others believe that someone who has lost his faculties and who would not be allowed to drive a semi-truck, teach a class, diagnose a patient, argue a case, wire a house, or cook a hamburger is nevertheless fit enough to run the United States of America.
2) Note this same old/same old shocking but predictable asymmetry. Trump is a mere four years younger than Biden. The left fixated on the fact that he recently confused Nikki Hayley with Nancy Pelosi. Are we then to expect Jack Smith to follow the precedent of his fellow special counsel Hur, who was likewise appointed by Biden administration AG Merrick Garland and thus to conclude that although Trump violated the law by removing files, he seemed too confused to indict, given the likelihood of a sympathetic jury?
3) Hur himself tried to preemptively defend himself from the obvious conclusion that he extended special considerations not to indict Biden in a manner Jack Smith did not to Trump. Yet he omits that there were key differences in the two cases:
Biden had no putative right, as did Trump as President, to declassify files he took home.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago walled and surveilled estate was far more secure than Biden’s rickety garage.
Biden had stored files for over a decade not less than two years.
Biden’s attorneys came forward just days before Smith was appointed on November 18, 2022. So it was not altruism that prompted their confession after Biden’s years of secretly hiding such illegality, but rather fear that Trump would soon be hounded for a ”crime” of which Biden was found out to be long guilty. So they went public to preempt that charge and falsely claim civic virtue.
This is just more of a long, disgusting pattern of biased applications of the law: Jan 6 vs 2020 May to October deadlier and more violent riots; election denialism of Trump versus Stacey Abrams’s nonstop claims of being the real governor of Georgia; “insurrection” called for in Trump’s speech vs Kamala Harris’s threats that the 2020 riots (“protests”) would and should keep going; the Trump 2020 election gambit versus the 2016 Leftwing coordinated effort to leverage electors into renouncing their states’ popular vote mandates. And so on.
No Department of Justice in our history has ever done more to undermine Americans’ confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice.
This is not the America we grew up in.
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I Guess Everyone Doesn’t Want Transparency

On Monday, Just the News reported the following:

Forensic investigators hired by a Republican-led committee recovered more than 100 encrypted files that the Democratic-led House Jan. 6 Select Committee deleted days before the GOP took over the House majority, according to a new report released Monday.

House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chair Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., sent a letter to former Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., demanding he provide answers and passwords for the data, which was deleted against House rules, according to Fox News Digital

The Oversight Subcommittee, which is investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the former select committee, should have received four terabytes of archived data from the select committee after Republicans entered the majority in January 2023, but it obtained less than three terabytes of data.

The subcommittee hired a digital forensics team to determine what information was not handed over, and the team discovered 117 files that were encrypted and deleted on Jan. 1, 2023, two days before Republicans were sworn into the majority, according to the report. 

Loudermilk said in his letter to Thompson that the Mississippi Democrat acknowledged over the summer that the select committee “did not archive all Committee records as required by House Rules” and had “sent specific transcribed interviews and depositions to the White House and Department of Homeland Security but did not archive them with the Clerk of the House.”

One recovered file detailed an individual whose testimony was not archived, but “most of the recovered files are password-protected, preventing us from determining what they contain,” Loudermilk also said. 

It is (remotely) possible that this is totally innocent; however, people generally delete things for a reason. The fact that the deletions took place two days before the Republicans took control of the House really does not inspire confidence in the work of the January 6th Committee.

The article concludes:

“It’s obvious that Pelosi’s Select Committee went to great lengths to prevent Americans from seeing certain documents produced in their investigation,” Loudermilk (House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chair Barry Loudermilk) told the news network. “It also appears that Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney intended to obstruct our Subcommittee by failing to preserve critical information and videos as required by House rules.”

This is not the first report of missing data from the Jan. 6 select committee. Loudermilk told the Just the News, No Noise” TV show last year that all videotapes from select committee depositions are missing. 

Let’s All Spy On Our Neighbors

In an article I wrote on January 16th, 2013, I said the following, “Back in the early sixties when folk music was the rage, there was a group called the Chad Mitchell Trio that recorded a song called “The John Birch Society.” It was a great song. Some of the lyrics stated:

Oh, we’re the John Birch Society, the John Birch Society

Here to save our country from a communistic plot

Join the John Birch Society holding off the Reds

We’ll use our hand and hearts and if we must we’ll use our heads

Do you want Justice Warren for your Commissar?

Do you want Mrs. Krushchev in there with the DAR?

You cannot trust your neighbor or even next of kin

If mommie is a commie then you gotta turn her in.”

I don’t necessarily agree with the slam on the John Birch Society, but unfortunately what they were singing about back then is happening today.

On January 4th, Newsbusters posted the following:

Wednesday’s edition of the PBS NewsHour featured veteran journalist Judy Woodruff cheering on an obsessive group of “citizen investigators” who have teamed up with the media’s favorite domestic surveillance organization to turn in people who entered the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021: “How citizen investigators are helping the FBI track down Jan. 6 rioters.”

One suspects these unlabeled, left-wing activist “Citizen investigators” would have been condemned as troubling vigilantes by PBS if they were crowdsourcing video for Black Lives Matter rioters and thieves in 2020.

Host Amna Nawaz: The federal investigation into 2021’s January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is the largest FBI operation in history. More than 1,200 people have been charged and over 900 convicted so far, and hundreds more charges are expected before the investigation concludes. But it has stretched the bureau’s resources, and it’s often had to rely on the work of a bipartisan group of citizen investigators who came to be known as sedition hunters….

“Sedition hunters.” The tolerant left’s lexicon certainly sounds McCarthyite these days. This is a “public broadcasting” trend. NPR touted the “sedition hunters” last year at this time.

Woodruff interviewed someone who spends her every waking hour playing detective, seemingly determined to put everyone who walked into the Capitol on January 6 in prison. She won’t give her name, or show her face, but she exposes everyone else.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is chilling.

Is Anyone Surprised?

On December 28th, NBC News reported the following:

U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. this year used an American internet service provider to communicate, according to two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the assessment.

The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.

The Biden administration sought a highly secretive court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect intelligence about it while it was over the U.S., according to multiple current and former U.S. officials. How the court ruled has not been disclosed.

The article concludes:

After the balloon was shot down, a senior State Department official said that it was used by China for surveillance and that it was loaded with equipment able to collect signals intelligence.

The balloon had multiple antennas, including an array most likely able to collect and geolocate communications, the official said. It was also powered by enormous solar panels that generated enough power to operate intelligence collection sensors, the official said.

Defense and intelligence officials have said the U.S. assessment is that the balloon was not able to transmit intelligence back to China while it was over the U.S.

The FBI forensics team that examined the balloon after it was shot down completed a classified report about the equipment it carried, according to multiple U.S. officials. Its findings remain secret and have not been widely briefed.

Federal judges on the surveillance court, where proceedings are held in secret, must determine whether there is probable cause that the surveillance target is a foreign power or a foreign agent and that the surveillance is necessary to obtain foreign intelligence information. The court’s rulings are classified.

If you study the route of the balloon, you will notice that it flew over a number of significant military installations. I don’t believe that is a coincidence. You will also remember that the balloon was shot down over water–after it had flown over the entire country–and because  it was shot down over water, its electronics were fried. Is anyone in our government looking out for the security of America?

As The Evidence Mounts

As the evidence mounts that the Biden family had very large inexplicable sources of income during Joe Biden’s political career, the family, the media, and the Democrat party are struggling to explain exactly what was going on. On Thursday, The Hill posted an article with the latest explanation/justification.

The article, by Jonathan Turley, explains:

As the House of Representatives goes into high gear in its impeachment proceedings (and possible contempt resolution against Hunter Biden), the Biden family legal problems continue to mount. In one week, it was revealed that President Biden’s brother James was caught on an FBI audiotape in a corruption investigation, while Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, is now also facing demands for unpaid taxes.

James Biden is expected to appear before the House for questioning in the coming weeks. The appearance may solidify a new line of defense for the Bidens: that they are harmless grifters.

After years of denying influence peddling with the help of an obligating media, even some Democrats are now admitting that Hunter and his uncles have been selling influence. Biden associates confirmed that Joe Biden was the brand that they were peddling to foreign clients, who paid millions to the family.

The article also notes:

The greater problem facing the White House is that roughly 70 percent of voters (including 40 percent of Democrats) believes that President Biden acted illegally or unethically, or both. Even Hunter’s friend Archer said that the president’s denials of knowledge were “categorically false.” Other witnesses, such as Tony Bobulinski, have stated under oath that they personally spoke to Joe Biden about these dealings.

This is likely why defenders are now failing back on the claim that the Bidens may have been grifting, but not actually selling out. It was an act put on for corrupt marks wanting to buy an advantage. That is why the Biden team immediately said that James Biden took $100,000 but then did nothing to deliver his brother.

It is becoming very obvious that Joe Biden is not the model of an honest office-holder. However, since almost all of these actions were done when he was Vice-President, I don’t see their relevance to impeachment. I haven’t seen any actual evidence that he is currently crooked. Admittedly, you can draw that conclusion based on his past actions, but that really isn’t good enough. The Democrats made impeachment a joke. The Republicans need to avoid doing the same thing.

Sometimes Congress Actually Does Something When It Directly Impacts Them!

On Tuesday, The Daily Wire posted an article about the Department of Justice’s spying on members of Congress.

The article reports:

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) announced on Tuesday that he subpoenaed Attorney General Merrick Garland for information on alleged efforts to surveil members of Congress and congressional staff — including during the Russiagate controversy that rocked former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and administration.

In a cover letter to Garland, which noted potential legislative reforms could follow, Jordan said his panel “must resort to compulsory process” because of the “inadequate response to date” by the Department of Justice (DOJ) following his request for details about the apparent use of subpoenas to obtain private communications of Legislative Branch employees.

The DOJ previously informed the committee that the legal process it used related to an investigation into the “unauthorized disclosure of classified information in a national media publication,” the letter said. Jordan cited news reporting that indicated the inquiry pertained to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance of one-time Trump campaign associate Carter Page, reliant on an effort to get FISA warrants that the DOJ inspector general heavily criticized and the DOJ itself later conceded had relied on “insufficient predication” to last as long as it did.

The article concludes:

The Executive Branch appears to have used its “immense law-enforcement authority to gather and search the private communications of multiple Legislative Branch employees who were conducting Constitutional oversight of the Department’s investigative actions — actions that were later found to be unlawful,” Jordan wrote.

“Because the Department has not complied in full with our requests, we cannot independently determine whether the Department sought to alleviate the heightened separation-of-powers sensitivities involved or whether the Department first sought the information through other means before resorting to legal process,” Jordan added. “The Committee also has concerns that aspects of the Department’s investigation may have been a pretext to justify piercing the Legislative Branch’s deliberative process and improperly access data from Members and staff involved in conducting oversight of the Department.”

After watching the Department of Justice in recent years, I have concluded that the upper management of the Department has very little respect for the rule of law. They need to be replaced.

I Think There’s Already A List

On Friday, Breitbart reported that Hunter Biden has threated to flee America if Donald Trump is elected President. Why? Does he think that the Trump administration will use the same politicized justice against him that the Biden administration has used against its political enemies? Is he afraid that someone might not let the statute of limitations run out on some of his crimes?

The article reports:

The threat represents the often neurotic nature of the president’s son, 53, who faces 42 years in prison for tax and gun charges in an ongoing investigation.

“In recent conversations with family friends, he [Hunter] has worried that he might have to flee the country if Trump were to be elected president again,” two people who spoke with Hunter told Politico’s Jonathan Lemire.

Recent polling shows Trump leading President Joe Biden in state and nationwide polling:

  • Morning Consult: Trump leads Biden in six of seven crucial swing states.
  • CNN: Trump leads Biden by three points among “men of color” voters.
  • NBC News: Trump leads Biden by two points.
  • Morning Consult: Voters trust Trump over Joe Biden on ten key issues.

Hunter Biden’s legal chaos could “damage” the 2024 election. “Members of the president’s inner circle have expressed frustration over how the matter was all but behind them,” Lemire reported. “Some Democrats believe that the trials could damage [Joe] Biden politically.”

Life is hard when someone might actually hold you accountable. There doesn’t seem to be a question that Hunter was involved in some questionable financial deals. He is innocent until proven guilty (not a principle the Biden administration is following when dealing with their political foes), but there seems to be a substantial money trail.

I really don’t think the country will be losing a great asset if he actually does leave, but how many other people have threatened the same thing and are still here?

Some Of The Swamp Is Being Held Accountable

Charles McGonigal was one of the FBI agents who was involved in trying to frame President Trump as working for the Russians. On December 14th, Charles McGonigal was sentenced to more than four years in prison for violating sanctions on Russia and working for a Russian oligarch.

On Friday, The National Review reported:

A former FBI counterintelligence chief who played a pivotal role in launching the Trump-Russia probe was sentenced to just over four years in prison for assisting a sanctioned Russian oligarch after leaving his post in 2019.

In August, Charles McGonigal, a 22-year veteran of the bureau’s field office in New York, was found guilty of a count of conspiracy for working with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. During his stint with the bureau, McGonigal received classified information that Deripaska would be designated a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin, the indictment alleged. McGonigal was legally obligated to inform the FBI of his relationship with foreign officials, which he violated by continuing communication and establishing business ties with Deripaska.

Judge Jennifer Rearden argued that McGonigal “repeatedly flouted and manipulated the sanctions regimes vital” to American security interests. “The undeniable seriousness of this and the need to respect the law,” Rearden continued, “compels a meaningful custodial sentence.”

The FBI official admitted during the hearing that he has a “deep sense of remorse and sorrow for my actions.”

Maybe the FBI needs to clean up its own backyard.

The Ever-Changing Narrative

Yesterday, instead of complying with the subpoena issued by Congress, Hunter Biden held a mini press conference outside the Capitol building. When Republicans are in contempt of Congress (which Hunter Biden now is), they get arrested. It will be interesting to see what happens to Hunter Biden.

The Daily Caller posted an article about the statement made by Hunter Biden when he gathered the press together yesterday.

The article notes:

Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said six words that Hunter Biden told reporters on Wednesday represent a “huge change” in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Hunter defied republicans’ subpoena for closed-door testimony on Wednesday, saying he would only testify publicly. House republicans have threatened to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress.

The article includes the following statement by Representative Jordan:

“The White House’s story has changed multiple times, the Justice Department story has changed multiple times how they handled this investigation. But the story that hasn’t changed, the testimony that has been consistent and stood up to cross examination is the two whistleblowers. Their story has not changed and frankly it’s been buttressed and reinforced by – we’ve done eight different depositions of people involved in the investigation at the Justice Department…None of them have refuted what those guys say. So over time it just keeps changing from the White House. This statement today I think is the biggest news of the morning I guess along with the fact he didn’t show up which he’s supposed to do.”

In September I posted an article about the changing narrative on Hunter Biden’s business dealings (article here). The narrative has evolved as evidence has been uncovered. It began with ‘President Biden has no knowledge of his son’s business dealings, evolved into ‘there is no direct evidence Hunter Biden did anything wrong’ and now has become ‘my father was not involved in any of the financial transactions that I was involved in.’

The next iteration will be, “Joe Biden was in business with his son, but they didn’t do anything illegal.” They need to come up with more Trump drama to see if they can distract people from the truth.