Will the screaming about Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election or Russian ties with Donald Trump and his presidential campaign ever stop? Apparently not. California Congressman Darrell Issa speaking to HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday said for an investigation into Russian ties neither Attorney General Jeff Sessions nor a deputy AG, who would both be Trump appointees, should handle such a probe. There should be a special prosecutor appointed. Issa said, “Openness and transparency are the best way.”
There are multiple Congressional inves
tigations underway into Russian interference in our government. The U.S. intelligence committee has concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 White House race, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton whose campaign was the target of email hacking. Trump and his campaign staffers have consistently denied any communication at all with any Russian officials. The President denied a connection of any kind to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At first blush, most conservative voters probably are incensed at the haughtiness of the California lawmaker and his suggestion. But wait: his reasoning for it are not what you think. And if/when you Google Rep. Issa’s conversation with Bill Mahr you’ll read in every story what I related above. But what is NOT included in any is the exact reason why Darrell Issa made those comments to the HBO host. It’s not because of any distrust of the President or belief there was wrongdoing by the him or his campaign staff. His reason? “I want this Administration to start off by being without distraction by any outlandish and unsubstantiated claims against it, “he said. “The previous Administration refused any type of transparency for any of its actions and never allowed any independent investigation into any action of any of its member(s), employees, or appointees. Under President Obama there was no willingness to allow the American people to get any comfort of the Administration’s honesty or fair dealing.”
Do you wonder why the Media is not reporting that part of Darrell Issa’s statement? Simple: that statement by the Congressman does not fit the news landscape they have painted of THIS Administration. The “Left” Media prefers for Americans to believe there is gross anger and mistrust among all Republicans — those in Congress and those in the Heartland — for President Trump.
At first when I read the Issa story I was angry. After all, Congressman Darrell Issa had been known as a straight shooter, defender of the Truth as the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 2011 to 2015. He angrily as Chairman attacked all those from the Obama Administration called to testify on multiple issues during those eight years: issues like government alleged misdeeds at Benghazi and the IRS targeting of Conservative groups in far greater numbers than Liberal groups. You may remember it was the testimony of IRS Director Lois Lerner before his committee that led to the rash of bad press for the Internal Revenue Service. His was the most pointed, angry, and demanding cry for Ms. Lerner to resign because of her actions.
But I remember the feelings I dealt with during some of those scandals. I often wished that President Obama would have set aside his political agenda and picked up the scale of Justice and appointed an independent prosecutor to investigate some of this. Doing so would have certainly answered all the questions, stopped all the wondering about integrity (or the lack of), charges of dishonesty, lawbreaking, favoritism, and cronyism in the Obama Administration. And when it did NOT happen, my first thought was, “There must be something there to hide.” If there was nothing wrong, nothing illegal, no payback by anyone in the Administration, why would they not want that to be known by all?
And so I have changed by mind about an independent prosecutor. It probably would be wise to begin this Administration with a clean slate. Yes, there is some evidence (even though we haven’t seen it) that the Russians tried to affect the November election. But they have been doing so in elections for numerous elections in numerous countries for years –
– and may have been doing it in previous U.S. elections. But there yet is no evidence of their achieving any success in impacting the election. And even the NY TIMES in their article a week ago claiming there were ties between the Trump Administration/Campaign and the Russians, buried in the article a disclaimer stating there is NO evidence to back up that story. (I know: their release of the story without hard evidence of their allegation is simply a journalistic lie, or as President Trump calls it “Fake News.”)
Even though I doubt President Trump can do anything to quell the anger of the Liberal Left Media against him and everything he stands for, appointing an independent prosecutor to look into the charges that there was collusion by his Administration with the Russians would remove an arrow or two from their quiver. Even if he is exonerated they will find some or reason for attack — more “Fake News.” You may remember I warned you several weeks ago that these attacks against the President will last as long as he is in office.
Nothing he can do will stop them or prevent all the Liberal pundits from mounting attack after attack to attempt to de-legitimize his Administration. But you know what? That’s part of the job. Being President has never been easy. Fortunately for Americans this president was not looking for nor expecting an easy job. And his professional history is of fighting against foes of every kind every day and never backing away from a challenge.
So I say, “Let ’em have it, Mr. President. Appoint that independent prosecutor (but let’s call that person an independent ‘investigator’ since there’s been no unlawful acts to investigate) and empower that investigator to take any and all actions necessary to get all the facts about the alleged Russian improprieties.”
“Darkness has only one enemy: the Light. And when the Light shines on the Darkness, Darkness disappears. Shine the Light on this Darkess, Mr. President. Most Americans want it to disappear.”
I’d like to hear your opinion on this issue. Please take a few moments and let us all know your thoughts below. Thanks!
