I tire of this blather: "First, no American is above the law, including presidents and former presidents." Today's two-tiered judicial system makes a mockery of the premise for making such an inane statement. Just stop. 🛑
French and the rest act like the traditional guard rails that defined the rules of US politics still exist. After using fabricated evidence to spy on the Trump campaign and then illegal leak the info to sabotage an elected president, why precisely should we trust the current powers that be.
I’m gonna write a comment that is sure to disappoint. I’m not even going to have any information or valid point. But I’m going to write it anyway and do so in a make a statement, ask a question format.
Let’s not forget, this the second warrant the FBI has garnered against Trump. The first, although not as dramatic as gun boats in the harbor and lights flashing out front, was a FISA warrant allowing “Spygate” to happen. In investigating that warrant there was a very solid paper trail of emails showing that NONE of the affidavits supporting the warrant were true and the personnel who executed those affidavits knew the basis for seeking the FISA warrant was falsely based on information contained in a dossier paid for and written by the Democrat party. Why then, are those FBI and DOJ employees above the law? Is the law suddenly above the law? Well, obviously no. There are bad cops in jail across America. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that if you are a Donald Trump hater in Washington, DC it appears you are above the law. What are you working so hard to keep hidden?
As a subscriber, I don’t think David French is a good addition to your pool of contributors. He’s one of those Beltway insiders who has been around forever and, in my eyes, has very little credibility. This article is not the fresh, insightful commentary I have come to expect from “Common Sense.”
Good summary of where we are at this point, but one big thing that you didn't address is the insistence by the FBI that Trump's lawyers be kept from observing the search, and also the reported demand that security cameras be turned off (which I believe the employees at MAL refused to do). That seems highly unusual, and even more so in a case with such political volatility. I would think, if you're taking the unprecedented step of raiding a former President, that you would want to make sure you do everything by the book. But expelling the attorneys on hand and trying to shut off cameras sure makes it seem like something fishy is going on. Why on earth would you do that, and risk the inevitable firestorm and accusations of potentially planting "evidence", if everything is above-board? The FBI has lost all institutional trust they may have once had, and they certainly don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
As for your last paragraph, urging people to "keep their heads about them", I think that is going to fall flat with a lot of people (it certainly does with me). This is an organization that has demonstrated again and again over the last six (or sixty) years that they are political police that operate at the discretion of the Democrat party. This is truly a Rubicon moment, and Caesar is marching on Rome. Would you tell Cato the Younger to "stay calm, just see how this plays out" when legions arrive at Rome's doorstep? No, that would be foolish, because we aren't waiting for the FBI to reveal whether or not they are political actors. They already revealed that in 2016.
To be clear: the burden is NOT on the American people to remain calm and level-headed when confronted with a desperate, brazen power grab. The burden is on the DOJ/FBI to prove to the people that this isn't what it so clearly seems to be. The federal government writ large seems to have forgotten that it exists to serve the people of this country, not the other way around. We have reached a crisis in the United States of America, and I see no way forward for this great country unless and until the entrenched bureaucracy is cast out on their ass. We can do it with schedule F in two years, or with a guillotine in 10. It's up to them.
I never believed Trump’s conspiracy theories: fake news, deep state etc. I’ve been proven wrong on every theory. Given the Russia collusion fiasco, the FBI needs a higher and more transparent public standard because they have proven to be corrupt.
This insider piece rationalizes what happened earlier in the week without taking into account the Publix’s growing mistrust of government agencies.
All you have to do is quickly peruse David French's twitter account to confirm his "never Trumper" bias. He's not the type of writer I subscribe to read in Common Sense.
This article by French belongs in the NYT or Wash Post. Bari please don't foist David French on us. The armed visit by an American Gestapo to investigate a former President on not preserving government documents but really on a fishing expedition for a smoking gun related to January 6th is something I would expect from El Salvador. Bananas anyone??
It's a shame that despite Bari's efforts to show all points of view, she must default again and again to the Never Trump Republicans. Why not get someone to write something that lives outside of that insulated bubble? I get that you don't want to be accused of being a Trump supporter but in this case, you folks are neutral voices where we need stronger ones.
Ten points:
1) They have been chasing Trump for six long years, all to undo the results of the 2016 election, and in so doing, have revealed themselves to be hypocrites of the highest order. This Trump hunt makes the Bill Clinton hunt look like child's play.
2) The response to what is happening now is fear, disgust, anger from those who are not inside the isolated bunker of the left. Those inside just want the monster taken out of Purity Village. They don't care how it's done. They just want him gone. The Joy Behars, the Rob Reiners, the Stephen Colberts, the super powerful blue-checks on Twitter whose nonstop attacks have only made Trump more popular. So now they turn into the Gestapo and all of you ruminate with the same pointless questions, parroting the same old useless trope, "no one is above the law." No one deserves this level of persecution for the crime of winning an election as an outsider.
3) They've launched a systematic dehumanization campaign against Trump and his supporters for years which, frankly, is something all of us should object to. The worst crimes in history have come when one powerful side dehumanizes another powerless side. It started with mocking Trump's hair, his weight, his hands, his relationship with his wife and his daughter. There was no bottom. Then, because they could not destroy him that way, they impeached him, investigated him, cherry picked everything he said and blew it up into something he never said. They have revealed their motives again and again. How can anyone take this MADNESS seriously by now?
4) When standard humiliation and "he's a racist" didn't work, it then escalated to a "white supremacist army angry at the black and brown people in power." Many of you genuinely believe that, even though Trump continues to attract Hispanic, Asian and Black voters. You also can't seem to notice that the mass hysteria we're living through right now that is driving so much of "cancel culture" madness is because of the insanity rising on the Left, much of it in response to Trump. So the constant hysteria driven by the Left is the very same thing destroying them. The media now is driving yet more fear of Trump supporters. Don't you all see where this is going?
5) Working class Americans look to Trump because he is the only person in power who sees them at all, let alone fights for them. That clearly pisses off the Democrats since they've all but abandoned the working class. But they can't let go of their power. They won't be satisfied -- Rachel Maddow won't be satisfied -- until Trump is frog-marched off in an orange jumpsuit. THAT is what has become of the once mighty left. They have nothing to sell but fear.
6) Trump supporters are mostly non-violent. But now, thanks to Jan 6th our government (and the Never Trumpers like you all) has become emboldened, Reichstag Fire-like, to take action against its own citizens. Parents at school boards, mistreatment of the Jan. 6th prisoners, Trump's lawyers and other staff - and now Trump himself. It is WRONG. Stop saying "no American is above the law" when plenty of the most powerful absolutely are. Political persecution of this magnitude is UNAMERICAN. Go ahead and say it outright. Stop dancing around what is obvious to everyone but those inside their protected cocoon.
7) They banned Trump from Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. They disinvite him from all official government events, treating him and his millions of supporters, like they are not part of this country. How do you all think that plays among the millions who have been abandoned by THEM? Do you think they are supportive of such actions?
8) Despite everything they've tried to do, they still haven't shut him up or shut him down. Despite 100% media bias against Trump his movement is stronger than ever. That should send them a strong message about THEIR message. This action only makes things worse for THEM. And honesty, I'm finding it difficult right now to figure out why I should support any of them. I am starting to think this country needs them all out of power if it is survive this moment.
9) When is enough enough? What's next, gulags? Will you all still scratch your chins and say hmmmmm. I don't want to sound like a Trump supporter so I better say nothing. What they have already done to Jan 6th prisoners - throwing them in solitary, smearing them as racists, not to mention eliminating due process with the Primetime hearings, convicting Trump in the court of public opinion with no defense and now this? Can't you see this as a dangerous escalation? THEY are the threats to Democracy Itself.
10) This is purely political. No country persecutes their political enemies AFTER they have left office, in case they decide to run again. My god, when does it end? I can't even decide which of the powerful forces in our government has become more dangerous -- the Bush/Cheney empire or the Clinton/Obama/Biden empire. They all seem perfectly willing to subvert OUR democracy to serve their own ends and cling to power. It's disgraceful.
Why are they so afraid of Trump? Because they are afraid of someone who is not afraid of them. They are afraid of someone who says whatever he wants to say at a time of extreme thought and speech policing. They are afraid of a grass movement they no longer have. They are afraid of someone who has the kind of charisma that wins elections, which they no longer have.
I guess I always expect more from Bari and Common Sense. But in the end, if you can't cross the Trump line, you will never get the story. You think that all you have to do is stop the "woke" revolution with think pieces of like-minded sophisticates. You haven't yet realized that it's all the same thing. The reason Trump is getting MORE popular, not less, is that sometimes you need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain. We don't have enough Churchills.
'Just another reminder: Trump has a copy of the warrant, which will include what they searched for and what crimes they believe were broken. He can release it whenever he wants.'
Several different sources contradicted this yesterday. They said the FBI presented the warrant for Trump's attorney to read, but didn't allow it to be copied, and took it with them when they left. Who knows what actually happened?
I am curious about how documents are managed at the WH and National Archives. How could top secret documents walk out the WH door with Trump? Aren’t there safeguards that keep track of top secret stuff? Or maybe what’s in these boxes isn’t really top secret but we are being told they are so Trump looks bad.
If Trump was keeping self-incriminating stuff why wouldn’t he scrub it, ya, know with bleach, like Hillary did?
Why was it necessary to bring armed FBI agents to retrieve boxes? Was that for photo ops?
I read Jonathan Turley’s article that an FBI raid wasn’t even necessary. Say Trump refused to return the documents. The next step would be a special prosecutor. Going full armed FBI was shocking and out of proportion.
There is a democrat motive here and I don’t think we see all the cards in their hand.
Glad your not worried about civil war, maybe you should worry about criminalizing domestic opposition and the abuse of state power to affect elections.
No doubt this is a perilous time. We are being controlled and have been for a long time. We can keep our heads about us to understand that we have become a Third World Country for long enough to understand our government is in the pockets of the globalists has sold out the American people and no longer even pretends to care if we know it. How to tell when we are being serially abused and played. You dismiss serious political thought being discussed here on SubStack and on our current town square (the internet) as if it were inconsequential. MSM has been thoroughly bought and sold to the highest bidder. Wow.
If it weren’t for the obvious DOJ favoritism toward Hunter Biden, the DOJ failure to prosecute mishandling classified material by Hillary Clinton, the failure to enforce laws protecting Supreme Court justices from “parading and intimidation” by protestors, the failure to prosecute James Comey for leaking classified information to the media, the lies and misrepresentations in FISA warrant applications to surveil Carter Page, the restoration of bar privileges to Kevin Clinesmith, the entire Mueller “investigation of Russian collusion,” and the absolute abrogation of the duty to enforce immigration law, I would have complete faith in the integrity of the DOJ and the FBI.
But there are just too many things we can’t unsee.
I tire of this blather: "First, no American is above the law, including presidents and former presidents." Today's two-tiered judicial system makes a mockery of the premise for making such an inane statement. Just stop. 🛑
French and the rest act like the traditional guard rails that defined the rules of US politics still exist. After using fabricated evidence to spy on the Trump campaign and then illegal leak the info to sabotage an elected president, why precisely should we trust the current powers that be.
I’m gonna write a comment that is sure to disappoint. I’m not even going to have any information or valid point. But I’m going to write it anyway and do so in a make a statement, ask a question format.
Let’s not forget, this the second warrant the FBI has garnered against Trump. The first, although not as dramatic as gun boats in the harbor and lights flashing out front, was a FISA warrant allowing “Spygate” to happen. In investigating that warrant there was a very solid paper trail of emails showing that NONE of the affidavits supporting the warrant were true and the personnel who executed those affidavits knew the basis for seeking the FISA warrant was falsely based on information contained in a dossier paid for and written by the Democrat party. Why then, are those FBI and DOJ employees above the law? Is the law suddenly above the law? Well, obviously no. There are bad cops in jail across America. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that if you are a Donald Trump hater in Washington, DC it appears you are above the law. What are you working so hard to keep hidden?
As a subscriber, I don’t think David French is a good addition to your pool of contributors. He’s one of those Beltway insiders who has been around forever and, in my eyes, has very little credibility. This article is not the fresh, insightful commentary I have come to expect from “Common Sense.”
All this raid did was:
1. Cement Trump’s popularity with the GOP base
2. Guarantee that he is going to be the Republican candidate in 2024.
3. Shown everyone to what extents the Establishment will go to keep the Orange Man Bad out of office.
These people are banana republic thugs. Make no mistake about it.
Good summary of where we are at this point, but one big thing that you didn't address is the insistence by the FBI that Trump's lawyers be kept from observing the search, and also the reported demand that security cameras be turned off (which I believe the employees at MAL refused to do). That seems highly unusual, and even more so in a case with such political volatility. I would think, if you're taking the unprecedented step of raiding a former President, that you would want to make sure you do everything by the book. But expelling the attorneys on hand and trying to shut off cameras sure makes it seem like something fishy is going on. Why on earth would you do that, and risk the inevitable firestorm and accusations of potentially planting "evidence", if everything is above-board? The FBI has lost all institutional trust they may have once had, and they certainly don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.
As for your last paragraph, urging people to "keep their heads about them", I think that is going to fall flat with a lot of people (it certainly does with me). This is an organization that has demonstrated again and again over the last six (or sixty) years that they are political police that operate at the discretion of the Democrat party. This is truly a Rubicon moment, and Caesar is marching on Rome. Would you tell Cato the Younger to "stay calm, just see how this plays out" when legions arrive at Rome's doorstep? No, that would be foolish, because we aren't waiting for the FBI to reveal whether or not they are political actors. They already revealed that in 2016.
To be clear: the burden is NOT on the American people to remain calm and level-headed when confronted with a desperate, brazen power grab. The burden is on the DOJ/FBI to prove to the people that this isn't what it so clearly seems to be. The federal government writ large seems to have forgotten that it exists to serve the people of this country, not the other way around. We have reached a crisis in the United States of America, and I see no way forward for this great country unless and until the entrenched bureaucracy is cast out on their ass. We can do it with schedule F in two years, or with a guillotine in 10. It's up to them.
I never believed Trump’s conspiracy theories: fake news, deep state etc. I’ve been proven wrong on every theory. Given the Russia collusion fiasco, the FBI needs a higher and more transparent public standard because they have proven to be corrupt.
This insider piece rationalizes what happened earlier in the week without taking into account the Publix’s growing mistrust of government agencies.
All you have to do is quickly peruse David French's twitter account to confirm his "never Trumper" bias. He's not the type of writer I subscribe to read in Common Sense.
This article by French belongs in the NYT or Wash Post. Bari please don't foist David French on us. The armed visit by an American Gestapo to investigate a former President on not preserving government documents but really on a fishing expedition for a smoking gun related to January 6th is something I would expect from El Salvador. Bananas anyone??
Did the Washington Post buy Substack yesterday?
It's a shame that despite Bari's efforts to show all points of view, she must default again and again to the Never Trump Republicans. Why not get someone to write something that lives outside of that insulated bubble? I get that you don't want to be accused of being a Trump supporter but in this case, you folks are neutral voices where we need stronger ones.
Ten points:
1) They have been chasing Trump for six long years, all to undo the results of the 2016 election, and in so doing, have revealed themselves to be hypocrites of the highest order. This Trump hunt makes the Bill Clinton hunt look like child's play.
2) The response to what is happening now is fear, disgust, anger from those who are not inside the isolated bunker of the left. Those inside just want the monster taken out of Purity Village. They don't care how it's done. They just want him gone. The Joy Behars, the Rob Reiners, the Stephen Colberts, the super powerful blue-checks on Twitter whose nonstop attacks have only made Trump more popular. So now they turn into the Gestapo and all of you ruminate with the same pointless questions, parroting the same old useless trope, "no one is above the law." No one deserves this level of persecution for the crime of winning an election as an outsider.
3) They've launched a systematic dehumanization campaign against Trump and his supporters for years which, frankly, is something all of us should object to. The worst crimes in history have come when one powerful side dehumanizes another powerless side. It started with mocking Trump's hair, his weight, his hands, his relationship with his wife and his daughter. There was no bottom. Then, because they could not destroy him that way, they impeached him, investigated him, cherry picked everything he said and blew it up into something he never said. They have revealed their motives again and again. How can anyone take this MADNESS seriously by now?
4) When standard humiliation and "he's a racist" didn't work, it then escalated to a "white supremacist army angry at the black and brown people in power." Many of you genuinely believe that, even though Trump continues to attract Hispanic, Asian and Black voters. You also can't seem to notice that the mass hysteria we're living through right now that is driving so much of "cancel culture" madness is because of the insanity rising on the Left, much of it in response to Trump. So the constant hysteria driven by the Left is the very same thing destroying them. The media now is driving yet more fear of Trump supporters. Don't you all see where this is going?
5) Working class Americans look to Trump because he is the only person in power who sees them at all, let alone fights for them. That clearly pisses off the Democrats since they've all but abandoned the working class. But they can't let go of their power. They won't be satisfied -- Rachel Maddow won't be satisfied -- until Trump is frog-marched off in an orange jumpsuit. THAT is what has become of the once mighty left. They have nothing to sell but fear.
6) Trump supporters are mostly non-violent. But now, thanks to Jan 6th our government (and the Never Trumpers like you all) has become emboldened, Reichstag Fire-like, to take action against its own citizens. Parents at school boards, mistreatment of the Jan. 6th prisoners, Trump's lawyers and other staff - and now Trump himself. It is WRONG. Stop saying "no American is above the law" when plenty of the most powerful absolutely are. Political persecution of this magnitude is UNAMERICAN. Go ahead and say it outright. Stop dancing around what is obvious to everyone but those inside their protected cocoon.
7) They banned Trump from Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. They disinvite him from all official government events, treating him and his millions of supporters, like they are not part of this country. How do you all think that plays among the millions who have been abandoned by THEM? Do you think they are supportive of such actions?
8) Despite everything they've tried to do, they still haven't shut him up or shut him down. Despite 100% media bias against Trump his movement is stronger than ever. That should send them a strong message about THEIR message. This action only makes things worse for THEM. And honesty, I'm finding it difficult right now to figure out why I should support any of them. I am starting to think this country needs them all out of power if it is survive this moment.
9) When is enough enough? What's next, gulags? Will you all still scratch your chins and say hmmmmm. I don't want to sound like a Trump supporter so I better say nothing. What they have already done to Jan 6th prisoners - throwing them in solitary, smearing them as racists, not to mention eliminating due process with the Primetime hearings, convicting Trump in the court of public opinion with no defense and now this? Can't you see this as a dangerous escalation? THEY are the threats to Democracy Itself.
10) This is purely political. No country persecutes their political enemies AFTER they have left office, in case they decide to run again. My god, when does it end? I can't even decide which of the powerful forces in our government has become more dangerous -- the Bush/Cheney empire or the Clinton/Obama/Biden empire. They all seem perfectly willing to subvert OUR democracy to serve their own ends and cling to power. It's disgraceful.
Why are they so afraid of Trump? Because they are afraid of someone who is not afraid of them. They are afraid of someone who says whatever he wants to say at a time of extreme thought and speech policing. They are afraid of a grass movement they no longer have. They are afraid of someone who has the kind of charisma that wins elections, which they no longer have.
I guess I always expect more from Bari and Common Sense. But in the end, if you can't cross the Trump line, you will never get the story. You think that all you have to do is stop the "woke" revolution with think pieces of like-minded sophisticates. You haven't yet realized that it's all the same thing. The reason Trump is getting MORE popular, not less, is that sometimes you need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain. We don't have enough Churchills.
'Just another reminder: Trump has a copy of the warrant, which will include what they searched for and what crimes they believe were broken. He can release it whenever he wants.'
Several different sources contradicted this yesterday. They said the FBI presented the warrant for Trump's attorney to read, but didn't allow it to be copied, and took it with them when they left. Who knows what actually happened?
I am curious about how documents are managed at the WH and National Archives. How could top secret documents walk out the WH door with Trump? Aren’t there safeguards that keep track of top secret stuff? Or maybe what’s in these boxes isn’t really top secret but we are being told they are so Trump looks bad.
If Trump was keeping self-incriminating stuff why wouldn’t he scrub it, ya, know with bleach, like Hillary did?
Why was it necessary to bring armed FBI agents to retrieve boxes? Was that for photo ops?
I read Jonathan Turley’s article that an FBI raid wasn’t even necessary. Say Trump refused to return the documents. The next step would be a special prosecutor. Going full armed FBI was shocking and out of proportion.
There is a democrat motive here and I don’t think we see all the cards in their hand.
Glad your not worried about civil war, maybe you should worry about criminalizing domestic opposition and the abuse of state power to affect elections.
No doubt this is a perilous time. We are being controlled and have been for a long time. We can keep our heads about us to understand that we have become a Third World Country for long enough to understand our government is in the pockets of the globalists has sold out the American people and no longer even pretends to care if we know it. How to tell when we are being serially abused and played. You dismiss serious political thought being discussed here on SubStack and on our current town square (the internet) as if it were inconsequential. MSM has been thoroughly bought and sold to the highest bidder. Wow.
If it weren’t for the obvious DOJ favoritism toward Hunter Biden, the DOJ failure to prosecute mishandling classified material by Hillary Clinton, the failure to enforce laws protecting Supreme Court justices from “parading and intimidation” by protestors, the failure to prosecute James Comey for leaking classified information to the media, the lies and misrepresentations in FISA warrant applications to surveil Carter Page, the restoration of bar privileges to Kevin Clinesmith, the entire Mueller “investigation of Russian collusion,” and the absolute abrogation of the duty to enforce immigration law, I would have complete faith in the integrity of the DOJ and the FBI.
But there are just too many things we can’t unsee.