Aug. 18, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
The GOP is still Trump’s party
By Robert Romano
The Republican Party is still former President Donald Trump’s party.
That is one obvious reality that emerges from the overwhelming defeat of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) by Harriet Hageman, who was endorsed by former President Trump, in the Republican primary for the Wyoming at-large Congressional District, with Hageman garnering 66 percent of the vote to Cheney’s nearly 29 percent.
Cheney lost by more than 63,000 votes, about 113,000 to 49,000, in the smallest state in the country population-wise. That’s more than Trump lost by in the swing states of Georgia (10,000 votes), Arizona (10,000 votes) and Wisconsin (23,000 votes) combined in the 2020 presidential contest when turnout was more than 158 million nationally.
That is to say, whereas Trump barely lost in those three states — if he had won Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin in 2020 the Electoral College would have been tied 269 to 269 — Cheney was utterly annihilated in her party’s primary.
Which is little wonder. By serving as the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a committee that Republican leaders in the House have completely boycotted, plus being one of just 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach Trump the second time, who was ultimately acquitted by the Senate, and then finally removed as GOP Conference Chair in the House, Cheney has been nearly universally rejected by Republicans, who still widely support Trump nationally.
Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, now Cheney has been defeated in her primary, and so was U.S. Reps. Jaime Herrera-Beutler (R-Wash.), Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) and Tom Rice (R-S.C.).
Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), John Katko (R-N.Y.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) all opted to retire rather than face a primary challenge.
Only U.S. Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), the latter of whom did beat a Trump-nominated candidate, remain on the ballot for the November Congressional midterms.
That builds on a pretty strong record in the party’s primaries this year, with Trump-backed candidates winning 183 out of 200 races in 2022, or 92 percent of GOP primaries, according to Ballotpedia.
This borne out by national polls, too. In the latest Politico-Morning Consult poll released Aug. 11, Trump leads the Republican primary by 38 points: 56 percent to 18 percent for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and 8 percent for former Vice President Mike Pence. That’s actually more than the 33 points he was leading DeSantis and Pence in the Aug. 2 Harvard-Harris GOP primary poll before the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided Trump residence in Palm Beach, Fla., Mar-a-Lago, on Aug. 9 to seize documents that Trump had clearly declassified before he ever left office under his inherent Article II, Section 1 executive powers.
In an Aug. 15 statement on Truth Social, Trump optimistically suggested it might help the GOP to victory in the November midterms, predicting it may be actually boosting rather than diminishing his political fortunes, something that might emerge as an unintended consequence of the FBI raid., “Republicans could win many additional seats, both in the House & Senate, because of the strong backlash over the raid at Ma[r]-a-Lago. Polls are showing that some lost Republican territory over the last number of weeks has been more than made up with the unannounced Break In by the FBI, which should never have happened!”
The implication is that the FBI raid and the Justice Department’s now six-year operation against Trump that began when he was still a candidate in 2016 is actually helping Trump politically by consolidating Republican support around him for a 2024 bid, with obvious ramifications for those Trump-backed candidates in the Nov. 2022 midterms, who now have a tailor-made pitch for across-the-board federal civil service, Justice Department and intelligence reforms.
But likely only if Republican leaders in Washington, D.C. including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) can find a way to push back on the Biden administration's targeting of Trump, President Joe Biden’s top political opponent, if for no other reason then as an act self-preservation on behalf of any future Republican president. This is an intolerable breach of faith. The fact the White House says it was never briefed only makes it worse. Whatever happened to the unitary executive? The damage this is all doing to the Article II Presidency must not be discounted.
Republicans will also need to communicate effectively to independents and the few Democrats that care that they must not condone this dangerous, unilateral weaponization of federal police powers, whether by an administrative state department or if the President is doing it himself. The appeal must be to ensure these powers are never again used by one party against the other in this manner. To be long-lasting and sustainable, any reforms would obviously have to be bipartisan.
The message itself is simple: If the former president is not safe from these forces, then no one is. For Trump, it's already too late.
Of course, he's also right. The FBI’s criminalization of a clear exercise of presidential authority by Trump and threatening to imprison him changes almost everything we must now think about American politics. This is outrageous in a third world country, let alone in supposedly the most free country in the world.
The sooner Congressional Republicans realize and understand their fates in November are inextricably tied to Trump's, the better.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/08/the-gop-is-still-trumps-party/
Liz Cheney most reviled in ALG straw poll, Mitt Romney close second
By Rick Manning
Americans for Limited Government conducted an internal poll of supporters and subscribers on August 16 and 17 testing which candidates were most likely to garner support and which were rejected by respondents.
Liz Cheney won the question, “In 2024, who do you refuse to vote for?” with 93 percent declaring their electoral enmity toward the anointed GOP leader of the Never Trump cult.
Cheney was closely followed by Senator Mitt Romney who polled at 88.9 percent with former Vice President Mike Pence garnering more than two-thirds of those who would refuse to vote for him.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a relative unknown, received an impressive amount of rejection at 36.7 percent. It can be assumed that the more people know Larry, the higher he will rise on the ALG Reject List.
Americans for Limited Government 2024 presidential straw poll, Aug. 16-17, 2022.
In 2024, who do you refuse to vote for? (Check all that apply)
Liz Cheney 903 93%
Mitt Romney 863 88.9%
Mike Pence 649 66.8%
Larry Hogan 353 36.4%
Mike Pompeo 205 21.1%
Ted Cruz 97 10%
Ben Carson 83 8.5%
Donald Trump 23 2.4%
Ron DeSantis 17 1.8%
Not surprisingly former President Donald Trump topped the charts as the person that respondents would definitely vote for with 92.6% followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 76.2 percent.
In 2024, who would you definitely vote for? (Check all that apply)
Donald Trump 898 92.6%
Ron DeSantis 737 76%
Ted Cruz 320 33%
Ben Carson 261 26.9%
Mike Pompeo 212 21.8%
Nikki Haley 148 15.2%
Mike Pence 54 5.6%
Larry Hogan 8 0.8%
Mitt Romney 3 0.3%
Liz Cheney 3 0.3%
Interestingly, while 15.3 percent of the respondents definitely would vote for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, 31.5 percent rejected her completely. A meager 5.6 percent indicated that they would definitely vote for former Vice President Pence.
This unscientific poll was provided to both email and Facebook followers of Americans for Limited Government, but at least Liz Cheney can say that she won one poll on August 16, and we don’t even have to wait for the mail-in ballots to be counted. Congratulations Liz.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/08/liz-cheney-most-reviled-in-alg-straw-poll-mitt-romney-close-second/
Tom Del Beccaro: Trump raid shows that FBI, Justice Department want to decide who can be our president
By Tom Del Beccaro
The FBI raid of Trump’s home on August 8, in concert with the Department of Justice (DOJ), marks a dark and seminal point in American history. There can be no undoing of that act. Sadly, the world has seen America, once the land of the free, descend into a new the realm with the DOJ and FBI attempting to decide who can be president of our country -- not unlike so many military coups throughout history.
There will be much fallout over the raid at Trump’s Florida home. There are significant legal and political consequences, including potentially making Trump into a political martyr and even helping his 2024 presidential campaign. Those pale in comparison, however, to the FBI and DOJ’s stunning foray over the last few years into politics, a foray that was capped off by the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Stated in the starkest terms, the FBI and the DOJ are now in the business of deciding who shall be eligible to run for office in America. Period. Full Stop.
A simple review of the last few years proves the point.
Without question, well before the 2016 campaign, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton broke the law. She maintained highly classified material, in her home, in an unsecure environment.
No one can debate that. Nor can it be debated that there was no raid of her home, let alone a legal consequence for her behavior.
Hillary even destroyed, via BleachBit, potential evidence arguably under subpoena. She alone decided whether data she had on her computer was subject to the subpoena. ven after that evidence was destroyed, there still was no raid on her home.
Keep in mind, in 2015, General David Petraeus was charged with "unlawfully and knowingly remov[ing] such documents and materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents and materials at unauthorized locations."
On July 5, 2016, on national television, then-FBI Director James Comey laid out the case against Hillary to the world. Yet, without legal authority to do so, he absolved her of any crime and effectively allowed her to run for President. She was allowed to do so even though, long before Comey’s nationwide address, the FBI and the DOJ knew of her crimes and hid them. That lax if not corrupt act of the FBI and DOJ allowed Hillary to get the nomination for president.
By contrast, the FBI and the DOJ, and even the attorney general of New York have been going after Donald Trump, virtually from the moment he announced his bid for the presidency – with or without probable cause. The raid is just the latest act.
The motive for that raid on Trump, was exposed by the Clinton operative Marc Elias. Mr. Elias, of course, was involved in the false Russia-gate scandal, which was an effort to bring down Trump’s candidacy and Presidency with the help of the FBI and the DOJ.
The current motive, plain and simple, is to prevent Trump for running again for office again. Elias referenced US Code Title 18, Section 2071 in relation to Trump. That code’s sections provides a penalty of disqualification "from holding any office under the United States." Nothing more need be said.
How serious are the politicized FBI and DOJ actions in determining who can run for office? Quite serious.
Think of the third world military coups through history, in Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil and Peru to name a few of the hundreds throughout history. Those coups saw military leaders determine who could be the leader of a country. In Russia, Putin regularly poisons his political enemies to prevent them from running against him. In China, they tolerate no opposition at all.
Today the FBI and DOJ are attempting to use their own corrupt legal processes to effect nearly the same outcome. They have decided they are in the game of choosing who can be president and who cannot. Even when they lie about doing it, they suffer no consequences.
What greater danger could there be to a republic?
Beyond that, in a single raid, it has been confirmed that we have a two-tier justice system. Americans are right to confirm, after this raid, that we have one system of justice for Republicans and another for Democrats. Republicans get raided or publicly shackled (Manafort, Stone, Navarro and now even President Trump), Democrats do not.
Democrats can lie to federal authorities (Andrew McCabe) and sue the government for benefits and get them. Republicans get jailed. FBI officials can take federal government property/documents home (James Comey, Sandy Berger, and the Clintons) and nothing happens to them. Republicans cannot do the same – not to mention that Hunter Biden’s crimes are labeled disinformation.
As for a judge putting his stamp on the process, the same was done over and over on the lie of the Russia collusion story. As a result, the American system of justice has taken yet another massive credibility hit from a judge who donated to President Obama.
It has also been confirmed, politically and historically, that the American paradise has been lost. The republic is now firmly in danger and America if no longer a beacon of freedom and justice to the world. Even the president of El Salvador, with that country’s past, questioned, "what [the] U.S. government would say if his Central American country's police did something similar."
As this story continues to unfold, President Trump stated Monday that he will do "whatever he can to help the country" after FBI raid and stated that the "Temperature has to be brought down." The Democrats in Washington, on the other hand, seemingly can find no double standard or wrong.
In the absence of unity on this issue, it will now take a true leader to summon our virtues to overcome this terrible abuse to the American ideal and the republic.
To view online: https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-cheney-primary-defeat-wyoming-trump-next-political-move