Sept. 9, 2022
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
The American people are not expecting Trump to be indicted, poll shows
By Robert Romano
A plurality of Americans, 39 percent, say they do not think former President Donald Trump will face criminal charges for documents Trump says he declassified that were seized by the FBI in an Aug. 8 raid of his Palm Beach, Fla. residence, Mar-a-Lago, the latest Economist-YouGov poll shows.
Just 29 percent do expect an indictment, but a good chunk of those are Democrats in the poll, including 47 percent who do think Trump will face criminal charges, and 25 percent who do not.
Whereas, 56 percent of Republicans say there will be no indictment, with just 14 percent saying there will be one.
Crucially, 41 percent of independents are not expecting the former president to be brought up on charges by the Biden Justice Department. Only 21 percent say Trump will be.
Suffice to say, the American people are not currently expecting Trump to be brought up on criminal charges. Maybe because that’s crazy.
Never before has any president, as President Joe Biden has done, idly stood aside while his Justice Department intervened in U.S. politics to potentially prosecute his political opponent who says he’s likely running against in him the next election, let alone against a former president.
Biden just gave a speech about violence being used to political ends, that is, against uses of force designed to achieve a political outcome. The government commands a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, but those tend to become illegitimate especially when they violate political and constitutional norms.
By allowing the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland, the worst Attorney General ever, to raid Trump’s home is a far greater use of force, yes, by Biden, than anything Trump ever did.
That includes Trump giving his speech on the National Mall on Jan. 6 urging his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” in opposition to Congress approving the 2020 Electoral College in favor of President Joe Biden. He had a First Amendment right to be there and to make the speech. There was no incitement to violence by Trump.
As for the riot, Justice Department criminal cases show was pre-meditated weeks before the speech by third parties.
In the meantime, the Justice Department is actually sitting on documents that Trump ordered to be declassified prior to leaving office, including documents related to the unconstitutional Crossfire Hurricane investigation that falsely alleged that Trump and his 2016 campaign were Russian agents who helped Moscow to hack the DNC server and post their emails on Wikileaks. That wasn’t true, but it set off a years long investigation—the Mueller report found no Trump-Russia conspiracy—that Trump sought to publicly expose via his declassification authorities as he was leaving office.
But the Justice Department will not comply with the Trump order, which came in writing on Jan. 19, 2021, the day before Trump left office, stating, “I hereby declassify the remaining materials in the binder. This is my final determination under the declassification review and I have directed the Attorney General to implement the redactions proposed in the FBI’s January 17 submission and return to the White House an appropriately redacted copy.” But the redacted copies were never returned.
And now afterward, the Justice Department is seeking to criminalize Trump’s valid use of declassification authority—an implied executive power under Article II of the Constitution—as it pertained to the Crossfire Hurricane documents it still refuses to release in their redacted form, and for whatever other documents were seized from Mar-a-Lago that Trump says were declassified prior to leaving office.
The President as the unitary executive under Article II of the Constitution could intervene and demand the Justice Department not prosecute Trump, but this has not happened. Quite the opposite, with Biden calling Trump and Republicans as “threats to the foundations of our republic” in his hyperpartisan Sept. 1 “soul of the nation” speech.
This is clearly political for Biden.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has appointed a special master to review the documents in the case to remove anything covered as either personal documents or those shielded by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege, but now the Justice Department, determined to continue their quest to get Trump at any cost, is appealing the appointment and the injunction Cannon placed on the criminal investigation at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
All good sense suggests Biden and the Justice Department should back down from this dangerous escalation of political tensions on the eve of the Congressional midterm elections. And polls show, that’s exactly what the American people are expecting will happen.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2022/09/the-american-people-are-not-expecting-trump-to-be-indicted-poll-shows/
Larry Kudlow: Biden’s MAGA Republicans threat to democracy pitch a loser in polls
By Larry Kudlow
There's a growing view inside the mainstream media that Joe Biden's recent legislative victories and his recent speeches that MAGA Republicans are a threat to democracy and are "semi-fascists" are going to give the Democrats some midterm momentum and they're going to overtake the GOP by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I'm not buying it and here's why you shouldn't either.
First of all, the new legislation is not popular. By 36% to 12%, an Economist-YouGov poll shows that voters believe the IRA legislation will actually increase inflation. As for the student loan cancellation, a poll from another network shows by 59% to 38% that voters believe that too will increase inflation.
By the way, the latest inflation report for July was 8.5% year-on-year and the inflation tracker from the Cleveland Fed predicts an 8.2% CPI for both August and September.
As far as Biden's attack on 74 million Americans who voted for President Trump in the last election, new polls show these speeches were a disaster. The Trafalgar Group polling likely voters shows 56% believe it was "dangerous rhetoric," over 20 points more than those who believe it was ‘acceptable campaign messaging."
Just today, Rasmussen Reports also finds that 46% say the upcoming midterm election is a "referendum" on Biden's agenda. Only 40% think it's more about "individual candidates."
These early returns on Mr. Biden's outrageous, hateful and divisive rhetoric, alongside huge new tax-and-spend Democratic legislation, suggest the Republican cavalry is in very good shape here 61 days before the midterms.
Another lesson: never believe the mainstream media. Of course, voters are going to cast ballots against Biden's authoritarian, dictatorial, big government socialism.
Mr. Biden took a booming economy without inflation and turned it into a high-inflation bust in a little more than a year. His war on fossil fuels has driven gasoline, oil, natural gas and coal prices sky-high — ditto for food prices on grocery shelves. He can't even get proper baby formula on store shelves. He has spent massively, raised taxes and launched the biggest regulatory assault on business we have ever seen. Real wages for working folks have fallen steadily.
He is not only obsessed with climate change, without ever providing any alternate replacement. He is similarly maniacal about repealing all the successful Trump tax cuts that gave us the lowest poverty and highest family wages in 50 years.
He wants a battery-powered economy but won't let people mine the resources to develop it. His allies want to end gas-powered cars but are now telling EV owners they can't recharge their batteries. Why? No electricity. Why? Not enough fossil fuels.
He has weaponized the Justice Department and the FBI against his arch-enemy Donald Trump. He lied about the miracle of Operation Warp Speed. He has stifled free speech, calling parents "domestic terrorists" and pressing social media to evaporate the Hunter Biden laptop story. That story, by the way, could've changed the 2020 election.
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz calls out President Joe Biden's angry rhetoric toward Republicans on 'Kudlow.'
He lied about the Afghanistan exit being a great success. He lies about the open southern border, with millions of illegals crossing it and the scourge of fentanyl that has come with it.
Not only has his economic version of central planning been a complete failure, but he has resorted to an authoritarian, dictatorial, divisive approach that is devoid of truth, but Americans are a lot smarter than Mr. Biden thinks. They will reject his perverse vision of America. That is why I believe the cavalry is in good shape as we enter the final run for the roses.
To view online: https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/larry-kudlow-biden-booming-economy-without-inflation-turned-high-inflation-bust