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Aside from the Liberty-loving brother- and sisterhood here at The Patriot Post, one of the things that sets us apart is our willingness to disagree on the issues of the day.
Donald Trump, more than anyone or anything, puts this tolerance to the test. Take National Review, for example: Is there anyone in that esteemed house who dares really support that knuckle-dragging Trump?
Here, though, our boss, Mark Alexander, gives us a bit of a leash, even if he might disagree with our particular take. And that makes for a stronger, more vibrant editorial shop.
Consider Trump’s nomination yesterday of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general. The boss isn’t a Gaetz fan, and his reasons are understandable. And let’s be honest: Trump couldn’t have made a more controversial selection for AG. Gaetz might be the most hated man in Washington — not only because he loves the camera but also because he seems to be an equal-opportunity critic of both Republicans and Democrats.
But it’s not just Gaetz’s iconoclasm. It’s also that “child sexual trafficker” thing that’s been hanging over his head for a couple of years now, courtesy of the FBI. If you’ve bought into it, then the corrupt FBI has accomplished its mission. The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway put the lie to this vile smear campaign a long time ago.
What? You can’t believe the FBI would do such a thing? Please. This is the same FBI, after all, that slow-walked its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s internationally compromised homebrew email server; that concocted the Russia collusion hoax out of thin air; that lied on a FISA warrant so it could spy on Donald Trump and his entire campaign team; that entrapped a bunch of “pro-Trump” rabble in a phony kidnapping plot against Michigan’s Democrat governor less than a month before the 2020 election; that sat on Hunter Biden’s laptop for nearly a year before the 2020 election; that worked with Facebook and pre-Musk Twitter to censor the New York Post’s laptop bombshell two weeks before the election; that helped push the Gang of 51’s “Russian disinformation” letter even though it had already authenticated the laptop; that targeted parents who attended school board meetings because they were concerned about CRT and other hard-left ideologies being taught in their children’s schools; that targeted “radical-traditionalist” Catholics in their churches; that repeatedly targeted peaceful pro-life activists; that unlawfully seized the cellphone of a Trump-allied congressman and retired brigadier general; that gave two Republican senators a phony “defensive briefing” about Russian disinformation when they were investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukraine and other countries; that likely planted the pipe bombs in front of the RNC and DNC headquarters; that almost certainly constructed the fake gallows outside the Capitol on the morning of January 6; that definitely placed numerous agents provocateur at the January 6 protest-turned-riot and continues to stonewall Congress about it; that conducted an armed raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and rifled through the first lady’s underwear drawer because of a documents dispute with the National Archives; that intentionally screened out conservatives and Trump supporters in its hiring practices; and that cracked down on patriotic whistleblowers within the Bureau.
If you still think the Bureau would never, not in a million years, concoct a child sex-trafficking smear to silence a staunch Trump defender and a harsh early critic of the Russia collusion hoax, well, I can’t help you.
Put another way: We know for a fact that the FBI is corrupt and that it targets conservatives. And yet we’re willing to take the Bureau’s word for it that a fearless and sharp-elbowed Trump defender and Russia collusion critic with an American Conservative Union lifetime rating of 91.6 is a child sex trafficker? Doesn’t anyone else think that if the Bureau had a real case against Gaetz, he’d have been indicted long ago? Or at least drummed out of Congress?
As Hemingway reported more than two years ago: “18 months after he was accused of being a pedophile and child sex trafficker, the Washington Post published another anonymously sourced report. ‘Career prosecutors recommend no charges for Matt Gaetz,’ said the article, published quietly on a Friday. … The damage was already done by the initial report, written by reporters who regularly regurgitate political leaks from Department of Justice and FBI sources.”
Remarkably, though, Gaetz keeps being resoundingly reelected by the people of Florida’s 1st Congressional District. Maybe, instead of reflexively believing what the FBI and the Leftmedia are serving us, we should ask ourselves: If Gaetz is such a creepy child sex trafficker, why did the people of FL1 just reelect him by a 66-34 margin?
What is it that they know about Matt Gaetz that the rest of us don’t?
Having said all this, I’m as shocked as anyone by the Gaetz pick. I think we can all agree that Trump will burn a LOT of political capital here. But I don’t like convicting a man on such flimsy evidence. If we’ve learned anything about Trump, it’s that he doesn’t play it safe. He obviously thinks Gaetz is worth the risk. He must understand that we’re at war with the Left and that he needs a wartime consigliere. Either that, or he’s playing 3-D chess so that his backup pick, former Missouri AG and current Senator Josh Hawley, sails through without a fuss.
I thought Trump’s nominee for CIA director, John Ratcliffe, would’ve been a great attorney general. But Trump obviously thought he needed him to clean up the intelligence services. Utah Senator Mike Lee, too. And Hawley. But no matter. Gaetz is Trump’s guy.
Eight years ago, Trump picked Jeff Sessions for AG. Multiple fake scandals and two impeachments later, we might ask: How’d that work out? Ultimately, he replaced Sessions with Bill Barr, a solid conservative and a brilliant legal mind who came up through the Reagan and Bush administrations, who warned about a fraudulent election on the horizon, and who did absolutely nothing about it.
Here in our humble shop, we’ve spent the last few years railing against the weaponization of government. Now, finally, we have a chance to do something about it. And we have a guy that Trump chose above all other candidates despite his apparent baggage.
Ask yourself: Why would a pragmatic builder like Trump burn so much political capital on such a controversial pick? Answer: Because he knows we’re at war with the Left and because he knows that he needs a wartime consigliere.
Wartime consigliere, n., a wingman. See Obama, Barack; and Holder, Eric.
Or, like Bill Clinton says: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Trump isn’t inclined to be fooled again.
Donald Trump won a national election in colossal fashion nine days ago. He deserves to put together his cabinet as he sees fit. At the very least, his pick for attorney general will have a chance to clear his name and make his case. And, if somehow confirmed, Matt Gaetz will get to the heavy lifting of de-weaponizing the Department of Justice.
We should hope so.
