Editor’s Note: Say What? is the segment of Liberty Nation Radio where we unveil some of the most wacky, astonishing, and damnable things uttered by politicians and the chattering class.
Tim Donner: It’s becoming increasingly difficult to harmonize the words of Joe Biden with his actions and those of his party in the first ten days of his nascent presidency. He has so far essentially governed by decree, executing some three dozen executive orders, most of them reversing what the left considers the most egregious Trump policies, all in deliberate and carefully pre-scripted appearances by the new president, always on teleprompter. Last week, Biden devoted each day to one particular issue, from climate change, featuring the return of former Secretary of State John Kerry as special presidential envoy for climate, to the most explosive topic of all, racial justice.
Joe Biden: The moment has arrived as a nation where we face deep racial inequities in America, systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far too long. I said that over the course of the past year that the blinders have been taken off the nation, the American people. What many Americans didn’t see, or had simply refused to see, couldn’t be ignored any longer. Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd’s life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people around all over the world. It was a knee on the neck of justice, and it wouldn’t be forgotten.
Tim: But while the president was trying to attract the nation’s attention, together with a compliant media, and those kinds of sermonettes, so to speak, attempting to lower the temperature of the nation, his party was headed in the opposite direction — good cop, bad cop — impeaching Trump for a second time, as he was about to leave the White House. The Senate will put him on trial as a private citizen starting Feb. 9. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) explained the Democrats’ logic for impeaching a president who’s no longer president.
Tammy Duckworth: Every official who has been barred from holding future office was out of office. So, we have a historical precedence that shows that it is constitutional to have a trial that will bar somebody from holding office in the future, because we’ve done it in our nation’s past. So, it’s clear that it is constitutional.
Tim: But Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, arguing the opposite.
Rand Paul: In a few minutes, I will insist on a vote to affirm that this proceeding we are about to enter is unconstitutional, that impeachment of a private citizen is illegal and essentially a Bill of Attainder. And that no sense of fairness or due process would allow the judge in the proceeding to be a partisan Democrat already in favor of the impeachment. A sham this is, a travesty, a dark blot on the history of our country. Shame, shame on these angry, unhinged partisans who are putting forth this sham impeachment, deranged by their hatred of the former president.
Tim: What’s a Bill of Attainder, you might ask? Well, it’s essentially singling out a person or group of people and declaring him or them guilty of some crime and punishing them after the fact. It’s specifically prohibited in the Constitution because it amounts to nothing less than pure retribution.
But attempting to keep Trump from ever being able to run again is just part of the left’s plan. They want to expel two of Trump’s most ardent supporters in the Senate for daring to ask for an audit of the election. Leftist heartthrob Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) articulated the progressive perspective with her friend Chris Cuomo on CNN.
AOC: Let’s bring up a vote to expel Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley from the Senate.
Chris Cuomo: You think they should be out?
AOC: … because, we’ve got time on our hands and we should be actually bringing justice to the Members of Congress, and the Members of the Senate who also helped support this insurrection.
Chris Cuomo: You think they should be out?
AOC: Let’s not … They absolutely…
Tim: But Senator Hawley (R-MO) has shown no propensity for backing down, dismissing the move to remove him, and saying on Fox News that conservatives being attacked and censored by an unholy trinity must not bow down to the mob.
Josh Hawley: We’ve got big tech and the big corporations in league with the left, and what they’re basically saying is, “Listen, if you don’t hold the right opinions, then you’re not going to be able to be on social media. You’re not going to be able to get a job, maybe, that you’re not going to be able to communicate. If you, if you have a small business you’re going to get boycotted.” It is an unbelievable attempt by big business, big tech, and the left to try to censor all dissent, to try to shut down all opposition, to try to silence half of America. While the Democrats talk about unity in Washington, they don’t want unity. What they want is total control, and these big corporations are right there with them trying to achieve it. We’ve got to stand up and say, “We will not bow down to the mob.”
Tim: Fighting words to be sure, but Hawley and conservatives are fighting an uphill battle. With big tech extending its campaign of conservative censorship and the media providing the expected almost 100% positive coverage for the new president, and upping the ante with chilling statements like this on MSNBC from former Republican strategist and NeverTrumper Nicolle Wallace. Just listen to this.
Nicolle Wallace: It would be my policy that a Republican must assert the truth before they’re allowed to share any of their views.
Tim: Translation, voice your acceptance of the sanctioned position, what she calls “the truth,” or you will be silenced. In America.
But threats to and from the new administration are not just domestic. As expected, China has started flexing its muscles again, now that Trump has gone and Biden heads things back in the same direction as the 50 years before Trump. The Chinese recently placed sanctions on officials responsible for Trump’s audacious approach to them, foremost among them former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Mike Pompeo: This is part and parcel of the Chinese Communist Party’s behavior. This is exactly the kind of thing they’ve done for an awfully long time. And, for 50 years, for 50 years, administration after administration turned the other cheek, allowed the Chinese Communist Party to run over America, and our administration didn’t do that. We responded. I think the CCP is hoping that we will have been an anomaly, that we will have been one administration for four years to challenge them, that confronted them, that protected the American people. So, I think they wanted to impose sanctions on those individuals who executed our administration’s policy and implemented it, in a way that will cause anyone else, not just the current administration, but those who come behind, people in business will say that there’s a cost if you challenge China.
Tim: Censorship at home and a return to a relaxed approach to our greatest adversary in the world. Buckle your seatbelts, folks. We’re only ten days into the Biden presidency.
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