It used to be understood, before we started rewarding lawbreakers with goodies like birthplace citizenship, that punishing bad guys was the most effective way to stop bad actions. The best way to drop the murder rate, for example, is to swiftly and justly execute murderers.
For the same reason, the best way to end the political weaponization of the bureaucracy is to punish the weaponizers. As long as the architects of the most infamous abuses — from the Russia collusion hoax to the Biden DOJ effort to throw its political opposition in prison — escape accountability, new partisans will be emboldened to abuse their prosecutorial power for political ends.
The role of consequences as deterrent is obvious to any disciplined child. It’s obvious to members of the American public who want to see the likes of James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, Merrick Garland, and Jack Smith held accountable for their war on the rule of law. It’s so obvious, in fact, that the corporate press feels compelled to work very hard to pretend that’s not the case.
During a DOJ press conference on Tuesday, CNN’s Paula Reid delivered a perfect example of the media’s feigned stupidity on the subject.
“President Trump has made no secret of the fact that he wants to see his perceived political enemies prosecuted,” she said, setting up a question to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “So now that you’re in this position, how are you going to balance that relentless pressure with this administration’s promise to end the weaponization of this department?”
The hackery becomes more obvious when you distill the question down to its parts. Put another way, she’s asking: How are you going to balance the relentless pressure to prosecute criminals with your promise to stop crimes?
The media’s definition of “ending weaponization” is having the Trump DOJ do absolutely nothing about the decade of the Obama and Biden DOJ’s partisan lawfare, until Democrats can take over and start doing it again. The one thing they don’t want the Trump DOJ to do is actually take the steps required to hold the serial weaponizers accountable. When the media talk about “ending weaponization,” they mean the exact opposite.
It’s the same playbook they use to guilt Republicans into being useless on deportations. Democrats can blow up our immigration laws all they want, but if Trump tries to fix it, he’s not allowed, because norms. The only approach acceptable to the media is that he do nothing until Democrats can take control.
Hellbound and Down 