Mike Huckabee
Just a few weeks before the election, transparency should be the most important consideration of all. I’ve said numerous times that voters should, if they can, wait till Election Day to vote (in person) so they have as much information as possible. But this time, it seems that even those who wait till the last day to vote will lack information they should have. Why would anyone want to vote for a candidate who deliberately keeps them in the dark?
One thing Trump supporters love about him is that he respects them enough to tell them honestly what he wants to do, and then he actually does it. But in Washington, among all the politicians and bureaucrats, it seems he is just about alone in that. I’m talking about the bureaucracy and both political parties, which reflexively play everything close to the vest.
The Democrats have always run to the right of who they really are, but this time, they’re counting on voters hating Trump so much that they won’t care even if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t bother to answer questions about what they plan to do. Their evasion is downright cringe-inducing and, in effect, gives us our answer.
When asked directly by a reporter if voters didn’t deserve to know if he wanted to pack the Supreme Court, Biden actually said flat-out, “NO, THEY DON’T.” I’m sure many Democrats don’t even know what “packing the Court” is, and his media buddies will give him a pass, so he thinks he can get away with treating voters this way. How little regard his campaign has for the voters.
See, Democrats DO believe in walls, the kind that protect them from scrutiny. They’re still very much the party of the smoke-filled room --- or at least the modern smoke-free equivalent of that room --- with its secret deals and power brokers. Exhibit A: the placement of Kamala Harris on the ticket, which had nothing to do with the wishes of most Democrats, who had understandably rejected her early on. Reportedly, Bernie Sanders is calling the shots behind the scenes, as Hillary used to.
But Biden and the Democrats aren’t the only ones lacking in transparency. Some Republicans, even those who yammer incessantly about transparency, have been taking for freaking ever to reveal evidence about the intel community’s “meddling” in the 2016 election that President Trump has now FULLY DECLASSIFIED WITHOUT REDACTIONS. Some still tease us on FOX News with that cat-that-ate-the-canary grin and a cryptic, “Stay tuned.” Well, we can’t stay tuned much longer, as the election (the voting part, anyway) will be over in just a few weeks, and voters, especially those in the middle who might not have paid attention as diligently as we have, deserve to know what Biden and other Democrats did or did not do –- BEFORE casting their ballots.
For example, guess who is reportedly on Biden’s “shortlist” for attorney general if he is President? SALLY YATES. It sure would be nice to know what involvement both Biden and Yates had in the Russia hoax –- including the Michael Flynn case –- before Election Day.
I'm aware that the Senate Intel and Judiciary Committees are not involved in criminal prosecution, but for crying out loud, some of them have the security clearance to have seen every last classified document --- at least the ones the FBI and CIA have turned over so far; I’ll get to that in a minute --- and they should now be able to speak freely and openly about all of it. Just spill it. Don’t drag it out another week or even another day.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had set up a hearing for former FBI official Andrew McCabe, but McCabe dropped out; we’ve discussed his flimsy excuses. Sen. Graham said on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES that he’s still “trying to get him to come in voluntarily.” Why didn’t he just subpoena the guy? Now the committee will be tied up with the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings and McCabe gets to skate for who knows how long?
Who cares about “voluntarily” at this point? This has gone on too long. Senators, for crying out loud, get tough.
Sen. Graham disappointed on Sunday when he said this of Obama’s condoning of Hillary’s plot to smear Trump: “Now, is that a crime? I doubt it. Is it a crime to try to smear your opponent? Probably not. But what Obama did is one the saddest chapters in the history of the presidency. He knew that his party’s nominee was out to try to link President Trump to Russia unfairly, and without evidence, and he didn’t do a damn thing about it.”
Wow, that mealymouthed criticism is just not strong enough, Sen. Graham. What Obama and his team did was far worse than that. With no evidence at all, President Obama --- and apparently Biden as well --- were at the very least complicit in the misuse of the FBI and a special counsel, using the full force of the American government to target the President-elect of the United States. That is much more serious than simply “smearing your opponent.” It is criminal. Americans need to see that it is criminal.
At least Graham outlined some possible crimes, noting that’s where U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation comes in. All right, but at this point, we've got to see the wheels turning at the Department of Justice, and so far there is nothing to see. Voters deserve transparency here, too. It’s Lady Justice who’s supposed to be wearing a blindfold, not the voters!
Devin Nunes appeared with Bartiromo on October 4 to talk about “smoking guns” and “information [that] needs to be made available to the American public.” Indeed. “And from what I understand,” he said, “there’s even more underlying evidence that backs up what Director Ratcliffe put out.” He noted that it’s been difficult to get to the bottom of this because of “corrupt officials.”
But now, another week has passed. CIA Director Gina Haspel is reportedly still holding on with her fingernails to documents unflattering to the CIA. AG Barr has said not to look for Durham’s report before the election. (Two words, Mr. Barr: INTERIM REPORT.) Ric Grenell, former acting Director of National Intelligence, was interviewed by Maria this Sunday, saying, “Somebody needs to go to jail, and be prosecuted first, obviously, and this is a slam-dunk...This can never happen again. We cannot allow our government to weaponize information, to hold it back.”
Recall that, ironically, Grenell was shut down by Twitter last Thursday for his tweet with pictures showing ballot fraud. Twitter is getting more adept all the time at withholding information.
This is what I mean about the importance of transparency, of ripping off the blindfold. Holding information back, in the context of an election, is just as bad as weaponizing it.