Holding the press accountable

Don Surber writes about the ignorance of the D.C. press regarding the role of a president.

How can the press in Washington hold President Donald John Trump accountable when they do not understand what a president is?

The stories since the Senate soundly rejected the unconstitutional impeachment on February 5, 2020, have been as ignorant as they have been hysterical.

The Washington Post declared, "Trump lambastes his critics as he moves to target perceived enemies over impeachment."

The story cited Lieutenant Colonel Vindman leaving the National Security Council. But he left on his own to attend war college, which is almost a guarantee of a promotion to full-bird colonel, and in a few years general. The president is trimming an Obama-bloated National Security Council of 310 people. He's done this by attrition. Recently, he sent 70 bureaucrats on the council back to their agencies.

President Donald John Trump fired nobody in this move. He cut the fat and in the case of the Brothers Vindman, the fatheads.

He has the power to fire anyone whose hiring required Senate confirmation (except of course, judges and justices). Nevertheless, the press wanted President Donald John Trump impeached over firing Jimmy the Weasel Comey as FBI director.

The propaganda machine at the New York Times irresponsibly ran the story "Critics Say Trump Broke the Law in Firing Comey. Proving It Isn't Easy."

Proving "it" is impossible because Comey served at the will and pleasure of President Donald John Trump. The president did not have to give any reason for canning the crooked cop.

Americans elected President Donald John Trump to be Comey's boss. Those who do not accept this are either ignorant of the Constitution or unpatriotic -- or more likely, both.

Then there was the pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, whom a Clinton appointed judge, Susan Ritchie Bolton, wanted to throw in prison at 85 for contempt of court -- in a case in which she was judge, jury and prosecutor.

Former DOJ lawyer Renato Mariotti admitted in The Hill that the president could do that.

He wrote, "But as ACLU Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang pointed out, a pardon of Arpaio at this stage is highly unusual. There are established procedures that the Justice Department follows when advising the president on pardons. Typically, pardons are not considered until five years after a defendant has been sentenced, and the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney considers factors including the defendant's rehabilitation."

Make him wait for 5 years at age 85?

The president fully can and should ignore those protocols because the DOJ is an agency out of control. It is too big and too powerful. Lesser presidents have been too weak, which has given the DOJ the attitude that it is an independent agency.

No. The president is not a figurehead in America. The president is the boss of the Department of Justice. Everyone in that department directly or indirectly to the attorney general. He reports to the president.

Let me make this clear: The president does not obey the bureaucracy; the bureaucracy must obey the president.

The press ignores that.

The Washington Post reported, "President Trump has instructed his White House to identify and force out officials across his administration who are not seen as sufficiently loyal, a post-impeachment escalation that administration officials say reflects a new phase of a campaign of retribution and restructuring ahead of the November election."

Translations: the sources who fed the Post lies about a Russian hoax and a phone call to Ukraine are being reassigned to positions where they cannot stab the duly elected president in the back.

Obama's Navy chief William McRaven wrote in the Post that firing Joseph McGuire for his lies about that phone call somehow endangers the nation.

The hysterical McRaven wrote, "As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil."

Under Obama, the FBI illegally spied on political enemies including Donald John Trump. So much for McRaven's definition of good men and women.

Washington is corrupt and inept. We elected Donald John Trump to fix that. Most reporters in DC miss that because they are too close to the bureaucracy and the Democrat Party. Indeed, some reporters sleep with sources to get stories.

And they think they can get Americans to believe all their lies, misrepresentations, and hoaxes are justified as holding the president accountable?

The drop in TV ratings, newspaper circulations, and trust in the media show Americans are holding the DC press accountable.