Are Trump’s Cabinet Choices the Worst Ever?

The wringing of hands over the “picks” so far Trump has made for his cabinet. One thing you have to say, the choices so far have sure shaken up the status quo.

Andrea Mitchell thought she would set Senator Hagerty straight about candidate Gaetz and a couple of the other choices. What follows is an excellent refresher of what has just happened at the Justice department, and he dismantles her in an interview not to be missed.

It starts out like this:

Andrea Mitchell:
What is your reaction to Matt Gaetz as Attorney General? Right now, would you support him?

Bill Hagerty:
Listen, Andrea, it’s amazing to me that people are reacting the way they are to what you just showed, because there has been no one better at channeling the American public’s frustration with the weaponization of the Department of Justice than Matt Gaetz. You can understand the President’s frustration with the DOJ.

During his first campaign, they used a fake Clinton dossier to spy on him. Look at what happened in the first Trump administration—this whole fake Russiagate hoax. The DOJ litigated him for years over that.

n 2020, the DOJ went to big tech and had them censor Hunter Biden’s laptop to throw the election toward Joe Biden. Think about what just happened in 2024: the DOJ, with their colleagues around the country, brought five different cases to try President Biden’s top opponent, President Trump. I can understand his frustration in wanting to put an agent of change in place. I’m not surprised at all.

Andrea Mitchell:
I don’t want to litigate everything that happened with Donald Trump because there’s a lot of evidence to support many of the allegations and, in fact, the indictments—Mar-a-Lago, the sloppy intelligence handling.

Bill Hagerty:

I think the American public spoke louder than anybody. They gave him the strongest mandate we’ve seen in 36 years in reaction to all of this.

Andrea Mitchell:
But a Trump-appointed judge cut all of that off, and it wasn’t fully vetted. Let’s just say that was the legal system at work, no question.

Bill Hagerty:
It was not working. It was weaponized.

Here we go with the rest of it.

For more on Gaetz, here is a link to yesterday’s post. The real story is not always what is presented.

Gaetz was cleared even by the DOJ as to any crime. The Ethics investigation is a resurrected investigation for the second time in payoff for his dismembering of Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Trump said he was going to be a disrupter. As to whether he can be confirmed? It is going to take some razzle dazzle.

Lawfare by our own.

John Bolton is in peak demand now by the networks keeping with the Trump attack. Just keep this in mind as you watch him opine.

The swamp is agitated. How many think we could do much worse than what we have now roaming around this totally corrupt Biden government? I can’t say most of these folks would have been my first choice, but their Trump’s choices.

War Declared With Matt Gaetz Chosen as Attorney General – Resigns from Congress

Well that didn’t take long. The Trump honeymoon ended with a bang. With the announcement of Gaetz as AG the shivers went down the spine of those who engaged in Lawfare against the good people of America. For them, its 1984. Then, without any warning Matt abruptly resigns from congress.

Mike Johnson revealed that Gaetz stepped down from his post due to a state law that gives an “8-week period to select and fill a vacant seat.”

“If you start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as Jan. 3 when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress,” Johnson explained of Gaetz’s reasoning.

Gaetz raised hell in Washington, DC, in 2023 with a motion to vacate then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which prevailed and ousted the California Republican from presiding over the House of Representatives. Is the hell being raised against him now with the Ethics investigation part of the swamp trying to smoke him?

The House Ethics Committee’s years-long investigation into Matt Gaetz over allegations of sexual misconduct ended after the lawmaker resigned from Congress.

Gateway Pundit:

The investigation was reopened in 2023 as Gaetz ramped up challenges to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was later ousted by Gaetz’s Motion to Vacate the chair. Later, when Gaetz threatened to bring a Motion to Vacate against McCarthy in October 2023, McCarthy’s RINO allies began threatening to expel Gaetz based on the Committee’s investigation.

Matt Gaetz has denied the allegations.

“This investigation exists to do what the voters of my district won’t – remove me from office,” said Gaetz in September.

The Gateway Pundit reported on the Ethics Committee’s revival of the junk allegations against Gaetz, even after the Biden DOJ exonerated Gaetz of criminal wrongdoing and dropped the charges in February 2023.

The Hill:

The probe was part of a larger investigation into Gaetz’s ally and former Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft and wire fraud. 

Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December. He agreed to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation as part of his plea agreement. 

But the investigation into Gaetz hit a roadblock over concerns about the credibility of two witnesses, one of whom was Greenberg. Career attorneys reportedly recommended to the DOJ in September that the department not charge Gaetz based on those witness credibility issues. 

Gaetz has denied the allegations that he had a relationship with an underage girl and said he regrets his association with Greenberg.  Read more

So that is where we are. There is no chance of a regular confirmation it would appear. The usual opposition lady Senators from Alaska and Maine have already stated “No.” and we are just getting started.

Trump is counting on a recess appointment. With Thune at the wheel as Speaker, it seems a long shot. McConnell, that nasty man that we thought we were rid of, rises in the name of Thune. McConnell deliberately kept the House in session by way of a technicality, intentionally, to deny Trump any recess appointments.

The result was that many of his picks took up over three years to get confirmed. Especially the ambassadors. One of the reasons that Trump was adamant that the next speaker not repeat this unpleasant history. Perhaps too now that we know his cabinet selections.

Maetz has limited friends. A lot of capital will be expended trying to get Maetz across the finish line.

It is clear. The Donald intends to play for keeps with the DOJ. No wonder so many are shaking in their boots.

Thune when asked about recess appointments. This was before the Gaetz appointment.

It is a curious thing this Matt Gaetz.

Weissmann responds. 1984 is here.

MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said Wednesday on “Deadline” that President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as his attorney general marks the United States’ entry into “pure George Orwell 1984 land.”

Host Nicolle Wallace said, “On Monday, he made the announcement that he would turn to recess appointments. It’s obvious that this trio of Fox News anchors, Matt Gaetz, whose biggest war in Washington is with Kevin McCarthy, and Tulsi Gabbard, was what the recess appointment was all about.”

One of a kind. You have to give the man credit. Here he goes, taking on Garland.

The swamp breeches.

Speaker Johnson – Was The Promised ‘Army of Jesus’ the Tipping Point For his Ukraine Support?

Apparently Mike Johnson’s voice inside his head from where ever, did not speak to taking care of us and our border. Instead, it told him that one of the most corrupt countries in the world found more favor. That all of what he had pledged to his colleagues and to us could be cast aside. So here goes the tale:

“An army of Jesus”: Inside Mike Johnson’s come-to-Jesus moment ahead of Ukraine reversal so reads the headline. (Salon)

In the hours before Speaker Mike Johnson said he was willing to lose his speakership to help Ukraine, he met with the evangelical leader of Ukraine’s National Prayer Breakfast, who says he told Johnson they could create “an army of Jesus.”

It was Pavlo Unguryan’s third reported meeting with Johnson this year. As one Christian Republican insider asserted after Saturday’s House approval of $61 billion for Ukraine aid, evangelical messaging “definitely tipped” Johnson and House Republicans.

….the religious and intel motivations complement each other. National-security warnings that Ukraine will fall without U.S. aid would take on heightened urgency if Johnson started to see Ukraine as an evangelical redoubt and potential wellspring of missionary action in a godless Europe.

…..

Right-wing religious conservative Marc Thiessen on Friday asserted that Wednesday’s meeting didn’t change Johnson’s mind, he was always going to push Ukraine aid through. But, reportedly, Johnson was still praying about what to do on Tuesday. So what happened?

CBN spoke to Unguryan about his Wednesday meeting with Johnson.

“To be honest, brother Speaker Mike Johnson is a great leader. He has a great heart,” said Pavlo Unguryan, a former member of parliament and a Ukrainian Christian who met with Johnson at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday.

He told CBN News he saw Speaker Johnson as far more than a political leader. He viewed him as “a brother in Christ.”

When the two met, Unguryan framed Ukraine’s war with Russia as a spiritual battle between good and evil.

“For us, it’s a call to action to unite together—to unite together an army of Jesus,” he explained.

This time, Unguryan had brought along evangelical Baptist Serhii Haidarzhy, whose wife Anna (a pastor’s daughter) and four-month-old son Tymofii were killed by a Russian drone strike last month.

Read more

But Johnson’s religious fervor is only getting started we shall  soon see. His wrath is about to descend.

Johnson wasn’t elected to be an evangelist. He was elected to carry out the wishes of his party. In this case, securing the border was paramount. He confirmed this time and again that he understood this.

His arrival to the public scene right after elected as speaker, in an evangelistic tone with arms raised, proclaimed that his wife had been on her knees for weeks and now she could rise.

I have seen this before. A Christian who sooner or later will believe that his decisions sooner or later will be coming straight from the almighty. All of them.

The attention is exhilarating. He is now proclaimed hero of the Uniparty. And he is just getting started. Johnson’s wrath descends. His long finger points and goes after Matt Gaetz. Johnson supports GOP Rep Roy Gonzales. Gonzales has no time for Gaetz.

Johnson makes  a needless entrance into a primary food fight. Needless? Or is he revealing his feelings about the Conservatives and MAGA in particular.

Enter Matt Gaetz. Chip Roy sits on the Rules committee where the pious Johnson double crossed Roy and the some other GOP members and joined with the Dems to push forward the bill through with an arcane method. The first time ever in the history of congress. See earlier post:

Speaker Johnson Surrenders Control of House to Dems – Foreign Aid Moves Forward

The headline reads:

Mike Johnson Steps Smack Into a Major House Intra-GOP Food fight

Republicans are fighting after one representative called some of his colleagues “scumbags.”

Another conservative appeared to be sour on House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday amid what has turned out to be a major party upheaval.

Texas Representative Chip Roy said he is “beside himself” after witnessing Johnson help out another Republican colleague, Tony Gonzales, who has openly berated some caucus members as “scumbags.”

“I’m being attacked. Conservatives are being attacked,” Roy told KTSA News. “I cannot tolerate what’s happening to the people that I think are fighting for this country… the primary season matters.”

Roy’s comments come amid a growing push from members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus to penalize Gonzales after he went scorched earth on the party’s moral standards over the weekend. More caucus members have endorsed Gonzales’s primary opponent, a far-right social media influencer. (This take according to The New Republic)

Video from the Huff Post:

“Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi,” Rep. Gonzales said. “These people used to walk around with white hoods at night, now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.”

The opponent Gonzales is referring to is his far-right primary opponent Brandon Herrera, who describes himself as a “YouTuber, Second Amendment Absolutist” and VERY Politically Incorrect.”

In a stunning interview Sunday morning on CNN, Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas, accused fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of having sex with underaged girls.

“It’s my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags,” he said. “Look, Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.”

GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales said ‘Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.’
The Justice Department ended up declining to bring charges against Gaetz due to credibility issues with witnesses.
In the video, Gonzales didn’t stop at Gaetz, calling out colleague and chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Bob Good, a Republican congressman in Virginia.

“Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi,” Rep. Gonzales said. “These people used to walk around with white hoods at night, now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime.”

The opponent Gonzales is referring to is his far-right primary opponent Brandon Herrera, who describes himself as a “YouTuber, Second Amendment Absolutist” and VERY Politically Incorrect.”

And the ultimate in this saga? From Breitbart.

Paul Ryan Praises Speaker Johnson for Allowing Democrats to Seize House 

Paul Ryan, a member of the Fox Corporation Board of Directors, praised House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for permitting Democrats to seize control of the House last week.

Democrats steamrolled Johnson by successfully pushing Biden administration’s agenda through the House. Johnson gave Biden “pretty much everything” Biden asked for “without having to concede much in return,” Punchbowl reported.

Johnson “found his footing, and his voice. … [H]e did it as a statesman, risking his own personal political fortune for the greater good that he believes in,” Ryan told Axios Tuesday.

Sources: Breitbart

LA Mag

Salon

CBN

Now, Johnson, relishing his Churchill moment, moves on to New York City to calm the troubled waters of the Universities.

The best of the swamp indeed.

McCarthy Outsted – Gaetz Gives an Impassioned Plea

IF you believe-

James Woods
 
@RealJamesWoods
Your grandkids won’t even know there was once a civilization. Surely you understand the monsters who are behind all of this have no intention of allowing history to survive.
Quote
End Wokeness
 
@EndWokeness
It’s not a border crisis, it’s a plot. It’s not immigration, it’s an invasion. It isn’t spontaneous, it’s coordinated. Western civilization will be gone within a generation. Our grandkids will hate us.
 
(Give the tweet a minute to fill in)
 
It’s all about money for Ukraine’s border, not the U.S. Money goes to Ukraine, comes back round again.

Interim Speaker Patrick McHenry agressively slams the gavel as he and 200+ other Republicans fume over Kevin McCarthy’s ousting. Where was this anger as millions of migrants poured over the southern border? Where was this anger as US debt rises over $33T? Where was this anger when the FBI rounded up Trump supporters and threw them in prison? Where is this anger as the “justice” system tries to take out Biden’s top opponent in 2024? They sit back and do nothing as our country burns but fume when their buddy loses his Speaker role. Tweet below:

Image

If you believe a good part of this then I have a big ask.

Listen carefully to what Gaetz and his colleagues have to say during the vote to remove McCarthy.

We are enduring an invasion. What did McCarthy do? Zip.

Do we have a budget? No the House took 6 weeks off when it knew the Budget was due.

Yes, McCarthy and the GOP passed bills and tell me how many made it through the Senate?

Polls show that a shutdown of the government a majority would have blamed the Dems.

If we believe that this is the last roundup then Gaetz has something worth taking the time to listen to…

It is non-stop bashing of Gaetz in the media and hail to McCarthy, Gaetz deserves to be heard.

First in the clip below. Beginning is the vote whether to table the motion to remove McCarthy. It starts about 2:04 when they conclude that vote. Then each side is given 30 minutes broken up back and forth. Followed by the actual vote to remove.I  found it fascinating and in truth, changed my opinion on the matter

Gaetz deserves a fair hearing no matter your conclusion. Push forward the pro McCarthy side if you are short on time.

Matt Gaetz and Andy Biggs in Lame GOP Hearing Holding Durham Accountable

If only more Congressman were like Matt Gaetz, we might actually be a first world country. Matt Gaetz specifically confronts Durham over his lack of holding people accountable.  The confrontation between Matt Gaetz and John Durham set the tone but came late in the day. The Dems were organized in their questioning. The GOP not so much. The same questions repeated.

I probably will be the only one that will point out that William Barr about ten days ago told Bret Baier in an interview that he wanted Durham to get to the “truth of the matter” not necessarily criminality.

So here is the boiler plate.

\

Adam Schiff? The House voted Wednesday to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff for comments he made years ago about investigations into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. This is the Dems reaction in case you wonder if we have transitioned to a third world country.

The best of the swamp.

Horowitz Admits FBI Conducted 3.4 Million Warrantless “Backdoor Searches” Americans’ Communications AKA FISA

 

FISA revisited. A worthy hearing that deserved attention. But of course, the media will not report a single sentence. Then again the GOP stacks up its hearings on top of each other, so the chances of any coverage fade even further. Then we will take a spin down memory lane.

On Thursday, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance concerning “How a Law Designed to Protect Americans Has Been Weaponized Against Them.”

Horowitz admitted to Rep. Matt Gaetz that the FBI has done 3.4 million warrantless “backdoor searches” of Americans’ communications.

“I want to get into the 3.4 million backdoor searches that the ranking member pointed out in his opening statement. Mr. Inspector General. How should the public think about those?” Gaetz asked.

“Well, I think what we’ve seen in the various public reports, and I’m limited in what I can say about what’s public, which I think is one of the issues, by the way, that’s worth talking about, is transparency here,” said Horowitz.

“It’s obviously very concerning that there’s that volume of searches and particularly concerning the error rate that was reported on in the last two years in the public reporting,” Horowitz continued.

Horowitz revealed an error rate of 30% or over a million erroneous searches.

“I’m a lawyer, not a mathematician, but 3.4 million about 30%, you’re talking about seven figures of error in terms of the searches,” said Gaetz.

 

 

Trump’s chances of being turned down for a FISA wire tap 0.02 percent

September 20, 2017 — bunkerville 

We learn that AG Lynch signed off on every single one of the FISA requests during her tenure. Better yet, we learn that it is simply a rubber stamp for the nefarious activities of our government. The fact that one has about as much chance of being struck by lightning than being turned down as a candidate for investigation tells us what rare company Trump is in. And her first request to the FISA court was turned down. Apparently she found a Obama Judge. Here we go:

Only two in over 10,000 applications were turned down by the FISA Court.

 

According to ABC News:

More than a thousand applications for electronic surveillance, all signed by the attorney general, are submitted each year, and the vast majority are approved. From 2009 to 2015, for example, more than 10,700 applications for electronic surveillance were submitted, and only one was denied in its entirety, according to annual reports sent to Congress. Another one was denied in part, and 17 were withdrawn by the government.

Finally, another very disturbing fact about the wire tapping request of President Trump is that the FISA Court turned down President Obama’s Administration’s first request to wire tap President Trump that was evidently signed off on by Attorney General Lynch.  With only two applications denied out of 10,700 from 2009 through 2015, the fact that the Obama Administration’s application was denied by the FISA Court the first time is very disturbing.  The odds of this happening are 0.02%.

 

FISA Judge: ‘If Americans don’t know they are being spied on, no harm’

Last week there was a Senate vote that got zero coverage. An effort to rein in the abuse of spying on America. The GOP had no interest in supporting it. Now we get a bit of insight as to the impartiality of the FISA court.

Vote Tally Count Senate NSA Data Spying restrictions voted down 

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a sweeping overhaul of the once-secret National Security Agency program that collects records of Americans’ phone calls in bulk.

Democrats and a handful of Republicans who supported the measure failed to secure the 60 votes they needed to take up the legislation. The vote was 58 to 42 for consideration.

Now I give you this absurd argument.

You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated.”

“Oral arguments presented by Yahoo Counsel (Mark Zwillinger) and the US Solicitor General Gregory Garre” reveal a frightening new govt. argument.

Garre then goes on to explain why the govt. feels it should have warrantless access to US persons’ communications, routed through and stored at US servers.He refers to satellite communications — something in use when FISA was enacted in 1978.

. . .But all of this pales in light of the words of Judge Morris S. Arnold. If they sound familiar, they are. This was the argument made, and roundly ridiculed, by Congressman Mike Rodgers, chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Vladeck: But who would be complaining?

Rogers: Somebody who’s privacy was violated. You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated.”

Read more at Investment watch blog with legal documents and video. (Link is now dead)

Warrantless spying passes with GOP- vote tally count.

GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama’s demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping

The best of the swamp.

Representative Gaetz blasts Gowdy, Ryan for not using subpoenas

 

Gaetz nails Gowdy. On Friday as Hannity was wrapping up with Gaetz, Gaetz lays it on.This right after having Gowdy on with Hannity praising what wonderful questioning of witnesses Gowdy had done. Here is one of the best take downs from the weekend. Gowdy is now the big man on campus and has moved on to make his bucks at Fox. Are we to forget?

Of course Goodlatte and Gowdy moved on.

Two top Republican chairmen stressed Friday that the final report from special counsel Robert Mueller “must be trusted by Americans.”

In closing out their joint committee investigation into decisions made by the Justice Department, Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., took a shot at their Democratic counterparts for playing up concerns that their probe was a campaign to undermine Mueller.

“Contrary to Democrat and media claims, there has been no effort to discredit the work of the Special Counsel,” Gowdy and Goodlatte wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and the DOJ inspector general. “Quite the opposite, whatever product is produced by the Special Counsel must be trusted by Americans and that requires asking tough but fair questions about investigative techniques both employed and not employed.”

The two retiring Republicans said their committees “have assiduously avoided interfering with any ongoing criminal, counter-intelligence, administrative, or judicial reviews of conduct engaged in 2016 or 2017.”

 

Other than than this, all is well in the swamp.

The Democrats Impeachment. The end to our Constitutional Republic

 

Money buys you a table at the impeachment hearing. At least for the Democrats.

Yes, I did watch the whole impeachment hearing. I will put this down as one of the best moments of the hearing. Mr. Daniel Goldman turns a whiter shade of pale at the hands of Rep Matt Gaetz.

After all history was made. Anyone else care that our Constitutional Republic was ripped asunder?

Yes, things are doing very well in the swamp.

 

 

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., questioned House Judiciary and Intelligence committee lawyers on Dec. 9. The questioning of Republican counsel Stephen Castor and Democratic counsel Daniel Goldman came during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that is part of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Bonus:

 

 
For the best in conservative news push the button.

 

 

Chairman Nadler preview of another absurd hearing – video

 

The Democrats might want to review just how Nadler and his henchmen did last time around with this impeachment thing. Lest we forget how bizarre it was how about a warm up before tomorrow? Recall back in May – hard to believe – it was Russia Russia Russia. Now we really don’t know the “crime” but one thing we know is the Dems did not fare well. Hard to believe it has been that long ago we went through the Nadler extravaganza. Like the ghosts of Christmas past, why not trot out John Dean as an example how badly this went?

A great example is the attempt to conjure the old war horses of the Nixon impeachment.

Chairman Jerry Nadler Running The House Judiciary Committee Chaos Breaks Out!

It got so bad, even the audience laughed. Of course what CNN found of merit in the short clip was titled:

“Nadler Shuts down Jordan during hearing: “I’m speaking.”

 

Jim Jordan

 

Next best was this takedown of John Dean by Congressman Gaetz

“Gaetz and John Dean Spar Over Mueller Report”

 

 

All is well in the swamp. The Democrats are in for a treatment.

Welcome readers from whatfinger news.

For the best in conservative news push the button.