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Imagine: Put Up or Shut Up
Richard Goodstein is a Democratic campaign strategist, involved in the Hillary Clinton campaign. Of course, in a world where Carter Page is a Senior Foreign Policy Advisor, it’s difficult to know what that means. Is he just some rando volunteer padding his resume, did he actually get a paycheck from the campaign, or was he one of the inner cabal working to subvert the American electoral process? Who knows?
What we do know is that he’s a frequent talking head on the cable news networks, where he can be counted on to change the subject on a dime, and always reliably parrot the Democratic talking points of the day. I mention him because he’s been selling a particular talking point over the last week or so, a point that I have heard repeated by other Democrats, including a group of Congress critters in the wake of the report from the Office of Inspector General.
His contention is simple: that there was, in fact, political bias shown by the FBI, but it was in favor of Donald Trump. He’s saying that the FBI wrongfully acted in Trump’s favor by not leaking to the press that Trump and his campaign were under investigation for Russian collusion. He believes that if they had, Trump’s campaign would have been destroyed by the accusations, and Hillary Clinton would have sailed to victory.
I believe this to be patently absurd, and quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a Democrat say on television. And that’s really saying something. Here is how I imagine it actually would have played out.
Think back to the situation on the ground in the summer of 2016. Donald Trump had been saying for months that he expected dirty tricks, that he expected the system to be ‘rigged’ against him. What’s more, the country had just watched James Comey exonerate Hillary Clinton, after describing in great detail why she was guilty of several crimes. The reputation of the FBI was busy cratering into the ground based on treatment of her that fell far outside the boundaries of what anyone less connected than she might have expected from them, and by this time, a substantial portion of the country saw the FBI as having been corrupted.
Add Goodstein’s brilliant idea to that environment. Somewhere in August or early September the story breaks: The Justice Department and FBI, that is, the Obama Administration Justice Department and FBI have been surveilling the Trump Campaign and have one or more human assets within or among Trump campaign staff. They are looking for proof that Donald Trump and his campaign are colluding with Vladimir Putin’s government to subvert the election to install Donald Trump as president, when he is in truth nothing more than a stooge of Russia. (If you remember, this was the original collusion narrative; the one that they have long since stopped mentioning.)
At Donald Trump’s next campaign event, likely within hours of the story breaking, he responds. (I’m not going to try writing in Trump-speak; others are better at that than I am.)
“This is nothing but lies, and it shows how desperate they are. I told you they were going to try to rig the election, and here it is. This is completely unprecedented. It’s never happened before. Obama corrupted the FBI and turned them loose against me. You could see they’re corrupt from the way they let Crooked Hillary off. But where is the proof? What’s their evidence? If they think I’m some kind of Russian stooge, let’s see them prove it. Show us your evidence! Obama, Comey, Crooked Hillary… put up or shut up!”
Regardless of anything else, even if you think he’s guilty, he’s absolutely right about one thing: it’s completely unprecedented, and the country would realize this. It would have immediately blown back on Barack Obama and his administration, at the same time that Trump was doing five to seven rallies per day, with tens of thousands of people chanting “Put Up or Shut Up! Put Up or Shut Up! Put Up or Shut Up!” The FBI and DOJ would have been required to disclose their evidence, and it would need to be irrefutable, indisputable, iron-clad, hard evidence of direct collusion between Donald Trump and Russia, preferably in the form of video w/sound of Trump and Putin laughing about their nefarious plan and how they were putting one over on the stupid American voters. But all they would have had to offer would have been:
- That George Papadapolous, a low-level campaign volunteer who Trump never met had made a drunken statement to an Australian diplomat in a bar in London that the Russians had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
- That another low-level volunteer who Trump never met, Carter Page, had previously been investigated by the FBI when they thought the Russians were trying to recruit him.
- That Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent, had compiled a dossier of salacious allegations against Trump, and the FBI was investigating that as well.
At which point, I expect we would have seen a compression of the timeline for the details of this being revealed. We would have quickly learned:
- That the statement made by Papadapolous was no more than public knowledge at the time. We might have also learned at that time of the circumstances of his being in London, the blonde who introduced him to the Australian, and even about the Maltese professor, also an agent of MI6, who had told him that a month earlier.
- That Carter page had cooperated with the FBI in the earlier matter to prosecute one Russian, and to get two others deported.
- That Hillary Clinton’s campaign had paid for the dossier, and that it was mostly sourced to current and former Russian intelligence agents.
The blowback at that point would also have been completely unprecedented. The Never Trump movement would have evaporated overnight. How can you argue that it’s better for Hillary to be elected under those corrupt conditions? Republican turnout for the election would have been similarly unprecedented, while the Democrats’ would have been suppressed, and I believe the independent vote would have swung sharply towards Trump. The American people simply would not reward an attempt to use the powers of the executive branch to torpedo a major party presidential campaign.
Trump would have won the election far more convincingly than he did, and Barack Obama would have left office in disgrace. Trump would have come into office without eighteen months of wild accusations damaging his ability to get things done.
I hope Richard Goodstein is the Chief Strategist for the next Democrat candidate. With that kind of thinking, I believe he’s just the kind of strategist we need.
Published in Group Writing
Good one! Richard Goodstein is one of the slimiest slimeballs the Democrats have ever produced. Every time I see him on TV, I can barely stand to look at that disgusting smug face. He always looks like he’s laughing up his sleeve at the viewers (because he is).
Extremely punchable.
My understanding is that the Steele dossier was already in play before Trump was elected but could not get any traction because its lack of collaboration. So the Democrats are now suggesting that the FBI should have manufactured the media hook before Trump was elected? Just curious, has anybody ever collaborated anything in the dossier? If so what?
There has been some corroboration of minor details, such as so-and-so made a trip to Russia on a particular date, although in some similar cases they’ve been proven incorrect. There hasn’t been anything of substance proven true, and certainly none of the salacious details on which the media focused.
The Democratic Party is a confederacy of dunces and rats.
More, please.
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However is the guy’s assertion so dumb that 99% of all Lefties won’t repeat it?
Richard Goodstein could say, as a Talking Head on CNBC actually did, that Trump is literally Hitler, and that meme would be repeated.
He could say that there is no way that Trump will allow the world to survive even twelve months of his Presidency, as his trigger finger is itching to push the nuke buttons. The meme would be repeated.
He could insist that tabloids and “glamour magazines” run with the story that Melania has not been seen for the last 30 days, even though she was in hospital and I assume that at least one doctor or nurse had to check on her while she was there. But that meme is repeated.
I read an outraged post on Facebook and the gist of it was that it had been three weeks since the hurricane had devastated Puerto Rico, and Trump still had not replaced the 670 miles of downed power lines. Now maybe if Melania wasn’t missing, she could get him going on this project? And let’s not overlook this: Of course, with Trump literally being Hitler, it means he is 124 years old, which means he might be far too creaky to be out there replacing the power lines.
That’s a level of dumb yet to be determined.
This is not only captivating fun to read, it’s more than rah-rah-for-our-side; a lot more. It’s astute. A good quality to have around.
Now, JM, you know that I covet and envy your computer career, but you would have made even more money as a damned good lawyer. Then I realized, why would I wish that on a cyber-friend?
That’s what I was going for. The basic thesis is that anything short of “satellite photos of Russian nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba”-level, checkmate evidence leads to uncontrollable blow back.
Oh, and, uh… thanks?
So far, so good, though.
Carter Page graduated from high school with my younger sister. My oldest brother was friends with his brother Brian. Carter’s family owns a big building supplies company in the Hudson Valley.
It’s so weird to keep hearing his name. He was kind of a nice-ish, sort of spoiled but not too bad, kid.
I’ve probably seen him a dozen times by now, and he always strikes me as slightly weird, but harmless.
Carol: “However is the guy’s assertion so dumb that 99% of all Lefties won’t repeat it?”
The problem with the brainwashed Left is they never analyze the “talking points” anymore.
They just repeat the “talking points” over and over and over again , no matter how dumb or absurd, without any hesitation or embarrassment. Their minds are closed to information that negatively affects the “narrative”. These indoctrinated Progressive Lefties are simply brainwashed drones at this point, and have been brainwashed to trigger violently at any adverse information or comment against their cause. They no longer are open to reasonable discussion outside what they have been told from on high.
I apologize — my sister corrected me. He was behind me in school, but not in the same class as my sister.
I actually think that the position of Democratic spokesman is ripe for takeover by robots. It wouldn’t even take AI to implement the algorithm.
A particularly strange assertion since the story was in fact leaked to the press.
Yeah, I’m aware there were whispers in the press prior to the election, but it never got any traction. The press never gave it the kind of attention that they did after the election. And the surveillance and the spies weren’t reported at the time (to my knowledge).
That’s exactly right. It never got any traction because it had no verification, it was thought not to be needed (because Hillary was a shoo-in), and it would have given Trump the perfect club he could use to win the election.
In the opposite order of importance.
Well done.
It’s easy to forget now just how overconfident they were of victory.
Astounding levels of arrogance, not mere confidence but certainty that HRC would win. Indeed, why go all out when Trump has already lost?
And Mollie on the spot Hemingway is right there to point it out.
Go Mollie Go!
Isn’t she awesome?
Um, this is the only off-note in the piece, Judge. There is no Republican president who will not have wild accusations made about him. Remember binders-full-of-women dog-abusing Boy Scout Romney?
Republicans are only allowed a break once they’re out of office or dead.
No doubt true, but the dial has been at eleven for Trump from day one. It has been one thing after another, each of them requiring his removal from office. If the left and the press had just gotten spanked for trying to fix the election (the public’s perception), they would have been slightly more reticent.
I am also doubting this.