Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Text-gate. FISA-gate. Mueller-gate. FBI-gate. Unmasking-gate. What’s real? What’s nutso conspiracy theory? What’s to be concerned about? What deserves a fuller investigation? We try to sort this out on the second COMMENTARY podcast of the week. Give a listen.
Subscribe to The Commentary Magazine Podcast in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.
@noahrothman, McMaster has reason to defend Rice on unmasking because he might want that precedent for himself.
The revelation of bias on the part of Strzok, Page, et al is a problem because they were responsible for obtaining the FISA warrant that enabled members of the Obama administration (Rice, Brennan, ??) to (1) spy on the campaign and (2) attempt to catch some kind of embarrassing or illegal activity that could be spun as an impeachable offense. It worked. Most of the rest of the stuff JP brought up was irrelevant. Maybe he was trying to distract from the central problem with the FISA warrant.
Expanding on Milkchaser’s point: Democrats investigating Republicans with federal resources is an absolutely extraordinary thing. In all but the most egregious circumstances, this needs to be avoided in order to prevent our vast capabilities from becoming a legitimate political tool.
In order for the Obama administration to take up an investigation of its political rival, the evidence needed to be explicit and obvious. That is to say, somebody needed to turn up audio, video, correspondence – something that is unquestionably damning quid pro quo with a foreign government.
If that existed, it would be public probably before anyone got to appoint a special counsel. And if it didn’t exist, then the parties pushing for this investigation should be going to jail for using government resources for political purposes. After a year of investigation, I’m going to say that it doesn’t exist.
A couple of generations ago, resignations in disgrace would be the only thing standing between some of these folks and pitchforks. Now they just get reassigned while confident that their cohorts will cover their tracks. With public resources.
What you are missing is that the investigation itself is so dangerous to the integrity of our way of life, that it should only be undertaken for the most dire and unmistakable transgressions. And in the absence of such circumstances, a heavy price should be exacted for those instigating the use of such power for political ends.