53percenter's Blog

(CNSNews.com) – Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that a 2018 letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general — written by three Democratic senators threatening Ukraine to “halt any efforts to impede cooperation” with Special Counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of President Trump – merits investigation.

The Democrats were doing the same thing they accuse Trump of doing, said Paul, interfering in Ukraine for political reasons and using foreign aid as a bargaining chip.

“I think what`s interesting about this is both sides seem to be doing the same thing,” said Sen. Paul on NBC’s Meet the Press on Oct. 13. “If anything is consistent here it`s that both parties are trying to involve themselves in Ukraine.

“So, for example, four senators, Democrats, wrote a letter to the Ukrainian government and said if you don`t keep investigating Trump, we may reconsider our bipartisan support for your aid,” said Paul.

The May 4, 2018 letter to Ukraine’s general prosecutor was sent by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The letter states, “We are writing to express great concern about reports that your office has taken steps to impede cooperation with the investigation of United States Special Counsel Robert Mueller.”

“If these reports are true, we strongly encourage you to reverse course and halt any efforts to impede cooperation with this important investigation,” state the senators.

“This reported refusal to cooperate with the Mueller probe also sends a worrying signal – to the Ukrainian people as well as the international community – about your government’s commitment more broadly to support justice and the rule of law.”

The letter goes on to ask the general prosecutor if he has restricted cooperation with Mueller’s investigation of Trump; whether any Trump administration officials advised him not to cooperate with Mueller; and whether the Mueller probe was discussed between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in any way.

Simply, Democratic senators were advising a foreign government on how it should interact with an investigation of President Trump being run by a special counsel that was under the oversight of the Department of Justice.

As columnist Marc Thiessen wrote in the Washington Post on Sept. 24, “So, it’s okay for Democratic senators to encourage Ukraine to investigate Trump, but it’s not okay for the president to allegedly encourage Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden?”

Thiessen added that Joe Biden in 2016, as vice president,  “threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine if the government did not fire the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.” Ukraine complied, Shokin was fired, within six hours of Biden’s threat.

Biden has publicly boasted about this threat to Ukraine on video.

Commenting further to NBC’s Chuck Todd, Sen. Paul said, “Both parties seem to be doing this, and that`s why I think ultimately the American people are going to say — they`re going to throw up their hands and say, well, Biden threatened the aid, you know, Menendez threatened the aid.”

Todd replied, asking whether two wrongs make a right. Paul said, “Well, what I would do, I wouldn`t give them any aid. I wouldn`t give them any aid, because we don`t have any money. We are borrowing that money from China to send it to Ukraine. So I disagree with trying to manipulate them in anyway.”

“I just wouldn`t give them the aid, period,” said the senator.  “I wouldn’t say you get the aid if you do X for me. I would say we don`t have the money. Let`s take care of stuff at home. Let`s build roads and bridges in America, not over there.”

Todd continually tried to claim that what the Democrats did was somehow different than what they have accused President Trump of doing – do what I say on this investigation or you don’t get foreign aid.

“Democratic senators did the same thing,” stressed Paul. “Here`s the thing,  if you are going to condemn Trump you need to condemn the Democrat senators. It shouldn`t just be one-sided.

“Everybody is going after President Trump, someone needs to actually, in an objective way, evaluate a letter from four Democrats that said to Ukraine, if you don`t keep investigating Trump, we will reconsider our bipartisan support for aid,” said Paul.

“That`s a threat,” he added. “And that’s the same kind of stuff they`re accusing Trump of, but nobody is talking about that, the Democrats are doing exactly the same thing.”

Columbus Day brought a refreshing reminder that leftists are effectively erasing America’s heritage as an important step in transforming America into a socialist state. 

As I look, “Happy Indigenous Peoples” day is approaching 100K tweets, which is simply advancing the narrative that was already set in motion by leftists across America. 

A teacher posted some of the proud pictures from her propagandized little ones with sayings like “Christopher Columbus didn’t find America,” and “Christopher Columbus is a really mean man.”  How charming. 

A Christopher Columbus statue was torn down in Los Angeles in 2018 and several others were vandalized this year. 

Americans were furious in 2001 when they saw that the Taliban had destroyed Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan.  The prevailing cultural zeitgeist at the time ran clearly against toppling statues.  Don’t these third-world barbarians know that they are destroying world culture?  It helped elevate the Taliban’s evil in the eyes of the world. 

Murderous Islamist thugs harboring terrorists?  That’s pretty bad.  Destroyers of world culture?  Call in the Marines!  Even the liberal American media were outraged.

Less than twenty years later, destroying monuments is becoming a national sport in America with little outcry and support from the media.  Leftists have become the Taliban, which is no surprise since the goals are similar.  When attempting to force a twisted worldview on society, overthrowing perceived enemies and any connection to a different past is essential.  

When a 200-year old monument of Christopher Columbus was smashed in Baltimore a couple years back, a sign was hung on it that read, “The future is racial and economic justice.”  In case anyone thought this was just America’s youth acting out as opposed to Marxist-inspired destruction, the act was narrated on YouTube and referenced “capitalist exploitation of labor.” 

The leftists started with Confederate monuments, which made a good test to see what kind of resistance they would face.  It was a crafty and evil first play.  The statue destroyers weren’t terribly discriminating. Monuments to peace and to those who opposed slavery were torn down next to the others.

Kicking a toppled Confederate monument in Durham, NC (Twitter video screen grab)

Few Americans roused themselves to resist, especially after media lies and manipulation around Charlottesville. 

The Left’s effort was never about destroying America’s legacy of slavery.  Democrats have been on the side of slavery and then racism at every turn in America’s history.  They were simply starting with the easiest target to normalize their far more insidious goal, which was overthrowing America’s attachment to its history and the ideals this represented.

The shock effect is long gone.  Tearing down a statue in America is now treated as little more than background noise.  This attack on American history will not end until every monument that can’t be co-opted for the leftist agenda is overthrown.

Of course, it starts before the toppling of the statues.  While on the official tour for George Washington’s Mount Vernon homestead, it was hard not to notice that more time was spent talking about Washington the slave owner than Washington the great general or founding father. 

The momentum to overthrow a national icon starts subtly, but it builds once the ground is set.  Tear down Columbus and then start mentioning Washington’s history fighting American Indians.  He becomes just another offender of a mythical “Indigenous People’s Day.” This couples nicely with the already rampant attacks on him as a slave owner.  It was seen as good news when a San Francisco school chose only to cover a George Washington mural instead of destroying it.     

My daughter recently told me that she was writing an essay on Thomas Jefferson in her high school class.  The topic?  Jefferson’s problematic history with slavery.  That Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence and one of history’s greatest thinkers is irrelevant in the leftist mind.    

Icons are flawed men and women of their time.  But, they are icons because they did something great and meaningful for America.  We study George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because of the incredible contributions these great men made to freedom, liberty, and self-governance.  The Left uses them as an opportunity to destroy America. 

It’s not just monuments on the menu of destruction.  Kate Smith is a woman who was once awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for her patriotism and powerful renditions of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”  Her statues are now being torn down even as teams like the Yankees and Flyers refuse to play a song that was once representative of America itself. 

A colleague told me that he considers Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” to be a racist anthem because it is sung by people he considers racists.  If such a thing existed, I’m sure he would gladly tear down a Greenwood statue.  But, that’s not necessary.  There is already cultural pressure to avoid playing Greenwood’s powerful patriotic anthem in any place that is not a distinctly conservative setting.  The very idea of being patriotic and proud of America is under attack.     

All of this is an attempt to erase America’s history and it should be opposed fiercely.   It is part of the overall effort to undermine America’s values and freedom and is par for the course on the socialist menu.  It is also the toxic offspring of political correctness and racial tribalism.  It all serves the same purpose, which is the fundamental transformation of America into a Marxist state.

If you can damage Thomas Jefferson enough, then the Declaration of Independence must be compromised by extension.  I was mildly surprised when touring the University of Virginia recently that our tour guide spoke so positively about Thomas Jefferson and what he meant to the school.  That won’t last.  In a few years, that beloved statue will be either covered or vandalized, which will serve as a depressing bookend in the same town where American statue destruction exploded into the national consciousness.      

If you can do enough damage to the founding fathers, then it is far easier to overthrow the Constitution, or just ignore it.   

I was at Hillsdale College for their 175^th Anniversary a couple weeks back.  While there, I walked past all the statues on campus; statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and a “Last Full Measure of Devotion” statue dedicated to the many students who died fighting for the Union in the Civil War.  There are also two statues of non-Americans who advanced the ideals of liberty; Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.  The students study the great words of all of these patriots who contributed so much to America and freedom.

It was a stark reminder of what is being lost in this country.  The school looks to its past and the unchanging values that have sustained America since its founding.  It is inspiring to see.  But, it is also a sad reminder that it is now an anomaly.  In today’s America, a student would learn more about America’s history and government by watching a couple hours of School House Rock videos than what they will get in twelve years of school.     

Americans need to recognize these attacks on America’s history for their intended purpose.  A made-up Indigenous People’s Day is not intended to honor American Indians.  It is just one more front in the war to destroy America.   

Fletch Daniels blogs at deplorabletouchdown.com and can be found on twitter @fletchdaniels.              

Columbus Day brought a refreshing reminder that leftists are effectively erasing America’s heritage as an important step in transforming America into a socialist state. 

As I look, “Happy Indigenous Peoples” day is approaching 100K tweets, which is simply advancing the narrative that was already set in motion by leftists across America. 

A teacher posted some of the proud pictures from her propagandized little ones with sayings like “Christopher Columbus didn’t find America,” and “Christopher Columbus is a really mean man.”  How charming. 

A Christopher Columbus statue was torn down in Los Angeles in 2018 and several others were vandalized this year. 

Americans were furious in 2001 when they saw that the Taliban had destroyed Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan.  The prevailing cultural zeitgeist at the time ran clearly against toppling statues.  Don’t these third-world barbarians know that they are destroying world culture?  It helped elevate the Taliban’s evil in the eyes of the world. 

Murderous Islamist thugs harboring terrorists?  That’s pretty bad.  Destroyers of world culture?  Call in the Marines!  Even the liberal American media were outraged.

Less than twenty years later, destroying monuments is becoming a national sport in America with little outcry and support from the media.  Leftists have become the Taliban, which is no surprise since the goals are similar.  When attempting to force a twisted worldview on society, overthrowing perceived enemies and any connection to a different past is essential.  

When a 200-year old monument of Christopher Columbus was smashed in Baltimore a couple years back, a sign was hung on it that read, “The future is racial and economic justice.”  In case anyone thought this was just America’s youth acting out as opposed to Marxist-inspired destruction, the act was narrated on YouTube and referenced “capitalist exploitation of labor.” 

The leftists started with Confederate monuments, which made a good test to see what kind of resistance they would face.  It was a crafty and evil first play.  The statue destroyers weren’t terribly discriminating. Monuments to peace and to those who opposed slavery were torn down next to the others.

Kicking a toppled Confederate monument in Durham, NC (Twitter video screen grab)

Few Americans roused themselves to resist, especially after media lies and manipulation around Charlottesville. 

The Left’s effort was never about destroying America’s legacy of slavery.  Democrats have been on the side of slavery and then racism at every turn in America’s history.  They were simply starting with the easiest target to normalize their far more insidious goal, which was overthrowing America’s attachment to its history and the ideals this represented.

The shock effect is long gone.  Tearing down a statue in America is now treated as little more than background noise.  This attack on American history will not end until every monument that can’t be co-opted for the leftist agenda is overthrown.

Of course, it starts before the toppling of the statues.  While on the official tour for George Washington’s Mount Vernon homestead, it was hard not to notice that more time was spent talking about Washington the slave owner than Washington the great general or founding father. 

The momentum to overthrow a national icon starts subtly, but it builds once the ground is set.  Tear down Columbus and then start mentioning Washington’s history fighting American Indians.  He becomes just another offender of a mythical “Indigenous People’s Day.” This couples nicely with the already rampant attacks on him as a slave owner.  It was seen as good news when a San Francisco school chose only to cover a George Washington mural instead of destroying it.     

My daughter recently told me that she was writing an essay on Thomas Jefferson in her high school class.  The topic?  Jefferson’s problematic history with slavery.  That Jefferson is the author of the Declaration of Independence and one of history’s greatest thinkers is irrelevant in the leftist mind.    

Icons are flawed men and women of their time.  But, they are icons because they did something great and meaningful for America.  We study George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because of the incredible contributions these great men made to freedom, liberty, and self-governance.  The Left uses them as an opportunity to destroy America. 

It’s not just monuments on the menu of destruction.  Kate Smith is a woman who was once awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for her patriotism and powerful renditions of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”  Her statues are now being torn down even as teams like the Yankees and Flyers refuse to play a song that was once representative of America itself. 

A colleague told me that he considers Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” to be a racist anthem because it is sung by people he considers racists.  If such a thing existed, I’m sure he would gladly tear down a Greenwood statue.  But, that’s not necessary.  There is already cultural pressure to avoid playing Greenwood’s powerful patriotic anthem in any place that is not a distinctly conservative setting.  The very idea of being patriotic and proud of America is under attack.     

All of this is an attempt to erase America’s history and it should be opposed fiercely.   It is part of the overall effort to undermine America’s values and freedom and is par for the course on the socialist menu.  It is also the toxic offspring of political correctness and racial tribalism.  It all serves the same purpose, which is the fundamental transformation of America into a Marxist state.

If you can damage Thomas Jefferson enough, then the Declaration of Independence must be compromised by extension.  I was mildly surprised when touring the University of Virginia recently that our tour guide spoke so positively about Thomas Jefferson and what he meant to the school.  That won’t last.  In a few years, that beloved statue will be either covered or vandalized, which will serve as a depressing bookend in the same town where American statue destruction exploded into the national consciousness.      

If you can do enough damage to the founding fathers, then it is far easier to overthrow the Constitution, or just ignore it.   

I was at Hillsdale College for their 175^th Anniversary a couple weeks back.  While there, I walked past all the statues on campus; statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and a “Last Full Measure of Devotion” statue dedicated to the many students who died fighting for the Union in the Civil War.  There are also two statues of non-Americans who advanced the ideals of liberty; Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.  The students study the great words of all of these patriots who contributed so much to America and freedom.

It was a stark reminder of what is being lost in this country.  The school looks to its past and the unchanging values that have sustained America since its founding.  It is inspiring to see.  But, it is also a sad reminder that it is now an anomaly.  In today’s America, a student would learn more about America’s history and government by watching a couple hours of School House Rock videos than what they will get in twelve years of school.     

Americans need to recognize these attacks on America’s history for their intended purpose.  A made-up Indigenous People’s Day is not intended to honor American Indians.  It is just one more front in the war to destroy America.   

Fletch Daniels blogs at deplorabletouchdown.com and can be found on twitter @fletchdaniels.              

Fake news comes in a variety of forms, but some of the deepest impact comes from vivid images intended to elicit powerful emotions of blame against the target. ABC News, part of the media now in full propaganda mode intended to destroy President Trump, has just been caught in a terrible lie, worthy of Goebbels.

ABC used dramatic video images purportedly of a savage Turkish attack on Kurds, who, ABC would have us believe, are now suffering the worst consequences. of war because of President Trump’s troop redeployment in Syria. ABC “News” used the footage on its Sunday “World News Tonight” and Monday “Good Morning America” high profile showcases for its reporting. The narrative supplied clearly blames Trump for what looks like an appalling slaughter:

YouTube screen grab

“This video, obtained by ABC News, appears to show the fury of the Turkish attack on the border town of Tal Abyad,” senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell, who is in Syria, said Monday on Good Morning America.

As he spoke, ABC aired footage showing undisclosed gunmen firing tracer bullets at undisclosed targets, causing massive, fiery explosions. Furious stuff indeed.

Earlier, on Sunday, ABC News anchor Tom Llamas also aired the allegedly shocking footage, claiming it showed a fierce Turkish attack on Kurdish civilians.

“The situation rapidly spiraling out of control in northern Syria. One week since President Trump ordered U.S. forces out of that region, effectively abandoning America’s allies in the fight against [the Islamic State],” he said.

Llamas then described the video as it aired on-screen.

“This video right here appearing to show Turkey’s military bombing Kurdish civilians in a Syrian border town. The Kurds, who fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS. Now, horrific reports of atrocities committed by Turkish-backed fighters on those very allies,” he added.

Viewers of the segment embedded below would believe that President Trump bears personal responsibility for Kurds being subjected to savage artillery bombardment. He is almost a war criminal – if you believe the footage is real:

I am certain that nobody at ABC News ever expected that anyone would identify the true source of the video, a test conducted at a Kentucky gun range. It took a blogger, Wojciech Pawelczyk, aka Polish Patriot TM, to expose their deceit:

Wow! ABC News is trying to pass gun range videos as combat footage from Syria pic.twitter.com/zfTWtwwSfZ

— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱🇺🇸 (@PolishPatriotTM) October 14, 2019

Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner called up ABC News to ask about the fake news:

After seeing a comment from Twitter user Wojciech Pawelczyk, I began making some calls. As of this writing, it appears ABC indeed aired footage recorded in the Bluegrass State and claimed it was from Syria. The network has since pulled the video.

“We’ve taken down video that aired on World News Tonight Sunday and Good Morning America this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy,” a network representative told the Washington Examiner. ”ABC News regrets the error.”

A representative for the Knob Creek Gun Range also told the Washington Examiner that they are still investigating ABC’s reporting, adding further that the images aired by the network “look to be” from their Kentucky property. (snip)

The footage, which appears to be from 2017, shows American gun enthusiasts putting on a terrific pyrotechnic show for an American audience. In fact, the Machine Gun Shoot and Military Gun Show, which includes the very popular night shoot, is a biannual event at the Kentucky gun range. People love the show. They love it so much, in fact, that they often record it and post video of it to social media.

I don’t think that we can believe any mainstream media reporting on the situation in Syria regarding the Kurds now. The geopolitics are hellishly complex to begin with, and there are no good options. But with a media establishment willing to lie this profoundly, there can be credibility at all given to their work.

Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse reminds us that the liars at ABC “News” have another propaganda production ready for airing:

ABC getting caught manufacturing Fake News should be an additional concern because ABC news is also promoting this:

“Hunter Biden sits down for an exclusive interview with ABC News”:

 

This is going to be great – no matter what is said in the interview it’s now clear that the foreign corrupt practices act were violated by Beijing @JoeBiden and this will further illustrate the need for a full investigation into Hunter and Joe’s violationshttps://t.co/Cofhfz91rB

— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) October 14, 2019

President Trump tweeted about the scandal last night:

 

A big scandal at @ABC News. They got caught using really gruesome FAKE footage of the Turks bombing in Syria. A real disgrace. Tomorrow they will ask softball questions to Sleepy Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, like why did Ukraine & China pay you millions when you knew nothing? Payoff?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2019

If ABC “News” had any integrity, it would hire an outside law firm politically aligned with President Trump and have it conduct a thorough investigation of how this footage was obtained and aired, naming the names of everyone who had a hand in the decision. But I am not holding my breath.

Fake news comes in a variety of forms, but some of the deepest impact comes from vivid images intended to elicit powerful emotions of blame against the target. ABC News, part of the media now in full propaganda mode intended to destroy President Trump, has just been caught in a terrible lie, worthy of Goebbels.

ABC used dramatic video images purportedly of a savage Turkish attack on Kurds, who, ABC would have us believe, are now suffering the worst consequences. of war because of President Trump’s troop redeployment in Syria. ABC “News” used the footage on its Sunday “World News Tonight” and Monday “Good Morning America” high profile showcases for its reporting. The narrative supplied clearly blames Trump for what looks like an appalling slaughter:

YouTube screen grab

“This video, obtained by ABC News, appears to show the fury of the Turkish attack on the border town of Tal Abyad,” senior foreign correspondent Ian Pannell, who is in Syria, said Monday on Good Morning America.

As he spoke, ABC aired footage showing undisclosed gunmen firing tracer bullets at undisclosed targets, causing massive, fiery explosions. Furious stuff indeed.

Earlier, on Sunday, ABC News anchor Tom Llamas also aired the allegedly shocking footage, claiming it showed a fierce Turkish attack on Kurdish civilians.

“The situation rapidly spiraling out of control in northern Syria. One week since President Trump ordered U.S. forces out of that region, effectively abandoning America’s allies in the fight against [the Islamic State],” he said.

Llamas then described the video as it aired on-screen.

“This video right here appearing to show Turkey’s military bombing Kurdish civilians in a Syrian border town. The Kurds, who fought alongside the U.S. against ISIS. Now, horrific reports of atrocities committed by Turkish-backed fighters on those very allies,” he added.

Viewers of the segment embedded below would believe that President Trump bears personal responsibility for Kurds being subjected to savage artillery bombardment. He is almost a war criminal – if you believe the footage is real:

I am certain that nobody at ABC News ever expected that anyone would identify the true source of the video, a test conducted at a Kentucky gun range. It took a blogger, Wojciech Pawelczyk, aka Polish Patriot TM, to expose their deceit:

Wow! ABC News is trying to pass gun range videos as combat footage from Syria pic.twitter.com/zfTWtwwSfZ

— Wojciech Pawelczyk 🇵🇱🇺🇸 (@PolishPatriotTM) October 14, 2019

Becket Adams of the Washington Examiner called up ABC News to ask about the fake news:

After seeing a comment from Twitter user Wojciech Pawelczyk, I began making some calls. As of this writing, it appears ABC indeed aired footage recorded in the Bluegrass State and claimed it was from Syria. The network has since pulled the video.

“We’ve taken down video that aired on World News Tonight Sunday and Good Morning America this morning that appeared to be from the Syrian border immediately after questions were raised about its accuracy,” a network representative told the Washington Examiner. ”ABC News regrets the error.”

A representative for the Knob Creek Gun Range also told the Washington Examiner that they are still investigating ABC’s reporting, adding further that the images aired by the network “look to be” from their Kentucky property. (snip)

The footage, which appears to be from 2017, shows American gun enthusiasts putting on a terrific pyrotechnic show for an American audience. In fact, the Machine Gun Shoot and Military Gun Show, which includes the very popular night shoot, is a biannual event at the Kentucky gun range. People love the show. They love it so much, in fact, that they often record it and post video of it to social media.

I don’t think that we can believe any mainstream media reporting on the situation in Syria regarding the Kurds now. The geopolitics are hellishly complex to begin with, and there are no good options. But with a media establishment willing to lie this profoundly, there can be credibility at all given to their work.

Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse reminds us that the liars at ABC “News” have another propaganda production ready for airing:

ABC getting caught manufacturing Fake News should be an additional concern because ABC news is also promoting this:

“Hunter Biden sits down for an exclusive interview with ABC News”:

 

This is going to be great – no matter what is said in the interview it’s now clear that the foreign corrupt practices act were violated by Beijing @JoeBiden and this will further illustrate the need for a full investigation into Hunter and Joe’s violationshttps://t.co/Cofhfz91rB

— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) October 14, 2019

President Trump tweeted about the scandal last night:

 

A big scandal at @ABC News. They got caught using really gruesome FAKE footage of the Turks bombing in Syria. A real disgrace. Tomorrow they will ask softball questions to Sleepy Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, like why did Ukraine & China pay you millions when you knew nothing? Payoff?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2019

If ABC “News” had any integrity, it would hire an outside law firm politically aligned with President Trump and have it conduct a thorough investigation of how this footage was obtained and aired, naming the names of everyone who had a hand in the decision. But I am not holding my breath.

While Democrats are pushing the bogus Trump-Ukraine quid pro quo story invented by that great storyteller, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, two groups of Democratic senators have been colluding with Ukrainian interests to advance their own agenda and political careers.

Kudos to Steve Hilton for pointing out the corruption of the first group on the Oct. 13 edition of his Fox show “The Next Revolution” – a group of Democratic senators took cash from a Ukraine lobbyist to push Ukrainian gas interests at the same time the Democrats are pushing the Trump-Ukraine yarn. As Hilton states in a transcript of his show available on Fox Opinion:

Remember Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s business partner? He had previously been a top fundraiser for John Kerry, who was Secretary of State at the time. And soon after Devon and Hunter joined the Burisma Board, the company channeled $90,000 to a lobbying firm called ML Strategies, which was headed by none other than David Leiter, John Kerry’s former chief of staff.

That’s handy because then-Secretary of State John Kerry himself has visited Ukraine with promises of U.S. aid and assistance. Well, Leiter registered as a Burisma lobbyist in mid-2014. But in the year leading up to that, he gave close to $60,000 to Democrats, including a select group of U.S. senators who would later be instrumental in pushing cash towards Ukraine’s energy sector, directly in line with Burisma’s interests.

He donated to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., four times and to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., three times. A month after the last of those donations, both Markey and Shaheen were among four senators who wrote a letter to President Obama that said, “We should leverage the full resources and expertise of the U.S. government to assist Ukraine in improving its energy efficiency, increasing its domestic production and reforming its energy markets.”

This was at a time when Democrats were waging a war on fossil fuels, opposing fracking, and trying to shut down U.S. energy production. American natural gas was bad for the environment, but Ukrainian natural gas was good for the campaign coffers when it involves Hunter Biden’s business interests and John Kerry’s former chief of staff. As Hilton points out, Sen. Markey’s hypocrisy runs particularly deep:

Sen. Ed Markey was the Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal! He wants to shut down gas production in America. Yet he personally intervened with the Obama administration to send your tax dollars to boost Ukraine’s gas production. And not just once.

Not only did he write that letter to Obama, but he sponsored multiple pieces of legislation that called for more U.S. assistance and aid specifically to help Ukraine’s natural gas sector, including one that “directs the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to prioritize support for investments to increase energy efficiency, developed domestic oil and natural gas reserves and develop renewable energy sources in Ukraine.”

Interestingly, as Democrats falsely accuse President Trump of bribing the Ukrainian president to dig up dirt on a political opponent, namely Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, another group of Democratic senators actually asked the Ukrainian government to help the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to dig up dirt on Donald J. Trump. As the Marc Thiessen noted in his recent column in the Washington Post:

It got almost no attention, but in May [2018], CNN reported that Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Mueller probe. In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake. Describing themselves as “strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine,” the Democratic senators declared, “We have supported [the] capacity-building process and are disappointed that some in Kyiv appear to have cast aside these [democratic] principles to avoid the ire of President Trump,” before demanding Lutsenko “reverse course and halt any efforts to impede cooperation with this important investigation.”

This is corruption and hypocrisy raised to a new level. President Trump, as the transcript of his call to Ukrainian President Zelensky showed, pressured no one to dig up dirt on a political opponent. There was no quid pro quo, only a request that the Ukrainians look into the real crime Joe Biden confessed it — leveraging U.S. financial support to get a prosecutor investing his son’s company, Burisma, fired.

And if you want real collusion with a real trail of evidence of people trying to do real things interfering with the 2016 campaign, try Hillary Clinton’s collusion with the Ukraine to derail and besmirch Team Trump. As Politico reported in a story that went nowhere at the time:

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

Here you have a real meeting between a DNC operative in a foreign embassy receiving materials used to defame and derail the Trump campaign. This meeting had real consequences. No fabricated versions of phone calls here.

Democratic senators took campaign cash from Ukrainian interests while begging Ukraine for help in removing a duly elected President from office. And these are the people who would participate in a Senate impeachment trial. The inmates are indeed running the asylum.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.               

While Democrats are pushing the bogus Trump-Ukraine quid pro quo story invented by that great storyteller, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, two groups of Democratic senators have been colluding with Ukrainian interests to advance their own agenda and political careers.

Kudos to Steve Hilton for pointing out the corruption of the first group on the Oct. 13 edition of his Fox show “The Next Revolution” – a group of Democratic senators took cash from a Ukraine lobbyist to push Ukrainian gas interests at the same time the Democrats are pushing the Trump-Ukraine yarn. As Hilton states in a transcript of his show available on Fox Opinion:

Remember Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s business partner? He had previously been a top fundraiser for John Kerry, who was Secretary of State at the time. And soon after Devon and Hunter joined the Burisma Board, the company channeled $90,000 to a lobbying firm called ML Strategies, which was headed by none other than David Leiter, John Kerry’s former chief of staff.

That’s handy because then-Secretary of State John Kerry himself has visited Ukraine with promises of U.S. aid and assistance. Well, Leiter registered as a Burisma lobbyist in mid-2014. But in the year leading up to that, he gave close to $60,000 to Democrats, including a select group of U.S. senators who would later be instrumental in pushing cash towards Ukraine’s energy sector, directly in line with Burisma’s interests.

He donated to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., four times and to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., three times. A month after the last of those donations, both Markey and Shaheen were among four senators who wrote a letter to President Obama that said, “We should leverage the full resources and expertise of the U.S. government to assist Ukraine in improving its energy efficiency, increasing its domestic production and reforming its energy markets.”

This was at a time when Democrats were waging a war on fossil fuels, opposing fracking, and trying to shut down U.S. energy production. American natural gas was bad for the environment, but Ukrainian natural gas was good for the campaign coffers when it involves Hunter Biden’s business interests and John Kerry’s former chief of staff. As Hilton points out, Sen. Markey’s hypocrisy runs particularly deep:

Sen. Ed Markey was the Senate sponsor of the Green New Deal! He wants to shut down gas production in America. Yet he personally intervened with the Obama administration to send your tax dollars to boost Ukraine’s gas production. And not just once.

Not only did he write that letter to Obama, but he sponsored multiple pieces of legislation that called for more U.S. assistance and aid specifically to help Ukraine’s natural gas sector, including one that “directs the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to prioritize support for investments to increase energy efficiency, developed domestic oil and natural gas reserves and develop renewable energy sources in Ukraine.”

Interestingly, as Democrats falsely accuse President Trump of bribing the Ukrainian president to dig up dirt on a political opponent, namely Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, another group of Democratic senators actually asked the Ukrainian government to help the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to dig up dirt on Donald J. Trump. As the Marc Thiessen noted in his recent column in the Washington Post:

It got almost no attention, but in May [2018], CNN reported that Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Mueller probe. In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake. Describing themselves as “strong advocates for a robust and close relationship with Ukraine,” the Democratic senators declared, “We have supported [the] capacity-building process and are disappointed that some in Kyiv appear to have cast aside these [democratic] principles to avoid the ire of President Trump,” before demanding Lutsenko “reverse course and halt any efforts to impede cooperation with this important investigation.”

This is corruption and hypocrisy raised to a new level. President Trump, as the transcript of his call to Ukrainian President Zelensky showed, pressured no one to dig up dirt on a political opponent. There was no quid pro quo, only a request that the Ukrainians look into the real crime Joe Biden confessed it — leveraging U.S. financial support to get a prosecutor investing his son’s company, Burisma, fired.

And if you want real collusion with a real trail of evidence of people trying to do real things interfering with the 2016 campaign, try Hillary Clinton’s collusion with the Ukraine to derail and besmirch Team Trump. As Politico reported in a story that went nowhere at the time:

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

A Ukrainian-American operative who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee met with top officials in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington in an effort to expose ties between Trump, top campaign aide Paul Manafort and Russia, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia. But they were far less concerted or centrally directed than Russia’s alleged hacking and dissemination of Democratic emails.

Here you have a real meeting between a DNC operative in a foreign embassy receiving materials used to defame and derail the Trump campaign. This meeting had real consequences. No fabricated versions of phone calls here.

Democratic senators took campaign cash from Ukrainian interests while begging Ukraine for help in removing a duly elected President from office. And these are the people who would participate in a Senate impeachment trial. The inmates are indeed running the asylum.

Daniel John Sobieski is a former editorial writer for Investor’s Business Daily and free lance writer whose pieces have appeared in Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.