The Patriot Post® · 'Thin Soup'

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/49145-thin-soup-2017-05-18

Left-wing pundits and rabid progressives are foaming at the mouth, screaming for President Trump’s impeachment. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) took the House floor Wednesday morning and declared, “The president must be impeached. The House of Representatives has a duty that it can take up and that is of impeachment.”

What has the Left so excited? Another member of the deep state committed to destroying the Trump/Pence administration called up The New York Times and read a memo allegedly written by former FBI Director James Comey after a February meeting with President Trump.

According to this anonymous source, Mr. Comey claims that President Trump said to him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting [Lt. Gen. Michael] Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Some Democrats believe that statement is a clear example of obstruction of justice. But can that quote seriously be considered an impeachable offense?

Jonathan Turley, a liberal law professor, doesn’t think so, writing, “If this is food for obstruction of justice, it is still an awfully thin soup.”

Comey’s Comment

One could easily take the president’s statement as nothing more than an expression of hope for a friend in trouble. That is certainly how Mr. Comey seemed to take it. According to the Times, Comey commented, “I agree [Flynn] is a good guy.”

It is worth remembering that The Washington Post had reported that the FBI had cleared Flynn of colluding with the Russians three weeks before the meeting between Comey and the president took place. That public reporting of Flynn’s innocence makes the president’s comments even more innocuous.

More important is what Mr. Comey did not say. He did not say, “How dare you, Mr. President! You have no right to interfere in this investigation.” And that leads to another point.

If the president’s statement were so clearly illegal, the head of FBI would have recognized that. The law requires that if someone knows a person is engaging in obstruction of justice, they have a legal obligation to report it. In this case, Comey should have gone immediately to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He did not.

As Sen. Lindsey Graham put it, “If this happened, the FBI director should have done something about it or quit.”

Moreover, in sworn congressional testimony last week, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told senators, “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.” Obviously James Comey never relayed any concerns about obstruction to his deputy.

So all we have is yet another anonymous leak that the left-wing media are attempting to turn into a huge scandal while multiple facts contradict the breathless reporting and vicious partisan attacks.

Various congressional committees are demanding the FBI hand over Mr. Comey’s memo. They should go a step further. Since Mr. Comey evidently liked to keep notes, Congress should demand to see his notes from every meeting he had with Barack Obama and Loretta Lynch regarding his investigation of Hillary Clinton.

What the Resistance Is All About

It is hard to believe, but it was only 117 days ago that Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States. The Left refuses to accept the results of the election and that is really what “the Resistance” is all about.

Consider this headline from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: “White House Turmoil Puts the GOP Agenda at Risk.”

The Left is doing everything it can to damage and paralyze the Trump White House in a desperate attempt to prevent him from enacting his agenda.

Think about it, my friends. What was happening before this explosion of hysteria?

On May 4th, the House passed legislation beginning the process of unraveling Obamacare.

On May 7th, President Trump announced a slate of conservative judicial nominations to key federal courts. There are rumors of another Supreme Court vacancy coming soon.

James Clapper and other Democrats were saying publicly that the Russian investigation was producing zero evidence of collusion.

Tax reform was the next item on the agenda.

Then the media went on the attack. Now Trump’s agenda is “at risk.” That is what all the Resistance is about — stopping Donald Trump’s conservative agenda.

Progress Is Being Made

It may not seem like it, and the left-wing media certainly don’t want you to know about it, but the Trump/Pence team is making progress! Here are a few examples:

President Trump dramatically expanded the pro-life Mexico City Policy. Not only did he reinstate it, but the president issued an order ensuring that many more foreign aid programs were covered — from $600 million to nearly $9 billion!

While Barack Obama spent years dumping illegal immigrants into communities without informing local officials, President Trump is beginning to reverse the damage. He has launched a major crackdown on illegal immigrant gangs like MS-13.

When Obama was in office, 20 countries refused to take back illegal immigrants we were attempting to deport to their home countries. In less than 120 days, Trump has gotten eight of those nations to reverse course and they are now fully cooperating.

Remember when Obama bathed the White House in the colors of the gay rights movement? That was national news. This week, President Trump ordered the White House to be lit up in blue, in honor of our fallen police officers. His address to the National Peace Officers Memorial Service made it absolutely clear that this administration fully supports the men and women of law enforcement.

President Trump issued an executive order expressing his commitment to historically black colleges and universities. He invited dozens of leaders of historically black colleges and universities to meet with him in the White House, which The Wall Street Journal notes was “something Mr. Obama never got around to doing in eight years.” Check out this video of President Trump meeting with students from Victory Christian Center School.

Last week, Vice President Mike Pence addressed a summit on Christian persecution and vowed, “We will not rest, we will not relent until we hunt down and destroy ISIS at its source.”

Saturday, President Trump spoke at Liberty University and highlighted the central promise of America’s founding — that our liberty comes from God, not from government. He told the audience, “When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our Creator four times, because in America we don’t worship government, we worship God.”