The central question that took down Richard Nixon in Watergate was asked by the late Sen. Howard Baker: “What did the president know and when did he know it?" 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, it is more than likely that Barack Obama was well aware of the FBI’s political activities during the 2016 campaign. Now we have some evidence of Obama’s involvement, thanks to newly released text messages from FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. 

According to Fox News, Page messaged Strzok on Sept. 2, 2016. She wrote that she was preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey because "potus wants to know everything we’re doing.” As you know, “potus” stands for “president of the United States.”

There could be a completely innocent explanation for that. But the timeline is curious. Comey had cleared Hillary Clinton two months prior. What was going on around Sept. 2 that would have seized the president’s attention?

Well, on Aug. 29th, then-Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid sent a letter to James Comey demanding that he investigate Russian meddling in the election. Perhaps Obama was following up on that.

On Aug. 30th, news broke that the FBI had discovered 30 new Benghazi-related emails. Maybe Obama wanted to know why new Benghazi emails were being discovered.

On Sept. 1st, new polling from The Washington Post showed that Hillary’s favorability rating was tanking dramatically. And on Sept. 2nd, a new Reuters poll found that Hillary’s double-digit lead had evaporated and the race was tied.

Maybe a panicked Obama wanted an update on that “insurance policy” Page and Strzok and McCabe were working on. 

Maybe not. Wouldn’t it be nice if the American people knew for sure?

In another text message sent just days after the election, Page complains that she’s “angry” at all the “high fallutin’ national security talk” at the FBI. Then she adds this: “Meanwhile we have OUR task ahead of us." 

What’s that all about? Exactly what task is she referring to? The insurance policy? Again, the American people deserve to know the truth.

This latest revelation about Obama’s wanting to know "everything” Page and Strzok were working on appears to be another example of Obama lying to the American people. 

During an April 2016 interview with Fox News, Chris Wallace asked Obama if he could guarantee that the FBI was conducting a fair investigation of Hillary Clinton. Obama answered:

“I can guarantee that… I do not talk to the Attorney General about pending investigations. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations. We have a strict line and always have maintained it. I guarantee it. I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department or the FBI… Period." 

Thanks to Page’s text, it’s reasonable to conclude that Obama was talking to the FBI director. The question must be asked: What did Obama know and when did he know it?

More Bias

As the debate rages about how this conspiracy played out, here’s something we don’t need a big investigation to figure out: Page and Strzok could not hide their left-wing bias.

In a November 2015 text, Strzok bemoans the fact that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s wife lost her race for a state Senate seat in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. He complains that Loudoun County is "still largely ignorant hillbillies.”

That’s the typical left-wing elite mentality. For all their “tolerance,” progressives think that Middle Americans are oafs and dunces.

Remember how Barack Obama explained his struggles with rural America at a San Francisco fundraiser? He blamed bitter Americans clinging to their guns and religion. 

Hillary Clinton cast most of Middle America — all that red you see on the political map — as “deplorable and irredeemable.” She did it again when she blamed her loss on “white women” who couldn’t think for themselves.

We’ve seen it from media elites who denounce pro-life Americans and those who believe in traditional marriage as the “American Taliban,” as if Bible-believing Christians and Orthodox Jews are equivalent to radical Muslims who blow people up. 

We saw this elitist attitude when the governor of New York said that conservative Americans were not welcome in his state. 

Over and over and over again, we see a disturbing picture of the Left’s intolerance and hatred, which is never called out. I believe that the Republican Party and conservatives running for office should make this a theme. Why does the Left have such hatred for mainstream America? (See next item.)

The Left will go to the mat for illegal immigrants and so-called “Dreamers” as long as the dreamers weren’t born in America. They will make the majority miserable in order to accommodate transgendered individuals. 

Increasingly, it seems that the Left would like to lock the rest of us up if it could.

Trump’s Parade?

President Trump wants to hold a military parade in Washington, DC, to honor our troops. If you need a reminder of how strongly the president feels about those defending our country, just read the message he sent before the Super Bowl. 

But, once again, the Left is demonstrating its disdain for our men and women in uniform, mocking the idea of a military parade as pandering to Trump’s authoritarian ego. Some “#NeverTrumpers” in the GOP agree with them.

Really? Was George H.W. Bush an authoritarian when he held a military parade celebrating our victory in the First Gulf War?

Some Democrats are blasting the idea as a “fantastic waste of money.” That’s rich!

One of the reasons we were headed for another government shutdown was because Russia-obsessed Democrats were complaining about spending too much money on the military, which we need to counter Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, not to mention Al Qaeda and ISIS.

(By the way, Democrats are obsessed with Russia. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was eager to collude with Ukrainians when he thought he could get dirt on the president. The whole thing turned out to be a hoax.)

President Trump should ignore his left-wing critics, who will carp at anything he does. The American people love our military, as he does. He should hold the parade to honor the men and women who are defending us today against radical Islamic supremacists and dare the Democrats to boycott it.