One thing we must give Democrats credit for is their unity. Yes, certain members of the party such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) will occasionally diverge from the party line and oppose particularly radical pieces of legislation, but when it comes to big moments and key votes – on impeachment, for instance – Democrats circle the wagons. Contrarily, Republicans tend to fracture at the most inopportune moments, which is why it was refreshing to see virtual unanimity amongst the GOP after Monday’s outrageous raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence Mar-a-Lago. Almost all notable Republicans supported Trump after the ordeal; all except for one.
Winner: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the only major Republican figure not to denounce Monday’s FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Admittedly, there are two legitimate disagreements our readers could point out with that headline. First, does Chris Christie truly qualify as a “major” figure these days? And second, is Chris Christie even a Republican anymore? Those are two fair questions, but we must note that Christie himself almost certainly still considers the answers to both to be, ‘Yes.’
It shouldn’t have been difficult for Mr. Christie. Regardless of one’s dislike or disdain for Mr. Trump, what the FBI, and by proxy the Biden Administration, did on Monday was one of the worst examples of federal authoritarianism in the history of this country. This was a layup for Christie; a six-inch putt; a no-brainer. All he had to say was something like, “What Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and FBI Director Christopher Wray did at Mar-a-Lago was completely unacceptable, and like a scene from a George Orwell novel. We need explanations and justifications immediately.” All true, and a piece of cake.
As evidence, consider that former Trump adversaries in the party such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been unmistakable in their outrage, though McConnell’s was somewhat delayed. And former Vice-President Mike Pence, who has been butting heads with Trump for almost two years now, has also been adamant in his objections to Monday’s raid.
But perhaps the best evidence of Christie’s misstep is the fact that even prominent Democrats, including former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, have pulled no punches in calling out their disapproval of the FBI’s incursion. Monday’s raid was one of the most dictatorial displays we’ve ever seen in this country. So, what did Chris Christie have to say?
During a SiriusXM interview on Tuesday with Julie Mason, Christie explained:
“It [the Mar-a-Lago raid] is fair game. You have to display probable cause to a federal judge … that you have reason to believe that there are contents within that safe that would assist in proving a violation of the law, so it’s not anything that’s out of bounds to go into a safe and it happens frequently in federal law enforcement.”
Hold on, Mr. Christie, it “happens frequently?” Really? Then, explain this. In the 233 years since our great Constitution was ratified, Monday was the first time in the history of our republic that a former president’s residence was raided by federal law enforcement. Is that your idea of “frequently?” As for the notion that a federal judge has to approve of the raid, were you unaware that the judge who gave that approval was a donor to Barack Obama’s campaigns and had ties to Jeffrey Epstein?
When Chris Christie was a presidential candidate in 2016 – and he was a lousy candidate, by the way – he got clobbered by Rubio during a debate and was later manhandled by Trump. Once elected, Trump extended Christie an olive branch by conferring with him after the election to discuss Cabinet picks. But Christie was never selected, and apparently, he got his feelings hurt. And that is the only rational explanation one can deduce in figuring out Christie’s bizarre support of President Joe Biden’s raid.
Chris Christie’s career as a politician was doomed before his comments on Tuesday. He’s been a pariah in the GOP for a few years now. But after these comments, those bridges that were burned have been pulverized and thrown into the Hudson River. Christie showed us this week that he’s got poor judgment, that he mistakenly believes Democrats and their media will embrace him if he betrays Trump, and that we should all be grateful he failed miserably in 2016. In short, Chris Christie showed us this week that he’s a knucklehead.
Honorable Mention #1: Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) runs an ad for his election campaign depicting him as the outdoorsy type as he’s seen fishing, but there’s a catch.
Bennet is the incumbent Colorado senator which gives him an inherent edge in being reelected, and he’s running in the fairly blue state of Colorado. Additionally, Bennet is one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, which means he has extensive resources. But this is a bad year for Democrats, and Bennet apparently doesn’t want to leave anything to chance, so he’s pushing heavy on ads. But this one is a major misstep.
Coloradans famously love the outdoors. It’s that “Colorado, Rocky Mountain high” thing. You can’t blame Sen. Bennet for trying that appeal. So, he films an ad with himself and an independent voter with the two of them fishing. They do some fishing together, the voter tells the camera how great the senator is, and there’s even a happy ending with the senator catching a fish. He’s a man’s man, you see. There’s only one problem: Bennet was using a 24-hour fishing license, and real fishermen don’t buy 24-hour fishing licenses in their home state.
Voters in Colorado undoubtedly like the outdoorsy type of candidate, but like voters in most states, they like authenticity much, much more. And Michael Bennet just showed his electorate that he’s seriously lacking in that department.
Honorable Mention #2: President Biden inexplicably states that inflation in July was actually “zero” … seriously.
Here’s what Biden actually said on Wednesday:
“Before I begin today, I want to say a word about news that came out today relative to the economy. Actually, I just want to say a number: Zero. Today we received news that our economy had zero percent inflation in the month of July.”
In reality, inflation last month was 8.5%, which keeps us in line with the rest of 2022 as we experience one of the worst inflationary years in our history. That number means prices last month were 8.5% higher than last July, on average. Not only isn’t that “zero,” that’s an extremely high number and devastating to American families. And it continues a trend that has yielded a new term to America’s political vernacular: Bidenflation.
It’s not totally clear exactly what Biden was trying to convey. In June, our inflation rate was 9.1%. Was Biden trying to claim that since prices soared by 8.5% in July, but they had soared slightly higher in June, that means we didn’t have any inflation? If so, it’s one of the more moronic arguments we’ll ever hear. It would be like a husband with a gambling problem telling his wife, “You know, honey, in June I lost $910 on the horses, but last month I only lost $850, so that means I didn’t lose any money. Right?” That sounds like an assertion that might put a husband into divorce court, and that’s what America needs in 2024… a divorce from Joe Biden.
PF Whalen
P.F. Whalen is a conservative author at TheBlueStateConservative.com. His work has appeared in multiple publications, including Human Events, the Western Journal, and American Thinker. Follow him on GETTR; he does not do Facebook and Twitter.
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Featured photo by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
This story syndicated with permission from The Blue State Conservative