Admiral Sunk, Cooper vs. Comey, A Cultural Moment, Pompeo Confirmed

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Admiral Sunk - The politics of personal destruction, a phrase popularized by Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings, has reached a new low. This morning, Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew his name from consideration to lead the Veterans Administration.

Why? Because a lynch mob on Capitol Hill, led by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), smeared him with unproven charges. In a statement responding to the allegations, Jackson wrote this:

"The allegations against me are completely false and fabricated. If they had any merit, I would not have been selected, promoted and entrusted to serve in such a sensitive and important role as physician to three presidents over the past 12 years."

Rear Admiral Jackson has been serving on the White House medical team since 2006. In 2013, he was formally appointed as White House physician by Barack Obama, who repeatedly and effusively praised his service and conduct.

How is it that Jackson was an angel during his entire time in service to Obama, yet now he is the devil? The only thing that has changed is the president he serves.

Among other things, Senator Tester accused Jackson of recklessly prescribing drugs, calling him "the candy man." He specifically cited prescriptions for Ambien, given to people flying on Air Force One.

But even Obama officials are defending Jackson, saying that it is common practice for staff on multiday trips, "working 16-hour days and going across time zones" to take sleeping aids so they are alert when they land.

During an interview on Fox & Friends this morning, President Trump attacked Jon Tester, and said he would "pay a big price" in Montana this year for destroying an honorable man.

Tester is running for reelection this November in a state Trump carried by 20 points. I suspect Tester will see a lot of President Trump in Montana this year.

Cooper vs. Comey - Last year James Comey told us that he leaked his classified memos to a friend, Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman. We learned earlier this week that his "friend" had a special employment status at the FBI.

Now we are learning that Comey also gave the memos to another close friend, Patrick Fitzgerald, who is also serving as Comey's defense lawyer. And, according to Fox News, it is possible that at least one more person may have received the memos as well.

This revelation raises a lot of questions. For example, was this the only time that Comey gave information to his "friend" to leak to the media? Why was Professor Richman working for the FBI? Does he still have a security clearance and access to FBI headquarters? The professor needs to testify under oath immediately.

As former Attorney General Michael Mukasey recently explained, those memos were not pages ripped from James Comey's personal diary. They were classified government documents. Comey may not believe that mishandling classified information is a prosecutable offense, but he's wrong.

During a town hall event last night, CNN's Anderson Cooper grilled Comey about his idea of what is and is not a leak. Anderson asked Comey, "Shouldn't you be nailed to the door? Aren't you a leaker?" Watch it here.

A Cultural Moment - I'm not a fan of Kanye West. He has clearly had some issues over the years. But I don't think we should underestimate the potential significance of the cultural conversation that Kanye sparked this week.

First he defended conservative black activist Candace Owens. The left didn't like that at all. Then West expressed support for Donald Trump. The left really didn't like that.

But after he was attacked, West doubled down, tweeting this: "Obama was in office for eight years and nothing in Chicago changed."

While the left was piling on Kanye, Chance the Rapper tweeted, "Black people don't have to be democrats."

The left is now in full panic mode. Last night, all three late night comedy shows attacked Kanye West because they know what is at stake.

You may recall that Trump repeatedly cited the decline of the black community throughout the campaign and did what many Republicans don't do -- he invited blacks to vote for him, saying, "What do you have to lose?"

It didn't get nearly as much attention as Kanye has received, but recently BET co-founder Robert Johnson praised Donald Trump's handling of the economy. Johnson said, "When you look at that [jobs report], you have to say something is going right. . . you've never had African-American unemployment this low."

Sadly, conservatives have been losing the country even when we win elections. A big reason is that we have been losing the culture, which is upstream from politics.

I had a front row seat when the left attempted to destroy Clarence Thomas. That's what the left does to anyone, particularly African Americans, who dares to say, "I won't sit in the back of the Democrat bus anymore."

Kayne West has triggered the entire snowflake empire. The amount of hair on fire this week will contribute enormously to global warming.

But if West sparks a revolution of free thinking that reintroduces black Americans to the Party of Abraham Lincoln, this could be a cultural moment unlike anything we have seen in decades.

Pompeo Confirmed - The Senate voted this afternoon to confirm Mike Pompeo as secretary of state. The vote was 57 to 42, much less than the 94 votes Hillary Clinton and John Kerry received.

Among the Democrats voting for Pompeo were: Donnelly (IN), Heitkamp (ND), Manchin (WV), McCaskill (MO) and Nelson (FL) -- all representing states Donald Trump won. They supported Pompeo so they could tell voters this year, "See I can work with the president."

Don't be fooled, my friends. I assure you that if these senators were not up for reelection this year, they would have joined the vast majority of Democrats who opposed Pompeo.

By the way, the vote came after the Senate wasted more than a day "debating" the nomination.

As we have reported, Democrats have been regularly abusing Senate rules forcing 30 hours of "debate" on almost every single nominee. That is time the Senate cannot spend on serious issues like border security or confirming the president's conservative judicial nominees.

I am pleased to report that may be changing.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans advanced a resolution that would dramatically limit the amount of time wasted on nominations.

That's a good first step. But I hope Senate Majority Leader McConnell is prepared to take more aggressive steps, like keeping the Senate in session as long as it takes to get Trump's nominees confirmed.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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