It’s a sad day in American history, in my opinion. To see a sitting president weaponize our justice system in order to bring phony criminal charges against his likely main re-election opponent: This is 19th century stuff, where corruption was often rampant. Actually, it’s worse.
Former U.S. presidents have access to classified and unclassified documents after they leave office. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama nominee, wrote a decade ago: “the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of presidential records during his time in office.”
She was referring to President Clinton, who had national security information stashed away in a sock drawer after leaving the White House.
The indictment of President Trump never mentioned the Presidential Records Act, which is a civil matter that should’ve been settled amicably out of court. The espionage charges brought against Mr. Trump are completely bogus.
There is no criminality here. Or perhaps there is — on the part of the special prosecutor, who somehow got a judge to allow him to force a Trump lawyer to give up attorney-client privilege in what’s called a fraud-crime exception. This is more weaponization against Mr. Trump.
It’s President Biden who acted illegally as senator and vice president, by taking classified documents and stashing them all over town. Somehow Mr. Trump got busted and Mr. Biden has not — go figure. Political America in 2023 has become a pretty raunchy place, and I haven’t even mentioned that the growing Burisma scandal is now closing in on President Biden from all sides.
Meanwhile, however all this turns out, the polls still show Mr. Trump has huge support, and he is going to fight to the end. I continue to argue that this election’s going to be about pocketbook issues — not phony prosecutions.
A recent Job Creators Network Foundation poll shows nearly two-thirds of small businesses are worried they’re heading into recession. Real weekly wages have fallen 26 straight months, as inflation continues to bury the middle class. In fact, real wages have dropped 93 percent of the time during the Biden presidency. It’s the longest duration of real wage decline in history — even double the time frame during the 2008-09 meltdown.
A recent poll by the Democracy Institute shows 61 percent of voters believe we’re in recession. A miniscule 26 percent approve of Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy.
The three top issues, according to the poll, are inflation, economy and jobs, combining for 50 percent of voter worries — more than three times the next closest issue, which was crime.
Mr. Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, says the president “respects the rule of law” and wants the Department of Justice to be “truly independent.” But this is completely wrong. The DOJ is part of any administration, part of the executive branch, appointed by the president. The issue isn’t independence: The question is why the Biden justice department can’t implement a neutral application of the rule of law, rather than simply working overtime feverishly to criminalize its opponents.
That’s the real issue. We’re not going to solve all this today. But when things look darkest, and before they turn completely black let’s bring in a little humor via my pal Greg Gutfeld: “You realize that in 2024 on the presidential debate stage,” comedian Jim Florentine says, “both guys could be wearing ankle bracelets. It could possibly happen. It’s possible.”
Save America. A little humor goes a long way.
From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.
Larry Kudlow was the Director of the National Economic Council under President Trump from 2018-2021. His Fox Business show "Kudlow" airs at 4 p.m &. and his radio show airs on 770 ABC from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
