In May 1987, the Miami Herald published a story suggesting that Gary Hart, an initial frontrunner in the Democratic primary, was involved in an extramarital affair.
The situation escalated when reporters began investigating further, leading to a famous photo of Hart with a young woman on a yacht named "Monkey Business." The story broke just as Hart was gaining momentum in the polls, causing a significant backlash. Faced with mounting pressure and media scrutiny, Hart suspended his campaign.
In today's America, the Hart story seems unreal. For Democrats, anything goes, really, anything, because a fawning media has abdicated its fourth estate role to scrutinize the actions of our political leaders. Here are four examples, all within the last few days.
The extraordinary exceptions our leaders make for Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelinski flew into Pennsylvania on an American C-17 transport surrounded by United States security personnel. Never mind that during both Trump assassination attempts, the Secret Service has confessed that it was short of agents.
Zelinski then visited a weapons plant, accompanied by the Governor of the Commonwealth, where the dignitaries signed their names on artillery shells, as though they were signing baseball cards. Later, he gave a speech hinting that Trump and Vance may not understand Ukraine well enough to solve the Ukraine problem. Here was a foreign leader whose term expired on May 19, 2024, and who has been artificially propped up by the West, essentially campaigning for the Democratic ticket in one of the most consequential battleground contests this season - all on the American taxpayers' dime. How is this even possible? And why was there no outrage from the media? As we said, anything goes.
The Trump claim about Oprah. Trump, who had an excellent professional relationship with Oprah during his New York days as a celebrity, lamented that Oprah had embraced Harris. He shared a post that he was so close with Oprah that he had even appeared on her show during the last week before she went off the airways for good.
The New York Times fact-checked him with a front-page article suggesting that Trump did not appear on Oprah's show during the finale week, but actually did so about three months before the show went off the air. Was this a correction meriting a front-page article?
The Jill Biden cabinet meeting. The constitution permits the vice president to do government duties when the president is unwell. When President Biden chaired his first cabinet meeting last week after nearly 11 months, he handed the meeting over not to Kamala Harris, but to his wife, Jill Biden, who has no constitutional role in running the US government. Meanwhile, Harris has abdicated her responsibilities as the vice president, not showing up to greet foreign leaders who are here for the United Nations General Assembly and is busy campaigning. Why has the media not made a big deal about this story? Because, anything goes.
Tensions in the Middle East. As the world draws closer to the first anniversary of the horrifying October 7 attacks, we still don't have a cease-fire, nor have all the hostages been released. Every time Kamala Harris is asked about what she would do to address the problem, she annoyingly keeps repeating the same old goal: there has to be a cease-fire and hostages have to be returned. We understand that. However, the question is not about what America's goal is. The question is, what precisely Harris would do to achieve that goal? So far, she has not answered this question, and the media has never pressed her.
The media never aggressively attacked the Democratic Party after it installed Harris as the nominee, although she had not won a single delegate in the primaries. How can the media approve of such an undemocratic process? Far from disapproving, the media has celebrated every Kamala Harris moment since, fawning over her candidacy.
In the Biden world, anything goes. The Democrats' actions have no consequences because the media is wilfully compliant. Under this standard, Gary Hart, a far stronger candidate than the eventual Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, could even have defeated George Bush in the 1988 general election, rewriting the arc of American history.
