A New York Times op-ed published Aug. 1, "Trump is Destroying Our Democracy" contends President Trump is, "willing to deal a major blow to the rule of law — and the American Republic — in order to end an independent investigation into his Russian ties."
The article pointed to the president’s firing of former FBI Director James B. Comey, his public criticisms of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, his musings about his broad pardoning power, and his calls to re-open an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s conduct while secretary of state as troublesome evidence of the opinion piece's thesis. Citing the destruction of democratic institutions by Vladimir Putin in Russia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, and Viktor Orban in Hungary, Yascha Mounk, the op-ed's author, who is also a writer for Slate.com and a lecturer at Harvard, accused President Trump of displaying similarly dangerous "authoritarian behavior."
Unless President Trump is stopped by Republicans in Congress, Mr. Mounk argues, there will be little in the way to stop the president from disregarding court rulings or attempting "to close down critical newspapers."
Yascha Mounk has created a specter in his own mind regarding the president, while ignoring real abuses of power occurring during the Obama administration.
For example, Mounk complains about criticisms leveled at Special Counsel Mueller, writing that Republicans in Congress should be wary about the "very survival of democracy," if Mr. Mueller is fired. However, where was Mounk when the Obama Justice Department refused calls for a special counsel to investigate alleged misdeeds by senior members of the Obama administration?
Wasn’t he the least bit concerned by the lack of a truly independent investigation into Hillary Clinton’s infamous use of a private server to handle her State Department emails and the subsequent efforts to cover up what happened? Didn’t he worry about the impact on our democracy of the alleged pay for play arrangements entered into with foreign officials and oligarchs while Hillary served as secretary of state?
Didn’t he think that Democrats in Congress should have demanded a special counsel to investigate serious allegations that access to high level officials at Hillary’s State Department, and the granting of special favors, including Hillary’s sign off of the transfer of control of 20 percent of U.S. uranium deposits to a Russian company, were traded for donations to the Clinton Foundation and stratospheric speaking fees paid to Bill Clinton?
Apparently not, since Mounk thinks it would be wrong for the current Justice Department to open an investigation into such matters.
Indeed, Yascha Mounk is the same writer who claimed in 2016 that Hillary Clinton "passionately believes we can both respect individual rights and recognize the legitimacy of political opposition." He conveniently forgets how Hillary’s campaign colluded with officials at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and with the mainstream media to undermine the primary challenge from Bernie Sanders, rigging the nomination process in her favor.
Mounk is worried about the future of press freedoms in a Trump administration. However, while President Trump rails regularly against sements of the media as "fake news," he has taken no steps to apply the powers of government to suppress freedom of the press.
Obama not only went after Fox News because he did not like their coverage. The Obama administration hounded Fox correspondent James Rosen, labeling him a "criminal co-conspirator and a flight risk" in order to obtain legal authority to look through his personal e-mails.
The Obama Justice Department and the FBI spied on other reporters by monitoring their phone records. They also pressured reporters to divulge their sources.
Mounk also worries about the abuse of executive power in a Trump White House. Yet, the Trump administration has not been accused of using government agencies like the IRS to go after political opponents as the Obama administration did. President Trump has criticized lower court rulings, those which stopped his executive order suspending travel from certain terrorist-prone countries from going into effect (later partially reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court).
However, the Trump administration complied with the rulings while they were in force. The Obama administration, on the other hand, had to admit that it violated a judge’s order prohibiting the implementation of Obama’s illegal immigrant amnesty executive order. The judge in the case castigated the Obama administration for its "clear abdication of the law."
As Yascha Mounk wrote in his New York Times op-ed , "The Constitution cannot defend itself." However, the Obama administration mounted far graver assaults on the Constitution than anything the Trump administration has attempted or threatened to do, to date.
The left’s double standard evidently blinded Mounk to this reality.
Joseph A. Klein is a featured author for FrontPage Magazine and the United Nations correspondent for Canada Free Press. He has also authored the books "Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom" and "Lethal Engagement: Barack Hussein Obama, the United Nations & Radical Islam." Klein, a Harvard Law school alumnus and practicing attorney, has been a guest on many radio shows as a commentator and has appeared on several TV shows including "Fox & Friends." For more of this reports — Click Here Now.