I don’t know how long the Nicolas Maduro administration will last in Venezuela, but he ought to send an urgent message to Special Counsel Robert Mueller for tips on how to use pre-dawn raids to crush political enemies and intimidate the public.
With the total sanction of the Trump hating media, Congressional Democrats, and what used to be “civil libertarians,” Muller is showing that “Third World Banana Republic” justice can happen in the United States.
Watching press footage of Mueller’s FBI pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone’s home, I reflected on the words of German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller. He was an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler; wrote about the cowardice of German intellectuals following the Nazis' rise to power and subsequent purging of their enemies; and, spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
His famous poem is displayed in the United States Holocaust Museum:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Jew.”
In the current political environment, Niemöller’s poem could be amended by adding after the words “I was not a Jew,” “Then they came for associates and supporters of President Trump, And I was not a Trump supporter so I did not speak out.”
So-called liberal progressive civil liberties advocates — and much of the hate-Trump media — despise Trump so much that they are willing to accept government conduct that, in any other situation, violates every tenant of our basic rights and freedoms.
Their silence is deafening, indicating their acceptance and condoning of such conduct.
If Mueller and the powers that be can trample constitutional rights of society’s prominent political white elite, just imagine what they could do to the powerless in black, Hispanic, and middle-class white and blue-collar communities.
Some have dared speak out against Muller’s raids.
Former New Jersey Governor and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie called the raid “overkill… the purpose of the raid tactics was to intimidate.”
Fox News Channel legal analysist Judge Andrew Napolitano called the raids “jackboots in the morning… an American nightmare.”
Former Republican presidential candidate Governor Mike Huckabee called the raid “shameful, disturbing and frightening” adding that it was “dangerous,” “reckless,” and “scares the daylights out of people" — a "police state action" that “every American ought to be appalled by.”
Fox News Channel host of “Justice,” Judge Jeanine Pirro, ran CNN footage of the raid on her show and described it as use of "Gestapo tactics." In her “Opening Statement” she put it into vivid context:
“…well before dawn, 29 armed FBI agents and a SWAT team donning body armor and fatigues, and tactical vests arrive at Stone’s home. Seventeen vehicles including armor… trucks, lights flashing, a bullhorn… yelling, ‘FBI — open the door.’"
She said that what the “Mueller team did was not only laughable, it was embarrassing to everyone in law enforcement.”
She pointed out, which the mainstream media, to the best of my knowledge, has not, that Stone’s wife is “deaf” and that “a directive to her by someone with a gun drawn when she cannot hear the directive is a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
In other words, Mueller’s raiders could have shot and killed Stone’s wife by mistake.
Someone should ask Acting-Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and FBI Director Christopher Wray why they approved such tactics to be used on this high-profile, non-violent target.
Or did Mueller go rogue?
Fellow Newsmax Insider Alan Dershowitz stands virtually alone as a defender of basic civil liberties in this “hate Trump” era.
He told Newsmax TV: “This was a show arrest, and as civil libertarians, we ought to be very concerned about that.”
Apparently, other than Dershowitz, the so-called civil liberties community — including the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) and congressional Democrats — have no problem with such tactics. They obviously believe that — individual civil rights and liberties, and the U.S. Constitution aside — the use of any means necessary by prosecutors to get the president, his family, and associates is worth it.
Dershowitz agrees.
In a Newsmax blog entitled “For the ACLU, Getting Trump Trumps Civil Liberties” he wrote:
“…since the election of President Donald Trump, it has sunk to a new low, becoming a cheerleader for the violation of the civil liberties of those… on the other side of the political spectrum.… for the ACLU getting Trump, trumps civil liberties.”
It might be a good idea for the ACLU, other so-called civil libertarians, socialistic Democrats and others — including the media — who suffer from “Trump derangement syndrome,” to read pastor Martin Niemöller’s poem.
One day there might be a group in power that would send FBI agents to their homes because of political associations and alleged illegal acts.
There might be no one left to object.
Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations consulting firm in Florida. He held several positions in the Reagan administration as well as in the Reagan presidential campaigns. He is a former co-owner of WTVT-TV in Tampa and former president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. Read more of his reports — Go Here Now.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.