One would think that when an industry’s credibility is in the dumper, industry leaders might intervene and try to urge steps that would begin to rebuild the industry’s reputation among the public. Evidently, that approach isn’t on the table for the rabidly anti-Trump Opposition Media.
Fresh off the collapse of Russiagate and during the rollout of Racistgate, the OpMedia was distracted by Partygate and went chasing off in a different wrong direction. And it’s not only the OpMedia, leftist politicians and the Twitterati were also on the hunt.
It began when Matea Gold, a leftist stenographer who works for the Washington Post, tweeted that Attorney General (and Trump appointee) Bill Barr was going to host a $30,000 birthday party at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.
It was off to the Emolument Races. Emolument is an obscure word that almost no one in Washington was familiar with before President Trump was elected. After the election, it was on everyone in the Resistance’s lips. The definition of emolument is: a salary, fee, or profit from employment or office. Since the president wasn’t coughed up from the swamp of the professional politician, but was instead a businessman, his enemies immediately began looking for examples of Trump making money — millions, thousands, pocket change — from his position in government, regardless of how tenuous the connection.
Barr’s “holiday party” was, at first glance a gift to the impeachment industry. A Trump appointee uses Department of Justice money to hold a party at Trump’s hotel! Leftist non-profit Public Citizen called it “Corruption in plain sight.” The always erratic but often entertaining Cong. Eric Swalwell (D-WonderLand) wrote, “Impeach him. Impeach every lawless Trump official. They don’t care and never will until held accountable. This is a smash & grab presidency.”
And former senator Barbara Boxer weighed in with “Bill Barr . . . still sucking up in an unethical way.” And those are the printable comments.
Only there was a problem with this Pavlovian narrative, too. Namely, it wasn’t true. Barr was using his own money for the shindig, not federal dollars. As RedState pointed out, “This entire outrage is stupid. Barr is free to spend his money as he wants. If he wants to burn a ridiculous sum on a Christmas party, more power to him.”
We agree. It’s almost as if Barr is intentionally poking the irrational left to see what new embarrassment it will produce. If that was his motive for booking the Trump hotel, then mission accomplished.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.