The Friday Letter / No. 546 / June 23, 2023
Thank you, Harriett Hageman, for reminding us just how important was your victory over former Republican Trump-hating Liz Cheney in Wyoming's congressional election last November.
She delivered a blistering attack on how the FBI and Justice Department have nearly destroyed our Republic. These are mild words that do no justice to Rep. Hageman's monologue during her allotted five minutes questioning Special Counsel John Durham. It's well worth the time to read her entire statement published at Red State.
As you will read, Harriett ended her presentation by asking Mr. Durham just a single question: “How long do you think that this country will survive with a two-tiered justice system that seeks to persecute people based on their political beliefs?”
Mr. Durham: “I don't think that things can go too much further with the view that law enforcement, particularly the FBI or Department of Justice, runs a two-tiered system of justice. The nation can't stand under those circumstances.”
Short takes on the news
NewsBusters
Between June 8 and June 12, the three major networks devoted 291 minutes to Trump's indictment in the classified documents case and zero minutes to the Biden corruption scandal. Both stories broke on June 8, when Fox News' online news service reported that Biden had received $5 million from an executive of the Ukrainian gas company, where Hunter Biden was a highly paid member of its board of directors.
Here is an excerpt of what only Fox reported:
The sources briefed Fox News Digital on the contents of the FBI-generated FD-1023 form alleging a criminal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national that involved influence over U.S. policy decisions.
The FD-1023 form, dated June 30, 2020, is the FBI's interview with a “highly credible” confidential source who detailed multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015. Fox News Digital has not seen the form, but it was described by several sources who are aware of its contents.
The Blaze
Great moments in busy-bodyness. Remind us again, why don't we do business with Amazon? Brandon Johnson should be able to answer that one easily. Amazon, which controls the Ring security doorbells it sells, locked Brandon out of his house and shut down several systems he uses to manage the abode. His offense was to program an automated response to the door bell ringing, “Excuse me, can I help you”? A delivery person, who was wearing headphones, interpreted the greeting as – spoiler alert – racist, stormed off in a huff and refused to leave the package. He complained to Amazon, and the company's jackboots canceled Mr. Johnson's right to domestic tranquility for a week. Just a guess, but we doubt the driver was listening to Mozart's Piano Sonata.
Just the News
Another Uniparty Republican with no management or leadership experience wants to be president. Will Hurd of Texas, whose lifetime favorable conservative record in Congress is 47% (v. the 85 average of all Republicans House Members), said he's running to stop “a lawless, selfish, failed politician like Donald Trump.”
Hurd joins a crowded field of Republicans and Republican-by-Convenience candidates that columnist, trial attorney, former stand-up comedian and retired Army Col. Kurt Schlichter calls the clown car candidates, who will “get a clue and get out” once they start to watch Trump's lead decrease and DeSantis' increase.
The Hill
Let's start by saying that Joe Biden needs to be impeached and removed from office, along with Alejandro Mayorkas and Merrick Garland. But that isn't going to happen, and everybody knows it. An attempt now with a slim House majority and none in the Senate would look as ridiculous as those against President Trump.
The Hill reports that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, called Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, an uncomplimentary name after Boebert tried to force a floor vote on impeachment.
For good reason. Speaker McCarthy doesn't really need this pressure on his Members from swing districts, and Boebert, as usual, worked freelance in her inflammatory tirade, reminding us, again, that she is the most obnoxious and divisive Republican House Member.
McCarthy is easy to criticize, as he continually is by the GOP right flank. But he's walking a rope tighter than a piano string and has a job that few of us envy, that of keeping a fragile coalition from popping at the seams.
Election fraud update
Fox News Corp. agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle the lawsuit that claimed Fox knowingly spread lies about Dominion's role in the 2020 election. That hasn't stopped cyber security experts from warning that Dominion's voting machines, according to Just the News, “had significant vulnerabilities, which led the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to issue a public advisory last year based on the findings.”
Despite the warnings, Georgia election officials say they won't correct any flaws until after the 2024 election. Their decision was so alarming that even state-friendly NBC News reported the story.
“A newly unsealed expert report arguing that Georgia’s Dominion Voting Systems machines are vulnerable to vote switching and hacking is raising alarms in Georgia, even as the state downplays the risks and their plans to mitigate them,” NBC website reporters Jane C. Timm and Kevin Collier wrote.
In one study, University of Michigan Professor Alex Halderman found no evidence of tampering in past elections but said Georgia's Dominion machines are critically vulnerable to hacking, including the ability to switch votes. NBC said more than 20 cyber security experts have defended Halderman's report.
Separate from the voting machine controversy, there is evidence of voting fraud in the Georgia 2020 election, with enough suspected fraud in Fulton County alone to account for Biden's win. Anti-Trump Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, have strongly defended Fulton County's procedures and have obstructed every attempt to investigate the fraud.
Recommended
“Oh, So That's Why Hunter Biden Got a Sweetheart Plea Deal When He Did”
Spencer Brown at TownHall
“Will the Grand Jury Fall for the Hunter Biden Theatrics?
Drew Allen at American Thinker
To contact Steve: stephencombs@substack.com. The Friday Letter is published in the op-ed section of USSA News. See updated versions at our website, fridayletter.us.