What stories topped your priority lists this week? Come on, man. “You and I are not doing the show right,” Duane Patterson starts off saying. “If we would have actually coordinated and started out the show right, we would both be wearing Tommy Bahamas shirts — because it is Banana Republic time.” Indeed is is, thanks to the administration of an incumbent president indicting his most likely challenger in the next election. And what a coincidence, Duane says, that the indictment came just as Congress discovered allegations that Joe Biden got millions of dollars while VP from Burisma to impact US policy in Ukraine. Hmmm. Do you believe in coincidences?
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Welcome to our VIP feature for Hot Air as well as a members-only show in the Hughniverse! Duane Patterson and I now are doing a Week in Review show for Friday evenings, exclusive to members in both platforms. Duane has been the Generalissimo behind the Hugh Hewitt Show for more than two decades, and we have partnered on weekly commentary since 2007.
Today’s highlights and quips:
- “The FBI essentially said” in the Hillary Clinton case, I point out, that “because she didn’t intend to spy on the United States, we really can’t prosecute this crime. Well, Trump wasn’t intending to spy on the United States either. So what is the issue here?” I ask. “The issue here is that Trump is a Republican and Hillary Clinton was a Democrat.”
- The way that this got rolled out gives an indication as to the strength of the case, Duane argues. “If you are going to take this unprecedented step, if you are gonna bring this charge,” Duane says, “then get your lily-white ass in front of a microphone and take questions and and explain why you’re doing this, because it’s unprecedented.”
- If this turns out to be as weak as it looks, especially in relation to the case on Hillary Clinton, “the indictment of Donald Trump will seriously damage the neutrality of America’s rule of law. I would say that you can’t possibly have a case that was worse than Hillary Clinton without some allegation that the material was knowingly passed along to a hostile power. … Hillary Clinton’s violations undermined the constitutional balance between the legislative in the executive branch, and the FBI shrugged it off as saying, Well, she didn’t have the intent to spy, so we really can’t present a case against her. That’s nonsense.”
- Duane and I discuss the reaction from other Republican presidential candidates thus far, most notably Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence, who was on the Hugh Hewitt Show this morning. Duane paraphrased Pence’s response: “I am one that believes that no one is above the law. That said, he said, it’s really hard when it the same thing everybody else is saying, it’s really hard when you look at how they did not prosecute Hillary Clinton under those circumstances. And then you throw in the Russia hoax stuff and, and all the weaponization of justice. It’s really hard to have faith in the institutions when they’re doing a political prosecution like this.”
Duane and I game out what this means in the GOP primary. We also discuss the new candidates in the race, and who might be inclined to jump in — or out — as the Trump legal issues progress. Be sure to watch it all and join us in the comments!
