By Mike Huckabee
December 17, 2024
|
|
Before even getting into this, one caveat: Although we greatly welcome and always seek out input from attorneys we respect, we ourselves are not attorneys. At the same time, we revere the Constitution and believe we have a pretty solid idea of how the framers intended it to work. Although in Article II they gave the President the unfettered power of the pardon, they also gave us the 25th Amendment in part to avoid the scenario of a senile President issuing ill-advised and even absurd executive orders and pardons that others in his administration have likely put in front of him to sign, just as shady relatives might do with an incompetent grandfather’s “new will.”
Biden, if only by proxy, can do incredible damage on his way out the door.
Note also that our question isn’t WILL these pardons stand, but SHOULD they? Short answer: NO.
Now, to the discussion. A number of Biden’s roughly 1,500 (so far) pardons and commutations have garnered individual attention, for all the wrong reasons. One spectacular example is the commutation of the prison sentence for corrupt Judge Michael Conahan, convicted of his role in the so-called “Kids for Cash” scandal, taking huge kickbacks for committing minors to a particular private detention facility.
As Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pointed out, “Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/
The DAILY CALLER cites Conahan, along with multiple other convicted Democrat politicians who were granted clemency.
President Biden, constitutionally, has the authority to pardon anyone, without any obligation to explain why he’s doing it.
But does he even KNOW why he’s doing it? Or know that he’s doing it at all?
This brings us to the latest James O’Keefe undercover video, dropped Monday, which offers word from one of Biden’s national security advisors that the sitting President is much worse off cognitively than the public knows.
And we already knew his condition was bad. We’ve witnessed countless presidential brain glitches. We’ve watched him go mentally vacant, or become physically lost, shaking hands with people who weren’t there, looking around to find his way offstage or wandering aimlessly off into the trees. Biden had noticeable issues for a long time, but they seemed to be progressing more rapidly in the past year or so, culminating in his scary-bad performance during the Biden-Trump debate.
After he dropped out of the race, his deterioration visibly accelerated even more.
Still, Democrats resisted using the 25th Amendment to replace him with Kamala Harris, much as that was the honest thing to do and even might have helped them chalk up political points. (Why they didn’t do this is a mystery we can’t begin to understand, because we are sane.)
O’Keefe’s video captures National Security Advisor Henry Appel speaking candidly to an undercover reporter about Biden’s mental state: “Joe Biden is, like, dead. Not literally. Like, he, like, can’t say a sentence.”
“He’s like, really progressed in his old age,” Appel said over a meal in a restaurant. “Everybody recognizes it. I can’t believe it wasn’t a bigger scandal earlier. He’ll be dead in a year. Or he’ll be, like, out of public life.”
Appel went on to describe a conversation in which Biden couldn’t understand the phrase “novel phenomenon.” When Jake Sullivan used that term, Biden became confused and said, “What, do you mean, like a book?”
Appel said, “The two meanings of the word ‘novel,’ like, he lost them.”
(Editorial aside: We assume it’s not dementia but some milder form of mental deficiency that causes some very annoying people to repeatedly interject the word “like” in conversations. Another symptom might be that it causes people in high level national security roles to run their mouths in front of undercover reporters.)
Appel went on to describe some phone exchange that will be very familiar to those who have family members with Alzheimer’s. Biden was calling while on a foreign trip; Appel thought it was to Europe. “I picked up the phone and said, ‘Hello, Mr. President. It’s Henry.’ And he was like, ‘Is Jake [Sullivan] there?’ And I was like, ‘No, he’s traveling with you. He’s on the same trip that you are.’
Another example: “A couple of weeks ago, I was, like, the last one in the office. And he [Biden] called for my boss [Sullivan]. And so I picked up the phone and said, ‘Hello, Mr. President. It’s Henry on Jake’s phone. He’s out for the day, but I can try to get him on the line for you.’” Appel described how Biden said he’d try to track Sullivan down, call his Secret Service detail or use his unclassified phone. “And then, like, ten seconds later, same phone rang. I picked it up again. I was like, ‘Hi again, it’s Henry.’ And he was like, ‘Is Jake there?’ And I was like, ‘No, you called the same office…”
“That was, like, a year ago.”
Appel works for the Intelligence Programs Directorate of the National Security Council. O’Keefe refers to him as a “former spy” and quotes government websites that say “the Division is responsible for overseeing and coordinating intelligence activities across various U.S. intelligence agencies, providing the NSC with crucial intelligence analysis to inform national security decision-making.” It is “essentially acting as the primary point of contact between the Intelligence Community and the National Security Council on intelligence matters.” In the video, Appel speaks of his team’s responsibility for providing senior policymakers with “all” the top secrets, noting that much of what his office does has to do with Ukraine. (Side note: In Trump’s new administration, these people will apparently be answerable to the new Director of National Intelligence [DNI]. Trump has nominated Tulsi Gabbard, who should start by firing them all and starting over.)
At the link, Mike Miller at REDSTATE relates the story Appel told about Biden, as difficult as that must have been for him because he lost his own mom to Alzheimer’s and recognized some of the same symptoms Appel was describing. And don’t miss O’Keefe’s video; it’s highly entertaining and well worth your time.
Incidentally, the conversation between Appel and the undercover reporter goes on, with Appel saying that he and members of the national security team were crying the night of Trump’s win and claiming they were all “trauma-bonded.” They’re also concerned at the prospect of Trump “coming after us [legally],” that he’d “investigate us or whatever.”
“I don’t know, they’d make up, like a fake scandal, or something…”
(As if they didn’t have enough real stuff to investigate.)
Fun note from O’Keefe: This person who has been entrusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets says on his dating profile that his greatest strength is “oversharing on the first date.” And how!
…….
So, it’s obvious now, even to those who work most closely with him, that Biden is so cognitively impaired, any decision he makes as President has to be second-guessed. As Mike Miller says:
“Joe Biden is the sitting President of the United States. He figuratively has his finger on the nuclear button. He is handing out pardons to people, including his son Hunter, like they’re going out of style, not to mention that the pardon of Hunter and other undeserving recipients makes a mockery of justice.”
It should never happen again. “Heads should roll,” he says, “for it happening this time, and legislation or a constitutional amendment should be passed to ensure that it doesn’t.”
Some are still trying to pretend that Biden is of sound mind and actually came up with that vast list of people he personally wanted to pardon. No one who actually IS of sound mind believes that. Not being attorneys, we’re not sure of the best way to solve this problem, legislatively or judicially. What do we do when those in power care so little for the law that they just ignore the 25th Amendment and leave the nation rudderless and themselves unaccountable? Yes, we held an election and fixed it at the ballot box (thank God), but at least in our lifetimes, there’s never been a transition as potentially damaging as this.
RELATED: While roughly 1,500 of President Biden’s closest friends are being pardoned or getting their sentences commuted, Judge Juan Merchan, to no one’s surprise, has rejected the request from Trump’s legal team to dismiss the case against him based on presidential immunity. Trump attorney Todd Blanche had argued that evidence brought against Trump during the trial had involved his official duties and so was improperly admitted. Merchan doesn’t care.
This is the case New York v. Trump, in which Trump was convicted by a Manhattan jury of falsifying business records related to payments on the non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels. (His office recorded them as “legal expenses.” Seriously, that’s what this is about.) The case, and the prospect even of a prison sentence (however unlikely), will now apparently loom until Trump is out of office at age 82 (although Merchan could still salvage a molecule or two of his legal reputation by simply voiding the bogus guilty verdict and throwing the entire case out, but don’t hold your breath.) Details here…
Further legal analysis at LEGAL INSURRECTION…
Also, as we reported last week, the DOJ has actually accelerated its indictments of still more J6 defendants, even though they know President Trump will pardon them precisely one nanosecond after re-entering the Oval Office on January 20. They don’t give a flip, and are apprehending at least two new J6 suspects every day. Here’s an update…
https://www.wnd.com/2024/12/
RELATED READING: Speaking of Tulsi Gabbard being Trump’s nominee for DNI, she’s got some organized opposition, in the form of a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and soon-to-be Majority Leader John Thune. This letter reportedly is signed by members of left-wing organizations, intelligence agencies, defense contractors and groups targeting “election misinformation.” In other words, the Swamp, the very people who need to be gotten rid of. They don’t want her because she’s over the target (them). Show support for Trump’s choice; contact your Senators!
Leave a Comment
Note: Fields marked with an * are required.