Phony Scandal Watch — Rebutting More Right Wing Zombie Lies
Over the last 28 years, the GOP has tried to generate phony scandals about prominent Democrats to win elections and discredit Democratic Presidents. The Republicans do this because they know that if the election turns on Trump’s plans to end pre-existing condition protections, take away insurance from 20 million Americans, cut Medicare, and cut Social Security, Trump will be routed in November. Instead, the GOP makes up lies about the Democratic nominee by generating phony scandals.
We saw this strategy play out in 2016 when the GOP demonized Hillary Clinton for using the wrong email server. Unfortunately, the “liberal” mainstream media blew the entire episode out of proportion and made it the key issue in the 2016 campaign, As it turned out, the FBI, the Trump Administration Department of Justice, and the Trump Administration Department of State found no wrongdoing and failed to confirm any of the Fox News conspiracy theories. Simply stated, Hillary Clinton is the most exonerated politician in American history.
The Trump Administration and the GOP also tried to discredit President Obama by falsely claiming that he spied on the Trump campaign. Trump tasked Michael Horowitz and the Inspector General’s Office to investigate these allegations. The likes of Sean Hannity and other right wingers held out great hope for the Horowitz report and predicted it would result in the indictment of President Obama.
Like we’ve seen since 1992, the Republicans made up yet another phony scandal and were disappointed again. Horowitz found that the Steele dossier didn’t play a role in opening the Trump-Russia investigation, Obama never wiretapped Trump Tower and the FBI didn’t plant spies in the Trump campaign.
Nonetheless, those same right wingers who predicted the demise of Obama are now telling us to wait for the Durham report. They’ve been telling us to wait for the outcomes of investigations since 1992. Perhaps it’s time for the “liberal” mainstream media and conservatives to finally begin to question the credibility of the people making false charges about prominent Democrats. The RNC and the right wing media make up these phony scandals to win elections and make money. They’ve been playing the media and conservatives for chumps for years.
The GOP and the right wing media are already falling back on their old strategy of pushing out phony scandals in the 2020 election cycle. After Biden opened up a big lead over the former TV reality star who occupies the White House, Trump and Giuliani pressured Ukraine to investigate Democratic front runner Joe Biden and his family. Trump even threatened to withhold $250 million in military aide to Ukraine unless Kiev launched this investigation. There’s nothing American about seeking help from a foreign government to win an election.
As former George W. Bush speech writer David Frum tweeted: “Can we please drop this nonsense about Trump asking Ukraine to “investigate” Biden? As Anders Aslund, a real Ukraine expert, notes: “there is no honest accusation against Biden. What Trump wanted was a fabrication, not an investigation.” Aslund also tweeted: “For the record: VP Joe Biden did a stellar work on Ukraine. He had the support of the whole Ukraine community, pressing President Poroshenko to do more for the rule of law & he achieved substantial results. Biden deserves only praise for his work in Ukraine!”
One of the Republicans’ key phony allegations was that Joe Biden urged Ukraine to fire Victor Shokin, a prosecutor who was allegedly investigating his son. The reality is that this Ukrainian prosecutor wasn’t investigating Hunter Biden and in fact he was fired for NOT investigating corruption in Ukraine.
Interestingly enough, several key GOP Senators and the E.U. supported the termination of this corrupt prosecutor. Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Mark Kirk of Illinois and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all joined the Obama Administration and our allies in calling for the termination of Shokin.
Ukraine’s top prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko stated in 2019 that there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe and Hunter Biden. Moreover, he said that Biden acted properly when he called for the dismissal of Ukraine’s former prosecutor general, Victor Shokin.
The Republicans will continue to pursue this phony scandal narrative during the 2020 election cycle and even after that — when a Democrat is elected President. The GOP doesn’t want an election comparing the visions and platforms of the respective parties. Trump and the D.C. Republicans believe that rich people don’t have enough money and that the poor and middle class have it too easy. The last thing the GOP wants is for the 2020 election to be about real issues.
As Democrats, we can’t be fooled or alarmed by these GOP allegations. We’ve been seeing this game plan since 1992 and it has always turned out to be false and not grounded in reality. We need to keep the focus on the issues and the GOP’s record in office. If we can do that, we will win the 2020 elections. Now let’s get it done!