We know Newsmax is doing what it can to stay in the good graces of Donald Trump, and CEO Christopher Ruddy’s July 6 column, complaining about charges of corruption against officials in the Trump Organization, is a reminder that this comes straight from the top:
Many in the liberal press seemed to be gloating and gleeful. Trump is finally being held accountable, they say!
The establishment angst over the iconoclastic Trump has been palpable for some time, even before he took the oath of office in 2017.
Almost from Day One, liberal New York prosecutors have been determined to “get Trump.”
It is highly unusual – unprecedented, actually – for a former U.S. president or his business to be charged for alleged crimes before he became president, largely as a result of politically motivated investigations.
Any fair-minded person has to admit the investigations into Trump and his businesses are political.
For example, the state claimed the Trump Organization violated federal law, but the feds are not prosecuting. And James ran her successful 2018 campaign for attorney general on a single issue: “Get Trump.”
She claimed “that man in the White House … can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights,” referring to Trump as an “illegitimate president.”
This from the leader of a website that had trouble admitting that Barack Obama was legitimately elected in 2008, pushed birther conspiracy theories, and published a columnist who called for a military coup to resolve the “Obama problem.” We also don’t recall anyone at Newsmax complaining about the repeated politically motivated Republican investigations into Benghazi, which Kevin McCarthy has admitted were designed to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances. So Ruddy has little room to complain about Trump being targeted by allegedly politically motivated investigations.
Ruddy went on to offer a veiled threat of prosecution of Hunter Biden for the alleged crime of being Joe Biden’s son if New York prosecutors don’t lay off Trump:
This past week I was in New York and I spoke to two well-connected Democrats.
One told me New York prosecutors “just hate Trump so much” they are blind to the implications of what they are doing.
Another, a business leader, said that the biggest loser in the indictments was, in fact, President Joe Biden.
“The precedent has now been set, you can criminally prosecute a president and his associates,” the person said, pointing out the legal vulnerabilities of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
I personally do not believe Hunter Biden should be prosecuted as a result of his father becoming president.
But a number of pundits have said that the flimsy New York state prosecutions represent clear evidence that our nation has become a banana republic and that anyone will be fair game under the new standard, including Hunter, future presidents and their families.
Thanks, Chris, for admitting that right-wing attention on Hunter Biden is completely driven by politics, not the law. And does he really think Republicans will stop targeting Hunter no matter what happens to Trump?