Newsmax remains firmly in Trump suck-up mode, and that was made clear again in a Feb. 6 “news” article by Eric Mack defending Donald Trump against the conservatives at National Review, complaining that “the magazine ran a lead editorial criticizing the Republican National Committee for censuring Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., calling the move “both morally repellent” and “political malpractice of the highest order.” Mack huffed in response: “National Review did not criticize the House Democrats for not seeking accountability for the one in charge of Capitol security on Jan. 6 — Pelosi.”
In fact, Pelosi was not in charge of the Capitol police nor a member of any committee supervising it at the time of the Capitol riot.
Mack further complained: “While National Review has embraced progressive talking points on the Jan. 6 protests, it has not excoriated Democrats to the same degree for embracing months of violent George Floyd protests, nor has it called for Congressional hearings into the mayhem.” In fact, the vast majority of protests against police brutality in 2020 were peaceful.
Mack also grumbled: “Last year, National Review’s lead legal writer and Fox News contributor, Andrew McCarthy, even called for Trump’s conviction after Democrats brought forth a politically motivated impeachment on legally dubious grounds.” Mack didn’t mention that McCarthy agreed that Trump’s impeachment was “politically motivated” — as all impeachments are — he would have voted to impeach because “Impeachable conduct for which condemnation is warranted did in fact occur.”
Meanwhile, Charlie McCarthy lived up to his name by uncritically mouthing Trump’s words in a Feb. 8 article:
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning said President Joe Biden wouldn’t have needed to threaten closure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if he had continued Trump administration policy.
Biden on Monday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. would “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russian troops invade Ukraine.
“Well, I stopped it, but I stopped it differently,” Trump said Tuesday during an interview on Fox Business. “I stopped it with the threat of tariffs and with various other things. And it was stopped. It was dead. It was absolutely dead.
“Biden came in and he opened it. And he killed our pipeline, Keystone XL. But I stopped it. I had it stopped … I didn’t know what he was doing, he came in and he said, ‘Proceed with that [Nord Stream] pipeline.’ “
In fact, the Trump White House, through then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, issued guidance that exempted the project from sanctions measures passed by Congress in 2017; at the time, Trump was trying to cozy up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. It wasn’t until later in his administration, December 2019 — after the pipeline continued construction for three years during his administration — that Trump sanctioned the entities building the pipeline, effectively stopping construction on it. The project was restarted in late 2020 as the entities found a way around the sanctions; Biden lifted the sanctions after he took office because it was clear they would no longer stop the project, and they were replaced in July 2021 with an agreement that the U.S. and Germany would impose costs on Russia regarding the pipeline if it harmed Ukraine or other European countries — which is what happened when Russia invaded Ukraine.