WASHINGTON TIMES: Biden’s DOJ punishing political opponents is now acceptable
Give President Biden credit.
He tried campaigning on his abysmal record for a couple of weeks, and when that didn’t work out, his Department of Justice indicted his likely 2024 political opponent on flimsy and outrageous charges that criminalize free speech.
It’s clear that the Biden administration is doing everything in its power to distract voters from the fact that the president’s policies are destroying our country and have driven us into a ditch in less than three short years.
Mr. Biden’s Constitution-wrecking decision to order the brazen politicization of the Justice Department — taking the blindfold off Lady Justice — will reverberate for decades to come and in the worst ways possible. What Mr. Biden doesn’t understand is that once the Rubicon is crossed, there’s no going back.
The precedent has now been set — call it the Biden Doctrine — and from here on in, using the Department of Justice and the other levers of power in government to punish political opponents is acceptable. The mainstream media’s refusal to cover this story honestly will be long remembered.
Recently on the campaign trail, Mr. Biden has started to lean into the phrase “Bidenomics” to describe his economic program, and the feedback has been unmistakable. Just 38% of the American people approve of the way Mr. Biden is handling economic issues, while 58% disapprove. Bidenomics simply isn’t working, and like with so many other issues, Mr. Biden is the last to know.
People are concerned, and for good reason.
Mr. Biden’s big government socialist policies and out-of-control spending addiction have created a stubborn inflation problem and paved the way for dramatic interest rate increase. Sticker shock continues for hardworking Americans every time they go to the grocery store or fill their gas tank.
In short, the Biden economic agenda is making it harder to save, harder to retire, and harder to get ahead. Americans see hundreds of billions of dollars thrown at things like climate change extremism and the war in Ukraine, and they are wondering what’s in it for them.
When the American people hear Bidenomics, they think lower standard of living.
But the Biden misery index doesn’t stop with the economy — not by a long shot. Look no further than the catastrophe that’s continuing to play out on our southern border and spilling into cities, towns and neighborhoods all over the country.
In one fell swoop, Mr. Biden’s open borders have caused a national security, humanitarian and fentanyl crisis. Due to the Biden administration’s magnet policies, migrants are dying, and the red carpet has been rolled out for human traffickers, drug cartels and terrorists.
On Mr. Biden’s watch, more attention and more resources are being thrown at Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine than the crime crisis in our own streets. The feeling across our country is palpable.
The soft-on-crime philosophy championed by Mr. Biden and billionaire George Soros has emboldened offenders and purposefully diminished the uncommon heroism of our men and women in blue.
As the radical Soros network funds dangerous programs like ones aiming “to educate and mobilize Baltimore residents most impacted by over-policing,” Mr. Biden has granted their leaders an open-door policy at the White House. The Democrats’ aversion to law and order is totally unacceptable.
As you can see, Mr. Biden doesn’t have anything positive to talk about on the campaign trail.
The president’s tone-deaf and overheated rhetoric has further divided our citizens even though he promised to unite us. Mr. Biden also promised to make America stronger after COVID-19, and he has failed miserably.
On foreign policy, the world watched in disbelief as images of the president’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan became seared in their memory, and China is playing us like a fiddle on a daily basis. On the domestic front, an uneasy feeling of malaise has come back to haunt us like a ghost from the 1970s. Whether it’s supply chain disruptions, infrastructure disasters or raiding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it’s been one thing after another, reminding us of the Jimmy Carter years we’d like to forget.
To make matters worse, the timing of the Biden Justice Department’s indictment of former President Donald Trump comes at a time when Mr. Biden’s central role in his family’s international influence peddling business is coming into focus more and more every day. It’s obvious that Mr. Biden is abusing power and doing everything he can to distract the American people from his own dismal record.
Make no mistake about it. The 2024 presidential election will be a referendum on Mr. Biden and his agenda that has caused so much harm to our beloved constitutional republic.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.