RIGHT WING EXTREMISM
Hugh Hewitt Slammed After Major Meltdown Declaring Trump Indictment ‘Ought to Be Vomited Out’ of Court
Right-wing talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, who initially opposed Donald Trump’s first run for president only to become a strong supporter, is being highly criticized over his remarks attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith and Tuesday’s indictment of the ex-president for his alleged actions to overturn the 2020 election that he lost. Among Hewitt’s claims: the case “ought to be vomited out by the judicial branch,” and “”Show trials are only choreographed in Stalin’s Russia.”
Trump was charged Tuesday with conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
Hewitt, who held numerous positions in the Reagan administration and now sits on the board of directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation, is widely considered an influential thought leader among conservatives.
Moments after Jack Smith announced Donald Trump had been indicted on those four federal criminal charges, Hewitt attacked the Special Counsel, who until now has been best-known for prosecuting war criminals at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Hewitt compared Smith to Inspector Javert, the fictional character in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Misérables,” who relentlessly prosecutes a man for stealing a loaf of bread.
“Jack Smith, an American Javert, should be obliged to prosecute this case outside of the Beltway,” Hewitt declared, pushing a point numerous Trump supporters have now promoted.
“Former President Trump deserves a fair trial on these unprecedented charges which will strike tens of millions of Americans as a political witch hunt,” Hewitt declared early Tuesday evening, invoking the very language Trump has used for years to describe every investigation he has faced.
“Maybe you should read the indictment first,” replied Norman Ornstein, the noted political scientist and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Apparently for you it is wrong to pursue charges against somebody who incited a violent insurrection against the constitution and the government of the United States.”
“Hugh Hewitt,” Ornstein added, “calls Jack Smith an American Javert. Apparently, to him, inciting a violent insurrection and encouraging the assassination of the vice president is the equivalent of stealing a loaf of bread.”
Some responded with efforts to debunk the claim Trump cannot get a fair trial in Washington, D.C.
44% of DC is Republican or Non affiliated.
He will have 12 peer jurors.
On average that’s about 5 who should be open or sympathetic politically. pic.twitter.com/clzpkUpI1c
— Jeff Cook (@jeffvcook) August 2, 2023
“What am I missing?” asked human rights attorney and activist Paula Cobia. “How is the latest #TrumpIndictment a ‘political witch hunt?’ ALL the witnesses who testified before the Grand Juries are Republicans. Not Democrats. Not Independents. All Republicans. That makes these indictments the polar opposite of a political witch hunt.”
Professor of law Steve Vladeck, and expert in national security law, responded by quoting the U.S. Constitution: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law . . . .”
In another, and this time lengthy rant early Wednesday morning, Hewitt declared the case should “be captioned Beltway v. Trump or TDSS v Trump as it brought by and b/c of TDS Society members and greeted w/ zealots’ frenzy on the left.”
TDS generally stands for “Trump derangement syndrome,” a frequent attack by Trump supporters against those who oppose the ex-president.
“I’ve read the indictment of course and am astonished this rehash of everything already known (plus a few small details not previously known such as Paragraph 83) was allowed to escape DOJ in the guise of an indictment –to the great damage of the nation now and in the future– even by the aging, trembling AG. Jack Smith, the American Javert, is the tool the TDS-afflicted have long sought.”
He again called for the trial to be moved out of Washington, D.C. and also “vomited out by the judicial branch.”
“Pray the judicial branch has the courage to bat it away and stand for the rule of law, and failing that, to move the venue far from the swamp to avoid the scar on our history of a show trial in, by and for The Beltway. This attempt to criminalize erroneous suspicion that an election was stolen, or of trying novel though very weak theories, throwing a legal Hail Mary or even holding a rally with irresponsible rhetoric which did not approach much less cross the line of Brandenburg v Ohio is without precedent and ought to be vomited out by the judicial branch so as to avoid its repeat in the future.”
Hewitt was far from finished.
“The very idea that false claims in politics are now criminal acts is stunning,” he declared, a claim legal experts have made clear is not what Trump is being charged with. “It is also sweeping, cannot be limited and has vast and sinister implications down the years ahead. ‘I have the defendant; find me the crime’ is now the rule. Every previous objector to every previous election –2016, 2004, 2000– should be relieved that statutes of limitations have passed. Only the new caste of Javerts –obscure zealots who can be tabbed ‘seasoned, career prosecutors’– are now standing ready to prosecute whomever the power in power wants removed from the scene. ‘Oh but Trump is uniquely bad and 1/6 happened’ is a fool’s mirage. ‘Unleashing the furies’ has never had a better example.”
Attorney and professor of philosophy and law David Koepsell:
The false claims aren’t what’s criminal, Hugh. You are lying. Planning to use the instruments of government to subvert the peaceful transfer of power: that’s illegal. pic.twitter.com/RXUvlewLpS
— David Koepsell is a Legitimate Person. (@DRKoepsell) August 2, 2023
HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte responded, writing that if Trump “could be charged criminally for just lying, he’d be in a Supermax for thousands of years. He was charged for leading a conspiracy to defraud the United States and for his using his office to deprive millions of people of their votes.”
Hewitt was still not finished, launching into what former CIA official John Sipher called a “ridiculous take.”
“I hope the charges brought by the American Javert are thrown out, but the TDS Dead Ender Coalition should listen carefully to what [Trump attorney] John Lauro told [Fox News’] @BretBaier last night: The former president will be subpoenaing everyone who had anything to do with the unusual circumstances of the 2020 election in order to prove his genuine suspicion of the process, which I think means everyone from Mark Zuckerberg who provided the ‘Zuck Bucks’ to the PA Supreme Court to the ’51 former Intelligence Community members’ who signed the ‘laptop is Russian disinformation letter’ to the old execs at Twitter who suppressed the @NYPost story to Hunter and President Biden and on and on and even perhaps to all participants in the Steele Dossier ought to clear their calendars for whenever the trial is scheduled.”
“Show trials are only choreographed in Stalin’s Russia,” he continued. “Lauro made clear this one –if it begins– is going to explore every corner of the 2020 election with former President Trump empowered to subpoena everyone who can help prove his innocence.”
Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney told Hewitt, “This is not how any of this works, of course. Trump can vow to subpoena everyone under the sun but, aside from getting credulous headlines, the odds of testimony from these far-flung randos being admissible and relevant to this case are… nil.”
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The right-wing war on knowledge continues as an Arkansas state senator filed a bill Thursday to abolish the State Library as well as the library board.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro), along with State Rep. Wayne Long (R-Bradford), filed Senate Bill 536 on Thursday. The bill would not just remove all references to the State Library from existing laws, but also put the state’s other libraries under the control of the Arkansas Department of Education.
A previous version of the bill, SB184, would have also shuttered the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, which oversees the state’s PBS stations, according to the Arkansas Advocate.
READ MORE: Clean Up Alabama Wants State to Dump ‘Marxist’ American Library Association
The Arkansas State Library is not just a regular library. In addition to providing information to state agencies and lawmakers, it also distributes funding to the other libraries around the state. Under SB536, the Department of Education would take on all its responsibilities. The State Library is officially a part of the Department of Education already, but it operates as an independent organization.
While the proposal may sound like a shuffling-around of duties, the main thrust of the bill is to allow more direct control over the Arkansas library system by controlling the purse strings. The bill would keep libraries from distributing “age-inappropriate materials” to those under 17 years old and sex education materials from those under 12. Libraries would also have to set up a system where those in the community could request that certain items be banned for minors, according to KARK-TV. Those that don’t meet these restrictions will have state funding pulled.
Earlier legislation filed by Sullivan and passed into law includes Act 242, which ended the requirement for library directors to have a master’s degree in library science, the Advocate reported. Sullivan, however, was unsuccessful with a proposed amendment to another bill that would strip funding from libraries affiliated with the American Library Association—meaning most, if not all of them. That amendment was rejected this week over concerns the language in it was too broad, according to the Advocate.
The ALA has been a target of right-wing politicians and activists upset with its free speech stance and fights against censorship. Sullivan in particular has objected to a provision in the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights protecting library access for all ages, the Advocate reported. He also called for the state’s chapter of the ALA to be defunded—despite the fact that it receives no state funding.
Image via Shutterstock
After a Moms for Liberty member claimed that teachers at a Texas high school used a trans student’s new name and proper pronouns, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an investigation.
On February 13, Denise Bell of the right wing, anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty, addressed the Houston Independent School Board. She read a statement that she said came from the parents of a trans student at Bellaire High School. The parents were upset that teachers used the student’s new name and pronouns, according to Erin in the Morning. The anonymous statement Bell read said that the change happened without parental consent, and “goes against our Christian faith, the advice of [their] therapist and quite frankly common sense.”
Bell then claimed that the school district was “purposely and secretively transitioning minors.”
State Representative Steve Toth—who represents a different district than the school is in—informed Abbott of the complaint in a letter on February 26. Two weeks later, Abbott replied to Toth’s letter, revealing he told the Texas Education Agency to investigate the Bellaire High School, accusing the teachers of helping “to ‘socially transition’ a student—violating the express wishes of the child’s mother,” which Abbott called “inappropriate and potentially unlawful.”
Abbott directed the TEA to not just determine whether or not the teachers did indeed use the trans student’s name and pronouns, but also open a full investigation into the school. TEA was told to find out if the school had also violated “policies concerning sexual education curriculum, parental consent for communications with students, mental health services or guidance to students, and parent grievances”; if any school employees had “engaged in misconduct”; and whether any student “has been subjected to abuse or neglect.”
That last one has a footnote on “abuse or neglect,” referring to a statement from President Donald Trump’s March 4 speech in front of a joint session of Congress:
“A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband, while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns—‘they/them’ pronouns, actually—all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.”
This is not the first time Abbott and his administration have attacked the state’s trans community. In his “State of the State Address” this year, he said that teachers who discuss gender transition with students should be fired, according to KTRK-TV. Texas has also banned trans students from sports as well as the use of puberty blockers in cases of minors experiencing gender dysphoria, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Image via Shutterstock
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz didn’t mince words when asked what the motivation was for the new movement among MAGA Republicans to convince President Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd in 2020.
“Racism. It’s racist. OK? That’s what I believe,” Walz said in an interview with Semafor published Wednesday.
The calls to pardon Chauvin started with an online petition earlier this month, according to The Independent. The pardon push picked up steam this week when conservative commentator Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire launched a webseries, “The Case of Derek Chauvin.” Shapiro claims the officer was convicted on “extraordinarily scanty evidence,” saying Floyd did not die from having Chauvin’s knee on his neck for over nine minutes, but rather from drugs in Floyd’s system and heart disease.
Walz, however, disputes this interpretation of events.
“This was a man who murdered George Floyd on TV,” Walz said, adding that a pardon “would undermine the faith in the system.”
The White House, however, has denied that a Chauvin pardon is in Trump’s plans. Earlier this month, Trump said he hadn’t even heard about a push to pardon Floyd’s killer, and on Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated that a pardon is “not something he’s considering at this time,” according to The Grio.
However, some commentators, like The Hill’s Juan Williams are skeptical, pointing out that Trump has pardoned two police officers convicted of killing a Black man in the first days of his second term.
In 2020, after the killing, Trump condemned Chauvin.
“We all saw what we saw. It’s hard to conceive anything other than what we did see. It should have never happened,” Trump said.
If Trump were to pardon Chauvin, it would be largely moot. Presidents can only pardon those convicted on federal charges. Chauvin was convicted on both federal and Minnesota state charges. In the event Trump cleared the federal charges, the main thing that would happen is that Chauvin would be moved from the federal prison in Big Spring, Texas to a Minnesota state prison.
Minnesota sentenced Chauvin to 22 and a half years for murder; on the federal level, he was sentenced to 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights. Barring a federal pardon, the two sentences are running concurrently, not consecutively.
Image via Shutterstock
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