​Investigating Justice

 
Representatives Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees, announced today that they are launching a joint investigation of the 2016 campaign-related activities of the Obama Justice Department. 
 
They want answers regarding how the FBI handled Hillary Clinton's email scandal and how it approached the investigation of the Trump campaign.
 
This is something President Trump and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) have been demanding for months.  "We hear all this talk about Russian influence in the election," Jordan said.  "How about the Obama government's influence in the election?" 
 
I know many of you are frustrated with investigations that never seem to result in any meaningful change or prosecution of wrongdoing.  Maybe this joint effort will be different.  This time, the entire executive branch, including the Department of Justice, is under new management.
 
 
 
Trump's Benghazi?
 
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and other progressives are making headlines for suggesting that the ambush in Niger, which claimed the lives of four U.S. Special Operations soldiers, could be "Trump's Benghazi."  That's interesting because to this day many on the left insist that Benghazi was no big deal.  
 
Here's the salient point on Benghazi: The Obama Administration lied to the country.  Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice tried to convince us that Benghazi had nothing to do with radical Islam and that the attack was all about a video. 
 
In contrast, the Trump Administration has been clear that we are in Niger fighting ISIS and other Islamic supremacist groups.  In fact, the Bush Administration identified this area as a critical region for counterterrorism efforts in 2002.  Last year, the Obama Administration announced it was building a $100 million military base in Niger.
 
Yesterday, General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a complete briefing to the White House press corps.  He said that our strategy was to "put pressure on [Islamist groups] simultaneously, wherever they are, and, as importantly, to anticipate where they will be." 
 
Incredibly, some members of Congress are claiming ignorance about our activities in Niger, and they are demanding to know why we have troops there.  Gen. Dunford noted that we have had troops in Niger "off and on for over 20 years," and that there has been a large buildup since 2015. 
 
In June, the White House informed congressional leaders that there were nearly 1,000 troops in the Lake Chad Basin Region of Africa.  Members of Congress who are rushing to the nearest microphone and asking questions now haven't been doing their jobs.
 
 
 
Mugged By Reality
 
It's been said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged by reality.  Well, MSNBC got mugged by reality this week. 
 
The left-wing network sent a reporter to the border, no doubt intending to produce a surly story on "Trump's wall."  Suddenly, reality intervened as a group of illegal immigrants jumped the sad fence we have guarding our border.  Watch it here.
 
While we're on the subject of illegal immigration, here's something you should know -- polls show that President Trump's positions on immigration and border security have broad public support.  In contrast, the public rejects the open borders philosophy of the left.
 
For example, House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi said last week that her party may not accept any border security measures in a potential deal with President Trump to resolve the status of the so-called "Dreamers" or DACA recipients.  Once again, we see how the left's idea of "compromise" really means conservatives must surrender.
 
I almost never agree with liberal columnist Andrew Sullivan, and that's why I was surprised by his latest column.  Sullivan notes how the issue of immigration -- even the very concept of nationhood itself -- has pushed the progressive movement off an ideological cliff.  Consider this excerpt:
 
"The entire concept of a nation whose citizens solely determine its future -- the core foundation for any viable democracy at all -- is now deemed by many left-liberals to be a function of bigotry.  This is the kind of madness that could keep them from power indefinitely."
 
Don't forget this, my friends.  I have often written that the left is trying to make normal conservative ideas unspeakable by smearing them as "racist" or "bigoted."  You don't have to take my word for it.  Here's liberal Andrew Sullivan saying it too!
 
 
 
Remembering Beirut
 
Vice President Mike Pence addressed U.S. Marines in Washington, D.C., yesterday.  His speech marked a somber occasion -- the 34th anniversary of the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.  That suicide attack killed 241 Americans and was, as the vice president noted, "the bloodiest day for the United States Marine Corps since the assault on Iwo Jima."
 
Not surprisingly, Vice President Pence devoted a considerable portion of his remarks to Iran.  Consider these excerpts:
 
"The Beirut barracks bombing was the opening salvo in a war that we have waged ever since. . . Radical Islamic terrorism is a hydra with many heads, striking London, Paris, Barcelona. . .  The brutal act that brings us here today was planned and perpetrated by the terrorists of Hezbollah. . . 
 
"But as we all know, that terrorist group is merely a proxy for the leading state sponsor of terrorism.  And President Donald Trump has put Iran on notice that we will no longer tolerate their destabilizing activities or their support of terrorism across the region and across the world.  
 
"Iran's theocratic rulers aided and abetted the Beirut bombers 34 years ago.  And even now, Iran praises the attackers and remembers them as martyrs. . .
 
"Just over a week ago, our president took decisive action to confront Iran's aggression when he announced that the United States of America will no longer certify the Iran nuclear deal or tolerate Iran's support of global terrorism.  This president will not sit idly by while the ayatollahs in Tehran plot more attacks like the horrific attack that we remember today."
 
New polling once again shows just how in-touch President Trump is with the American people.  According to The Hill:

• 60% of registered voters said that Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran was bad for America.
• 66% said Iran was not complying with the deal.
• 70% said the deal needed to be renegotiated, including 71% of independents and 57% of Democrats.
• 81% said that any new deal with Iran should be submitted to the Senate for ratification as a formal treaty.

That last point is an important one.  Let me remind you that Barack Obama refused to allow the Senate to vote on the Iranian nuclear deal.  The U.N. got to vote on it.  The Iranian parliament got to vote on it.
 
But Obama and his liberal allies in Congress denied your senators the right to vote on what was essentially a nuclear treaty with an avowed enemy of the United States, a regime that chants "Death to Israel!  Death to America!"
 
Thankfully, President Trump is taking steps to fix this horrendous deal and hold Iran accountable for its aggression.