There Is No “Moving On” From Corruption
By LAURA HOLLIS
(Editor’s Note: Creators Syndicate announced that Josh Hammer was off the past week and offered this column by conservative writer Laura Hollis in his place.)
- + + A common sentiment expressed by some voters on social media these days is the need to “move on.” This viewpoint seems to be particularly popular with those deeply desirous of a Republican candidate for president of the United States who is not Donald Trump.
They readily admit that Trump’s policies were far better for the economy and view Biden’s administration as disastrous. Some even acknowledge that social media censorship and changes to election procedures — many unlawful — cost Trump the 2020 presidential election.
Even so, they say, “It’s time to move on.”
It’s easy to chalk this up to “Trump fatigue” — weariness of Trump’s ego and combative personality. But an argument can also be made that this is the latest example of the public’s reluctance to confront corruption and the erosion of standards in American governance. What we’re watching transpire in U.S. politics right now should be galvanizing the country. But it doesn’t seem to be, and we need to ask ourselves why.
Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has just had Donald Trump — his primary political opponent in the 2024 presidential election — indicted and arrested. That may be a common occurrence in Third World countries, but it is unprecedented in the history of this nation.
Worse than the political targeting is the legal double standard. Trump is accused of mishandling classified documents. But we now know that Biden has had classified documents in unsecured locations (including his garage) for years. And he acquired these documents when he was not the president with the constitutional power to declassify them.
Where is the indictment of President Biden?
While Biden was vice president, his son Hunter received millions of dollars from a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma, whose leadership was under investigation. Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid unless Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor conducting the investigations, was fired. “Well, son of a bitch,” Biden bragged on camera, “he got fired.”
After Trump was elected president, he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to look into the decision to fire Shokin. Democrats accused Trump of using the presidency to target a political opponent and impeached him for “abuse of power.”
Where are the articles of impeachment against Biden?
More information has come to light this week, suggesting not only that Joe and Hunter Biden received millions of dollars in bribes from Ukraine, but that the FBI has been covering up evidence of the bribery.
Why aren’t more of us demanding accountability? Perhaps it is because we have been dismissing government corruption for far too long.
Under former President Barack Obama, the IRS improperly held up the applications of conservative nonprofits for tax-exempt status — often for years — crippling their fundraising efforts and support for their candidates and policies. Lois Lerner, then-director of Exempt Organizations, pleaded the Fifth Amendment in response to a congressional subpoena. Lerner was held in contempt of Congress. What penalty? She retired from the IRS with a full pension.
Move on.
Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, was also held in contempt of Congress, after refusing to turn over information subpoenaed as part of a congressional investigation into failed “gunwalking” program Operation Fast and Furious. Guns ended up in the hands of criminals who killed dozens of Mexican citizens, as well as U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Contempt proceedings against Holder languished in the federal court system for years until Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives and dropped the matter.
Move on.
Hillary Clinton has had her share of corruption scandals. In 2012, when she was secretary of state, our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked and four Americans killed, including our ambassador, Christopher Stevens. Clinton knew it was a planned terrorist attack, but lied to the American public that it was a spontaneous uprising in response to a video made by an obscure filmmaker named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (who was arrested and served a year in prison). When questioned about her lies during a congressional investigation, Clinton’s infamous response was, “What difference at this point does it make?”
Clinton also lied about having classified information on private, unsecured email servers and she destroyed evidence. But then-FBI Director James Comey declared that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges.
Move on.
Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign illegally funneled money through law firm Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS and then former British spy Christopher Steele, looking for dirt on opponent Donald Trump. The FBI knew the information they received thereafter was false, but lied to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get warrants to spy on Trump.
Clinton’s campaign paid a modest fine. No consequences for the FBI. Move on.
The unrest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, is supposedly another day that will live in infamy. But we don’t know why FBI brass refuse to answer straightforward questions about whether federal agents in the crowd incited or contributed to violence.
But let’s do “move on.”
This week, major news outlets are finally admitting what was obvious three years ago — that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, where dangerous “gain-of-function” research was being conducted. The government lied to us about the origins of COVID-19 and locked down the country, crippling the economy and doing immeasurable damage to the education of millions of children. It demanded that social media censor physicians, scientists, and researchers trying to expose the truth about the virus, available drug treatments, and the vaccines Americans were being forced to take.
But let’s not get into the blame game. We need to “move on.”
There is no “moving on” from corruption. To wave it away is to embolden the corrupt. If we as a people do not care enough about the integrity of our laws and the proper limits of our government to enforce both, those who flagrantly disregard those laws and those limits will not stop until they destroy everything we hold dear.