In an impeachment trial where we’ve heard House managers spout some of the dumbest political rhetoric in U.S. history, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries accomplished something special on Thursday: In answering a question posed by Sen. Richard Burr and other Republican senators, he made what has to be the single stupidest statement of the entire circus. Congratulations, Rep. Jeffries, you’ve done your New York district proud.
The question: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee hired a retired foreign spy to work with Russian contacts to build a dossier of opposition research against her political opponent, Donald Trump. Under the House managers’ standard would the dossier be considered as foreign interference in a U.S. election, a violation of the law, and/or an impeachable offense?”
Jeffries’ classic response: “The analogy is not applicable to the present situation because first, to the extent that opposition research was obtained, it was opposition research that was purchased.”
Jeffries probably wouldn’t have done his inane response any favors by immediately sitting down after dropping it like a ton of elephant dung on the floor of the Senate, but he could have at least mitigated the damage. Instead, he soldiered on, worsening his argument with every subsequent utterance.
“This speaks to the avoidance of facts,” he said without any trace of irony. “The avoidance of the reality of what Mr. Trump did in this particular circumstance. All we’ve heard from the president’s legal counsel is conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory. We’ve heard about the Deep State conspiracy theory. We’ve heard about the ‘Adam Schiff is the root of all evil’ conspiracy theory. We’ve heard about the Burisma conspiracy theory.[…] This is the world’s great deliberative body, and all you offer us are conspiracy theories?”
It just gets worse and worse.
This is, however, what this entire impeachment affair has been about: Projection. Democrats know full well there was foreign interference in the 2016 election, and it was orchestrated by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. They’ve tried to make it about Donald Trump. They know full well that Joe Biden was corrupt in withholding funds from Ukraine in an effort to protect his son’s cushy job. They’ve tried to make it about Donald Trump. They know full well that this country spent two solid years chasing down the conspiracy theory of “Trump/Russia collusion.” And now they want to accuse Republicans of doing the same.
In a country where we had a fair and unbiased media, the Democrats could not get away with this claptrap.
Because it was purchased!?
Just…wow.
