We’ve seen some fascinating reaction to the Durham Report, since its Monday release. Starting with John Zmirak returning from vacation with a vengeance. “The Durham Probe Exposes Our Elites as Lawless Dictators, and their Allies as Corrupt Collaborators.”

Trump’s GOP Rivals React

Donald Trump spent the morning on Truth Social reposting tweets and articles detailing the Durham report and blasting the FBI. His rivals for the GOP nomination joined in condemning the FBI. 

Ron DeSantis tweeted “It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they’ve never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.” 

The Durham Report confirmed what we already knew: weaponized federal agencies manufactured a false conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion. It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they've never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) May 15, 2023

Clean house? Vivek Ramaswami  is ready to tear the whole thing down. He told Fox News Tuesday, “The next president needs to shut down the FBI. This is a corrupt institution that has repeatedly revealed itself to be politicized.”

Nikki Haley struck a similar tone, condemning the “damning evidence of the rot” in government. 

The Durham report is damning evidence of the rot in our government. No party, no politician should weaponize government to go after political opponents.

There must be consequences or this will never end.

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) May 15, 2023

Jake Tapper

Poor Jake Tapper at CNN … a key supporting player in pushing the Trump Russia Collusion fable … did admit the Durham Report was “devastating for the FBI.” Which means it should be devastating for any media figure who spent three years breathlessly reporting the Trump Russia Collusion lie. But looking for a mea culpa in the mainstream media is like looking for an elephant in an empty room.

Tapper also admitted the report does “exonerate” former President Trump. (Well, duh.) But couldn’t help tossing in “to certain degree.” Because admitting Trump was outright slandered and spied on and sabotaged, to the vast detriment to the country … would be, oh, what’s that word I’m looking for? Honest.

The VERY LAST people to go to for honest and accurate reporting on the absolutely explosive Durham report are the corrupt partisans in the propaganda press who were key players in the Russia collusion disinformation op (e.g. AP, NYT, WP, CNN, NBC, etc.)

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 15, 2023

You know what else it would do? It could possibly cause someone to go, “Gee, if Trump was completely right about Russia Collusion being a hoax, what if he’s also right about the 2020 election? I mean, the same people telling me Trump’s a lying insurrectionist are the same people who told me he was a Russian collaborator.”

Andrew McCabe

Fired former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe was also on CNN last night. He roasted the Durham Report, claiming it was not a “legitimate investigation.” He told Anderson Cooper, “This was a political errand to exact some sort of retribution on Donald Trump’s perceived enemies and the FBI.”  Perceived? Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, James Comey and the rest had worse things to say about Trump than his ex-wives.

McCabe would double down, insisting Russia did have contacts with the Trump campaign. (Durham found no evidence of that.)

Durham, McCabe said, “failed to come up with anything new” … which is an old Clinton tactic. Drag a scandal out, then when it’s proven true beyond all shadow of doubt, declare it old news.

Of course, McCabe’s echoing the Clintons should come as no surprise. It was Clinton sidekick and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe who poured $700,000 into McCabe’s wife’s campaign coffers after urging her to run in a local election … s the investigation into Hillary was heating up.

But that’s not the big McCabe-Clinton connection.  

The Durham Report details, among other things, how McCabe blocked two investigations into Hillary Clinton. What CNN viewers probably do not know, as they listened last night to McCabe trashing Durham, was the backstory. They may know McCabe was fired by the FBI. They may even know McCabe was fired for lying to the FBI. But do they know what McCabe was lying about? He lied about being a source for a leak to the Wall Street Journal. And what was that leak? It was McCabe’s own denial of allegations from FBI agents in the field who said he had blocked the investigation into the Clinton Foundation. This, as Durham proved, did indeed happen.

One more telling tidbit. Remember how Hillary Clinton blamed James Comey for her 2016 loss, because he re-opened the email investigation days before the election? What she fails to mention is the reason Comey re-opened the case so close to the election. It was because this same Andrew McCabe had been keeping hiding from him for a full month the fact all of Hillary’s emails had been found on Andrew Weiner’s laptop. He tried burying the story, until agents and NYPD in New York threatened to go public.

CNN would have gone into all that … but, my gosh, there was Martha Stewart making the cover of Sports Illustrated to get to. Network news has to have its priorities.

The FBI Acts Like All is Well

So how did the FBI react to this devastating indictment of the agency? By acting as if all the problems of the past have been fixed. The FBI statement reads in part.

The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented.

The use of the word “missteps” tells you all you need to know that nothing has changed. It’s no “misstep” for top officials and like-minded underlings to deliberately abuse the FBI’s power for partisan ends, to target a political candidate and then President of the United States based on zero verified evidence. Betraying their oath and the country is no “misstep.”  You can hear General Benedict Arnold now. “I didn’t betray the country by secretly siding with the British. I misstepped!”

Yeah, when they make egregious, deliberate violations sound like accidentally putting your foot in poo, you still have a problem.  

Did the FBI refer anyone for charges? No, but they did restore McCabe’s benefits and back pay the minute Biden took office. They even paid his legal fees.

We Need Righteous Rulers

The FBI got away with it. Everything detailed in the report. Which is why in 2020 they were able to get away with collaborating with Big Tech to crush the Hunter Biden story, practically throwing the election Biden’s way. It’s why in the years since they’ve been able to round up non-violent J6 protesters, treat parents as domestic terrorists, infiltrate Catholic churches, raid pro-life activists, and raid the home of a former president — and leading opposition candidate — over a bureaucratic document dispute.

Shall I go on?

Will it go on?

Proverbs had it down: “When the wicked rule, the people groan.” 

But this is still America. We don’t have to groan and moan. We can find and support and elect righteous rulers who will clean out the corruption. And as the first part of that proverb says, “when righteousness increases, the people rejoice.” 

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.