In coordinated attacks on 69-year-old GOP presumptive nominee real estate tycoon Donald Trump, Vice President Joe Biden told the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy 2016 convention June 9 that Trump disrespected the federal courts. Biden insisted Trump’s questioning the impartiality of Judge Gonzalo Curiel who presides over the Trump University lawsuit as proof of Trump’s contempt of the federal courts. “I don’t think the framers envisioned a presidential candidate accusing a judge of being incapable of reaching a fair decision because of his ethnic [heritage],” said Biden, essentially accusing Trump of messing with federal courts. By Biden’s logic, no defendant or plaintiff can question a federal judge or jury without showing contempt for the system. Trump made no racist statements only questioned whether a judge with Mexican heritage could be fair.
Tag-teaming Trump, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) chimed in, blasting Trump for questioning the impartiality of Judge Curiel. “Donald Trump is a loud, nasty thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and serves nobody but himself,” said Warren, going for the jugular. Biden and Warren’s remarks were carefully orchestrated political slurs, designed to give Democratic presumptive nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a leg up. While Biden avoided the vitriol, Warren showed the junior Massachusetts’ senator spits fire with the best of them. Endorsing Hillary the same day as President Barack Obama, it’s no accident Biden and Warren went on the attack. All three hope to divert public attention away from new reports by the Wall Street Journal that the FBI’s criminal probe over Hillary involves Top Secret CIA drone strikes in Pakistan.
While ripping Trump for disrespecting a federal judge, Biden said nothing about Obama’s endorsement sending a loud message to the FBI and Justice Department to back off any probe of Hillary. Hillary’s campaign has denied that she’s the subject of an FBI investigation over whether or not she violated the U.S. Espionage Act, sending-and-receiving classified emails in an unsecured system. It’s easy to see how Barack’s endorsement puts far more pressure on the U.S. criminal justice system than Trump’s off-color remarks about a judge’s ethnic background. Obama, Biden and Warren’s endorsements all send a loud message to the FBI and Justice Department that they’ve vetted Hillary and found nothing wrong. Obama told Fox News’ Chris Wallace April 10 that he has no influence over the FBI or Justice Department’s Hillary probe. “I can guarantee,” said Obama, that she won’t be protected.
Reporting that the FBI’s Hillary probe centers around 2011 and 2012 emails that contain Top Secret information about CIA drone programs in Pakistan, something Hillary transmitted over unsecured channels. White House spokesman Josh Earnest denied that Obama’s Hillary endorsement amounted to clearing her of wrongdoing. “I believe there’s not,” said Earnest. It’s easier to make an argument about White House interference in the FBI and Justice Department by endorsing Hillary, than anything Trump said about Judge Curiel. Earnest admitted that the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s emails were a “criminal investigation,” something Hillary’s vehemently denied. “The FBI itself is not a political organization, and Comey, while he’s a political appointee, he’s in office for 10 years, and they’ve done that so the agency wouldn’t be affected by politics,” said retired FBI Agent James J. Wedick.
Wedick believes the Justice Department, under Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch, is far more subject to political influence than the FBI. “However, having said that, the attorney general is a political appointment, she is affected by politics. And prosecutions can only be authorized by the attorney general or a representative of her staff,” said Wedick, concerned that Hillary won’t get prosecuted. Whatever the outcome of Hillary’s FBI probe, it didn’t affect Obama, Biden or Warren’s endorsements, all timed within minutes after Hilary’s rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), finished meeting with Obama June 9 at the White House. Concerned about Hillary’s polls against Trump, Democrats banded together, from top to bottom, to wage war against the GOP nominee. Painting Trump as a misogynist and racist, Hillary has her strategy heading into the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Whatever the outcome of the FBI probe into Hillary’s use of emails while secretary of state, she’ll still have to defend her foreign and domestic track record, and the amount of cash taken from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States into the Clinton Foundation. Obama has nothing to ose endorsing Hillary, telling Bernie to fall in line and go after Trump with a vengeance. Obama’s endorsement of Hillary sends a loud message to the FBI and Justice Department to leave the Democratic nominee alone between now and the election. “Obama legitimately decided to exercise his prerogative as head of the Democratic Party to endorse the person he wants to preserve his legacy,” said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. Sabato forgets that Obama wanted tell Bernie it’s over, time to back Hillary. Obama also expressed fear that recent polls show Trump getting too close for comfort.
