Totalitarianism brings absolute political power. And a healthy increase in dictatorial bank accounts. Vladimir Putin is sitting on billions. His oligarch enablers have their own pots. Kim Jong-un has a minimum net worth of $5 billion in a country with a GDP of $26.6 billion. The Nazis looted Europe. And Trump's rapacity is a MAGA hallmark. And that is just fine with autocracy's American apologists.
Over the weekend, news broke that Tom Homan, Trump's anti-immigration enforcer, had received $50,000 in cash as a down payment for services to be rendered if Trump were to ascend to the presidency again.
Had a Republican in days of yore, or a Democrat anytime, been the recipient of pay for future performance, the condemnation would have known no political bounds. But we no longer live in that America. Today, the MAGA right believes totalitarian ends justify venal means. They argue that Trump's team has carte blanche to enrich themselves at democracy's expense.
Megyn Kelly was once considered a reputable journalist (at least by Fox News standards) until she insisted that Santa Claus and Jesus are white. (A white man born to a Middle-easterner? That would be a miracle.) Since then, she has descended into madness. When news of Homan's grift surfaced, she dismissed the border czar's solicitation of bribes as beneath rebuke.
Kelly absolved the grifting Homan in response to this tweet by WaPo's Carol Leonnig:
Post Carol Leonnig @CarolLeonnig
A big @MSNBC scoop >>>> Trump border czar Tom Homan was under criminal investigation for potential bribery and claims he would steer federal contracts in the new administration. Undercover @FBI agents recorded him accepting $50k in cash. Trump @TheJusticeDept shuttered the probe
Me with @DilanianMSNBC
https://msnbc.com/msnbc/news/tom-homan-cash-contracts-trump-doj-investigation-rcna232568
Kelly retweeted Leonnig with the comment:
We DO NOT CARE. Don't bother @RealTomHoman he's a national treasure.
She doesn't say who "we" are. But I guess it's whoever thinks exactly the same as Kelly. Conservatives who are for law and order are not on her team.
At least Kelly did not deny that Homan was licking the honey pot. The White House did. On Monday, Karoline Leavitt, Trump's latest blond alternative facts enthusiast, announced, despite a video showing he had, that "Mr. Homan never took the $50,000."
Over the weekend, Trump, who spends hours every day watching cable news, pleaded ignorance of the affair. A reporter asked him, "Did you see the reporting on Tom Homan—". He replied, "No, I haven't." How long before he dismisses Homan as a coffee boy whom he has never met?
The Bulwark's Tim Miller replied to Kelly, asking,
"You don't care that government officials are taking cash bribes? What?"
Kelly made it clear that she didn't. In her estimation, two wrongs make a right. She enumerated all the grievances she had with Miller. She repeatedly accuses "you," but she doesn't specify if the "you" is singular — which would mean Tim is a busy boy. Or plural, in which case she is sliming the entire left with the deeds of one or two.
Her list follows, with my comments.
- You indicted our presidential candidate 4x with made-up BS charges trying to put him in jail for life. (A grand jury indicted him 4X)
- You changed laws so he could be civilly sued by a woman who didn't even remember what year her alleged "rape" by him was. (A jury convicted him)
- You let an AG who ran for office promising to "get Trump" try to bankrupt him on a claim so specious even the NY appellate court scoffed at it & had to reverse the damage award. (The Court objected to the size of the penalty — not the verdict)
- One of yours killed Charlie and then you laughed at our pain, protested our vigils & said Charlie was to blame and in hell. (Kirk's killer has no known political affiliations)
- You lied about the killer's motives & said he was MAGA when you knew he wasn't. (One late-night host's brief aside)
- You put us all in danger by not admitting the truth and then not relenting on the lies you tell about us. (What's Kelly talking about?)
- You cried endless tears for Jimmy Kimmel but none for Charlie. (So what?)
- You gleefully cancelled all of us for five+ years and danced when we suffered. (Which five+ years?)
- You censored us & ruined careers of distinguished doctors & others who dared to say the truth during Covid and George Floyd. (Who was censored? Whose careers were "ruined"?)
- You cost our children years of learning during lockdowns and endangered them with deadly myocarditis by burying the risk disclosures and never apologized or owned it. (It was a pandemic that killed 1,226,890 Americans — and Kelly has a problem with protecting children? The medical claim is a lie.)
- Your govt tried to strong arm Fox into firing Tucker bc of his J6 coverage and you said not a peep about the first amendment. (Where's the evidence?)
- You changed Title IX with the stroke of a pen, without consent, and endangered and hurt our defenseless daughters. ("Without consent" isn't that Trump's MO?)
- You sterilized and cut off the healthy body parts of children & want to keep doing it. (Liberals believe in giving every patient the affordable treatment they need and want. Where's Kelly's concern for people losing their medical coverage?)
- You lied about a near-vegetative president being fine with the nuclear codes. (Where's the evidence Biden was incapacitated, let alone “near-vegetative?”)
- You (personally) had Doug Emhoff on as the scandal of his alleged woman abuse and cheating broke and you didn't ask him ONE Q about it, then tried to tell us you care about women. (Alleged? Has there been a court case, or even an indictment?)
- You opened the border and let in ten+ million illegals who killed Laken Riley and 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray after they sexually assaulted her and threw her off a bridge, along with the countless other innocents they rape, murder and molest to this day. ("Ten+ million" is just making things up. An estimated 2 million entered during the Biden administration. And studies show immigrants commit fewer crimes than citizens.)
Kelly ended her screed by concluding, "So no, we don't care what you say about Tom Homan. We do not trust you. We only care about defeating you."
It was the only honest thing she wrote in her entire rant.
