Cagle World

Entering the second half of his first term, President Biden faces a hostile, Republican-controlled House of Representatives intent on curbing what they perceive as the administration’s continued tilt to the far left.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise previewed Republican priorities dealing with spending, inflation, energy production, abortion regulations, crime and global economic competitiveness.

Scalise included the issue on which the administration is increasingly vulnerable – immigration and border security – not so much for policies and programs put in place, but for the perception it is totally bereft of ideas to deal effectively with the record-setting level of asylum seekers crossing the southern border.

Fearful of alienating its progressive left wing and its demands for loosening immigration restrictions and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the administration’s response has ranged from denial, to minimizing it, ignoring it, blaming Congress and the prior administration, repeating falsehoods, shifting and often conflicting explanations.

It’s been a contradictory mash up of indecision and paralysis seemingly in the hope the economic and humanitarian crisis created by the unprecedented surge in immigration will somehow cure itself and disappear.

Since its outset, the administration has undercut its credibility by refusing to describe the border emergency as a “crisis” (referring to it as a challenge, a situation, a problem, etc.) while clinging stubbornly to the border is “closed” or “secure” narriative – characterizations used repeatedly and without apparent embarrassment by Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

With a record 2.4 million unauthorized crossings in fiscal 2022 which ended in September and an average of 230,000 per month in October and November, the official administration line is farcical.

When the vice president was designated the point person on immigration, she quickly realized it was politically fraught and distanced herself from it, failing to visit the region and choosing other pursuits which took her from one friendly audience event to another where she was unlikely to be asked about the border crisis.

Mayorkas seems out of his depth and frequently appears befuddled when questioned by Congress and doggedly toes the administration line claiming border security.

As press secretary, Jean-Pierre has little choice but to advance the narrative, even insisting falsely that Biden had visited the border since assuming office. She appears fond of arguing that the administration inherited an unworkable immigration system and former president Donald Trump bore responsibility for the crisis.

Granted, as the voice of the administration in responding to the media, Jean-Pierre is expected to reflect the official position of the White House, but it’s become increasingly untenable and starkly at odds with reality.

Border state Democrats in Congress – most notably Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Krysten Sinema – have been outspoken in their criticisms, citing a lack of interest on the part of the Administration and a refusal to understand the extent of the economic and social disruptions in communities faced with accommodating the surge in immigrants.

Two Republican governors –Texas’ Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron DeSantis – have responded to the Administration’s failure to act by sending busses and planes of migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities in the north, accusing officials there of hypocrisy for objecting while remaining silent on the hardships endured by communities in their states.

Democratic accusations that the governors were guilty of heartlessly using migrants as political pawns in a political stunt were not totally unfounded, but Abbott and DeSantis set out to drive home a point and were willing to accept the consequences of doing so.

In his outlook for the new Congress, Scalise called for legislation to restore “operational control” of the border by denying entry to certain migrants and to notify (ICE) as well as local law enforcement if a person in the country illegally attempts to purchase a firearm.

With Democrats in control of the Senate, the outlook for the Republican bills is problematic, but border state Democrats cannot afford to appear opposed to a tougher stance on immigration.

It’s been said numerous times in numerous contexts that “hope is not a strategy,” a message Congress may deliver to the White House to open 2023.

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Copyright 2023 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

On Nov. 15, former president Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. Less than three weeks later, he ended it.

Not by a formal statement of withdrawal, but by thrusting a dagger into his viability by arguably the most deranged bit of lunacy to ever pass the lips of a public figure in the history of the republic.

The U. S. Constitution, he said, should be subject to “termination,” – his word – and he should be reinstated immediately as president because Twitter censored and suppressed potentially damaging allegations regarding President Biden’s neer-do-well son, Hunter.

Had the drug-addled Hunter’s activities been spread through Twitter, he claimed, the damage inflicted on Biden would have been so severe as to turn the election to Trump.

The only way to right this grievous wrong, according to the former president, is to trash the Constitution and declare him the rightful winner. This from someone who in January of 2017 placed his hand on a Bible and swore an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. His vow to “uphold and protect” lasted two years.

Even for someone whose career in private and public life is littered with exaggerations, embellishments and outright falsehoods, the suggestion that the Constitution – the governing document in the nation’s democracy – be treated as if it was a list of suggestions rather than a guarantee of freedoms, protection from an authoritarian government and security was a bridge too far.

It revealed Trump as someone who has slipped his moorings from sane and rational thought and descended into a political twilight zone where he can create his own reality and demand that the nation embrace it.

As criticism mounted, Trump seemed to realize he’d crossed a line and attempted to walk back his comments by – as usual – screaming “fake news.” It was too late, and from this point on he’ll be defined as someone who suggested ignoring the Constitution if it stood in his way.

For Republican leadership, the episode should be the last straw. There is no defense for Trump’s outburst, no arguing it was taken out of context or deliberately distorted by the media. His words appeared on Truth Social, the site he created after he was booted from Twitter: “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Note the word “termination” which clearly appears despite Trump’s belated cries of protest that he never uttered it.

It represented an escalation of the relentless two-year war Trump has waged to overturn the 2020 election, a process he claims was riddled with fraud that robbed him of re-election.

His act has worn thin and wearisome, and party leaders have become more outspoken in urging the party to move on. Republicans want to concentrate on 2024 to convince the American people that the Biden administration has failed on nearly every front and that a Republican president, along with control of Congress, can restore fiscal stability and address nagging issues like immigration reform and rising crime rates.

Trump, obsessed with his loss to Biden, stands in the way with his increasingly unhinged rants of election fraud.

Republicans who remained silent or dismissed his comments as typical Trumpian hyperbole are guilty of a cop-out bordering on cowardice. It is impossible to not cringe at the prospect of their ticket being led by someone to whom abiding by the Constitution is inconvenient and can be disregarded.

The media will be in full cry, demanding Republican candidates explain their view of Trump’s remarks and whether they continue to support him or his view. As campaign messaging goes, it is a disaster waiting to happen.

It is up to the party leaders to jettison Trump, marginalize him and make it clear that support and money will be in short supply.

It is imperative that the party act decisively and without reservation to deliver a statement that punching holes in the Constitution is a swift and irrevocable disqualifier.

It is past time for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to drop his bourbon-sipping Southern gentleman facade and face down Trump directly.

If he reveres the Constitution, he has no choice.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

One of the most enduring justifications for a combat operation was uttered by an Army major in the war in Vietnam in 1968: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”

In his increasingly bitter conflict with the Republican Party, former president Donald Trump has embraced it.

If left alone, he will surely destroy the party and, if left alone, he will never save it.

Whether recognizing it or not, the party leadership can seize the opportunity to shed a destructive egomaniac who grows more erratic as mounting blame is directed at him for the party’s dismal showing in the midterm Congressional elections.

As is customary, Trump cast aside reality in favor of revisionist history, declaring victory, defending his endorsement of candidates chosen for their professed loyalty to him rather than a realistic chance of victory and, to the horror of many, announced he’ll seek the party’s presidential nomination in two years.

Republican national leadership faces a moment of truth in moving on from Trump. If found wanting or if fear and timidity lead to indecision, the party will quickly tumble back into the minority in Congress and the White House.

It’s impossible to reason with Trump. He has displayed his stubbornness time and again as president and in his personal and business affairs. Appeals to logic or his better angels are futile – he rejects the former and possesses none of the latter. Look no further than his intensified crude rhetorical assaults on anyone he believes stands in is way.

Trump will do what Trump wants to do because his ego will not permit otherwise.

Pockets of criticism have sprung up since the midterm shortfalls, but those with the firmest grip on the party’s levers of power have been silent or circumspect when discussing Trump’s responsibility for the outcome and what steps should be taken to restore credibility and competitiveness in the 2024 election cycle.

While Trump has managed to cling to a dedicated base of support, for party leadership to bow to it would be a strategic blunder for the ages, a tacit admission that when push came to shove, top level party weakness triumphed over steely-eyed determination and political reality.

Caving in to Trump in the hope he’ll change his style is a disastrous path to be trod only by those who believe his unsubstantiated assertions that the 2020 election was fraudulent. They’ve been captured by the ex-president’s absurd utterances and embellishments.

It is crucial for the party leadership to escape the Trump shadow and convince Republicans who believe in thoughtful, insightful and responsive government led by a president with a precision moral compass there is no silver lining in the Trump cloud.

The questions swirling around President Biden concerning his intention to seek a second term have receded in the wake of what can only be described as a party and personal victory for him.

He’s lost little of his executive power and been emboldened by running against the historical political grain and achieving one of the strongest midterm showings in recent history. News accounts of jubilation in the White House on election night speaks for itself.

Republicans likely will emerge with a bare majority in the House and the distinction of a victory that was more embarrassment than celebratory.

The Senate remains in Democratic hands 50-49 pending the outcome of next month’s runoff election in Georgia. Even a loss there would result in continuing the 50-50 deadlock and with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker, Democrats will retain control.

The Democratic Party can spend the coming weeks looking on as Republicans splinter along ideological lines, threatening the selection of California Congressman Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, and spilling over into the Senate where, as the winds of change gain strength, Republican leader Mitch McConnell faces demands for his replacement.

While Trump looks for guidance to the 1968 utterances of an Army officer, Republican leadership should respond by looking to the 17th Century and channel its inner English politician Oliver Cromwell who, in an address to Parliament, thundered his judgment: “Depart, I say, and let us be done with you. In the name of God, go!”

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

There is a definite “whistling past the graveyard” vibe in the air surrounding the Nov. 8 Congressional midterm election.

The pursed lips belong to the Democratic Party leadership, who’ve spent the past few weeks confidently predicting their party will not only maintain control of the House of Representatives, but build on their majority.

Their optimism overlooks the long history of midterms – the party of the president loses seats – but ignores the boiling discontent in the country over a punishing rate of inflation that has driven the cost of virtually every commodity to heights not experienced in decades.

Consider this brief sampling:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “We will hold the House by winning more seats.”

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer: “I think we’re going to hold the majority and we may pick up a number of seats.”

Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff: “We are increasingly optimistic about our ability to hold the House.”

Their predictions are more about urging the party’s base to keep a stiff upper lip than out of any realistic and deep conviction their forecasts will come to pass.

The headwinds Democrats are struggling to conquer are severe – a president whose job performance is stuck in the low 40 percent range, is underwater on virtually every issue of concern, and a nation that two-thirds of the populace believe is headed in the wrong direction.

The fears produced by an unpopular president and a concern his administration’s policies are failing to generate favorable results are evident in the decision by Democratic congressional candidates to refuse to campaign with Joe Biden. Some have openly criticized him and suggested he stand down at the conclusion of his first term.

Struggling with a cost of living that has decimated their earning power and shows no significant signs of abating, voters will turn their wrath on the party in power – as has always been the case.

Each visit to the gas pump or the local supermarket are reminders of just how difficult it has become to escape living paycheck to paycheck. Rising mortgage interest rates have turned the dream of home ownership into a nightmare while purchasing a new car has given new meaning to the term “sticker shock.”

Democrats were given a small flicker of hope and a bump in favorability when gasoline prices declined, but that’s been snuffed out by slowly rising per gallon costs and the prospect of further increases caused by the decision by OPEC to reduce oil production by two million barrels per day.

Crime – particularly violent crime – has re-emerged as a top tier issue of concern, seized upon by Republican-led efforts to portray Democrats as soft on criminals and anti-law enforcement.

Democrats attempted to elevate access to abortion services as the turning point issue and, while it is a topic of concern and interest, it has been consistently ranked below inflation, cost of living, jobs, national economy, crime and immigration on the minds of voters.

With a two-seat majority (three vacancies) in the House, Democrats have little margin for error and polling has wavered only slightly in assessing the anticipated losses the party faces.

Estimates of Republican gains in the House have ranged from a low of 10 seats to upwards of 40 while control of the 50-50 Senate remains very much in play with predictions of a 52-48 edge for either party.

Republicans are feeling more confident of a unified Congress and that the Biden agenda is dead on arrival. In addition, the party is cautiously bullish on prospects for winning the White House in 2024, a task potentially made exceedingly difficult, however, should baggage laden ex-president Donald Trump secure the nomination.

Democratic leaders will, of course, continue to promote their “all is not lost” message. Conceding the potential for a national red wave and waving the white flag of surrender will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

They will continue to whistle while walking past the graveyard, rallying the troops to join in and hoping the tune is celebratory rather than funereal.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

No matter the outcome of the midterm Congressional election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s run as leader of her party will come to an end.

If, as anticipated, Republicans gain control of the House of Representatives, Pelosi will hand the Speaker’s gavel over probably to her California colleague Kevin McCarthy, currently House minority leader.

If, against all odds, Democrats manage an upset and eke out enough contested seats to retain control, it’s clear the rank and file membership is in no mood to keep Pelosi, who has hinted at retirement as Speaker.

The discontent bubbling beneath the surface of the Democratic caucus burst into the open when Virginia Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger unleashed a scathing public rebuke of the leadership, calling for their replacement and accusing them of ignoring their members, to “push them aside and look for new ways they could string the media and the public along and evade public criticism.”

Spanberger’s outburst was triggered by Pelosi’s announcement that she would not call for a vote on legislation to prohibit members of Congress from trading on the stock market while in office – a proposal that enjoyed broad bipartisan support and would have been approved handily.

Instead of a simple straightforward prohibition, however, Spanberger said the House Administration Committee – presumably at Pelosi’s direction – expanded the legislation to cover members’ spouses, dependent children, senior staff, the president and vice president, federal judges and Supreme Court justices.

Further, she said, the bill contained loopholes that would have allowed those it covered to easily avoid its provisions.

Spanberger characterized the bill as toothless and meaningless, meant to deceive the public that Congress intended to act decisively when there was no intention by the leadership to do so.

Pelosi, she intimated, sabotaged the proposal by adding requirements and provisions she knew would meet opposition and then announced the proposal lacked the votes to pass. Political cynicism at its finest.

Spanberger was unsparing in her criticism, claiming the package was “designed to fail, create confusion surrounding reform efforts and complicate a straightforward reform priority while creating the appearance the House leadership wanted to take action.”

While stopping short of accusing Pelosi of a conflict of interest, Spanberger’s comments led inevitably to suggestions that the Speaker and her husband – an active stock trader – had profited handsomely from his involvement and by blocking consideration of the prohibition, she acted to protect her personal financial self-interest.

Pelosi initially opposed the prohibition but softened her position later. Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, reportedly remains steadfast in his opposition.

Spanberger and supporters of the original proposal argued that approval of the prohibition would have provided Democratic candidates with a valuable campaign talking point – that Democrats are serious about reforms in congressional operations and implementing significant ethical behavior requirements.

It is not the first time Spanberger has gone public with criticism of party leadership. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, in which Democrats lost a dozen seats despite predictions of padding their majority, Spanberger blamed the defeats on the party’s leftward ideological tilt, particularly the “Defund the Police” movement favored by the progressive wing.

Spanberger’s attack on the party leadership will resonate and fuel speculation it will be Pelosi’s last hurrah.

Her manipulating the process to avoid consideration of the stock trading ban may have hastened the process for her.

Pelosi, Hoyer and majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina were all born before the U. S. entered World War II – Pelosi and Clyburn in 1940 and Hoyer in 1939. The speaker has served in Congress 35 years, Hoyer 41 years, and Clyburn 30 years.

Should Republicans take control of the House, the pressure on Democrats – newly in the minority – to turn to new and younger leadership will be intense.

Frustrated younger Democrats will question their continued relevance and grumble that the current triumvirate is out of touch with current thinking.

In 1965, Bob Dylan sang “You don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.”

For Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn, it’s not a gentle breeze. Rather, it likely to be measured by category. Like hurricanes.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

Immigration has muscled its way into the top four issues in the midterm elections, joining inflation, cost of living, violent crime and abortion rights as potential turning points in the control of Congress. Its emergence has come amid accusations of hypocrisy and inhumane treatment, as well as threats of criminal investigations.

The arrival on Martha’s Vineyard of 50 immigrants on planes sent by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis ignited all-out war on social and traditional media, momentarily eclipsing the more dominant issues of the past several months and undercutting President Biden’s increasingly favorable public approval numbers.

In sending the migrants to the island off the Massachusetts coast, DeSantis joined Republican governors of Texas and Arizona, who have sent 13,000 immigrants since April on buses to New York City, Washington, D.C. and Chicago – all self-declared sanctuary cities led by Democrats – to protest the administrations’ failure to control illegal border crossings.

While the governors have routinely been criticized by Democrats for their immigrant relocation policies, it was the migrants’ arrival on Martha’s Vineyard that exploded across the country and produced the rancorous response, including demands that criminal charges be lodged against the chief executives.

The governors and their supporters accused opponents of the rankest sort of hypocrisy for boasting their cities were sanctuaries and welcoming to immigrants, only to demand millions in federal assistance to meet the cost of accommodating them, contending they were ill equipped to manage the influx or by sending them to neighboring communities.

The Republican governors’ message couldn’t have been more direct: The noble motives and virtue signaling of elitist Democrats existed only while illegal immigration was confined to the border states, collapsing quickly when it came to their cities.

While the White House was quick to join the condemnation of the governors’ actions, it drew increased focus to its record in dealing with the crisis at the southern border.

The administration was not helped by the demonstrably false assertion by Vice President Kamala Harris that the border was secure. Within days of her comment, U. S. Customs and Border Protection announced 2.1 million border encounters in the last year – the highest number in history.

Undaunted, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated Harris’ claim and – like Harris – argued the previous administration was responsible.

Democrats were nearly unanimous in condemning the governors, accusing them of cruelty, guilty of human trafficking and using innocent individuals fleeing violence and official corruption in their native countries as political pawns.

No evidence to support trafficking allegations has surfaced yet and there is little Democrats can do to block further transporting migrants to northern cities. The governors have insisted coercion has not been used, that migrants voluntarily board buses or planes to be re-located and that no laws have been broken.

The impact on the financial and social welfare resources of border communities has been crushing according to the governors, forced to bear the burden of caring for and accommodating thousands of migrants but lacking the wherewithal to do so adequately.

The rise in the flow of illegal drugs across the border has added significantly to the difficulties faced by the border towns and elsewhere by narcotics distribution networks.

Partisan politics are certainly at play in the governors’ actions but engaging in it is a practice familiar to both parties and on a great many conflicting issues.

If the issue of immigration reform is to be addressed comprehensively and fairly, though, Democrats and Republicans must lay down their rhetorical weapons and actions and commit to finding a solution.

Packing families in buses or planes and sending them to distant parts of the nation to score political points accomplishes nothing toward an answer.

At the same time, embracing a policy of denial robs the administration of credibility and suggests it is indifferent to the plight of migrants and unable to offer a viable solution.

The emergence of immigration as a factor in an election only seven weeks off should be sufficient incentive to deal with it in a manner it deserves.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

It took some time, but the Democratic Party establishment finally recognized what had become apparent to most of the political universe many months ago – If the congressional midterm elections became a referendum on the Biden administration, defeat and the loss of both houses of Congress was inevitable.

Their solution? Go hard negative. Mount an attack on former president Donald Trump, change the narrative from a referendum to a choice, focus on the potential for a government controlled by radical fringe elements and portray it as an existential threat to democracy.

Biden bought into the strategy, convinced that Trump was too inviting a target to pass up and Republican congressional candidates would be vulnerable if tied to him.

The new approach debuted when Biden characterized the Republican Party as “semi fascists,” a term that, for most people, conjures up images of Hitler and the Nazi party.

The backlash from enraged Republicans was immediate and fierce, but even some Democrats expressed dismay over his use of the politically loaded phrase. Others remained silent.

Biden followed his “semi fascist” characterization with a speech in Philadelphia, warning a dark and dystopian future awaited the nation if Republicans aligned with Trump returned to power.

Within a matter of days, Biden realized he’d gone too far and pivoted to damage control mode, offering a gentler take:

“I don’t consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country. Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to the country.”

His remarks, he insisted, were directed at those who cast doubts on election outcomes, fail to condemn violence, spread conspiracy theories and attack law enforcement.

The damage had been done, though, and the first impression – “semi fascists” – has been firmly implanted in the narrative.

The abrupt change in strategic direction appears to represent a belief that concentrating on Biden’s recent string of legislative wins has been cast aside temporarily along with his posture as uniter in chief, in favor of overheated partisan rhetoric. It’s the fist-pounding on the podium speeches that brings rally crowds to their feet.

Despite the temptation to strike back, cooler heads may have prevailed in the speechwriting process by pointing out Trump received 74 million votes in 2020 and Biden’s Electoral College victory of 306-232 was nearly identical to Trump’s 304-227 margin in defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.

It should have come as no surprise that offense was taken at the president intimating that 74 million Americans who voted for his opponent only two years before share a fascist philosophy.

Biden’s unpopularity has been a drag on Democrats’ election prospects. His continued double-digit negative standing on inflation, crime, immigration, and cost of living increases portended a potential blowout, a loss of upwards of 30 seats in the House and a handful in the Senate – enough to give Republicans the majority.

While Biden has gained a few points in public approval, 70 percent of Americans still believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Trump has provided Biden and the Democrats with a wealth of campaign material. For instance, the former president’s insistence he be reinstated to the presidency or a special election be conducted is sheer madness.

His passivity in the face of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U. S. Capitol inflicted serious damage along with the recent revelations that he’d carried cartons of classified documents from the White House and stored them haphazardly at his Florida estate, possibly in violation of Federal law.

His endorsement has been bestowed on Republican candidates who share his never proven allegations that massive electoral fraud cheated him of re-election and who believe in imposing severe restrictions on abortion rights and relaxed restrictions on firearms possession.

In some two months, Americans will decide which party will control Congress. In a larger sense, they will also decide whether the Democrats’ gamble on their warnings of losing democracy and its freedoms will pay off, overcoming persistent economic and social issues worries.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

In their initial reaction to the FBI execution of a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Democrats were ecstatic, believing it was a long awaited first step by the Department of Justice in a broader investigation that heralded criminal charges.

The euphoria has since dissolved into a muddle of charges and countercharges, information and misinformation, anonymously sourced news reports, legal proceedings genuine and threatened, while leaving Americans to sort through who and what to believe.

In short, the aftermath of the unprecedented search of the former president’s home to retrieve cartons of documents he took with him when he departed the White House has evolved into the kind of tangled overheated political standoff relished by Trump.

He thrives in this environment of confusion and tumult. He likes nothing more than a bare-knuckle street brawl, throwing rhetorical haymakers at his critics to the great delight of his dedicated followers.

He can play the role of victim and aggressor with equal flair and is unfazed by his frequently contradictory words and deeds.

Those qualities combined with his unpredictability and use of the court system to stymie and frustrate his opponents by prolonging legal proceedings make him a formidable force.

Few if any minds have been changed by the Justice Department’s actions in approving the raid. Trump supporters assailed it as partisan vindictiveness by an administration intent on destroying him while his opponents claimed it was proof of Trump’s misdeeds and deserving of punishment.

With the Justice Department’s policy of refusing to publicly discuss details of any investigation, Trump holds the upper hand in establishing the narrative. He’s taken full advantage of it to throw the Department on the defensive and play the aggrieved party.

He insisted on public disclosure of the affidavit that led to the issuance of the search warrant – aligning himself with prominent news organizations, but opposed by the Justice Department to protect witnesses and investigatory procedures.

His attorneys filed a request for a court-appointed special master to examine the documents to determine which fall under declassification or subject to executive privilege or attorney-client privilege. The task is already underway, and designating a special master appears unlikely.

There appears little doubt that Trump retained sensitive and classified documents when he left office and stored them in his Mar-a-Lago estate, potentially in violation of federal law.

It will fall to Attorney General Merrick Garland to determine if Trump’s actions rose to the level of criminality and whether he should face prosecution.

Garland personally approved the FBI search of Trump’s home, apparently satisfied that there was sufficient cause to believe laws were broken. Garland is in an exceedingly difficult position, faced with deciding on a course of action involving arguably the most politically fraught case in modern history.

Those who demand nothing less than to see Trump clapped in handcuffs will be enraged if Garland forgoes filing charges while those who believe pursuing the former president is the equivalent of dictatorships who routinely imprison their opponents will be equally enraged if he does.

The political response to the FBI raid was swift and intensely partisan. The response to his decision to prosecute or not will surpass it.

Trump revels in this sort of high stakes confrontation. It assures he’ll remain the center of attention, dominate the media, raise money and delight his base.

He’ll continue to use the legal system to challenge the Department’s actions, keeping the story alive and at the top of political/media coverage.

He will not shrink from using any platform available to assail the Department, the Biden Administration, congressional Democrats and anyone in his own party who may suggest he acted improperly.

The DOJ may be bound by its own policies and procedures with respect to withholding public comments or refusing to discuss investigatory aspects. Trump, though, is under no such restraints and free to spread criticism and promote theories – valid or foolish – to characterize the Department and the FBI.

It is not an issue likely to be resolved soon, particularly with the slow pace of legal proceedings.

Trump has nothing but time and he is the epitome of the warning to avoid fighting with someone who has nothing to lose.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

Whether Donald Trump scooped up 15 cartons of documents and classified material and scurried off to his Mar-a-Lago compound 20 months ago is politically inconsequential.

By carrying out an unprecedented raid on his Palm Beach home in search of the purloined papers, the FBI and the Department of Justice played directly into Trump’s hands, delivering what he’s always craved – the center of national attention and dominating frenzied media coverage.

Trump, not law enforcement, revealed the search, seizing the upper hand in framing the narrative, casting himself in the role of victim of a vindictive Department of Justice obsessed with destroying him.

He is, in all likelihood, guilty of carting materials from the White House to his home – an offense on the scale of politically corrupt severity as the equivalent of a speeding ticket, hardly the stuff to justify FBI agents wandering through his private residence turning over dishes and table vases searching for materials they’ve refused to describe or discuss.

Trump supporters compared the FBI action to dictatorships whose leaders routinely prosecute and imprison political opponents, acts which do violence to nearly 250 years of American democracy

Trump critics gleefully rejoiced that the Department of Justice had finally moved against the ex-president – even though the allegations are relatively minor – while hoping it represents a breakthrough that leads to far more serious charges related to Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U. S. Capitol.

Amid demands that the Department of Justice explain its decision to execute a search warrant, Trump is clearly emboldened by his self-identified victimhood and will continue to exaggerate and embellish the raid as representative of out of control politicized Federal law enforcement.

At a time when Trump seemed to be losing his grip on the Republican Party – a majority oppose his candidacy in 2024 – the FBI raid may well reunite reluctant Republicans and Trump diehards, rebuilding a stronger consensus for his continued flirtation with seeking the nomination.

Lacking clear evidence of serious violations of Federal law, Americans find it distasteful and dangerous to use the nation’s premier law enforcement agency to pursue individuals based on political differences.

They may despise Trump and be offended by his coarse rhetoric and crude performances, but they are far more deeply concerned with the country falling into a place where political beliefs become subject to a law enforcement response. The issue is larger than a single individual and defending a principle should not be construed as defending Trump.

Whatever information the FBI uncovered that led to the search warrant will be subjected to intense scrutiny to determine the search’s validity and whether Trump will face criminal charges.

Even the most fervent anti-Trumpers worry that failing to bring charges or securing a conviction will irreparably harm the FBI, casting it as a political tool and send Trump’s political stock soaring – even riding a wave back into the White House, in the opinion of some.

The timing of the search reveals lack of forethought and judgment by the Department of Justice, and comes at a time when the Biden administration is struggling with developing a message of competence and accomplishment to pull the country out of the economic trough into which it’s been driven by inflation not experienced in 40 years.

Congress is poised to approve a $740 billion package to cut health care costs, address climate change and raise corporate taxes – the centerpiece of the Biden agenda – and the White House staff is most likely planning a gala Rose Garden bill signing ceremony filled with cheering supporters.

The Mar-a-Lago raid drove that story off the front pages and out of the lead-in to nightly newscasts – known in the business as stepping on your own story.

A delay of a week or two to focus on what the administration believed is a political triumph would have had no impact on conducting the raid. Whatever Trump has in his possession has been at Mar-a-Lago for nearly two years; it wasn’t going anywhere.

In the end, dispatching FBI agents to search the home of an ex-president may turn out to be an egregious political blunder not soon forgotten.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.

In the nearly 21 months since the last presidential election, millions of Americans have given the benefit of the doubt to former president Donald Trump as he unleashed a torrent of accusations that his defeat resulted from massive voter fraud, and in an honest process he’d have won a second term.

The time has arrived – overdue, perhaps – to no longer offer any benefit because there is no longer any doubt. It is time for the national Republican Party leadership and the rank and file party apparatchiks to break cleanly with Trump, step out from his shadow and allocate their energy and resources to defeating the most vulnerable incumbent president in more than 40 years.

Trump’s insistence that he was cheated of victory in 2020 has worn itself out, tumbling into unhinged farce and accepted only by his most fevered supporters.

His public appearances and his social media rants are typical Trump performances, using rhetoric to inflict blunt force trauma on his critics, no matter partisan affiliation or past friendships.

He utilizes language like a fire hose, spraying insults and derision in all directions, bellowing accusations of misconduct and corruption while threatening to seek the party’s presidential nomination in 2024.

The balance has been tipped, though, by the damning testimony before the Congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U. S. Capitol – much of it from former Trump administration officials – who related mind-boggling experiences of the president as the storming of the building unfolded.

According to testimony, Trump watched television in the White House as the riot grew in size and intensity and breached the Capitol, which sent members of Congress fleeing for safety and risked the life of his own vice president.

For hours, he refused all entreaties to issue an appeal to the rioters to withdraw, an act tantamount to encouraging them to continue the assault.

Outtakes from his belated video taped appearance in the White House revealed a petty, petulant individual refusing to acknowledge the election results while paying attention to sycophantic aides and lawyers who recommended implausible, outlandish actions to remain in power and deny certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

His conduct was indefensible, the behavior of a man pathologically incapable of accepting defeat and willing to push the limits of statutory and constitutional boundaries to the point of criminality.

Any explanation or rationale for the Republican Party to remain in thrall to Trump have vanished, obliterated by his egregious conduct in the face of a violent assault on the nation’s most visible symbol of democracy.

Republicans who inched slowly away from Trump in the 2020 election aftermath and his stolen victory theories should now be free to put ever greater distance between them and urge the rest of their party to follow.

They were given a significant push toward independence by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who predicted that if Trump sought the 2024 nomination, he would face a significant group of contenders.

Translation: There’s no silver lining in the Trump cloud. He’ll not clear the field and the fear he once engendered has waned.

While McConnell, who has borne the brunt of some of Trump’s increasingly crude and profane rants, relegated the former president to just another potential candidate lacking any special consideration or edge, former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney cut even more deeply by predicting that Trump was the one Republican who would lose to Biden.

Trump will continue to enjoy the support of his hardcore base who remain convinced he was robbed and his actions of Jan. 6, 2021, were justified to right an egregious wrong.

It is undeniable, though, that he’s been severely damaged by the testimony of members and staffers in his own Administration and that of campaign officials.

Democrats are certain to lose their majority in the House of Representatives this November and possibly the Senate. Biden has lost the confidence of the country, plunging to unprecedented low approval standing. Three-quarters of the country believe it is headed in the wrong direction and a majority of Democrats oppose a Biden candidacy.

The stars are in alignment for a potential Republican sweep and one-party rule come 2024.

By turning away from Trump, the celestial order will remain intact.

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Copyright 2022 Carl Golden, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail.