As I said the other day, the Jimmy Kimmel debacle is more evidence that harsh crackdowns on freedom of speech and the free press are coming very quickly. It would mean a lot to me to see some of American Doom’s 13,000 subscribers throw a few bucks our way for a paid subscription. Or, you can contribute to our Doom Coffee Fund to support our work.
Evidence of the Trump administration’s complete disregard for the rule of law and the checks and balances put in place by the founders to prevent a tyrannical government continues to pile up.
The latest instance of the Trump regime telling other branches of government to kick rocks came courtesy of FBI Director Kash Patel in a pair of congressional hearings this week, which I outline today at Public Notice.
Patel almost surely lied to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, telling them that he has never pressed FBI agents on their personal political beliefs. That’s not true, according to a lawsuit filed by three former FBI agents who say they were fired for exactly that. The agents, who have a combined 60 years of experience in the FBI, say Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino helped the White House to carry out a political purge within the agency of agents who worked on investigations into Trump’s many crimes, or were simply suspected of being Democrats.
These allegations — made by agency veterans under the penalty of perjury if they happen to be lying in their lawsuit — did not stop Patel from completely denying the claims during his Senate testimony.
Patel’s apparent act of perjury this week shows his and the Trump administration’s DGAF attitude toward any level of accountability or checks on their power. And this emboldenment is rapidly getting worse.
Patel, Trump himself, congressional Republicans, and the entirety of the right-wing media ecosystem have been clamoring since Charlie Kirk’s death for crackdowns on liberal activist groups, NGOs, and media outlets that they say are partly to blame for the stunning and troubling killing of Kirk. Patel made clear this week that the FBI will lead those efforts.
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We are witnessing a mass-scale effort to shape a narrative of a vast left-wing conspiracy that involves George Soros, funding for left-wing think tanks, non-profits, advocacy organizations, media outlets, journalists, and academia — all leading to street-level violence and political murders like Kirk’s. (This, despite the fact that the political ideology of Kirk’s killer appears to not fit easily into a standard right-left paradigm.)
Trump has even designated the amorphous Antifa as a “major terrorist organization,” which is not a lawful designation of any kind. Like Trump’s use of “emergencies” to justify things like expanded ICE operations and domestic deployment of the military, the Trump regime is using Kirk’s death to justify widespread crackdowns on free speech.
The Antifa “terrorist” designation will surely be used to justify investigations into left-wing groups, in addition to that political capital to weaponize the FBI against progressive Americans in the wake of Kirk’s killing.
“We’ve seen an explosion of political violence, not just one-off lone wolf attacks, but organized, systemic political violence at a mass scale — it is not organic,” Eric Shmitt (R-Mo.) said at Tuesday’s Senate hearing. “It is the offspring of a dark and clandestine system funded in part with our own tax dollars with a large network of foundations, NGOs, activist organizations and front groups.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) repeated Shmitt’s claim that “left-wing violence” is “not organic.”
“The violence we are seeing is not purely organic,” Cruz said. “There is, I believe, significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence.”
Schmitt’s reference to “the George Soros empire” financing left-wing extremism, partly with American tax dollars, was also not a one-off. On Monday, as he hosted an episode of Kirk’s podcast from the White House, Vice President JD Vance noted that Soros provides funding to The Nation, which published an article about Kirk’s extremist statements that Vance became incensed about.
“Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie's death, do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment?” Vance said, referencing The Nation article that declared Kirk’s “legacy deserves no mourning. “They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer. And how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family for over 250 years”
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The growing focus on investigating left-wing organizations, non-profits, media outlets and even social media platforms coincides with the expansion of the federal government into all aspects of American life.
The Trump administration has successfully wielded the power of government agencies to pressure companies, non-profits, universities, media outlets, Democratic politicians and others into complying with its authoritarian demands.
Companies and universities have cancelled programs aimed at diversity, equity and inclusion under Trump’s “anti-woke” edicts. Non-profit organizations like the Smithsonian and national parks have been forced to comply with the administration’s revisionist history in removing references to slavery, while the military and Republican states have assisted in reviving the legacy of the confederacy by renaming Army bases after confederate generals, and putting monuments back in place across the South.
Media outlets have continually cowed to the Trump administration by settling specious lawsuits and firing employees who have been outspoken about authoritarian policies coming from the White House.
On Wednesday, in apparent capitulation to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s demands to crack down on Trump critics, ABC suspended comedian Jimmy Kimmell indefinitely after he pointed out that the politics of Kirk’s killer were more complicated than is being portrayed by the American right.
Kimmell’s suspension also comes as ABC affiliates seek the FCC’s approval for a historic merger that would require changes to federal regulations that limit what share of the American television audience a single company can broadcast to.
Meanwhile, some Democratic politicians like Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have stood up to the Trump administration’s expansion of federal law enforcement to carry out Trump’s mass deportation policy and his domestic deployment of the military, but others like Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser haven’t put up much of a fight.
Since Kirk’s killing, right-wing pundits and politicians have applauded the Trump administration’s efforts to punish anyone who has not sufficiently mourned Kirk — or who have simply pointed out some of his extreme statements.
Now, with the help of Patel’s politically-aligned FBI, they’re pushing for investigations and prosecutions of left-wing groups in both the private and public sectors to continue their campaign of vengeance — not just over Kirk’s killing, but of their fundamental belief that anyone who is against Trump is anti-American.
The situation could hardly be more ironic: Republicans, long the party of small government and states’ rights, are now backing the most aggressive expansion of the federal government into public and private life in recent history. Congress has completely abdicated its role as a check on executive power, leaving the courts to act as the lone constitutional bulwark against an all-powerful federal government.
This brewing battle between the executive and judicial branches is lining up to be a possible endgame to all this madness. For now, the courts are holding. But there are signs on the horizon that they won’t be able to hold Trump back for much longer.
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