Pollak: Will Voters Reward Democrats for Anti-Democratic Tactics?

Former Vice President Joe Biden would win the 2020 election if it were to be held today, assuming the polls are correct. For Democrats, it would mark the success of a strategy they launched in 2016: frighten the public about Donald Trump, deny his legitimacy if elected, and use almost any means necessary to remove him from office.

As such, voters may be about to reward Democrats for these tactics:

1. Telling the country Trump is not just a racist, but also a Nazi. Democrats and the media attempted to associate Trump with the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis during the election. They continued with the Charlottesville “fine people hoax” in 2017. They are doing so still, claiming federal law enforcement officers are the “Gestapo” and that Trump will seize dictatorial power if he loses. Calling the president a “Nazi” legitimizes violence against him and his supporters.

2. Claiming that Trump won the election because of “Russia collusion.” This was a lie concocted by the Hillary Clinton campaign, in coordination with sympathetic officials in the law enforcement and intelligence communities. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation debunked this myth, but a majority of Americans — and nearly 80% of Democrats — believe the claims in Christopher Steele’s “dossier” are true, fueling vehement opposition to the president.

3. Abusing the powers of law enforcement to undermine Trump from Day One. New revelations show President Obama and Vice President Biden gave the go-ahead to investigations of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn even when the FBI believed he was innocent. The FBI abused its power to get Flynn fired and to accuse him — likely falsely — of lying to FBI agents. Other investigations and leaks likewise undermined the new administration.

4. Conducting a partisan special counsel investigation through the midterm elections. Mueller’s investigation was stuffed with Democrats — including one attorney who represented the Clinton Foundation and another who attended her Election Night victory party. Though investigators knew from an early stage that there was no “collusion,” they dragged out their inquiry through the 2018 midterm elections — likely affecting the result and handing the House to Democrats.

5. Launching a partisan impeachment against Trump on a frivolous basis. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) did not even wait for the evidence — the transcript of Trump’s phone call with the Ukrainian president — before launching an impeachment inquiry. Democrats hid their hearings in the Capitol basement, and hid the so-called “whistleblower,” before forcing the country into an impeachment trial whose only purpose was to tarnish the president.

6. Refusing to unite behind the president in facing the coronavirus threat. When President Trump announced a ban on travel with China, Democrats called it “hysterical” and “xenophobi[c].” When he addressed the nation from the Oval Office, appealing for national unity, his opponents responded the next day by trashing him. The media encouraged the public to panic, and tried to undermine the president at every turn, putting their liberal politics ahead of public health.

7. Encouraging violent insurrection against law enforcement and America itself. When George Floyd was killed in police custody in Minneapolis, Trump acted immediately to expedite a federal investigation. But Democrats encouraged “Black Lives Matter” protests that turned violent, with rioting and looting. They continue to encourage so-called “peaceful protesters” who tear down statues and attack law enforcement, all to create a sense of disorder they can blame on Trump.

If Democrats can do all that and win, they will do it again in future.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.