Attorney General Merrick Garland kept reporters and TV networks waiting (and filling air time) for more than a half-hour before he came out and made a brief statement and took no questions from reporters. It was not a demonstration of transparency after this unprecedented step of the FBI raiding the home of a former president like he was a criminal.
The networks tried to present Garland as reasonable and nonpartisan — insisting of course, he must have a good reason for this raid. Then an ABC reporter turned to frighten the public with neo-Nazis ripping Garland on message boards — he’s Jewish — and seemingly associated all Garland’s critics with the worst extremists.
Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel predicts that if Republicans take Congress, “The Payback Will Be Brutal.” She wrote “to read the left’s media scribes, Monday’s search was a ho-hum day in crime-fighting. The Beltway press circled the wagons around Attorney General Merrick Garland and primly parroted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s piety that “no one is above the law.”
Democrats may be betting that adverse coverage of Mr. Trump will help them in November, or in 2024. They’d better hope so. Their media defenders recklessly ignore the boomerang history of unleashed governmental powers and the long-term political danger of violating precedents and norms.
We wrap today by taking a minute to talk to our departing summer news-analyzing interns Margaret Buckley, Aidan Moorehouse, and Emma Schultz. Our interns dig right into “news-busting,” and these young people make us feel optimistic about the future.
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you enjoy your podcasts.