PrintNow we know: it was (and remains) an attempted coup
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s 60 Minutes interview, airing in full on CBS tonight, is a disaster for the Deep State. His admission during his interview that he and other top FBI and Justice Department officials seriously considered taking steps including invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office in the spring of 2017 is a blockbuster. Thanks to his candor,
we can finally use without reservation the “C” word – for an attempted coup d’état –in describing what McCabe and other Deep State players were cooking up in secret two years ago.
Excerpts of McCabe’s damning interview were released by CBS News on Thursday. Almost immediately, a range of experts – including a few Democrats – began using the “C” word.
Alan Dershowitz on Hannity, Fox News Feb. 15, 2019
Thursday evening, Alan Dershowitz, emeritus professor of law at Harvard Law School and a Democrat, appeared on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight and said about what McCabe revealed to 60 Minutes, “If true, it is clearly an attempt at a coup d’état.” The following night, during an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Dershowitz went even farther in analyzing what McCabe said about Rod Rosenstein:
Let’s talk about Rod Rosenstein. He is the Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He was the acting attorney general for this case. And he is suggesting using the 25th Amendment that was written to take care of a problem of Woodrow Wilson having a stroke or President Reagan being shot and being on the operating table. These guys [McCabe, Rosenstein, at al] are watching House of Cards instead of reading the Constitution. The Constitution is as clear as can be. The 25th Amendment is applicable only if you’re incapacitated. It’s not a substitute for impeachment; it’s not a substitute for an election. And if Rod Rosenstein actually thought about and suggested wiring the president, [and] invoking the 25th Amendment he should be fired before he has an opportunity to resign. He should be disgraced. The Inspector General of the Justice Department should be looking into it.
This is as close as this country has ever come to the consideration of a coup d’état – a constitutionally unlawfaul coup d’état [emphasis added.] – against the duly elected president, whether you like him or not, whether you voted against him as I did or not. The Constitution has to prevail. The 25th Amendment has to mean what it says. And when you have a deputy attorney general thinking about circumventing the 25th Amendment, that is close to a Constitutional crisis.
A variety of observers and analysts, writing in The Federalist, Fox News online, American Thinker, Conservative Review, and scores of other publications, have now used the word “coup” in headlines or in the body of their articles on the subject.
Kimberley Strassel on Journal Editorial Report, Fox News Feb. 16, 2019
Appearing on Saturday’s Journal Editorial Report on the Fox News channel, Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal reporter and editorial board member, advanced the analysis further:
It’s crazy to have to go here – but I’m going to go there. Essentially what they were doing is engaging [in], or at least contemplating, a coup. [emphasis added.] Because, look, this is not the FBI’s job. . . The FBI’s job is to investigate, is to recommend prosecution, or if it really believes what it believed is happening here, that this president was somehow unfit to serve in office or colluding with the Russians, its job is to inform senior leaders of Congress who can then go down the road of impeachment or to inform other senior members of the cabinet who could look at the 25th Amendment. The FBI has no role here. And the idea that they thought this was appropriate just says everything about Jim Comey, Andy McCabe, and their sense of their own importance and no rules about what they needed to follow in order to – in their jobs.
After CBS News let the cat out of the bag on Thursday with the excerpts of the McCabe interview, McCabe attempted to walk back his quotes that had led to the widespread description of his and his colleagues’ machinations in 2017 as a potential coup. Monica Showalter explored this questionable effort in her blog “Andrew McCabe scrambles to deny 'coup plotting'” at American Thinker yesterday. Her conclusion reflected what most other thoughtful analysts who have been following the developments were also saying: “Sorry, big boy, it's time to face the music.”
The fact that a coup d’état against President Trump was under serious consideration is no longer speculation proposed by fringe “conspiracy theorists.” The words “coup” or “attempted coup” can now be used without qualification or apology in describing the history of the attempts to take down President Trump that went on at some of the highest levels of the federal government in 2017.
Only by using the correct names for matters can an appropriate response be formulated. This is ancient wisdom propounded by Confucius:
"If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant;
if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone;
if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate;
if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.
Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.
This matters above everything."
Peter Barry Chowka writes about politics, media, popular culture, and health care for American Thinker and other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @pchowka.
