Are they slow on the uptake or engaged in a massive exercise in deception? The Washington establishment continues to misunderstand, or pretend to misunderstand, what Donald Trump is aiming to do during his second term. Numerous old Beltway insiders have warned us that this or that Trump appointment is dangerously unqualified for the office to which he or she was appointed. By conventional standards, that’s absolutely true. But what the insiders don’t realize is that this is not a bug; it’s a feature. The latest establishment figure not to get what is going on is an old intelligence hand, William Webster.
Webster, like his old boss Jimmy Carter, is 100 years old and is the only person ever to head up both the FBI and the CIA. If these were ordinary times, his words of warning against Trump’s appointees to be the head of the FBI and Director of National Intelligence would carry a great deal of weight because of all the people in the entire country, William Webster is one of the most experienced in the intelligence arena and has enjoyed bipartisan respect. Carter appointed him FBI director in 1978, and then Ronald Reagan moved him over to the CIA in 1987. From 2005 to 2020, when he was 96 years old, he was chair of the Homeland Security Advisory Council.
So when Webster says that Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard aren’t qualified, he must know, right? Certainly. But what he really knows is that they don’t meet the establishment standards, and that’s all to the good because Trump has actually appointed them to dismantle that very establishment and conduct a sweeping reform of the corrupt and compromised agencies they have been appointed to head.
Politico reported Thursday that Webster sent a letter to senators, urging them to reject both appointments. Of Patel, the superannuated intel top dog said: “His record of executing the president’s directives suggest[s] a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law — a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice.” Step back for a moment and remember that Webster wrote this after four years of Merrick Garland heading up the Justice Department. That means that Webster stood by in silence as Garland and Old Joe Biden turned the FBI into a weapon of partisan vengeance that had no relationship whatsoever to the impartial enforcement of justice.
What Webster doesn’t realize, or doesn’t want the senators to realize, is that Trump has appointed Patel precisely in order to restore the FBI’s capacity to enforce justice impartially, after Biden, Garland, Christopher Wray, and their henchmen not only used it to frame Trump for crimes he didn’t commit and destroy his chances of being elected president again, but also to persecute opponents of the left’s war against American culture and traditional values.
Remember, the Biden-Harris regime sicced the FBI on angry parents protesting at school board meetings and sent spies into Catholic churches to keep tabs on pro-lifers. Now Webster is worried that Kash Patel won’t have the FBI enforcing justice impartially? He stood by silently while his friends corrupted and politicized the bureau. His speaking out now can only serve to perpetuate that corruption and politicization.
Regarding Gabbard, Webster complained that she had a “profound lack” of experience in the intelligence establishment. Webster explained: “Effective management of our intelligence community requires unparalleled expertise to navigate the complexities of global threats and to maintain the trust of allied nations. Without that trust, our ability to safeguard sensitive secrets and collaborate internationally is severely diminished.”
Yeah, no. Right now, all the people who have “profound” experience and “unparalleled expertise” in the intelligence community have driven it right into a ditch. Consider, to take just one of a myriad of possible examples, James Clapper, who was Director of National Intelligence, the job Gabbard has been appointed to fill, during the Obama years. Clapper is a respected member of the intelligence establishment. He is also a partisan dolt and a willing tool of those who have corrupted that establishment.
Related: ‘Justice’ Department Doesn’t Want Derek Chauvin to Get a Chance to Prove He Didn’t Kill George Floyd
Back in February 2011, Clapper claimed at the height of the Egyptian “Arab Spring” that the Muslim Brotherhood was “largely secular,” a claim that was as absurd as it was inaccurate. The subsequent torrent of ridicule compelled the Obama camp to issue a correction, but Clapper remained in his position. In February 2019, Clapper was enjoying a comfortable retirement, laden with honors, but took the time to agree with the preposterous and evidence-free claim that Trump could be a "Russian asset."
In October 2020, Clapper was one of the notorious 51 former intelligence officials who claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Webster never complained about James Clapper, but he is worried about Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard. The aged spook has given us another reason why they must be confirmed.
