Tucker: Democracy was built on debate and competing ideas
What has the resistance done to our democracy?
Every president since George Washington has faced political opposition -- every single one of them. And that's the point of our system. Democracies are built on debate and competing ideas. If you find a political leader who seems universally loved, what you found is a dictatorship. Nobody criticized Ceausescu; nobody dared.
So as a matter of principle, there is nothing wrong with opposing Donald Trump and his policies. Dissent is patriotic. But that's not what has been happening for the past two and a half years.
Nothing about the "Resistance" has enhanced our democracy or made this country better. Just the opposite. The left's opposition to Trump has shredded democratic norms. Since the moment the last ballot was cast in 2016, they've worked to nullify the presidential election. They've imposed censorship on much of the country. And more than anything, they've sided with the permanent bureaucracy over voters.
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People like former CIA Director John Brennan have openly urged federal employees to ignore and undermine the elected president. That is a brazen attack on democracy. It's more destructive than anything the Russians attempted.
Brennan now delivers his instructions from a desk at NBC News, where he is paid to deliver commentary like the following:
John Brennan, former CIA director: This is nothing short of treasonous, because it is a betrayal of the nation. He is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Treasonous is defined as a betrayal of trust, as well as aiding and abetting the enemy, and so that was the word that came to my mind.
Yes, so when you disagree with John Brennan, former head of the CIA, it is high treason. It's a death penalty offense. That's the case he is making.
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John Brennan is a reckless and unbalanced partisan. That's obvious to anyone who's watched him. When we learned from a source last year that Brennan had somehow retained his top secret security clearance as a civilian, we were shocked, but we weren't really surprised. That's how Washington actually works.
I said the following in a segment last year: "Brennan no longer works for the Federal government in any capacity. He holds no official post. And yet, according to two sources we spoke to exclusively today, Brennan retains perhaps the most valuable asset he had in government, a top secret security clearance. It is terrifying to think that John Brennan still has access to any of that information. Brennan is an out of the closet extremist. This is not a man who should have a security clearance."
Many in Congress agreed with that assessment. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky came on this show to say that John Brennan had no business holding security clearance.
Shortly after that segment aired, the president announced that he was revoking Brennan's clearance. We assumed that was the end of the story -- and in real democracy it would have been. But it wasn't because this isn't.
The truth is, the president of the United States was undermined by his own staff. He gave them a direct unequivocal order. In their feline, passive aggressive way, they refused to carry it out. How many times a day does that happen? Every time it does, our democracy erodes.
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So, a year later, we learned that Brennan still has a security clearance. How did that happen? Because the executive branch officials simply ignored the president's orders. This is a problem because he was elected by voters, and they were not. All legitimate power in the executive branch flows from him and the election that he won.
But his employees don't care. Increasingly, bureaucrats wield the real authority in this country. You see it every day in Washington. But this one time, we decided to find out exactly what happened.
The first thing we did was to call the executive branch. We were told that John Brennan no longer has "access to classified information." A source explained to us that means the administration sent a letter to intelligence agencies and explained that Brennan no longer has a "need to know."
That all sounded reassuring and had a kind of narcotic effect. But like so much that happens in government, it's a mirage; it means nothing. In fact, bureaucrats can simply ignore that letter if they choose. They have before.
So the truth is, the president of the United States was undermined by his own staff. He gave them a direct, unequivocal order. In their feline, passive-aggressive way, they refused to carry it out. How many times a day does that happen? Every time it does, our democracy erodes.
And by the way, that's fine with official Washington. If holding elections means that Donald Trump wins power, they're against elections -- whatever it takes, including brute force.
Just the other day, Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Capitol Hill her goal isn't to impeach the president. Her goal is to put him in prison. For what crime? She didn't specify.
But it doesn't matter. You know as well as anyone that Trump's real offense was getting elected in the first place.
Adapted from Tucker Carlson's monologue on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on June 6, 2019.
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