Killing the Deep State. Jerome R. Corsi. Ph.D.

of Arthur Anderson. Noting that Weissmann was the “driving force” behind the indictment of Arthur Anderson in the Enron case, Weissmann used the “special tactics” he developed prosecuting organized criminals, convinced that even if some of his special tactics went outside the bounds, the ends justified the means when prosecuting serious bad guys. Later in the book, Powell points out that Weissmann forced Duncan into a guilty plea by misrepresenting Duncan’s innocent conduct in the case as “criminal.”27

       CHAPTER 2

       A Shattering Defeat and the Left’s Paradise Lost

      The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy.

      —David Remnick, The New Yorker

      AT 11:05 A.M. ET ON June 16, 2015, when Donald and Melania Trump descended from the mezzanine of Trump Tower in New York City to announce Donald Trump’s candidacy for president, US politics entered a revolutionary era. Almost immediately, the mainstream media began characterizing Trump’s candidacy as a joke, predicting his demise. Trump would never win in the primaries, most insisted. Then, when Trump surged in the primaries, the mainstream media changed the theme, predicting Trump would never get enough delegates for a first ballot win at the Republican national nominating convention in Cleveland. In the end, Trump’s victory in the primaries was decisive, winning 41 primaries and getting some 500 delegates more than the 1,237 he needed to secure the GOP presidential nomination on the first ballot.

      Even as the nation prepared to vote on November 8, 2016, commentators on cable television remained unanimous in their opinions that Trump was losing badly in the polls and that Hillary was certain to win the presidency. Democrats began the 2016 presidential campaign with “a mortal lock” on 246 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.1 Pundit after pundit insisted that Trump would lose some of the largest states with the greatest number of electoral votes, including both New York and California. According to the experts, he had “no electoral path” available to win enough of the remaining states to get the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.

      Yet at 2:45 a.m. ET, after the voting was done, television networks announced to a stunned nation that Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes had gone to Donald Trump, making him the president-elect of the United States. Donald Trump had defied all odds, winning a surreal victory that sent the Deep State into an immediate panic.

      A leaked video showed an elated Clinton family prematurely celebrating victory on election night based on early results indicating that Hillary would be elected president, just as predicted. The video shows Chelsea running into her mother’s open arms, embracing a smiling Hillary, while Bill Clinton claps his hands and jumps up and down like an excited schoolboy.2 Too bad for the Clintons the elation did not last long.

      In R. Emmett Tyrrell’s blog on The American Spectator website, sources reported that Hillary flew into a rage after it was clear she had lost. According to Secret Service officers, Hillary pounded the furniture and screamed obscenities—throwing objects at staff in an uncontrollable fury.

      The Glass Ceiling

      As the New York Post noted in reporting Clinton’s historic defeat, Hillary had chosen every detail of her election night so as to mark her moment in history—from the glass ceiling at Manhattan’s Javits Center, where hundreds of supporters were gathered to hear her victory speech, to the top-floor suite the Clintons had reserved at the Peninsula Hotel, located at 5^th Avenue and 55^th Street. Hillary had selected that hotel “so she could personally see Trump Tower, home to the foe she was set to crush.”

      “Hillary’s communications team decamped to the Javits Center in the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan, where preparations for her victory party were being made,” the New York Post noted. “The venue, which would fill with Hillary aides, donors, friends and well-wishers over the course of the day, was chosen in large part because of its distinctive feature: a glass ceiling. If everything went as planned, it would be the glass ceiling of the presidency that lay shattered under Hillary by the end of the night.”3

      At 2:00 a.m. ET, Hillary’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, appeared at the podium in the Javits Center to say, “Well, folks, I know you have been here a long time, and it’s been a long night and a long campaign. But I can say, we can wait a little longer, can’t we? They are still counting votes, and every vote should count. Several states are too close to call, so we’re not going to have anything more to say tonight.” That was it, no concession. “So listen, listen to me,” Podesta continued, “everybody should head home. We should get some sleep.”

      But President Obama phoned Hillary at the Peninsula to impress upon her the inevitable. The White House had concluded that the electoral map as reported by the television coverage was correct. Despite all the predictions, including nearly unanimous polling data that predicted Hillary would win easily, she had lost. Obama urged Hillary to telephone Trump and concede.

      Finally, Hillary reluctantly agreed to speak with Trump by telephone. In a short call, Hillary conceded. “Congratulations, Donald,” she said. “I’ll be supportive of the country’s success, and that means your success as president.”4

      Hillary’s Defeat: “An American Tragedy”

      The next day, David Remnick, the author of a 2010 book titled The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, delivered the political left’s verdict on Trump’s unanticipated victory in the New Yorker. “The election of Donald Trump to the Presidency is nothing less than a tragedy for the American republic, a tragedy for the Constitution, and a triumph for the forces, at home and abroad, of nativism, authoritarianism, misogyny, and racism,” Remnick wrote. “Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy.” Already, Remnick was lamenting the passing out of office of Barack Obama. “On January 20, 2017, we will bid farewell to the first African-American President—a man of integrity, dignity, and generous spirit—and witness the inauguration of a con who did little to spurn endorsement by forces of xenophobia and white supremacy,” he insisted. “It is impossible to react to this moment with anything less than revulsion and profound anxiety.”5

      This was the first salvo suggesting that the Hillary camp was not about to accept defeat so easily. Clearly the political left could not allow American voters to elect to the presidency a person David Remnick and like-minded ideologues in the New York, Washington, and Los Angeles media elite had designated as not qualified to be president. Donald Trump was so politically incorrect, the elite felt certain that somehow, he would have to be barred from taking the oath of office.

      The next day, on November 9, 2016, Hillary gave a formal concession speech, saying, “Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all people.”6 The emphasis on “all people” appeared to be a subtle reference to Hillary’s repeated charges that Trump’s campaign was a divisive one, designed to appeal only to the reactionary impulses of white supremacists seeking to roll back the “social justice” achievements of the Obama administration.

      Within 24 hours of her formal concession speech, an angry and aggrieved Hillary refused to take responsibility for her loss to Trump, pointing her finger instead at Russia, resentful that Obama had not done more to make the case that Vladimir Putin had targeted her in a determined effort to throw the election to Trump.7