Senator Cramer attempts to speak!

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2024

Part of the madness we've chosen: On the brighter side, the interview ended politely.

On last evening's Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer interviewed Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota. The short session ended in a convivial way. We'll post that exchange below.

On the other hand, there were the astonishing claims which had already been made by the astonishing Senator Cramer. 

Blitzer wanted to know if Cramer had confidence in Kash Patel as a possible head of the FBI. He played videotape of some of Patel's stranger remarks, then asked a fairly straightforward question:

BLITZER (12/11/24): You said earlier today that Kash Patel will root out corruption at the FBI. I want to play a bit of what he's said in the past. Watch this.

PATEL (videotape): I'd shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But, yes, we're putting you all on notice.

BLITZER: So, Senator, why does this give you confidence he will act impartially as the FBI director?

That was a fairly obvious question. Cramer's reply was astounding:

CRAMER (continuing directly): Well, because it is the job of the FBI director to oversee an agency that roots out evil, that roots out the illegal activity. It's starting with the FBI itself, by the way. 

I don't find it partisan to want to get to the root of how is it that the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago early in the morning with guns out looking for documents that, if they knew existed, all they had to do was ask for them or get a subpoena and go get them in a peaceful way in cooperation with the president and his lawyers or the FBI that got involved in suppressing information in the Hunter Biden laptop story, which was really election interference.

These are serious problems for an agency whose job is to uphold and enforce the laws of the United States. If somebody doesn't investigate them, then they're derelict in their duty.

For the record, the FBI didn't conduct its "raid"—that is to say, its court-approved search—"with guns out" that day. That said, Cramer's claim that "all they had to do was ask for [the documents] or get a subpoena" was little short of astounding.

To his credit, Blitzer tried to react. This is what happened next:

BLITZER (continuing directly): But as you know, Senator—I assume you know this—they repeatedly, the FBI repeatedly asked for those top secret sensitive compartmented information documents, the most highly sensitive documents around. They repeatedly asked that they be returned, and their requests were repeatedly denied.

CRAMER: There's no question that there were legal activities taking place back and forth in negotiation, but there was no need to arm a bunch of FBI agents to the teeth, put on bulletproof vests, show up in their SWAT outfits, and raid Mar-a-Lago. It shows an indignity of the whole thing. And by the way, here we are today with the whole case being dismissed.

And I think it's a major reason why the American people said on Election Day, you know what? It's not going to happen again. And I think it's one of the biggest reasons Donald Trump is reelected as president of the United States, and now, of course, going forward with a growing approval rating as people see the way he's handling this transition.

Wow! If anything, that statement by Cramer was even worse. 

Ignore the absurdly euphemistic statement in which Cramer said there had been "legal activities taking place back and forth in negotiation."  Also, ignore the way he swallowed the reason which explains why the case has now been dismissed.

Instead, move ahead to the highlighted material. As we would assume that everyone knows, the FBI agents didn't show up that day "in SWAT outfits," "armed to the teeth." According to widespread reporting, and as confirmed by videotape, the FBI agents "dressed down" that day, trying to avoid creating a spectacle. 

By now, Blitzer seemed to be a bit befuddled, but he tried again:

BLITZER (continuing directly): But you know those documents, as I pointed out, were among the most sensitive in the U.S. intelligence community, and many of them were simply lying around various locations in Mar-a-Lago, where all sorts of foreign visitors were showing up. If those documents got into the hands of U.S. adversaries, they could easily compromise U.S. sources and methods and endanger those U.S. sources out there if they got into the wrong hands. Does that not worry you?

For the record, we had now completely abandoned the original question about Kash Patel. Thaks to Cramer's gorilla dust, we were now off in fever swamp land, and Cramer now fled to President Biden's garage:

CRAMER (continuing directly): I don't think former presidents or former vice presidents like Joe Biden should take classified documents out of the White House, but I would remind people that the president does have the authority to declassify documents. The vice president does not. But Vice President Joe Biden took documents and left them in his garage, unlocked, and he got no prosecution, no charges, but justice turns a different way when it comes to Donald Trump.

Again, I think it's that injustice that the American people have seen and said, you know what, I don't trust these guys anymore. I'm going to go with the disruptor.

Now, Cramer was suggesting that Trump had somehow declassified all the documents. He suggested it, but he didn't say it. That led to the pleasant final exchange:

BLITZER (continuing directly): Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, thanks for joining us.

CRAMER: Always a pleasure. Thanks, Wolf.

"Thanks for joining us," Blitzer said. "Thanks for nothing" would have made more sense.

We offer two final disclosures:

First, a massive hubbub has been constructed around that infamous "raid." That wider hubbub is deeply insane. It involves lunatic claims by Candidate Trump last May, followed by even crazier claims by Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

(Greene, posting on X: “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.")

That's just part of the general madness. but there's also this:

Given his unmistakable bumbling aspect, and given the size of the massive hubbub, we aren't totally sure that Senator Cramer doesn't believe the various things he said. All in all, this is just part of the madness we're lodged in—part of the madness we've chosen.