Adam Schiff walked into a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday with what he presumably thought was a devastating gotcha question ready to go. According to USA Journal, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who is 84 years old and apparently still operating with more mental horsepower than half the Senate combined, flipped the whole thing around on him like a seasoned chess player swatting away a checkers move.
Schiff opened by asking Ashcroft whether he agreed with Todd Blanche's reported view that the President has "both the right and the duty to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies." It was the kind of question designed to produce a damning clip for cable news, not an actual answer. Unfortunately for Schiff, he asked it to a guy who has been doing this longer than most senators have been alive.
Ashcroft's response was surgical: "I believe that the Attorney General of the United States has the right and responsibility to enforce the law uniformly, and if the law has been broken by the President's 'enemies,' he has a duty. They do not become exempt from following the law merely by their enmity to the president of the United States. The people who break the law are in enmity with the people of the United States. We used to call people who break the law 'public enemies.'"
That is the kind of answer that makes a law professor want to frame it and hang it on the wall. Schiff tried pressing again, and Ashcroft simply kept going: "If an enemy of the President goes out and conducts a violent crime, there's nothing wrong with the President calling the Attorney General and saying, 'I hope you do something about this violent crime.'"
Two exchanges. That is all it took for Ashcroft to dismantle the entire premise that prosecuting someone who happens to oppose the President is automatically political persecution. Turns out breaking the law does not come with a partisan immunity card, no matter how loudly you insist it does on television.
The timing here is rich considering Schiff spent years enthusiastically supporting the Biden DOJ as it pursued January 6th defendants, prosecuted pro-life protesters, and launched multiple cases against the former president. All of that was perfectly fine, apparently. Justice being served. But the moment a Republican administration enforces the law against people who happen to be Democrats, suddenly we are living in a dystopian novel.
The double standard is not even subtle at this point. It is just sitting there in broad daylight wearing a name tag.
Ashcroft, who also served as governor, U.S. Senator, and state auditor over the course of his career, was at the hearing to testify in support of DAG Todd Blanche's confirmation. He did not need to point out the hypocrisy directly. His answer did all the heavy lifting. Equal justice under the law is either the standard or it is not. You do not get to toggle it on and off depending on who is in the White House.
Schiff set a trap and walked right into it himself. At this point, that might just be his signature move.
Read more conservative news commentary at: USA Journal News
