Cherry picking season used to be May through August. Now, due to political climate change, it’s year round.
“It’s appalling Democrats on the Oversight Committee are cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate today.“
Just appalling, said Republican Congressman James Comer of Kentucky clutching his pearls. Somehow, releasing the letter that Trump claimed was “nonexistent,” the letter that he sued the Wall Street Journal for $10B for publishing, is cherry picking.
Our man Mike Lawler wants nothing to do with this cherry tree.
Mike Lawler, chief abdicator and defender of this lawless administration, and master cherry picker. The cherry orchard he prefers to spend time in is the land of law and order, with the Foxes. Yesterday’s Fox interview was classic Lawler:
Let’s pick through the cherry-picker’s detritus, noting his introductory mandatory tribute: “I think the President is spot on.”
He starts by praising the destruction of the speedboat earlier this week, with 11 human beings on board, headed from Venezuela to Trinidad. “Ships that were trafficking drugs,” pronounces the fact-free and earnest Congressman. No mention of the 11 people killed. Still no confirmation of intelligence from the White House that there were drugs on board. Could any of the 11 on board have been individuals who were being trafficked? It’s conceivable. Just not to Lawler, who loves to see things blown up.
When one political commentator dared suggest that this was “an extrajudicial killing under international human rights law,” our esteemed Vice President JD Vance responded, “I don’t give a shit what you call it…. Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
Imagine the often delusional Senator Rand Paul having the more human response.
Lawler goes on to talk about the fentanyl epidemic as justification. Yet “Venezuela plays virtually no role in the fentanyl trade,” reports the NY Times. There’s little doubt that Maduro and Venezuela do play a role in the drug-trafficking scourge hitting our shores, but far from the biggest. Destroying this boat and 11 lives was performative extrajudicial killing art, not a defensive strike against an imminent threat. But JD doesn’t give a sh*t. Nor does Lawler
The interview goes on to cover Trump’s “crime crackdown” in U.S. cities. Lawler again does the bidding for his liege, citing the “shameful crime epidemic” flowing primarily from the cashless bail policies of Democrats. As portrayed by the White House:
The Radical Left’s fantasy of so-called “cashless bail” has turned the streets of America’s cities into hunting grounds for repeat criminals who mock our justice system by committing crime after crime without consequence.
Kind of funny that this was one of their examples: “a man who hurled a sandwich at a Federal officer was released on his own recognizance despite being charged with a serious crime punishable by up to eight years in Federal prison.” Never mind that a grand jury later declined to indict sandwich guy. Never mind that crime rates are down. Never mind that this is the White House that pardoned 1500 January 6 rioters, some who committed violent crimes on the day, some who had extensive prior criminal records, and some who went on to commit crimes after their pardon.
Get used to hearing the words “cashless bail” and “crime crackdown” regularly between now and the 2026 election, especially from Trump and lawless Lawler. Trump is polling well below 50% on every issue except crime, where he gets a 53% approval rating.
Lawler starts to almost hyperventilate late in the Fox interview. He shouts “cracking down” 3 times in the space of 15 seconds, just in case it hasn’t reached your bloodstream. Then he picks one of his favorite cherries: people being burned alive in NYC’s subways, and pushed in front of subway cars. Again citing the need to do away with cashless bail. Yet the subway burning incident in December was committed by a mentally ill man with no prior arrests, and other subway pushing incidents blamed on bail reform have been shown to be totally unrelated.
A study by the Brennan Center for Justice found no evidence connecting bail reform with crime rates. In fact, it appears to have reduced recidivism in NYC.
But Trump and Lawler will continue to pick cherries and whip up the fear, because it provides pretext to crack down, and cracking down on crime polls well when people are scared.
The overzealous militarized crackdown on crime will also make the crackdown on dissent that much easier, and provide the chill necessary to preserve Trump’s corrupt autocratic regime.
Thanks Mike Lawler.
Rule of Lawler 