Cal Thomas: Bias in government

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 21st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from member-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: Would you consider a jihadist to be biased against Jews? Could a member of a white supremacist group be accused of bias against non-whites?

EICHER: Cal Thomas now on bias in government.

THOMAS: The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, and FBI Director Christopher Wray made a remarkable claim about the 500-plus-page report DOJ released last week. They found no “documented” evidence that political bias at the FBI directly influenced the findings in the Clinton investigation or the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute the former secretary of state.

That’s a hard sell in “flyover country.”

The anti-Trump political beliefs of top FBI employees are documented—in text messages. If those views did not influence their work, then why is Director Wray ordering all of his employees to undergo training that—according to CNN—includes instruction “on what went wrong so these mistakes will never be repeated.”?

Members of the media might also benefit from ethics training since the IG report found multiple incidents of journalists doing favors for FBI agents. It’s safe to assume they got information in exchange.

Huffington Post reports, “Other instant messages showed FBI employees referring to Trump as ‘Drumpf,’ calling Trump supporters ‘retarded’ and ‘lazy POS’ … joking about Trump’s election signaling the fall of the Republic, and writing ‘Viva le resistance.'”

How can anyone claim that people with such strong political views could approach their work objectively?

Here’s an excerpt from the IG report: “The damage caused by (the agents’) actions … goes to the heart of the FBI’s reputation for neutral fact-finding and political independence.”

This seems to suggest that the behavior of certain agents was notneutral and that the agents did not display political independence.

Numerous people, some unnamed, come in for strong criticism in the Horowitz report. It cites former FBI Director James Comey for effectively taking matters into his own hands and becoming his own authority in public statements about Hillary Clinton’s emails. A Wall Street Journal editorial summed it up well: “The unavoidable conclusion is that Mr. Comey’s FBI became a law unto itself, accountable to no one but the former director’s self-righteous conscience. His refusal to follow proper guidelines interfered with a presidential election campaign in a way that has caused millions of Americans in both parties to justifiably cry foul.”

Among the things people hate about Washington is that no matter how many higher-ups are alleged to have broken laws and violated ethics codes, few are held accountable. The Justice Department has a chance to change that narrative. It must hold accountable those people who broke the law and the rules.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Cal Thomas.

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz is sworn in for a joint House Committee on the Judiciary and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing examining his report of the FBI’s Clinton email probe, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, June 19, 2018 in Washington. 

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.