#Democrats denied Trump’s legitimacy and other commentary

Roll tape: Yes, Dems Denied Don’s Legitimacy

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently claimed that Democrats “never” questioned President Trump’s legitimacy. And that, RealClearPolitics’ Carl M. Cannon snarks, is what happens to a Nobelist brain high on “hyper-partisanship.” In fact, “millions of Democrats” spent the past four years questioning “Trump’s legitimacy, as did numerous anti-Trump pundits and Obama-era US intelligence-community officials.” From the late Rep. John Lewis in 2017 (“I don’t see this president-elect as a legitimate president”) to Hillary Clinton in 2019 (Trump “knows he’s an illegitimate president”), denying Trump’s right to occupy the White House was a Democratic obsession. And, of course, Krugman did it, too. “Although the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences hasn’t asked for its award back, a cynic might wonder if Krugman’s economics writing had the same level of intellectual rigor as his political commentary.” 

Urban beat: The New Untouchables

Seattle’s city council recently considered “legislation to provide an ­exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction or mental illness,” reports Christopher J. Rufo at City Journal — creating “a new class of ‘untouchables,’ protected from consequences by the city’s power brokers,” who seem bent on establishing “a ‘reverse hierarchy of oppression.’  ” To the hard left, the bill to “effectively legalize an entire spectrum of misdemeanor crimes” has the added plus of “dramatically downsizing the court system,” which they see as “a bastion of racism and oppression.” Craziest of all: A public outcry has only delayed the bill.

Conservative: Biden’s Shady DHS Nominee

Joe Biden’s pick to run Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, is “a left-wing Democrat with a history of doing favors for wealthy and politically connected people, including working to help suspected Chinese spies enter the country and convicted drug dealers get out of prison,” warns The Federalist’s Christopher Bedford. A 99-page report from the DHS inspector general covering his tenure as head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services shows Mayorkas “meddling” in the “pay-to-play citizenship model” with wealthy would-be immigrants, allegedly as a favor to figures like Hilary Clinton’s brother and then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Mayorkas denies the allegations and “says he can’t remember the substance of any of the private conversations he had with these players.” Yet his history dating back to the Clinton administration shows that “favors for the powerful” have always been his go-to strategy, and if he is approved by the Senate, those friends will undoubtedly be very happy, indeed.

Archbishop: Joe’s ‘Catholic’ Scandal

At First Things, Philadelphia’s archbishop emeritus, Charles J. Chaput, says he opposes vehemently “any seeming indifference” to the problem of Joe Biden’s aggressive pro-abortion-rights stance and his receiving Communion at Mass. “Public figures who identify as ‘Catholic’ give scandal to the faithful when receiving Communion by creating the impression that the moral laws of the church are optional. And bishops give similar scandal by not speaking up publicly about the issue and danger of sacrilege.” Thus, “when bishops publicly announce their willingness to give Communion to Mr. Biden, without clearly teaching the gravity of his facilitating the evil of abortion (and his approval of same-sex relationships), they do a serious disservice to their brother bishops and their people.”

Iconoclast: Trumpism Will Live On

“For all his antics and vitriol,” observes Joel Kotkin at Spiked Online, “Trump has left a legacy that will be difficult to ignore.” The New York ­developer “challenged in ways not seen for a generation the comfortable ­establishmentarian politics of both parties.” More important, Trump “has re-established, along with his odd socialist doppelganger, Bernie Sanders, the relevance of class in American politics.” His populist views on “trade, media, economics and immigration will continue to influence politics for the next decade.” 

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board