{"id":110639,"date":"2023-07-09T09:58:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T13:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=110639"},"modified":"2023-07-09T09:59:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T13:59:15","slug":"the-daily-gouge-archive-sunday-july-2nd-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=110639","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge Archive, Sunday, July 2nd, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Sunday, July 2nd, 2023…but before we begin, Gary Shapley, the IRS whistleblower who was part of the Hunter Biden tax evasion investigation, told Bret Baier he was in a meeting last fall when federal prosecutor David Weiss\u00a0admitted he was not calling the shots<\/em><\/span><\/a>, stating for the record,\u00a0“I even had [Weiss] repeat that<\/em><\/span> because I knew how important that fact was<\/em><\/span>, and I wanted to make sure I understood it<\/em><\/span>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Astro would have observed:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Now, here’s The Gouge<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, writing at Townhall.com<\/em>, Guy Benson avers…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Leaked Trump Audio Is Bad<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

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I’ve already\u00a0said my piece<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0on the Hillary Clinton affair and the ‘two tiers’ of justice credibility problem that our federal law enforcement institutions have created for themselves. \u00a0I received a fair amount of flack for making those points, but they’re true and I believe them. \u00a0I’m also willing to acknowledge, and at least partially agree with, many conservatives’ concerns about how the audio discussed below leaked to the press, including relevant ethical and legal ramifications. \u00a0On that same point, it would not take much to convince me that such a damaging and damning leak would not have occurred in another politically-sensitive case, particularly if the target’s politics were different. \u00a0The\u00a0Durham report, and the many facts leading up to and included in it, were devastating to the image of the Justice Department and FBI as politically-neutral arbiters, and that’s a very serious problem.<\/p>\n

But I used the words “damaging” and “damning” intentionally because that is what this audio tape, furnished to and aired by CNN, is. \u00a0Before you listen to it, let’s first recall what former President Trump\u00a0told Fox News anchor Bret Baer<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a0Special Report\u00a0<\/em>just last week. \u00a0Baier asked, inevitably, about the federal indictment in a fair amount of depth, and to the surprise of many (including Baier<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/span>), Trump answered extensively<\/em><\/span><\/strong>, rather than offering no comment on an ongoing case. \u00a0On the issue of the alleged audio tape documenting Trump showing off highly classified materials to non-eligible guests at his residence, and reportedly admitting in the process that the document he was revealing hadn’t been declassified, Trump offered this explanation:<\/p>\n

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Trump on allegations he kept a classified military document on Iran:<\/p>\n

“There was no document. That was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things … I didn’t have a document, per se”pic.twitter.com\/6dgg7CggkI<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jesse Byrnes (@jessebyrnes) June 19, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n