While Donald Trump’s critics smear him as a threat to democracy, the former president and president-elect never weaponized government like some past presidents – even some great ones – Constitutional Scholar Mark Levin says.
In Sunday’s episode of “Life, Liberty & Levin,” the iconic conservative commentator said he’s had enough of efforts to falsely frame President-elect Trump as a threat to liberty. Levin provided genuine examples of how past presidents have misused and exceeded their authority, going back to the days of George Washington.
Even though the nation’s second president, John Adams, was a great Founder and Framer of the U.S. Constitution, he signed the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, then used them to press charges against citizens and newspapers for criticizing government policies, Levin noted.
In another example, Levin explained how President Abraham Lincoln far exceeded his authority by suspending the writ of habeas corpus, even after a federal appeals court expressly prohibited him from doing so. As a result, Lincoln’s military was able to imprison thousands of people without having to appear in court to justify doing so.
Likewise, President Woodrow Wilson signed the 1917-18 Espionage and Sedition Acts used by his administration to arrest thousands, including political opponents, and even to jail a rival presidential candidate.
“Wilson also instituted the most extensive censorship regime of any president, monitoring newspapers, planting pro-government stories, threatening critics, and so forth and so on,” Levin said.
“That espionage act, as I said, lives to this day,” Levin said, noting how the century-old law was used as the pretext for charging Trump for possessing classified documents after leaving office.
Other presidents, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, weaponized the IRS to bring charges against, and obtain information about, their political opponents. FDR was “among the worst,” because he also used the IRS to target conservative newspaper publishers, Levin said.
JFK and President Lyndon Johnson weaponized the intelligence community to spy on both actual and potential opponents.
Still, “Nobody went after the press like (Pres. Barack) Obama and (Attorney General Eric) Holder in modern times. Nobody,” Levin said.
“But, the worst of it was yet to come,” Levin said, detailing the unprecedented weaponization of government by President Joe Biden’s administration.