Sessions Leaks Steal Narrative from Trump’s Speech

The timing of leaks which forced the administration onto the defensive late Wednesday were no coincidence, according to some political observers. Instead, they suggest, the assault on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ integrity carried all the signs of a coordinated political hit job designed to kill any positive momentum President Donald Trump may enjoy after a celebrated speech to the nation.

On Tuesday, Trump gave what was widely considered the best speech of his political career, an incredibly well-received address to a joint session of Congress.

“The Democratic Party is just a smear machine … the depths of their partisanship and willingness to politicize anything makes it hard to take anonymous leaks seriously when they prop up the Democrat narrative at such opportune moments.”

The confidence that speech instilled — especially in those who remained apprehensive about the new president — resulted in the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising by over 300 points the following day.

And, as the Dow was sitting comfortably above 21,000 on Wednesday afternoon, news broke that the Obama administration had funneled millions of dollars to radical far-left groups — including the illegal immigrant activist group La Raza — through a Department of Justice slush fund.

Then The Washington Post broke a story Wednesday evening that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had two conversations with the Russian ambassador in 2016, along with the suggestion Sessions had been untruthful during his confirmation hearings about the encounters. The story came at the perfect time to wash away the best 48 hours of media coverage Trump had enjoyed since assuming office.

“Donald Trump had such an amazing speech to Congress that they needed to do this,” Ric Grennell, a former diplomat under George W. Bush and the longest-serving U.S. spokesman at the United Nations, said Thursday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.”

“This is the only way that they feel like they can truly stop the Trump agenda,”LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham noted. “[Trump’s] moving forward — now the border’s being enforced, we’re negotiating these trade deals, Tillerson went over there to Europe and had important meetings, job creation is happening, they’re going to do this infrastructure public-private fund,” Ingraham said.

“They can’t stop that, so what they’re trying to do is intimidate good people from either working in the [government] altogether or from aggressively pursuing the Trump agenda and people who are committed to the Trump agenda, they’re trying to smear,” she said.

Other political observers agreed the timing was simply too perfect for Trump detractors to be coincidental.

“This leak is obviously designed to change the news cycle from Trump’s fantastically successful address back to ‘Russia stole the election from Hillary Clinton,'” said Eddie Zipperer, an assistant professor of political science at Georgia Military College.

“The Democratic Party is just a smear machine,” Zipperer continued. “The depths of their partisanship and willingness to politicize anything makes it hard to take anonymous leaks seriously when they prop up the Democrat narrative at such opportune moments,” he said.

Sure enough, the activist apparatus of the Democratic Party and its activist allies snapped into action quickly to capitalize on the opportunity to seize the narrative from the administration.

Shortly after Washington awoke Thursday morning to allegations Sessions hadn’t been truthful under oath about meeting with the Russian ambassador, an email from “DNC Rapid Response” went out to supporters notifying them of a staged rally outside the Department of Justice — scheduled for noon.

Soon afterward, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and MoveOn.org sent emails encourage their leftists activist followers to protest Sessions — at the same time and location as the DNC organized rally.

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By midday, nearly every high-profile Democratic lawmaker in Washington — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — had issued calls for Sessions’ resignation.

Grennell says the power and coordination of the Democratic “smear machine” highlights Republicans’ ineffectiveness in controlling the national conversation.

“From my standpoint, what I see is a Republican leadership not going on the offense,” Grennell said. “They are allowing the Democrats to come up with the narrative and the theme every morning,” he added.

“Today it’s the Russians and Jeff Sessions and we’re responding,” Grennell noted, but “we have the House and the Senate and the White House. We should be driving forward the agenda that the American people voted for last November.”