Deep roots of Deep State: Washington Times quotes yours truly

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I’m quoted in Jennifer Harper’s “Inside the Beltway” column in the Washington Times today.

Here is the relevant part:

Talk of a “deep state” or “shadow presidency” at work against President Trump surfaced before he was even inaugurated. And it continues. On Tuesday, Rep. Jim Jordan said he believes a powerful plan had been in place to prevent Mr. Trump from reaching the White House, citing the ongoing Russia collusion investigation and other factors.

“They were putting together a plan to stop Donald Trump . I think it’s amazing that the Democrats were against him, the Republican establishment was against him and the mainstream press — and now I believe the FBI and Justice Department were against him. Everything points to the fact that there was an orchestrated plan to try to prevent Donald Trump from being the next president of the United States,” the Ohio Republican told Fox News,

The deep state has deep roots. Prior to Election Day in 2016, media reports were already pondering the existence of a secretive foe. Even before Mr. Trump took the presidential oath on Jan. 20, political commentator Bill Moyers suggested that Hillary Clinton stage her own inaugural address — advising Democrats to “prepare by joining together as a movement and creating the constituency of what will be, in effect, a shadow government — one that will serve to track and respond to every single bad action undertaken by the Trump administration and its monolithic Congress.”

There was more in those uneasy days.

“Barack Obama is preparing for his third term,” noted GQ magazine in a commentary published on Inauguration Day.

“Democrats are eager for Barack Obama to play the role of shadow president, offering direction to Americans who feel they lost their political compass the day Mr. Trump was elected,” advised ABC News — in this case, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation News.

“Former President Obama is waging war against the Trump administration through his generously funded agitation outfit, Organizing for Action, to defend his monumentally destructive record of failure and violent polarization. It is a chilling reminder that the increasingly aggressive, in-your-face Left in this country is on the march,” warned investigative reporter Matthew Vadum in a story titled “Obama’s Shadow Presidency,” published in FrontPage Magazine on Feb. 15.

“The soft coup against the Trump administration continues. A soft coup is a coordinated effort to delegitimize or undermine a lawfully elected official,” said Chris Farrell, director of investigations for Judicial Watch, also in mid-February. “Soft coups include actions by senior government officials refusing to carry out their roles and critical tasks, or otherwise acting in opposition to the letter or spirit of law to diminish or remove de facto power from those who otherwise would legally wield it.”