who framed Duncan Hunter?

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host

First of all, let's remember that in this country we believe that people are innocent until proven guilty.  Therefore, to be judge and jury prior to an examination of the evidence is foolhardy.  While I understand that he charges against Duncan Hunter are extensive, I am not ready to throw him under the bus, and I think doing so would not be good at this juncture in the election, nor would it be good when it comes to the overall republican strategy regarding Duncan Hunter's congressional district (of which largely encompasses North San Diego County, and a part of Temecula in Riverside County).

Second (here's more on that strategy thing), if conservatives decide to not vote for Hunter because of the allegations, those republican voters would be giving in to exactly what the Democrats aimed to accomplish by unleashing these accusations a matter of a couple months before election day.  From a Republican Party strategy standpoint, the best thing to do would be to let Hunter retain his seat, and if he's found guilty later, he'll be removed or decide to resign, and then we can have a special election to either keep the seat republican, or allow the democrats to grab it.  If we refuse to vote for Hunter and it turns out he's not guilty, we gave away the seat, and fell for the left's deception, again.

Third, the masterminds behind the allegations against Duncan Hunter are two lawyers connected to Hillary Clinton.  Anytime the Clinton Crime Family has any connection to anything, it's likely to be bogus, or at best embellished in a sinister direction.

The truth is, Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr., who was among the first Trump supporters in Congress, has been charged with a number of allegations involving the use of campaign funds.  The indictment includes his wife, and the charges claim the couple illegally used a quarter million dollars in campaign funds for a whole list of personal expenses.

The indictment was put forth by a federal grand jury in San Diego after a months long criminal investigation into the allegations.  The 48-page indictment released by the Justice Department, at first glance, looks to be quite damning.

Hunter is the son of the previous holder of his seat, and is the second Republican congressman to be slammed this month with an indictment.

The Democrats and their leftist allies have timing down pat when it comes to attacking the GOP with an election looming.

The other congressman charged this month is Representative Chris Collins, a Republican in New York.  He was indicted on insider trading charges.  He has, as the Democrats had hoped, suspended his re-election campaign. The two congressmen, Hunter and Collins, were the earliest congressional supporters of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump.

That makes for an interesting coincidence, considering that they were early supporters of the hated President of the United States, and are the primary ones being targeted and butchered in this election (at this point).

The Hunter camp is claiming the allegations are “purely politically motivated,” and he has pleaded not guilty.  A letter sent this month to Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, asserts that the two prosecutors involved in the investigation had attended a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton.

While Hunter's district is solidly Republican, it's too late for a replacement, and with California's top-two primary system, no write-in candidate is allowed.  In short, it was the perfect strike by the left to ensure that a “solidly Republican” House seat could be delivered into Democrat Party hands.

Hunter's seat now being attached makes it one of eight California GOP seats that the Democrats have been heavily targeting.

Hunter's opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat, only got 17.59% of the vote in the primary, and the only chance the grandson of a known Islamic terrorist had against Duncan Hunter was if something like these charges happened to the incumbent.

Speaker Paul Ryan has announced the removal of Representative Duncan Hunter from the three House committees he serves on as a result of the allegations.

While Hunter claims he is the victim of a "witch hunt" concocted by a "bunch of leftists," and says he will not resign and will continue to run for re-election in November for the seat in the San Diego area that he has held for five terms, he does admit that some of the allegations have a small bit of truth to them.  He claims, however, that they were the result of honest mistakes.

The indictment contains 60 counts, including wire fraud and filing false reports with the FEC. 

"They overdrew their bank accounts more than 1,100 times in a seven-year period resulting in approximately $37,761 in 'overdraft' and 'insufficient funds' bank fees," the indictment charged.

Hunter and his wife left the court, when they entered their not-guilty pleas, without making any statements.  Hunter's legal counsel is asking for "the public to keep an open mind" on the case.

Hunter served as a member of the United States Marine Corps after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, as an artillery officer in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Representative Darrell Issa blasted the U.S attorney in California for what he considered to be "political misconduct" over the last-minute indictment of Duncan Hunter.

“So now you have an accusation that could sink anyone, when in fact, this same information…I didn’t see anything that hasn’t been there for years,” said Issa, accusing the Democrats of withholding the information purposely for months.

“I don’t know how you make any kind of sense other than he sat on it for most of three years and certainly the last year,” Issa said.

Issa's district borders that of Duncan’s, and the former is retiring from Congress and is not on this year's ballot.

The democrat in the race, Ammar Campa-Najjar, is suddenly in the race and has a chance, but it seems interesting that the coincidences of this situation goes beyond the fact that Hunter was among Trump's earliest supporters.  Hunter is also among the loudest voices in Congress in regards to holding what is considered by Democrats to be a radical view concerning Islam.  Campa-Najjar, Hunter's electoral opponent, is the grandson of one of the members of the Palestinian Black September terror group that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

While the Mexican and Palestinian heritage candidate says he does not believe the same way as his grandfather, Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar, and that he never met his grandfather, whose death at the hands of Israeli commandos happened 16 years before Ammar was even born, for Republicans the connection of Ammar to his grandfather, and the fact that he's running against a congressman who has been staunch in his position regarding the dangers of Islam, is alarming at best.

"I'm happy to take responsibility for my own choices and my own decisions," Campa-Najjar said. "I think other men are responsible for their own crimes, whether it's somebody who I share a lineage with and nothing else, or a sitting congressman whose being indicted and could be facing serious charges in the future."

His campaign also says while he’s proud of his heritage, he is “American first.”

While Hunter's recent legal problems may help Campa-Najjar's race, his chances to win still remain slim.

Campa-Najjar is in line with the Democrat Party's socialist leanings, supporting socialized medicine (they call it Medicare for all), for example.  In fact, he's so far to the left, the Marxist/Socialist 28 year old Democrat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from New York, called Campa-Najjar her "progressive brother." 

Campa-Najjar claims to be a Christian, despite his Muslim heritage.  In addition to being the son of a Palestinian Muslim father (he spent part of his childhood in Gaza), his mother is a Catholic Mexican-American.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary