Joseph McCarthy’s name lives in infamy — and rightly so. The Wisconsin senator’s reckless tactics, blacklisting, and guilt-by-association smears weaponized government power to hound political enemies, leaving a stain on American history. But here’s the inconvenient truth rarely whispered in elite circles: McCarthy’s core alarm — that Russia had recruited Americans as spies and placed them deep into high levels of the U.S. government — was spot on.
Decades later, the Venona Files, the once-secret Soviet cables revealed to the world after the Iron Curtain fell, exposed and named dozens of American federal officials covertly aiding Moscow. McCarthy’s methods were a disgrace, but his instincts about espionage were on point. Yet media and academia still discount his rightful concerns by caricaturing him as a boogeyman and refuse to revise the narrative even as declassified facts demand it. (RELATED: Whittaker Chambers’ Witness, 70 Years Later)
Fast-forward to today, and we’re witnessing a far more insidious echo with the same Red Scare tinge: the Trump-Russia “collusion” hoax.
Their playbook chillingly mirrored McCarthy’s: Inflame fears of foreign infiltration, sic federal investigators on opponents, and let the media amplify the hysteria.
In 2016, as Donald Trump’s campaign surged, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — backed by their intelligence community allies and a fawning press — unleashed vague whispers of Russian ties to torpedo their rival. Their playbook chillingly mirrored McCarthy’s: Inflame fears of foreign infiltration, sic federal investigators on opponents, and let the media amplify the hysteria. The key difference? The disinfecting effect of sunshine shows that McCarthy’s allegations had a factual basis and that Clinton and Obama had a manufactured fairy tale. (RELATED: The Historic Roots of Russiagate)
The proof is now undeniable, courtesy of freshly unclassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Congress in the last week. These bombshells, including a classified annex to the Durham report, expose the Clinton campaign’s deliberate planting of false intelligence to trigger a federal probe into Trump.
Far from being duped by bad intel, the Obama administration exploited it as cover to surveil and sabotage a political foe. It’s not hyperbole — it’s an abuse of power dressed as patriotism. Sound familiar? (RELATED: Five Quick Things: The Long Overdue Russiagate Reckoning)
Consider the infamous Steele dossier, that salacious scrap of opposition research funded by Clinton’s team. The FBI wielded it to secure FISA warrants against Trump adviser Carter Page, despite knowing it was politically tainted and largely bunk.
When Rep. Devin Nunes and investigator Kash Patel dropped the “Nunes memo” in 2018, exposing this abuse, the New York Times ridiculed them. Reporter Charlie Savage dismissed it as partisan spin, insisting the dossier was just a “thread in a tapestry” of evidence. Wrong. The DOJ Inspector General later confirmed Steele’s file “played a central and essential role” in the warrants. Nunes and Patel were vindicated; Savage never retracted. (RELATED: The Media Must Admit Their Complicity in Russiagate)
Then there’s the “origin story” of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s Trump probe. Legacy media outlets portrayed it as sparked by Australian diplomat Alexander Downer relaying a tip from Trump aide George Papadopoulos about Russian dirt on Clinton. Compelling evidence of collusion, right? Hardly.
Declassified interviews now show Papadopoulos said nothing about emails, no “dirt,” no middleman role. Even ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe admitted the comments “didn’t particularly indicate” Russian contact.
So why the full-court press? Donald Trump went from a laughingstock to a contender. Opponents, Clinton operatives, Obama intel mopes, and a willing media bought in, overlooking an ocean full of red herrings if it meant undermining Trump.
Many recent news media contortions downplay the cache as no big deal, fixating on one potentially fake email (possibly Russian disinformation) while ignoring the verified meat: Systemic FISA court deception, surveillance abuse rooted in Clinton-funded dirt, and Obama-era officials greenlighting it all. It’s journalistic malpractice, a sleight of hand to protect the powerful.
If a Republican had pulled this, headlines would scream “coup.” Instead, crickets.
This hoax wasn’t a mistake — it was a calculated assault on democracy. Clinton’s Fusion GPS hired ex-spy Christopher Steele to dredge up Russian-sourced smears; the FBI ran with them, spying on Americans without cause. Obama knew — briefings show he was looped in. But no accountability.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe fizzled without collusion evidence; the recently released annex to Durham’s report confirmed the fix was in. Now, Gabbard’s declassifications seal it: The real foreign interference was the hoax itself, amplified by U.S. elites terrified of Trump’s populism.
History may footnote McCarthy as crude but correct on spies. For Clinton and Obama, the verdict is harsher: They out-McCarthied McCarthy, fabricating a threat to cling to power. Their enablers in media and intel escaped scot-free, but truth has a way of surfacing, and history doesn’t forget.
As the Founders warned in Federalist 51, unchecked ambition demands checks — or it devours liberty. As we approach the nation’s 250th anniversary, these revelations are just the latest reminder that — in a constitutional republic like ours — an attentive and angry electorate is the ultimate check on power.
McCarthy was reckless and right. Clinton and Obama were calculated and wrong. Their cover-up collapsed. And the reckoning must begin.
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The Historic Roots of Russiagate