OPINION:
Hypocrisy doesn’t seem to bother many politicians these days.
Last month, at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov submitted to a satellite interview with an Al Jazeera reporter. Mr. Lavrov was supposed to attend but found himself sequestered in Moscow with COVID-19.
It was quite the interview. Russia’s longest-serving foreign minister since the czars sucked up to a largely pro-Hamas audience by denouncing the United States and Israel for the alleged war crimes and genocide on “the innocent women and children of Gaza.”
Finally, the reporter interrupted to ask if it was hypocritical to denounce Israelis for attacking civilian targets in Gaza while Russian forces were obliterating cities and killing tens of thousands of men, women and children in Ukraine. The question did not faze Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, who responded by suggesting that the reporter would have to judge that for himself but that he doesn’t see it that way.
Hypocrisy used to be looked down upon by those who recognized lies when they heard them. Not anymore. Mr. Lavrov, like the apologists for dictators since perhaps the beginning of time, had no trouble arguing that what his boss is up to in Ukraine cannot be compared to what other rulers, right or wrong, might do anywhere else. All in a day’s work.
The same thing happens more and more frequently right here; one needn’t fly halfway around the world to find jaw-dropping examples of Lavrov-level hypocrisy. On any given day, we have a president who ignores the rule of law, the separation of powers, and anything approaching fairness to those who disagree with him while arguing that he is doing so to “save” democracy. He uses federal law enforcement to censor, silence or prosecute his enemies, claiming that it’s the other guys who are a danger to our freedom.
The Biden administration’s selective use of the law was on display during the Black Lives Matter protests, where $1 billion worth of municipal and private property was destroyed in what authorities called “mostly peaceful” demonstrations while unleashing the full force of the law on not just those who entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, but on those who were merely in the neighborhood, regardless of whether they were “mostly peaceful.”
Last week, federal and local law enforcement officials in Washington stood by as a crowd screamed obscenities and threw bottles and almost anything else they could at a president foolish enough to support Israel’s right to exist, at the White House, and at those guarding it. They broke through barricades set up to prevent them from vandalizing the president’s residence. Reporters were moved for their own safety by security officials who later assured the public there had never been anything to worry about.
District Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, appointed after a stint as the department’s chief equity officer, acknowledged that some of the demonstrators had destroyed property and threw things at officers trying to maintain order in what she described as, echoing the words of heard after other riots, a “mostly peaceful demonstration.” Claiming fervently that “violence, destructive behavior and criminal activities are not tolerated,” she neglected to mention that no one was arrested. Hypocrisy?
According to the Justice Department’s inspector general, the FBI has been abusing legislation and its own regulations restricting and regulating its use of investigatory powers enacted after 9/11 to illegally spy on U.S. citizens. The FBI serially argues to Congress that it abuses our freedoms only to protect them.
Not to be outdone, Dr. Anthony Fauci, having retired as the highest compensated government employee in U.S. history, signed a book contract and accepted a multimillion-dollar advance to write the true story of what happened during the pandemic. Then, in testimony before Congress in response to questions under oath about what happened, he claimed dozens of times that he couldn’t remember what happened. Hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, the president, who has an ongoing history of conflicting claims and denials about his son’s criminality, drug use and tax evasion, assured everyone that he’s proud of the boy and no doubt still considers him the smartest person he’s ever known.
But at the same time, top White House aides apparently work to defy and mock a congressional subpoena of his son when video shows their boss saying that anyone refusing to honor such a subpoena should be prosecuted. Hypocrisy?
Mr. Lavrov can announce that hypocrisy isn’t hypocrisy without fear of contradiction, but it’s harder here, where voters get to judge the honesty of their leaders.
• David Keene is editor-at-large at The Washington Times.
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