Dakota Beacon

Kevin Cramer has been an embarrassment to conservatives in North Dakota.  He was asked by a local tea party organization years ago to run for Congress.  He had until then presented the image of a true conservative.  Today he has outed himself as a deep-state fraud, a man easily pulled into the riptide of whatever is influencing at the moment.

He came out early in support of Trump during the 2016 battle for the nomination.  Despite the availability of other conservatives with a track record and displayed willingness to fight such as Ted Cruz among several, he supported a man with no track record in political discourse, a TV celebrity whose only political or public policy comments were anything but principled conservatism - especially his comments on the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision (one of the low points even for our Supreme Court). 

Then when the tide turned and the highly questionable election of 2020 was “certified” he called for a transition to the Biden Administration.  His excuse was that he wanted Biden’s team to have time to “prepare”.  As though Joe Biden could prepare for something.  Biden, I’m sure, needs help preparing to get dressed in the morning.  

Now he has crossed the line and there would seem to be no going back.  Last Tuesday, as a guest on The Jay Thomas Show, he took a call where he was asked to weigh in on the cold-blooded murder of veteran Ashli Babbitt, now famous as the single killing of the January 6 demonstration.  He could have said, “We don’t have the full story on that.  I’m going to look into it and call for a hearing.”  He could have said, “There appears to have been a failure to follow proper protocol.”  He could have said, “It was a tragedy that this young woman, a veteran, has died.”  He could have said, “It is outrageous that six months after the event we still have not had the truth here.”  He could have said, “I think we need to know as much about the killer of Ashli Babbitt as we do about Derek Chauvin.”  

Instead, he said this:  “The person that shot her is a police officer shooting a criminal not complying with officers telling her, ‘Stop. Don’t come through that window. We have guns drawn. Don’t do it.”  He expanded on this:  “They’re protecting people, and the officer was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing. So then what would be the purpose of releasing that officer’s name? What do you need to know the officer’s name for?”

“I don’t need to know it. I don’t know it. Why would you need to know it?” He ended with a flourish:  “I’m just grateful for the person quite honestly.” 

There are a few things very wrong with these comments.  Why does he characterize Babbitt as a “criminal”?  She was never charged with anything.  Why did he make the absolutely false claim that the shooter warned her?  We’ve all seen the video of this shooting.  We’ve also seen a lot of footage of defensible shootings.  In the case of a justified shooting the officer identifies himself, says something like, “Put up your hands” or “Down on the floor” or “Drop your weapon” or whatever.  We, who watched the video, know that not only did the shooter not identify himself as a law enforcement officer, he also said nothing to her and shot her from behind a door frame, hidden - he basically ambushed her silently.  No one ever said anything to Ashli Babbitt before she was shot.  And the shooter also then receded into the shadows and ran off.  He was not on the scene to possibly resuscitate the woman, he was not there to answer any questions or give “his side of the events” at all.  This was bizarre.  When does this happen?  When does a police officer who just shot (and in this case killed) someone not stick around to explain?  To make clear what the person did that caused the need to fire a weapon?  There are a lot of questions here.  Perhaps a taser might have been more appropriate than a bullet.  Maybe he could say what those words of warning were - they were inaudible, although we all  heard the other voices, including the one that said she was dead already, it was too late.  We heard that.  But none of us heard anything like a “warning”.

Then Cramer asserts that this officer, whose name he has never heard and has no need to hear, has been found “innocent of any wrongdoing”.  How does he know this if he doesn’t know who the officer is?  There has been no hearing.  There has been no clearing of anyone in this shooting.  The victim of the shooting is an open book.  But the shooter?  Not so much.  Why would we need to know his name?  Why would we need to know anything about this at all?  Because this is supposed to be a free country, that’s why.  Because we have a right to know what is going on in our nation’s capitol, that’s why.  Because a self-governing people (which is what we are intended to be) does need to know in order to make informed decisions.  We are supposed to be a nation of laws.  Why not stand up for that?  And why would someone be “grateful” for a stealth shooting, from the shadows, of an unarmed American veteran who probably weighed under 120 pounds soaking wet who posed no threat to anyone?  

If the tables had been turned and a white police officer or security guard had sneaked from behind the shadows and shot an unarmed black American who was posing no threat, there would be an outcry and I suspect Cramer would have been on the outcry team.  I would say we all would be.  We would be demanding a public hearing, we would be examining the record and past of the shooter, we would be exposing again the fact that no warning was given, that the person was shot in cold blood while not in any way endangering anyone.  We would be following this avidly.  If we didn’t there would be demonstrations from coast to coast and in this case they would be justified.  No one would say they were “grateful” that an unarmed black American had been shot, he or she would not be labeled a “criminal”.  Only a handful of KKK nuts would take the side of someone who would do this.  Certainly not a milquetoast like Cramer.

Ashli Babbitt erred in going into the Capitol building through a broken window.  But she presented no threat to anyone.  She came unarmed, she came to protest a corrupted election, she came as a veteran who had served her country, as a patriot.  We can disagree with other patriots but we have no business shooting them.  If we were to have public hearings we might get to the truth of just what the Capitol police were up to - there are credible allegations that they were ushering protesters (and others) into the building, facilitating their entry.  There are credible allegations that there were FBI agents involved as provocateurs.  We need to get to the truth on this.  Was Antifa involved?  Was the FBI infiltrating Antifa?  Is the FBI even distinct in a practical sense from Antifa any longer?  There are plenty of unanswered questions which underlie the murder of Ashli Babbitt by the shadowy figure Kevin Cramer celebrates, whose name he purports not to even know.  Whom he attempts to shield.  As citizens of a free country we DO have the right to know all of these things and to know that they are under serious, legitimate (not FBI) investigation.  Anyone who would say we “don’t need to know” has no business representing the people of the United States in our Senate.

We have seen our country basically go mad for over a year now.  Cramer’s insanity is just another aspect of that.  He has been a noodley, weasely swamp creature since he went to Washington, one of the fastest examples of dissolution of character I’ve ever witnessed.  Or is he?  We have seen Mike Pence, once regarded as a “constitutional conservative” completely disintegrate.  Cramer looks like his twin.  Maybe we should have been suspicious in the first place.  He very pointedly chose Halloween to announce his candidacy for the House seat which launched his career in the federal government.  Regardless of the twists and turns of his path to hell, it is now time to remove him.  He no longer represents anything like the North Dakota conservative voter.  

Every time one of these sleazebags is forced down our throat we are told that it’s better than the alternative (the Democrat).  Lest that happen yet again, we should begin now.  We have about three years to find someone - this time maybe we need to eschew the career politician.  In the case of Cramer he has been sucking on the public system from his early youth.  We need to begin to work to find his replacement while there is still time to vet and promote a decent person for office.

No matter how I try, I sometimes make mistakes  I supported - even participated in drafting - Kevin Cramer to run for the House seat.  I admit this was a mistake  My thinking, and I’m sure the thinking of all of his supporters and those who voted for him, was based on statements he had made and positions he had taken before.  His career has been a lie.  It was quite appropriate that he should have launched himself on Halloween.  Back then, ten years ago, Satanism wasn’t even on the map for most of us.  Now we see more clearly.  I’m very sorry for the part I played in support of Cramer and hope he will be retired before he does more damage in keeping with his totalitarian philosophy that the people have no right to the truth.

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