If you think the only threats to a Republican president come from Democrats, you haven’t been paying attention.
I’ve forgotten more about this story than most people ever learned. For nearly a decade, I’ve watched the same names, the same tactics, and the same weapons of political warfare surface again and again, sometimes out in the open, sometimes buried in footnotes and declassified files most people never see.
When these details break into the news cycle, I see the same shock and disbelief ripple through my own community. I’ve stopped being surprised by the headlines, but I am still struck by how much of this battlefield has been hidden in plain sight.
That’s why I’m writing this. Not to rehash what happened, but to connect the dots in a way that makes the last ten years impossible to ignore. If you understand who moved the pieces back then, you’ll understand the game that’s still being played today.
John McCain: The Steele Dossier Courier
It’s confirmed fact that John McCain personally dispatched his associate, David Kramer, to London in late 2016 to meet with Christopher Steele. Kramer returned with a copy of the now-debunked Steele dossier, opposition research bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, and handed it to the FBI.
McCain writes in his 2018 memoir The Restless Wave that British diplomat Andrew Wood first told him about Steele’s work at the Halifax International Security Forum in November 2016. Shortly after, Kramer made the trip to London, secured the document, and McCain personally delivered it to FBI Director James Comey on December 9, 2016 (Business Insider, House Intelligence Transcript, May 23, 2017).
By the time McCain got involved, the dossier was already circulating in political and media circles. His decision didn’t “protect” the country, it gave an establishment Republican’s seal of credibility to a Clinton-funded smear that became the central pretext for years of political and legal warfare against Donald Trump.
That dossier was used to justify FISA warrants, which let the Obama DOJ and FBI spy on the Trump campaign. McCain’s role ensured nobody could dismiss it as purely a Democratic operation.
Paul Ryan and Adam Kinzinger: The Speaker Who Let It Fester
Court filings show Christopher Steele’s final version of the dossier (Report 166) was handed to both Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Jonathan Burks, a longtime aide to Speaker Paul Ryan, in December 2016 (Roll Call).
That places Ryan’s inner circle fully in the loop before the public ever saw it. As part of the Gang of Eight, Ryan had access to the highest-level briefings on the Russia investigation. He knew the Steele dossier’s origins. He knew it was being used to secure FISA warrants despite its collapse under minimal scrutiny (Gang of Eight overview).
Ryan could have blown the whistle on the FBI’s abuse of the FISA court. Instead, he stayed quiet, played along, and let the Russia-collusion narrative run wild. When Devin Nunes tried to expose it, Ryan undercut him.
Kinzinger, meanwhile, would later become one of the loudest anti-Trump voices in Congress, helping Democrats sustain the narrative McCain and Ryan had allowed to gain oxygen.
After leaving Congress, Ryan landed on the board of Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, a network that called Arizona for Biden early on election night 2020, helping cement the narrative of Trump’s loss before legal challenges had even begun. That call, and the network’s later reluctance to air certain election-integrity discussions, fed the perception that Fox helped neutralize Trump’s post-election fight.
Layer that with the recent revelations made by Project Veritas about former Attorney General Bill Barr working against Trump from inside his own administration, and a picture emerges. The same Republican power brokers who undercut him during the Russia hoax years were in position to influence how 2020 played out, and are still positioned to shape the narrative today.
The Present-Day Example: Johnson and Thune
It’s not ancient history. Look at what’s happening right now.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader John Thune are coordinating to call the House into session periodically during the summer break, not to pass urgent legislation, but to block President Trump from making recess appointments.
Pro-forma sessions are a procedural trick: the chamber technically never adjourns, which strips a president’s recess-appointment power. The Supreme Court upheld this maneuver in NLRB v. Noel Canning (2014) (decision summary).
Instead of allowing Trump to fill critical vacancies, Republican leadership is tying his hands, just as they did in his first term, under the cover of “process.” Different faces. Same sabotage (Christina Aguayo News report).
With Republicans Like These…
When party bosses demand “loyalty oaths,” remember this:
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John McCain hand-delivered the Clinton/DNC’s political weapon to the FBI.
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Paul Ryan’s aide, and Adam Kinzinger, had the dossier before the public did.
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Ryan knew it was junk and let it play out, allowing the lies to divide this Nation.
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After Congress, Ryan joined Fox, the network that helped cement the 2020 narrative against Trump.
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Bill Barr, per recent revelations made by Project Veritas, was working against Trump from inside his own administration.
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Mike Johnson and John Thune are actively working to block Trump’s ability to govern right now.
If you were part of a conspiracy, and you knew your adversary had both the will and the means to expose you, wouldn’t you go to great lengths to stop them? It’s not complicated. Once you see the pattern, you can’t unsee it.
With That Said
Loyalty to the country and the truth comes before loyalty to a party that has sheltered, rewarded, and elevated people who have undermined our own president with Democrat oppo research, DOJ/FBI abuse, media cooperation, and procedural sabotage.
Don’t ask for my signature on a loyalty pledge when your record reads like this.
Thanks for reading!
I’ll be back next week with more to dig into. Until then, enjoy your weekend, take a break from the noise, and make time for the people and things that matter most. If you haven’t already, hit subscribe so you don’t miss what’s coming next.