When Obama Began Strangling the Republic “By the Book” Part II

By John Kass

Sunday July 27, 2025

I’ve been greatly honored to be asked to give a talk at Hillsdale College on “The Decline of Trust in Legacy Media.”

I wouldn’t call it a lecture. Just a talk. But how should I begin?

I thought I’d begin by calling Barack Obama up on the stage. He could lie down on a couch and begin pontificating, his favorite activity, and I’d sit nearby in a comfy overstuffed leather wing chair and take notes, asking some pertinent questions.

Barack might consider this a sequel to my national column for johnkassnews.com on Sunday—it was carried by Real Clear Politics and by Powerline Blog titled “When Obama Began Strangling the Republic “By the Book” Part I.”

Barack began strangling the republic years ago, just about the time the media began treating him as a mythological creature. They lost all credibility about him. And he took that journalistic adoration, turned it and killed legacy media, too.

As some of you may know, I was a reporter and lead columnist at the Chicago Tribune for some 40 years, that is until leftist billionaire George Soros showed the Tribune and me that Soros was boss.

And I witnessed firsthand all the reporters wiggling like puppies, all but soiling the carpets at Obama’s approach. The media treated Barack Obama as something of a winged sea creature, a Pegasus up from the beaches of Hawaii as they smoked their Hopium in every newsroom in America. Their eyes were slits. And he was their wizard of a thousand kings.

They wanted to ride him as if he were a unicorn. They wanted to love him too. He was their fantasy black politico. There was no way they could have been objective about him, any more than a child could be objective about their first pony.

So, to get some distance, I called a wise colleague Steve Huntley, the retired editorial writer for the Chicago Sun Times. He spent 30 years there. And I worked across the street at the Trib.

He explained that there are many reasons the American people have lost trust in legacy media. If you had a sharp enough scalpel, you might consider the shift to exclusive subscription models, increased where partisanship has greater leverage.

“And COVID 19, and Fauci. Don’t forget Fauci,” said Huntley. “And what Obama did in that White House meeting you wrote about.”

That was the so-called “by the book”  meeting in the Oval Office called by Obama in 2017  with his Deep State rats, CIA director John Brennan (who lied to Congress) and then liar and FBI director James Comey and other leaders of the Obama Deep State. He was determined they would push the lie that President Trump was a stooge for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

As Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence pointed out, it was that meeting where Obama began throttling the American republic, using his spy chiefs and secret police to push manufactured intelligence to hurt Trump, and using the corporate legacy media–including the Washington Post and New York Times–to force the lie to be repeated again and again.

The Washington Post and the New York Times were given Pulitzer Prizes, to parade before American people that they were the guardians of the republic.

Again, all of this was offered up by Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Full disclosure here: My brother Nicholas is the acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council. He served 31 years at CIA, the State Department, the White House and other postings before he retired. He was called back to serve the country a few months ago. We don’t ever talk about his work.

But I know this: He for years has loathed the Deep State. He began studying the Deep State during his service in Ankara where it began. He knows better than most that the Deep State cannot warp a nation without help from national media.

And the legacy media in America was not interested in what Gabbard had to say. They ignored the story the same way they ignored news of the Hunter Biden laptop. Know this: The Deep State cannot exist without a compliant Deep State Media.

And for those not yet willing to placidly chew their cud as they’re directed—by sweet promise or the urgency of the cattle prod and into the stockyard chutes, I recommend the following from Margot Cleveland and Mollie Hemingway in the Federalist: Exclusive: ‘This Should NOT Be Included’ — Read Intel Officials’ Objections To ‘Extremely Sketchy’ Steele Dossier By Margot Cleveland and Mollie Hemingway

“The Obama administration hid intelligence showing that Russia’s meddling in 2016 election was no big deal. They suppressed that because they didn’t want Donald Trump to know about it,” Hemingway said on Fox News’ America Reports. “Then they immediately began leaking to The Washington Post and to the New Your Times false things, things that weren’t true. That Russia had conspired with Trump to steal the election. And The Washington Post and New York Times when they were asked to publish these things that were not true. They just went ahead and did it. They took the word of John Brennan and other sources like that who had made these false claims.

“This dangerous conspiracy theory that was perpetuated against America. They were pushing it in real time, and they are lying when they say when this is just quibbling about things. The information was released by Tulsi Gabbard shows that career officials in our intelligence agencies were screaming from the rooftops that what Obama and Brennon and Comey were doing wasn’t true and they have the emails and the documents showing that. I have reporting at The Federalist that I did this week showing what some career officials said when Brennan tried to say falsely that Russia was trying to help Trump. Or when Comey falsely tried to include that made up the dossier. The actual officials were saying this isn’t real, this cannot meet the standards that we have. And so when these people say that it is no big deal they are lying. It actually is a massive deal

“And the only way they can survive is by hiding the actual information that was released. And it’s important for America that that not happen because this crime that was committed was a very serious one against the American people and it cannot just be brushed under the rug.”

My take is that the usual suspects from the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN are brushing furiously. Why? They were complicit. They’re telling the American people that this scandal Gabbard is referring to isn’t worthy of their attention–the same way they insisted that the Hunter Biden laptop was the hallmark of Russia disinformation, though it was Hunter Biden’s laptop and it was chock full of real information about the corrupt Biden crime family.

It wasn’t a nothing burger. The corrupt legacy media went out of its way to protect Biden. Just as they’re bending over for Obama, their leftist unicorn. And they climb up on the dunghill, braying like donkeys that “Democracy dies in Darkness.”

When I was a smart-ass kid copyboy at the Tribune, when I’d make runs for coffee or cigarettes, dreaming that someday I’d write under my own byline as a real honest-to-goodness newspaperman, I’d pass the amazing quotations heralding our Western traditions that Col. Robert McCormick had carved into the walls.

Some were from Milton. Others were from Flannery O’Connor.

My favorite, the one that stuck with me all the years since, was from Lord Macaulay:

“Where there is a free press, the governors must live in constant awe of the opinions of the governed.”

Obama would have passed that quote carved into the wall each time he took elevator up to be praised by the Tribune’s editorial board. He must have snickered when he read it. He made a joke of it and turned into a punchline.

If anyone wants to trace the Decline of Trust in Legacy Media, it begins with the media love showered upon Barack Obama.

But he had a lot of help.

(Copyright 2025 John Kass)

 

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About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Merchandise Now Available: If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy for special someone who has everything, just click on the link to the johnkassnews.com store.

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Because I know this about you: You’re not a Chumbolone.

Comments 25

  1. Your talk with the bright young things at Hillsdale will be a blast of authentic for them. Their eyes will pop!

    I am confused. Obama couldn’t take a leak ( Vonnegut said, ” Is someone stealing a mirror?” without the say so of Valerie Jarrett, slumland lords and Iranian conduit,

    She must figure into this chapter of the Obama theogony at some point. Yet, no current accounts, or news leaks feature that odious boll weevil.

  2. Good morning John and all here. Nice work this morning. I truly believe the left is at war with our Republic. Their goons just haven’t started going door to door yet to disarm us.

    I do like Hillsdale College. They don’t take a dime of government money in any form. And I’m sure you’ll find your audience their very respectful and attentive.

    They (Hillsdale) also publish Imprimus. A great bit of reading. I’ll get to read your speech to the student body thru that.

    Stay well John. We need the light you help provide.

  3. Obama was mentored by some of the worst America had to offer. Bill Ayers, for example. Ayers babysat the Obama children. They were that close. Uncle Bill. But, he was just a “guy in the neighborhood,” and the left-wing press smoking their Hopium didn’t chase down the story. I knew people who played cards with Obama in Springfield. They said, “Nice guy, but a communist”. People didn’t believe me.

    America has had four very dangerous Presidents when it comes to civil liberties and the Republic. Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Obama, and Biden. Biden not because of feckless Joe, but because of all the radical leftists inside his administration. The rest knew exactly what they were doing.

  4. Good follow up and good luck at Hillsdale, though I suspect you’ll be preaching to the choir there. It’s Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Stanford that need to hear it; not that most would listen. At those schools the paid protestors would outnumber the audience [and the security].
    The connection I’d like to see paraded in the press is why is President Obama only the 3rd president in US History to remain residing in DC after his term of office? John Q Adams continued to serve in the House, Wilson was too sick to leave. Was he calling the shots or coordinating for his former staffers in the Biden administration?

  5. God Bless you John. You always tell the truth and some people do not like the truth. Christ is coming and he will set everything strait and you are one of the best and keep on telling the truth.
    As they say the truth will set you free. We are loosing our Country and our World do to stupidity and people that want to destroy America and said that the young are brainwashed and have lost the love and respect we all grew up with. So sad, at the point I do not care anymore they do not seem to care or want to listen to the truth. The Press most of them are Communists and so Liberal and the young have no clue as to what is happening to our Country. So sad. Keep telling the truth.

  6. There is a need for indictments, trials, and imprisonment. For the offenses that the statute of limitations covers and prosecution is not possible, congressional testimony, and a permanent ban from government service for those involved. All the bureaucrats that anything to do with implementing these crimes should be tried and imprisoned. How ironic that the Democrats bleat about the “rule of law” when the Democrats are the biggest abuses of the law. Jamie Raskin and Adam Schiff should be exposed, and they should not only censored, but removed for Congress.

  7. John

    Media corruption comes from a lack of competition and accountability. Even today, with the internet and the incredible proliferation of media – from your website to countless others – the legacy media still holds an overwhelming share of viewer’s attention. Also, the fact is that so few people pay much attention because they see the massive influence of money and media in our elections and decide it’s not worth their time to get involved.

    I experienced this when I went out to Iowa in 2006. Disgusted with GW Bush’s expansion of government and deficit spending, I spoke to standing ovations in Iowa’s congressional conventions. No news source covered those. This blackout continued through my travels through NH and SC with the same message; the GOP had lost its fiscal and small government bearings.

    The GOP activists in all three states agreed with my message but the media blackout continued and I was excluded from the debates. Why? Because I was little known and the debates might have fixed that but the media didn’t regard my presence as needed given all the other candidates in the race.

    Obama had the Illinois Senate race debacle and a fawning Chicago media to vault him nationally. As even Biden said in his more lucid days, he was a ‘clean black man who spoke eloquently’. The media took a pass on anything critical of Barack and he took on mythological status.

    Then we get to Donald Trump – who made a career out of catering to and seeking media attention, making him not only a well known businessman but the star of TV’s Apprentice. Turns out he also could turn on the media which made him even more well known but then a target of the media. As a well known scribe once said to me, ‘don’t antagonize people who buy ink by the barrel’. Not much ink is used these days but the message is the same.

    We now get to today’s political world. Media is everywhere but nowhere. If it’s something they don’t agree with generally – such as conservatism, fiscal or cultural – it doesn’t exist. The internet – your website and others – report it but let’s be honest – 75% or more of the media ingesting public still tunes into the legacy media outlets which are decidedly progressive. Most derive their direction from the NY Times and Washington Post.

    This has to change but it won’t until much more of the public is tuned in. They won’t tune in until there is a reason to – a crisis or a war of some sort possibly. Maybe they’ll tune in when there’s an idea out there worth tuning in for.

    Maybe it will be a revamp of our political system to take away the power of the wealthy and established and return it to the people, as our Founders desired. They threw off a wealthy and powerful King and created what they thought would last – a People’s government with checks and balances and true accountability.

    That requires a change from the money and media driven elections we now have. Such a system can exist but requires work to get it known and implemented. It’s a system where money and media are unnecessary and where the desires of the people for a responsive and accountable government are met.

    http://www.hearthepeople.org.

  8. Thank you John Cox for your thoughtful, measured note. Our republic is in trouble. We’ve seen the arc of this problem since we were kids together at Richards HS
    JK

  10. “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” John 8:32. “They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see” Psalm 115:5. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits” Matthew 7:15-16. We are not alone, and thank you John for being preaching to the shepherds, and not the sheep.

  11. Some Obama weasel history you could share with the Hillsdale audience, John:

    As an Illinois State Senator from 1997 to 2004, Obama set the record for voting “present” (rather than yes or no) a curious 129 times. He was that deeply determined to avoid defending ANY position as he slithered to the left’s mountaintop. In a 2008 presidential debate, Obama was criticized for his uniquely unprincipled pattern of voting “my hands are clean” by two senatorial opponents: Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. That’s right, Obama was too much of a weasel even for Hillary and Edwards.

    Another highlight of Obama history pointed out by Hillary at that same debate: She noted that Obama did legal work for and had personal connections with Chicago mobster, slumlord and Democrat wheeler-dealer Tony Rezko, soon to move to a common residence for powerful Illinois Democrats — prison.

    Hope and change promoted by voting present.

    PS: I would like to read a Part III on this subject.

    1. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I do recall that Obama did vote against a bill that would have protected babies who were born alive, having survived an abortion.

  12. John, congratulations on the opportunity to speak at Hillsdale College about the decline of legacy media. As always, excellent column! I agree Obama brought about the collapse of legacy media in America, but the roots go back further. It all comes down to telling lies to the public for political or social ends. I submit the Dan Rather scandal in early 2000’s as setting the stage. He was called out, but many were not: https://www.factualamerica.com/byline-blunders/dan-rathers-fall-the-bush-controversy-that-ended-a-career

    I also would say it is also tied to technology that they could not adapt to readily.

    Again, Obama has driven the demise, but roots go back before him.

  13. Good luck with your talk at Hillsdale. I know you’ll knock it out of the park.
    Thank you for part two. If lettuce can be recalled why can’t Pulitzers?
    The media is no longer the media. They are mouth pieces. No reporting just head nodding and saying yes master.
    It’s sad that the masses then follow the lies. They will not only defend it, they will stop talking to family members, and friends. And the left enjoys the hate and division. They keep stirring that pot.

  14. Excellent column. Gets to the heart of the matter. Mr Cox added a well written and correct addition to this subject. Many many of our fellow citizens respond ONLY to the Legacy media and to echo chambers of what they pass out. I agree that Obama was the worst thing that happened to this country in my lifetime. Far too many worship him and believe he is infallible in all his opinions. Add to that the fact that the “higher education” being dispensed today is so very communistically rooted, and it’s a hard row to hoe trying to get people to see what’s happening to the nation, and that it is NOT good. They (and I have tried with many) will not hear the truth because they have been taking in their information from the legacy media and the professors for so long now. Almost forgot to add – many interesting and well said responses here. I’d be interested in hearing/reading your chat with the folks at Hillsdale College, John.

  15. Now that Tulsi has the proof will Bondi chicken out like she did with Epstein. Unless Bondi prosecutes the case it’s worthless. No prosecution will mean there’s not enough evidence and or both parties ARE THE DEEP STATE and nothing will happen. As usual!

  16. “The Decline of Trust in Legacy Media.” You shouldn’t be limited to a lecture but allowed to give a master class in it. One of the cancers that is the Legacy Media will be the ones that allow Democracy to die in the dark. Saul Alinsky must be grinning from ear to ear in Hades.

    What irks me to no end is that the “Obama Clown Circus” will never be held accountable. Oh there will be some hand slapping, but nothing serious. I just hope that years down the road history will look at them with distain and contempt.

  17. The good news is that most under 40 don’t get their news from legacy media sources. After all, Trump won. There are surveys that Gen Z is the most conservative in 60 years. I don’t discuss politics with my Gen Z daughter, but she makes conservative life choices.

    I am mid-50s. I don’t consume a lot of news, but news sources are JK, Daily Wire, NewsNation, and National Review.

    My parents are in their late 70s, so they don’t trust any news on the Internet, and believe wholeheartedly in the legacy media, because that’s what they’ve consumed for 60 years. I’m not going to win that battle.

    Over time, institutions become corrupted. That is the legacy media today. Obama exploited this.

    There is a comment here about polls. Larry the Cable guy doesn’t trust polls and neither do I, because I’ve never taken one. I suspect that most polls today are done on the Internet, which means the pollers are self-selected, which means they are inherently biased. Probably a bunch of left wing activists that go from poll to poll.

  19. Another valuable dividend of my JKN subscription. The simple meme said it best. It’s not as much about cleaning up the mess Obama made. It’s about cleaning up the mess that made Obama. Treating the pathology and not just symptoms. The education of Americans has been left to the Marxist left, so that very few indoctrinees could read and comprehend today’s column- let alone find agreement.
    The cradle occupants in those educational snakepits are critical to stopping and reversing the destruction of people like Obama and Ayers- both also having gravitated to education in their Marxist career paths.

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