Stunned silence was my immediate reaction to author and philosopher Sam Harris’ comments on a recent Triggernometry podcast.

‘At that point, Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement – I would not have cared,’ began the best selling author, who specialises in religion, rationality, and ethics.

‘Right?

‘So there is nothing… First of all, it’s Hunter Biden – it’s not Joe Biden – but even if Joe – even – whatever scope of Joe Biden’s corruption is, like, if we could just go down that rabbit hole endlessly and understand that he’s getting kickbacks from Hunter Biden’s deals in Ukraine or wherever else – right – or China. It is infinitesimal compared to the corruption we know Trump is involved with.

‘It’s like… It’s like a firefly to the sun.

‘It doesn’t even stack up against Trump University, right? Trump University as a story is worse than anything that could be in Hunter Biden’s laptop. In my view.

‘Now, that doesn’t answer the people who say that it is still completely unfair to not have looked at the laptop in a timely way or to shut down the New York Post’s Twitter account. Like, that’s just a conspiracy – that’s a left-wing conspiracy to deny the presidency to Donald Trump.

‘Absolutely, it was. Absolutely. Right? But I think it was warranted.’

It was at this point that even the podcast interviewer noticed both the gravity and insanity of the comments they were hearing – comments that appeared to first acknowledge a conspiracy to subvert democracy and then support it as ‘warranted’.

‘You’ve just said something that I really struggle with,’ said Konstantin Kisin.

‘The kids in the basement?’ quips Sam Harris, as if that were a laughing matter. Keep in mind the hysterical levels of censorship exerted against conservative speakers. Had Ron DeSantis joked about dead kids in a basement, the universal outrage would sink his political career and seal him into a tomb of eternal condemnation.

‘F**k the kids the basement. I’m interested in democracy. You’re saying you are content with the left-wing conspiracy to prevent someone being democratically re-elected as President?’

‘Well no, I’m content… But the thing is, it’s not left-wing,’ backtracks Harris, from his earlier statement. ‘Liz Cheney is not left-Wing.’

The interviewer tries to clarify, once again. ‘You’re content with a conspiracy to prevent someone being democratically elected…?’

‘No – but – it’s not – there’s nothing – it was a conspiracy out in the open. But it doesn’t matter if it was a conspiracy. It doesn’t matter what part is conspiracy – what part is out in the open – it’s like, if people get together and talk about “What should we do about this phenomenon?” it’s almost an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. And we got in a room together, with all of our friends, and had a conversation about what we could do to deflect its course – is that a conspiracy?’

President Trump makes a very odd asteroid, given that his Presidency brought economic prosperity, jobs for disadvantaged Americans, cheap fuel, a resurgence in American manufacturing, peace between Israel and Middle Eastern powers, and global stability – particularly when it comes to Russia, China, and the notoriously misbehaving North Korea. Many Americans would switch Biden out for Trump in a heartbeat.

What would the Left say about Trump if he had committed even a fraction of Biden’s missteps? From arming the terrorist Taliban with one of the largest armies in the world to a cost of living crisis significantly worsened by domestic Net Zero and Build Back Better policies bred in the crucible of the unelected forge of twin bureaucracies the World Economic Forum and the United Nations.

More worrying is the open belief displayed by Sam Harris – shared by intellectuals on the Left – that a ‘by any means’ philosophy, even in jest, is justified to subvert democracy in order to ‘save it’ in their eyes.

Needless to say, Sam Harris’ comments went viral, leading to him issuing a statement several hours ago which, on balance, probably made the situation worse.

‘There is a podcast clip circulating that seems to be confusing many people about my views on Trump (which is understandable because I wasn’t speaking very clearly). So, for what it’s worth, here is what I was trying to say.

‘I was essentially arguing for a principle of self-defence (where there’s a continuum of proportionate force that is appropriate and necessary to use. I’ve always viewed Trump as a very dangerous person to elect as president of a fake university, let alone the US, and when he became a sitting president who would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power, I viewed him as more dangerous still. (However, I’ve never been under any illusion that he is Orange Hitler.)

‘On the podcast, I was speaking narrowly about the wisdom and propriety of ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop story until after the election. I’ve always thought that this was a very hard call, ethically and journalistically. But given what happened with the Anthony Weiner laptop in the previous election, I think it was probably the right call.

‘Nothing I said on that podcast was meant to suggest that the Democrats would have been right to commit election fraud or take other illegal measures to deny Trump the presidency (nor do I think they did that).’

I will leave it up to readers to view Sam Harris’ original comments in the full context of the video below so that you can determine for yourself what he did and didn’t mean and whether or not he expressed himself clearly.

Wow, you can actually watch Sam Harris self-destruct his career in 2 min 20 seconds.

“Taking down the New York Post’s [laptop article]? That’s a Left-wing conspiracy to deny the presidency to Donald Trump. Absolutely it was. But I think it was warranted.”pic.twitter.com/0bIoWJDdNa

— Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) August 18, 2022

As for the his reply, there is no difficulty in deciding whether or not to obey journalistic integrity if your goal and desire is to uphold the truth and ensure that candidates for the White House face the full front of public scrutiny – which they deserve – before entering office.

The Hunter Biden laptop story was silenced when it should have been investigated. Joe Biden was protected when he should have been drawn into the public forum, draped over the press gallery, and given a good shake to see if anything nasty fell out of his jacket.

The Democrats and forces of left-wing media had no trouble doing the same to Donald Trump. Their gripe continues to be that fake news stories, such as Russia Collusion, never manifested.

It is perfectly correct for American conservatives and Republicans to feel as if their democracy is being subverted and micromanaged by those who think they know what is best for the ‘greater good’ – forgetting that this is their opinion, not necessarily a reality.

Trumps supporters may just as easily make a similar case to Sam Harris and ask, if an election is being manipulated and stolen in broad daylight – do they have the right to occupy the White House to protect the sanctity of free and fair elections?

The material point is that no one should be protecting presidential candidates, or their families, from scrutiny simply because they want to see their party in office.

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