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The media’s favorite game is back, folks: the lazy hit piece. And once again, Politico’s Dan Lippman is leading the charge, swinging at President Trump’s pick for Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia.

Mr. Lippy isn’t just chasing headlines. This guy is on a full-blown warpath, cooking up hit pieces like he’s the lead fry cook at McDonald’s. His mission is to paint President Trump’s favorite lawyer as a woman-abusing “antisemite,” complete with leaks from so-called group chats that can be twisted six ways from Sunday.

Politico just dropped a batch of these supposed “texts,” and honestly, they’re nothing. Some are jokes, some are edgy thoughts, and one even defends the Founding Fathers. Hardly the scandal they’re trying to sell.

Which raises the real question: where’s Dan getting all these private messages? Could this be another foreign hack-and-leak operation designed to sabotage Trump’s team? The timing sure smells like it.

Meanwhile, several Jewish groups have voiced their support for Ingrassia, which tells you everything you need to know about how seriously to take Dan’s Politico smear.

Paul Ingrassia isn’t antisemitic, not even close. Has he made an off-color joke here or there? Sure. Who hasn’t? It’s insane that disclaimers like that even have to be made, but that’s where we are. Words are twisted, sliced, and diced until a harmless joke or a mild policy critique becomes a full-blown “hate” label.

In Ingrassia’s case, the record speaks for itself, and as the letters of support make clear, Dan’s smear job falls apart under scrutiny.

However, right on cue, GOP senators are pulling support and urging the White House to pull the pick.

They don’t know how to fight.

Semafor:

President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Office of Special Counsel, Paul Ingrassia, appears unable to win Senate confirmation — although he’s still slated for a committee appearance later this week.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told Semafor he doesn’t “plan on voting for” Ingrassia after Politico published racist and offensive text messages attributed to the nominee. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., another member of the panel, also said he cannot support Ingrassia and said the nomination should be pulled.

Scott said he’s leaving the decision on withdrawing Ingrassia to the White House.

As of Monday evening, Ingrassia is still scheduled to appear before the committee for a Thursday confirmation hearing. The panel’s chairman said in an interview that he’s deferring to the White House when it comes to the nominee, who would likely fail to clear the committee.

“He’s still on the list unless somebody tells us otherwise,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. “They have to decide if he can go through. I’ve told them to count the votes … the White House needs to make a decision. I’m leaving it up to them.”

Sadly, most of our Republican politicians don’t have a spine and can’t bring themselves to tell the (unpopular) media to pound sand.

The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Monday that the White House should pull back President Trump’s nomination of Paul Ingrassia to head the Office of Special Counsel after Republican senators said they would not vote for him.

Ingrassia’s nomination raised concerns among Republican members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Monday after Politico reported he told a group of Republican associates that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has a “Nazi streak.”

Thune told reporters Monday the White House should consider withdrawing Ingrassia’s nomination.

In any case, conservatives should stand behind Paul. He’s had President Trump’s back from day one, and Trump’s had his in return.

The first hit piece from Dan isn’t about antisemitism or group chats, real or imagined. It’s about Lippman’s obsession to destroy Paul. He’s been digging, texting, and whispering in his little DC bubble, trying to stitch together anything that’ll fit his smear narrative. It’s a setup, plain and simple. And if it really was a so-called conservative who handed Dan those alleged texts, let this be a wake-up call. Stop treating progressive activist reporters like friends; they’re not. They’re not “sources,” they’re not “allies,” they’re traps, and they won’t protect you.

In a previous smear job, Lippman breathlessly claims Ingrassia was “investigated for harassment.” Sounds serious, right? Yes, until you read the fine print. The woman supposedly “harassed” later said she never felt uncomfortable and never filed a complaint. So what’s left? Gossip from five anonymous “officials” and a headline built to smear. That’s it.

Politico:

In late July, Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison for the Department of Homeland Security, arrived at a Ritz-Carlton in Orlando with a lower-ranking female colleague and others from their department. When the group reached the front desk, the woman learned she didn’t have a hotel room. Ingrassia then informed her that she would be staying with him, according to five administration officials familiar with the episode. Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her hotel room canceled so she would have to stay with him, three of those officials said. The woman, a fellow Trump appointee, initially protested the room arrangement.

But, not wanting to cause more of a scene around other colleagues, she relented, according to the officials. So the two, who knew each other previously as friends, went to the room and slept in separate beds. Ingrassia’s attorney said no last-minute changes were made to the hotel reservations.

What’s not disputed is that the two ended up sharing a room on the business trip, and that it resulted in an official investigation. The fallout from the incident has been the talk of the upper echelons of DHS ever since. It adds to a swirl of controversy surrounding Ingrassia, a 30-year-old conservative lawyer and activist who is President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel, which deals with federal employee whistleblower complaints and discrimination claims.

Ingrassia would be two decades younger and less experienced than recent leaders of the agency.

[…]

Ingrassia’s female colleague filed a human resources complaint against him before retracting it days later, fearing retaliation, according to three of the officials.

However, five administration officials told POLITICO she complained to them that Ingrassia was making her feel uncomfortable and that it was hurting her ability to do her job. Ingrassia declined to comment, but his attorney denied the allegations. “Mr. Ingrassia has never harassed any coworkers — female or otherwise, sexually or otherwise — in connection with any employment,” Edward Andrew Paltzik wrote in a letter to POLITICO. He acknowledged that Ingrassia and the woman shared a hotel room, but said that Ingrassia didn’t have her hotel reservation canceled and that “no party engaged in inappropriate behavior” on the trip.

The woman, whom POLITICO is not naming, said in a statement that she “never felt uncomfortable” about Ingrassia’s behavior and said she had never made a complaint. “A colleague misjudged the situation and made claims of alleged harassment that are not true,” the woman added. “There was no wrongdoing.” Though a career official initially filed a complaint, the woman filed her own complaint afterward, according to two officials who were granted anonymity to speak about sensitive internal personnel matters.

In addition to including the Florida incident in the complaint she later retracted, the woman expressed that she wanted Ingrassia to start speaking to her in a more professional manner.

[…]

Ingrassia’s attorney said there is no ongoing investigation and the DHS spokesperson said they weren’t aware of an IG investigation into the matter.

Dan teases a blockbuster on X, but open the article and it’s pure womp womp.

The crazy part is that Politico ran the story like they had just cracked Watergate. And right on cue, Dan’s insufferable journo pals blasted it out on X like it was earth-shattering news. Apparently, nobody made it past the clickbait headline.

Even after Lippman admitted the woman herself said there was no wrongdoing, he still kept the story alive by padding it with unrelated, years-old talking points like supposedly damning ties to Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, and Alex Jones:

In his role as the White House liaison to DHS Ingrassia is a powerful figure, managing DHS political appointees and helping hire new ones.

He also serves as a conduit to the White House Presidential Personnel Office. In May, Trump nominated Ingrassia, who received his law degree in 2022, to head the Office of Special Counsel. After he drew publicity for ties to white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate — an influencer who has been charged in Britain with rape and human trafficking, which he denies — Ingrassia’s July nomination hearing was indefinitely delayed.

It was a rare instance of Senate Republicans pushing back on a Trump nominee. Ingrassia has shared conspiracy theories about 9/11 and praised far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. A podcast that he co-hosted called for martial law and secession after the 2020 election if legal efforts to overturn the election didn’t succeed. He has advocated for some people who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On his Substack, Ingrassia, who interned for the first Trump White House, dubs himself “President Trump’s favorite writer” because Trump shared his comments almost 100 times last year on social media.

It’s the same formula every time:

  • Accuse first.
  • Cite anonymous sources.
  • Tie the target to “far-right extremists.”
  • Sit back while the media echo chamber does the rest.

It’s lazy, transparent, and what they do best.

Lippman is Politico’s “rising talent” who oddly lists his high school in his professional bio, perhaps because he is not so proud of his college alma mater, which is not so elite. This is the exact prototype of today’s activist-journalist: tony boarding school, subpar college, progressive worldview, and zero self-awareness. The kind of guy who thinks he’s “speaking truth to power” while polishing the boots of the establishment.

Meanwhile, this same media cheered for a gender-confused Biden official who stole women’s luggage and strutted around DC in nylons and stolen dresses. But sure, tell us again how listening to Alex Jones disqualifies someone from public service.

When the left hires fringe activists, it’s “historic” and “heroic.” When the right hires anyone with independent thoughts, it’s “dangerous.”

But let’s be real here… the true reason Mr. Lippman is trying to sink Ingrassia’s nomination is not some mawkish, moralizing concern for “decency” or “principles,” but is rather belied by a single line in the piece highlighted above: “Ingrassia would be two decades younger and less experienced than recent leaders of the agency.” The Lippman hit pieces on Ingrassia are aimed at protecting the Swamp, the Deep State, who would be investigated by Ingrassia at the Office of Special Counsel. The Swamp is incensed that Ingrassia has been nominated to the position and not a career bureaucrat from the bowels of Washington, and Lippman is doing their bidding.

Paul Ingrassia is still set to appear before a committee hearing on October 23rd at 10 a.m.

READ MORE: It’s over in Georgia — the FAT LADY has sung her last tune…

Paul Ingrassia is a threat, and that’s exactly why Trump wants him running the Office of Special Counsel. He’s young, sharp, and not the least bit scared to take on the bloated swamp bureaucracies that have been protected for decades. He’s not a “career insider.” That means he won’t play nice with swamp creatures who think their jobs are lifetime appointments.

Paul represents the next generation of unapologetic America First lawyers. The kind of guy who understands the law isn’t a weapon for the left; he’s a shield for the people. That’s what terrifies people like Dan and endears him to President Trump. They can’t control him, they can’t bribe him, and they sure as hell can’t cancel him.

The good news is that Americans see through Dan’s shenanigans. Every time the media runs this tired hooey, it loses a little more credibility. And the US Senate should see through it too and confirm Ingrassia for the Office of Special Counsel.

As for Lippman, maybe he should’ve stuck to bragging about Hotchkiss. At least there, the fiction was part of the curriculum.

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