By John McNabbDuring the 2016 Presidential Campaign then candidate Trump consistently spoke of the Washington, D.C. "Swamp". Little did America know what had happened to our government during the past decades.
As I became involved in the campaign and started knocking on doors on Capitol Hill, I quickly came to the startling reality that there is a disturbing lack of talent in the U.S. Congress.
My name is John McNabb. I grew up in the coal country of Southern West Virginia into a family with little formal education. But they were bright, well-read Americans who deeply cared about our country. Eighteen of my relatives were killed in coal mine accidents and one was murdered on his porch for just answering the door during a union war. Many of my family served in the military, many sacrificing all for their country.
I recall walking into my grandparents home when I was about seven years old and there sitting on the ottoman was a very young banty rooster West Virginia politician with slicked back hair wearing suspenders and entertaining my family with his fiddle playing. That was my first introduction to Robert C. Byrd who later would become our country's longest serving United States Senator.
According to Joe Biden, Sen. Byrd was his great friend and mentor in the Senate. Sen. Byrd and I developed a longstanding relationship until his death. I sponsored a fundraising event at the Dallas Petroleum Club during the 1980's for Senators Byrd, Long and my great life friend North Carolina United States Sen. Terry Sanford. That was when Robert Byrd told me of his long relationship with my grandfather Mark Hanna Hill. Sen. Byrd told me the story of how he and my grandfather were witnesses to an electrocution of a death row convict at Moundsville, West Virginia State Penitentiary.
Little did I know that Robert C. Byrd was a senior member of the Democratic Party's enforcement arm, the Ku Klux Klan. Back in the days of the Solid South, the KKK enforced the Democratic Party's Jim Crow legislation designed to segregate and keep Black Americans suppressed. All facts, but I suspect that the Teachers Union wouldn't allow these truths to be taught today. My grandfather was not a member of any of the Left's hate organizations. He was a Mason, Shriner and Christian. With a third grade education, he founded and grew a very successful company which had an integrated workforce. But Sen. Byrd needed Mark Hill's political influence.
One of my terrific life experiences was working for and frequently traveling with Duke University President Terry Sanford while completing my MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business. The bond we developed solidified my understanding of our nation's politics. As North Carolina's legendary former governor and future senator, Terry Sanford was a fiscal conservative Democrat.
Along the way a couple of combat flying tours allowed me to begin to see how politics in Washington, D. C. worked and didn't. Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara showed me first hand how the Democratic Party could totally foul up a war effort. Fundamental to my identity are my relatives, classmates, teammates and friends who sacrificed all for our Republic.
Later, and still a Democrat, I was asked to do some volunteer advance work for the White House and specifically for Vice President Walter Mondale, a nice man. But I became progressively uncomfortable in that role and headed for the exits. Ronald Reagan's incredible successes helped me move more to the right.
I am a staunch believer in our Constitution and Bill of Rights including our First Amendment which bestows on all citizens the inalienable right to Freedom of Speech. Today, Freedom of Speech is being destroyed in the United States of America.
Stop and think about what that means. The same thing happened in Nazi Germany, the post-Bolshevik Soviet Union and in Chairman Mao's Communist China. Not coincidentally Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse Tung stand as the three most horrific mass murderers in our world's history. I am fearful of the direction of Swamp and the corporate media relative to choosing who is allowed to exercise their Freedom of Speech.
This brings me back to the Swamp. I have acquaintances both in the House and the Senate, but far too many members have never had a real job or made a payroll.
Consider the former bartender Ocasio-Cortez or Ilhan Omar who married her brother. And let's not forget the leaders in the Senate, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell. Neither have ever had a real job. They have spent their little lifetimes on the government dole while managing to find ways to add to their personal coffers.
In the case of former Majority Leader McConnell and his wife, little is reported of their familial ties with the ruling class of Communist China. Something stinks about that relationship.
And who screams, ridicules and chases a couple out of a Manhattan restaurant because they voted for the wrong presidential candidate? Might the screamer have been Chuck Schumer? And the correct question — who would do something like that? It wouldn't have happened in my hometown.
The pathetic leadership of Schumer and McConnell was highlighted by their disgraceful backroom deals and behavior in the early weeks of 2021. But don't forget that it was also on display for all to observe over the past four years after the unexpected and energetic entrance of an outsider businessman named Donald J Trump.
Hillary Clinton had been the heir apparent, and the fix was in. Doctored, one-sided debates, deep state shenanigans from the Washington pencil pushers Comey and Brennan and a media which could not have possibly been more supportive of literally Too Big to Fail Hillary.
But Trump won. And lo and behold the Swamp was momentarily in disarray. Momentarily? Well maybe for a full minute or perhaps a day. All too soon the Swamp's denizens had regained their equilibrium. Speaking with one voice, they fiercely denied the new administration its traditional "honeymoon" and launched daily anti-Trump talking points repeated ad nauseum by all available media with frequent mentions of words like "racist" and "impeachment".
Then came Russiagate, Obamagate, the Steele Dossier, the FISA Court, and the Mueller Special Counsel travesty. The more-than-compliant media that would eat anything the Left served without asking any questions about what they were eating.
But President Trump persevered in spite of the media onslaught — a nonstop, noisy, nasty distraction.
And this was the America that I risked my life for during 1969-1971? My second tour started with ten hours notice and a ten-day young baby and new mother I left behind to go fly in North Vietnam and Laos. Returning to my country for good in 1971 I would have given ZERO odds that America would look like it does today. But so sadly it does. What did my buddies sacrifice all for? This current mess of killing babies, open borders and eliminated jobs?
But now we have in the White House a sad little man, a placeholder president, who appears to be in some advanced stage of dementia. He stumbles, bumbles and dodders around wherever and whenever his minders decide to give America a peek.
So who is in charge? Take heart. The Swamp is fully in charge of our government! Whatever happened to a "government by and for the people"? The federal government of our United States is now run, in my opinion, "for and on behalf of the D.C. Swamp." Sorry America.
There is a joke in D.C. that 22-year-olds run the government. The real work in the Congress is performed by kids and older political lifers. Meanwhile, the members are fighting for media spots and talk show gigs when not out raising money.
Members are always willing to accept your donations but just try to reach one when "YOU" need something. Mix all of the above with highly fractured and slanted politicians, some simply too old to properly deal with the needs of their constituents. Term Limits anyone?
The Swamp includes Capitol Hill, but one needs to add a major helping of thousands and thousands of career bureaucrats who exist from administration to administration and make or break just about everything happening in the Swamp.
Now add to this Swamp recipe for flavor a highly politicized military at the highest levels and for some bitters our domestic and international "spook" agencies and their D.C. pencil pushers. Like our Congressional members, some have forgotten their oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."
An important Swamp spice is a dab of nepotism which currently overwhelms Hollywood. But nepotism is well and flourishing in the D.C. Swamp. There are seated in the Congress a number "Daddy's Little Darlings." Female House and Senate members who owe their political roots to their "Daddy's". For now I will focus on just one, "Daddy's Little Darling" the failed House leader, Little Nancy (0 for 2) Pelosi. I know something about leadership having cultivated leadership skills through major college athletics, combat flying over the Vietnams, running public and private companies, teaching at the university level and serving in leadership capacities at two major American universities and spending a lifetime making a difference for those in our society less fortunate.
Little Nancy occupies a job that is simply too big for her. This is continually demonstrated by her childish antics and her inability to effectively communicate publicly. Her kneeling, embarrassing slapdash impeachment processions, and ripping up a recently signed State of the Union Address are the tip of the iceberg for 'Old 0 for 2'.
America, we deserve better than this seemingly never ending humiliation.
Meanwhile, in her Congressional District there continues to grow mountains of street and sidewalk feces and needles. Dangerous crime is growing in this once wonderful city, now making it unlivable. One can't have any self decency or pride and look the other way. Many are not as the exodus from San Francisco gathers steam.
To make matters worse, Ms Pelosi has as advisors her little House sidekicks Gerald Nadler, Adam Schiff and another member from California who has an affinity for things Chinese. I believe his name is Eric Smallmale? Not certain. Nancy Pelosi is very obviously a self indulged political comedian who will go down in history as the failed leader who orchestrated two politically motivated impeachments. Neither had any merit and neither does Ms Pelosi.
So much for Little Nancy. Let's focus on Little Richard. But not the entertainer Little Richard. I remember years ago following an entourage under a hotel Porte-Cochere and out popped the real Little Richard. A great entertainer and I remember him that evening as a lovely guy.
The Little Richard for this discussion is Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina. I remember Sen. Burr as a lovely guy, as well. He and I haven't had any contact as of late. I found him to be a Political Class Swamp guy. Good for him. Not my deal. Sen. Burr forgot who put him into the Senate: His Republican constituents from the great state of North Carolina. I had some involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign including the campaign in North Carolina.
The day before the election, the New York Times predicted a Hillary Clinton win with a 98 percent probability of the same. I called my great friend, colleague and patriot Harold Hamm and predicted that Donald Trump would win North Carolina by five points. Due to what we had done throughout North Carolina with a great team of friends including Roddey Dowd, Dan Dimicco and Jeff Turner, I was very comfortable in my prediction. Donald Trump won North Carolina by 4.3 percent on his way to the presidency. I believe that Richard Burr benefited from the Trump Red Wave in North Carolina.
During the 2016 campaign I hosted Senators Lindsey Graham, Saxby Chambliss and Richard Burr to a golf game at my former club the Biltmore Forest Country Club, a noted Donald Ross course architecture. My teammate for the match was Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. I remember jumping in my golf cart, and Lindsey said immediately, "John I think Donald Trump is a nice man" (he had done his homework) to which I replied, "Lindsey I think he is too," and off we went. We all hit our tee shots on the par three hole number three and as we approached the green my wife Darlene walked down from our home overlooking the green. Richard Burr looked at our home and said "what do you do" to which I replied "I don't do anything" which of course was not totally accurate. Our home appeared during 2013 in the Wall Street Journal's weekend real estate section as the featured "Mansion." Lindsey and I put a major whooping on our opponents that day.
Richard Burr and I have very little in common. Less so than I had thought. He went to Wake Forest, a great university, to play football but due to injuries he played very little. Different from my experience at Duke with conference and national honors. He didn't serve or see combat in our military . He sold lawnmowers and then entered into his career as a politician. I ran public and private companies, some that spanned the globe. So it was difficult to tell him what I had done with my career.
Which brings us back to what really happens in the Swamp. Little Richard Burr has continued to forget how he got to Washington D.C. His constant harangues against President Trump and the president's family reinforced who Little Richard is. The last straw for me was his comment approving or condoning the FISA Court judge in that garbage travesty which was part of the coup attempt on President Trump by the Swamp and the Deep State.
I had been recruited twice by the CIA, once to fly for the CIA air force Air America Inc. many many years ago. I wanted no part of that crowd and eventually wanted no part of the D.C. Swamp.
Wake up America. Our Republic is under assault from within and from overseas.
John T. McNabb is co-founder of the Trump Leadership Council and former chairman and CEO of Willbros Group. He also serves as chairman of the Free Press Foundation Advisory Board.
Free Press International
