How do we make the argument about the corruption of the FBI and the politicization of their agents, while also slamming the Tallahassee Mayor for being ensnared in an investigation?
By Jacob Engels
Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum is a progressive populist. He understands the stranglehold that the established order has on our political system and government.
His solutions, unlike conservative populism, center around the state levying higher taxes and expanding the role of government. Free college and healthcare for all, protect the environment and fight against systemic racism.
That alone should provide Republicans enough fodder to go pound-for-pound with Gillum on the campaign trail between now and the November general election. Focusing on the fact that he is “under FBI investigation” has to be one of the dumbest decisions the GOP could make in the next two-months.
Gillum did what no Democrat before him has ever done in a statewide race in Florida… he turned out the black vote and ran an underfunded campaign. He defeated millionaires, billionaires, the daughter of a former Democratic Governor.
So why would focusing on his connection to an FBI investigation into the Tallahassee City Commission be a bad move for Republicans?
How can Republicans on one hand slam the tactics and “impartiality” of the FBI in their quest to tear down the duly elected President of the United States, but in the same breath ding Gillum for being the focus of the same agency under similar circumstances?
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the FBI began their investigation by posing as developers looking to purchase and develop land in Tallahassee. They used undercover names like Mike Sweets, Mike Miller, and Brian Butler. The agents spent months getting tight with city officials and staff.
Remember how the FBI sent assets into the Trump campaign to sabotage and presumably entrap top officials on manufactured charges… or even worse… crimes invented by undercover assets to dirty up Trump’s administration if he won?
While Gillum is close to several people who are under the eye of the FBI’s investigation, he has not been charged or subpoenaed. Another similarity between the FBI operation in Tallahassee and the Russian collusion delusion “investigation” headed by Robert Mueller.
Mayor Gillum’s public comments about the investigation are even similar to Trump’s on the Russian investigation. It’s slowing down the effectiveness of government, he hasn’t been subpoenaed, the FBI told him he is not the focus of the investigation.
To attack him on the FBI investigation in Tallahassee would require conservatives and Republicans to reverse course on our whole mantra on how the agency has been politicized and corrupted by extremely biased players.
The FBI is corrupt and it has been politicized, nobody knows that better than black America. From it’s early days under the moniker of the “Bureau of Investigation”, they brought mail fraud charges against Marcus Garvey in an effort to make him an “undesirable alien” worth of deportation.
Garvey was a famous Pan-African icon, who was extremely popular among blacks in Jamaica, the United States, and around the world. He was close with Black icons like Booker T. Washington and founded the Universal Negro Improvement League.
“The Man” marked Garvey and even enlisted its first black investigative agents to infiltrate his organization.
Black America remembers this. They also remember how the FBI targeted, wiretapped, and harassed MLK. Like with Garvey, the FBI was determined to get their guy. The FBI would continue their attacks on Martin Luther King, even through his assassination in the spring of 1968.
The FBI has never successfully restored their standing among Black America. Garvey and King’s experiences with the agency are some of the more well-known instances of the FBI attacking Black America, listen to this discussion organized by Detroit Today, titled “The FBI’s Fraught/Complex History With Black America,” to get a fuller picture.
By making the FBI’s focus on the Tallahassee City Commission, and by extension Gillum, the GOP provides him an easy route to activate Black voters on a level never before seen in a mid-term election in Florida.
The FBI attacked Black leaders like Marcus Garvey and MLK. They murdered innocent people at Ruby Ridge and in Waco. Robert Mueller’s FBI lied about the Saudi connection to the 9/11 hijackers, he lied about verified terrorist involvement during the Anthrax scare, and now he is pushing this bogus Russian collusion delusion witch-hunt.
Americans should stand united in their disgust, lack of trust, and apprehension over the activities going on in the FBI currently. Our viewpoint on how the FBI has been compromised by political interests should not shift simply because we disagree politically with someone like Gillum who is “under investigation.”
Mr. Gillum can be defeated on his record as Mayor of Tallahassee, his connection to George Soros and Bernie Sanders. If the Florida GOP can’t defeat a Black Democrat Mayor of the state’s swampy capitol city on those ends… they should pack it up straight away.
THE FBI IS CORRUPT. THE FBI IS CORRUPT. THE FBI IS CORRUPT.
Jacob Engels is an Orlando based journalist whose work has been featured and republished in news outlets around the globe including Politico, InfoWars, MSNBC, Orlando Sentinel, New York Times, Daily Mail UK, Associated Press, People Magazine, ABC, Fox News, and Australia’s New Dawn Magazine. Mr. Engels focuses on stories that other news outlets neglect or willingly hide to curry favor among the political and business special interests in the state of Florida.
