HALEY KENNINGTON: Meet Democrats’ — And China’s — New Favorite Republican

Whenever liberals start describing a Republican as brave or principled, you can be sure it’s because he or she is stabbing the party in the back.

Meet Democrats’ latest hero Roger Alford. He was deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust until AG Pam Bondi recently fired him for insubordination.

Alford decided he knew better than the Trump administration’s DOJ and national security team and attempted to block a merger that would strengthen America against China.

Now, he is banging pots and pans, metaphorically auditioning to be MSNBC’s new favorite “Republican.”

The merger in question was between two telecom companies, HPE and Juniper, which Trump intelligence officials urged the DOJ to clear for national security reasons — specifically, to protect the Republic from the Chinese Communist Party. (RELATED: DOJ Deep Stater Cosplaying As MAGA Has Ties To Chinese Interests)

Huawei, a Chinese firm that receives substantial subsidies from that country’s communist government, and which the FBI has said can disrupt U.S. military communications, currently controls around 30% of the global telecom equipment market. Huawei products are banned in the U.S., but Huawei’s dominance abroad leaves many of our allies vulnerable to Chinese cyberespionage. Trump intelligence officials told the DOJ that they strongly believe an HPE-Juniper deal would help mitigate that exposure by creating a new, larger company that can compete with Huawei globally.

This is all pretty straightforward. But Alford had other ideas.

In a speech dripping with holier-than-thou self-importance, he claimed the deal only went through because a “cabal of MAGA-In-Name-Only lobbyists and DOJ officials” were working behind the scenes “to exert and expand their influence and enrich themselves. Never once in his speech did he mention that Trump’s senior intelligence officials urged the DOJ to clear the merger.

Claims like these are catnip for Democrats. Vox gave the speech a glowing write-up. David Dayen, executive editor of the progressive American Prospect, gushed that Alford is a “no-doubt conservative” who is nevertheless “cursed with having a sense of right and wrong.”

Sound familiar? It should.

When Mitt Romney ran for president, the media absurdly called him a homophobic bully and animal abuser. But when he voted to remove President Trump from office, he suddenly became a genuine profile in courage.

To this crowd, Dick Cheney was a genocidal war criminal — until he endorsed Kamala Harris.

Robert Mueller was just another Republican insider — until he was tapped to investigate Trump. Then the media slapped his face on prayer candles, and fashion blogs drooled over his Brooks Brothers suits.

It’s the same tired playbook every time: find a Republican willing to knife Trump or his agenda and turn him into a temporary folk hero.

The liberal media are desperate to elevate Alford because they want to turn the HPE-Juniper deal into a major headache for the Trump administration. Signalgate fizzled, so now they’re jonesing for a second bite at the apple.

Dayen practically salivated over Alford’s use of the word “scandal” to describe the DOJ approval.

Unfortunately for the Dems, the “HPE-Juniper merger scandal” is a giant nothingburger.

Alford can make all the insinuations he wants about shady lobbyists and smoke-filled rooms, but the truth is that senior U.S. intelligence officials have already gone on the record to set things straight.

“In light of significant national security concerns, a settlement [greenlighting the deal] … serves the interests of the United States by strengthening domestic capabilities and is critical to countering Huawei and China,” one official told Axios last month.

That should be case closed — unless, of course, you’re a disgruntled ex-official chasing headlines.

In response to Alford’s speech, a DOJ spokesperson called him “the James Comey of antitrust,” a bitter bureaucrat “pursuing blind self-promotion and ego.”

And here’s what the media won’t tell you: The Daily Caller reported Wednesday that in 2016, Alford gave a speech at a Chinese university attacking then-candidate Trump’s tough stance toward Beijing.

According to a summary of that speech, Alford told his Chinese audience that “Trump fundamentally distrusts basic tenets of free trade.”

Well, of course he does — at least when it comes to China. Anyone who believes in “free trade” with a communist dictatorship that uses currency manipulation, government subsidies, intellectual property theft, and even slave labor is dangerously naïve.

So let’s be clear: Alford wasn’t just butting heads with Pam Bondi on antitrust. He was actively undercutting Trump’s national security strategy—propping up the same failed globalist playbook that let China steamroll American workers for decades.

Alford’s career as a “principled Republican” media celebrity is probably just getting started. The “scandal” he’s pushing, on the other hand, is dead on arrival. Even Trump’s intelligence officials have already stated that the deal is crucial to outmaneuvering Huawei. That should be the end of the story.

Suppose Roger Alford wants to be MSNBC’s next “principled conservative” contributor, fine. But let’s not pretend he’s putting America first. He’s putting China first — and Democrats couldn’t be happier about it.

Haley Kennington (@LadyKennington) is an investigative journalist and conservative commentator. She served as the Research Director & Story Editor for “2020:The Plot Against the President” and Research/Archive Editor for “What Is a Woman?“

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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