The Left’s most fervent, and most wrong, attack dog: NY’s Rep. Dan Goldman

In Federalist No. 51, James Madison famously wrote that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”  He believed that members of each branch would jealously protect their own institutions from the other branches. 

Of course, Madison never met Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). Goldman is an example of how the wrong type of ambition can destroy Congress if it becomes widespread among members.

This week, both Republican and Democratic members raised alarm over the disclosure that Special Counsel Jack Smith tracked the telephone calls by members of both houses of Congress.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) stated, “On the surface of it, it would strike me as a significant invasion of the right of Senators to conduct their jobs, so this is something that needs urgent follow-up.”

But one member rushed forward to dismiss such institutional concerns as much ado about nothing. Goldman attacked the victims as legitimate targets to help “confirm Trump’s effort to overturn the election.”

Goldman has long been viewed as the face of rage politics in Washington. He often uses hearings to attack witnesses and political opponents. His signature style involves heaping insults on witnesses and then immediately “reclaiming his time” to prevent them from answering his accusations.

Yet what makes Goldman so notable is his consistent denial of abuses by Democrats, no matter what the evidence may show. Goldman has made himself indispensable as someone who is willing to deny the obvious while attacking anyone who dabbles in reality.

If denial were an art form, Dan Goldman would be the Botticelli of the Beltway.

With the increase in political violence on the left, many are joining in condemning such violent groups on the left as Antifa.

Not Goldman. He rushed forward to deny that Antifa was a real group, demanding that people name just one person who claimed to be a member of Antifa.

For those of us who have testified and written about Antifa for years, it was another bizarre moment. Groups like Portland’s Rose City Antifa are some of the oldest such groups in the country and extremists have routinely identified themselves as Antifa. Even far-left activists have acknowledged coordinated protests with Antifa groups.

Goldman’s denials can even leave CNN hosts gobsmacked. This week, Goldman challenged claims that there has been a significant increase in attacks on ICE officers. After attacking ICE officers as “violent,” he objected that people “keep talking about a 1000% upswing and all this stuff, I haven’t seen examples of that.”

He was literally saying that when other networks were showing such attacks. As CNN hosts and guests described the attacks as “terrible,” Goldman dismissed the accounts of widespread attacks as little more than rumors.

If there is some partisan abuse that even Goldman would not dismiss, it is clearly not censorship. Goldman attacked witnesses seeking to expose the censorship system during the Biden administration, again dismissing the suppression of opposing views.

It also clearly does not include influence peddling. Goldman was the main denier of Biden family operations that yielded millions. Even as former associates supported these accounts and communications confirmed the allegations, Goldman was still discarding the evidence and calling evidence of corruption as mere “niceties.”

Long after the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated and major media organizations admitted that they were wrong in dismissing the evidence, Goldman continued to call it a “myth” and attacked those raising evidence that Hunter shook down foreign figures.

When Hunter defied a congressional subpoena while holding a mocking press conference outside of the Capitol building, Goldman defended him.

Despite this history, there was a lingering thought that the tracking of calls by members of Congress might finally prove a bridge too far — even for Goldman. After all, these records of past calls can expose whistleblowers, journalists and other citizens who are seeking help from their representatives.

Goldman, however, again went on X to blast members who objected to having their communications seized by the government — despite the fact that Democratic members also expressed concerns over the implications of this move.

Goldman attacked one of the victims, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and declared (in the ultimate act of transference) “you are shameless.”

Goldman first attempted to parse the meaning of surveillance by noting that only the record of past calls and their times were seized (ignoring that such information conveys identifying information and details on communications). He then resumed his signature attack by claiming, “You laundered Russian misinformation in 2020 and then communicated with the WH on Jan 6.”

Putting aside accusations of Goldman as spreading disinformation in his denials, the targets of these orders include not just Johnson but eight other members.

While Goldman refuses to accept facts that show abuses by the left, he is quick to allege facts without a scintilla of support in attacking the right. Thus, when the home of Judge Diane Schafer Goodstein burned down in South Carolina, Goldman rushed to social media to blame Republicans for the fire. He demanded to know why there was no condemnation for “the extreme right” for the “arson.”

The reason is that some tend to wait for the facts to be established. Goldman did not even hold back until the preliminary findings of the fire department, which announced that there was no evidence of arson. The fire remains under investigation.

In the end, our system can withstand a few Goldmans in either party. Our constitution has survived Goldmans for centuries. He is the same guy that we have heard in every age of rage.

The true tragedy is that the voters of New York’s District 10 relish his form of politics. He knows his audience. Many voters want blind wrath and they found the perfect representative in Dan Goldman.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of the bestselling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”