On Sunday’s Fox News Channel broadcast of “Life, Liberty & Levin,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sounded off on the Senate Judiciary hearing with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco regarding the Department of Justice’s announcement that it would intervene to address perceived threats against educators and school boards.
Hawley described the effort by President Joe Biden’s administration as “intimidation and harassment” against parents.
“The idea that they would use FBI to intervene in a school board meeting with the purpose of, let’s be honest, intimidating and harassing parents just unprecedented,” Hawley outlined. “And I said to her … this is not about violence. We all know that if somebody threatens violence, the local police will book that person and charge that person. They’ll get them out of there. This is about using federal law enforcement to try and intimidate parents because these parents are daring to stand up and criticize Critical Race Theory. That’s what this is about.”
“She just kept coming back to me, ‘Well, everybody is against violence.’ Well, of course, we’re against violence. What we’re not against, though, is free expression. What we’re not against is the First Amendment. But that’s what this administration is doing,” he continued. “They’re attacking our basic First Amendment principles, and it’s all in an effort to try and shut down moms and dads, parents who are paying their taxes, who have kids in schools, and by the way who are voters and they have a right to express their opinion at school board meetings. This is just unprecedented, and I tell you, I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.”
Hawley later added, “This is a dangerous precedent to use federal law enforcement to go after citizens to stop them from speaking about things you don’t like.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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