Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Wednesday blasted Attorney General Merrick Garland upon permitting an FBI probe into parents labeled “domestic terrorists” after protests erupted against indoctrinating children with Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Loudoun County, Virginia.
“Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court,” Cotton told Garland, who was a nominee for the Court but failed to be confirmed.
“This testimony, your directive, your performance is shameful,” Cotton said in a Senate hearing. “Thank God, you’re not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace, judge.”
Cotton’s comments come after the National School Board Association (NSBA) apologized Friday for labeling parents concerned about Critical Race Theory “domestic terrorists” who should be targeted by the FBI.
“There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter,” the apology read.
In the Senate hearing, Garland denied he would resolve the FBI’s investigation into parents, even though the probe was predicated on faulty information from the NSBA.
“This memorandum is not about parents being able to object in their school boards,” Garland claimed. “They are protected by the First Amendment, as long as there are no threats of violence, they are completely protected.”
“So parents can object to their school boards, about curriculum, about the treatment of their children, about school policies, all of that is 100 percent protected by the First Amendment and there is nothing in this memorandum contrary to that,” Garland deflected. “We are only trying to prevent violence against school officials.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has also demanded Garland’s resignation over the matter. “Merrick Garland mobilized the FBI to intimidate parents without legal basis and, we now know, premised on misinformation he didn’t bother to verify,” Hawley tweeted.
Senator Josh Hawley, R-MO, questions US Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC October 27, 2021. (Photo by TASOS KATOPODIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“It was a dangerous abuse of authority that has badly compromised the Justice Dept’s integrity and Garland’s. He should resign,” he said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
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