Fireworks exploded on Capitol Hill this week as U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His annual oversight hearing on Wednesday was packed with “must-see” moments.
Senators grilled him on a wide range of topics, including investigations into both President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as former President Donald Trump, fentanyl deaths, and more.
In a heated exchange, Texas Republican Ted Cruz pounced on Garland for not being more aggressive in prosecuting protesters who threatened Supreme Court justices in regard to the Roe v. Wade reversal last summer. He also peppered him with questions about the FBI’s arrest of pro-life advocate Mark Houck.
Senator Josh Hawley rallied to Houck’s defense as well. Though the Missouri Republican displayed photos from security video at the Houcks’ residence that upheld his description of the raid, Garland repeatedly insisted that FBI documentation is “not consistent” with the senator’s description of the event. Hawley went on to ask pointed questions about the FBI’s targeting of various religious groups.
Utah’s Republican Senator Mike Lee kept the heat on with queries about disparity between the FBI’s prosecution of abortion clinic protesters and pregnancy help-center firebombers. Garland countered that pro-lifers work in the daylight and are therefore are easier to catch. Their counterparts “are clever” and “are doing it in secret” and at night, which is apparently too much for the FBI.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) also pursued the issue of firebombing pregnancy help-centers, focusing on the radical group Jane’s Revenge. Garland claimed that the FBI could not find anyone associated with the organization and asked the senator to forward any information she might have.
Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton took the AG to task about the crisis at our southern border.
And Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, also a Republican, questioned Garland regarding FBI targeting of parents who attend school-board meetings to criticize Covid policies and perverse curricula being pushed in public schools.
The full committee hearing is available here. Coverage begins at 16:41 into the video.
