Commentary Excerpted from The Federalist
By: Elle Reynolds
Republicans who aren’t actively opposing Garland’s political weaponization of federal law enforcement are part of the problem.
When Garland was confirmed in March 2021, only 30 of 50 Republican senators voted against it. The other 20 — Senators Blunt, Burr, Capito, Cassidy, Collins, Cornyn, Ernst, Graham, Grassley, Inhofe, Johnson, Lankford, McConnell, Moran, Murkowski, Portman, Romney, Rounds, Thune, and Tillis — all joined Democrats to approve Garland’s nomination.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Garland “would be a sound choice to be the next Attorney General. He is a man of great character, integrity, and tremendous competency in the law.”
Although some tried to portray Garland as a “moderate,” he had already shown by the end of his confirmation hearings that he was far from it. In accepting Biden’s nomination, Reuters reported, “Garland said he believes the department’s top priorities will be ‘ensuring racial equity’ and ‘meeting the evolving threat of violent extremism.’” That’s easy code for pushing leftist race politics and targeting conservatives whom Garland views as a political threat.
In his hearing, Garland refused to answer “whether illegally entering the country should remain a crime.” He also refused to say whether he would protect female athletes from having their privacy and victories interrupted by men, and refused to commit to releasing special counsel John Durham’s report probing the Russia collusion hoax against Donald Trump. Those red flags and others contributed to opposition from senators like Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott, Josh Hawley, Marsha Blackburn, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and others.
Cruz explained his “no” vote on Garland’s confirmation because Garland had “refused to make clear that he would stand against the politicization of the department, which we saw during the Obama-Biden years.” Scott called Garland a “radical” who might “politicize” the Department of Justice. In a scathing takedown of Garland’s positions, Cotton said that “when he did answer questions, he sounded more like a liberal ideologue who would embrace the radical agenda of the Democratic party’s far left base.”
“If confirmed,” Cotton added, “I’m afraid that he’ll enable extremists in the Justice Department to undermine our police, our Constitution, and our rule of law.”
Since his appointment, Garland has continued showing himself to be nothing but a partisan hack. One of his most stunning acts of corruption was the reliance on a letter from the National School Boards Association — since revealed to have been planted by the Biden Education Department — to sic the FBI on concerned parents showing up to school board meetings.
After the Supreme Court’s leaked Dobbs decision saw radical abortion activists firebombing and vandalizing pregnancy support clinics around the country, Garland put more public effort into opposing the decision than opposing the violence. He refused to enforce the law when demonstrators waged a pressure and intimidation campaign at justices’ private homes, culminating in an assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life.
Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.
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I recognized a few of those names and I am none too pleased.
How come Republican’s worked so hard to keep Garland off the Supreme Court yet allowed him to be where he is today? Stupid politicians.