The White House dismissed the new House panel investigating the alleged weaponization of the federal government by comparing it to the Joseph McCarthy hearings of the 1950s that sought to root out Communists in the federal government.
The Judiciary subcommittee is determined to pursue allegations that the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other federal agencies have targeted conservatives. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) formed the committee in response to several instances of the DOJ allegedly targeting conservatives.
“We expect to hear from Americans who have been targeted by their government,” Jordan said Thursday as the committee opened its hearings.
White House spokesman Ian Sams promptly issued a four-page memo to “interested parties,” in which he compared the panel to McCarthy’s infamous probes.
“Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is launching the Fox News reboot of the House Un-American Activities Committee with a political stunt that weaponizes Congress to carry out the priorities of extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress,” he claimed.
Sams accused the panel of planning to “weaponize the MAGA agenda against their perceived political enemies, going after civil servants, private citizens, and the rule of law — all in service of getting booked on Fox News,” adding, “These extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress are choosing to make it their top priority to go down the rabbit hole of debunked conspiracy theories about a ‘deep state.’”
Predictably, Sams quoted Left-wing entities and politicians such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, PolitiFact, and former Democratic Senator Gary Hart to bolster his attack on the committee.
“Over the course of my 12-plus years, the FBI’s trajectory has transformed,” former FBI Special Agent Nicole Parker testified to the panel. “The bureau’s mission remained the same but its priorities and governing principles shifted dramatically. The FBI became politically weaponized, starting from the top in Washington and trickling down to the field offices. Although FBI employees have their First Amendment rights, they are not at the liberty to allow their personal, political views or preferences to determine their course of action or inaction in any investigation.”
“Lady Justice must remain blind,” she continued. “It’s as if there became two FBIs. Americans see this and it is destroying the Bureau’s credibility, causing Americans to lose faith in the agency.”
“We do have direct action shown in the Twitter files by government employees,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley pointed out. “We know that there were dozens of federal employees who tabbed or targeted particular posts and posters for possible elimination and suspension.”
“Protecting the First Amendment shouldn’t be partisan,” Jordan declared. “Protecting the Constitution shouldn’t be partisan, and protecting the fundamental principle of equal treatment under the law should not be partisan.”
“Right now we live in a country where many Americans are afraid to speak freely, afraid to express themselves, afraid to have real, open dialogue and debate,” asserted former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic party, informed the panel.
“Afraid of losing their job, being canceled or be accused of a crime, which could happen if recently introduced legislation criminalizing so-called ‘hate speech” is passed into law,” she stated, continuing:
Speech, that no matter how abhorrent, is still protected under the First Amendment. Now, this fear and this culture of fear and self-censorship is not unfounded; we have individuals in our government, often working through their arms in the mainstream media and Big Tech, doing exactly what our founders rejected; trying to control what we the people are allowed to see and say under the guise of protecting us from so-called misinformation or disinformation. Now of course, they appoint themselves as the sole authority in voice of truth, of information, backed by the most lethal force in earth with the power to target anyone they deem a threat.
