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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWATCH: Merrick Garland bursts into laughter at GOP senator's question
By Travis Gettys
Published October 27, 2021
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Attorney General Merrick Garland laughed at a Republican senator's question during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), like every other GOP senator before him, used his allotted time to pepper Garland with questions about an Oct. 4 memo directing the Department of Justice to investigate threats against local school board members after a national organization asked President Joe Biden for federal intervention.
"The National School Board Association sent the letter to the White House and the White House promptly called you and said, 'Sic the FBI on parents at school board hearings, and that's what I mean," Kennedy said. "The White House is the prophet here and you're just the vessel, correct?"
https://www.rawstory.com/merrick-garland-hearing-2655409165/
Hey Kennedy, do you get in front of a mirror every morning prior to going into a hearing to have that concerned look on your face....and did you coordinate that question with the Youngkin campaign....
Fullduplexxx
(7,845 posts)Mz Pip
(27,432 posts)He plays the down home stupid act for his constituents. The guys a Rhode Scholar.
Id hate it if one of my Senators dumbed it down for me.
CurtEastPoint
(18,622 posts)elleng
(130,740 posts)Walleye
(30,982 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)I'm going to have to remember that: "mouth full of hush-puppies drawl".
Walleye
(30,982 posts)MontanaMama
(23,296 posts)No exceptions. That is all.
mahina
(17,622 posts)It sounded like a female said she wasnt able to get to everything. Who was that the person who spoke right before Senator Kennedy? Who was that person? It sure sounded like a admission in a public format that they have a coordinated response and these are not questions from the individual senators.
Our guys ask their own questions, and I wish they coordinated but they never do.
Kennedy, drop the act. Youre an educated man.
Ohioboy
(3,239 posts)And why is it political to them? Threats are not protected by the first amendment.
Mad_Machine76
(24,395 posts)Of course they generally hate public school teachers.
Ohioboy
(3,239 posts)Every time Garland starts to talk about how it's not about stifling free speech, it's only about threats, he gets stopped by whomever is questioning him. They really don't want him to answer. They just want to be able to put out their talking points. The whole thing is sick.
lindysalsagal
(20,584 posts)charter schools: They're not union, and they threaten public schools. This is the same as USPS: Privatize, sell shares, get rich quick, avoid nasty government oversight.
LakeArenal
(28,804 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,075 posts)Garland then chuckles at it a few seconds afterward. Apparently, Kennedy doesn't understand that the DOJ is no longer an arm of the White House, as it was under his Dear Leader.
LakeArenal
(28,804 posts)Hav
(5,969 posts)Exaggerating the situation doesn't help appreciating the source of the story but it surely gets the clicks.
Anyways, Kennedy is either incredibly stupid or just bad faith. He still didn't get the point despite repeated explanations.
pazzyanne
(6,543 posts)...He still didn't get the point despite repeated explanations."
In a nutshell, Kennedy is stupid, and lazy! He is tied to his Repub talking points, so he clings to them like a drowning man clings to a life raft. No new information makes it into his head!
msfiddlestix
(7,271 posts)Rhode Scholar loves to play Stupid. He's got the strategy down to a tee.
Unfortunately, push back is seriously wanting.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)MHO, fwiw
This PuQ is cutting him off OVER AND OVER to make his lying political points, and he says nothing about it.
On top of that he lets Johnson simultaneously attack him for the FBI being 'sicced on parents' and ALSO attack him for the FBI NOT investigating (i.e. investigating the complaints before sending memo).
No way I'm letting someone pull that fallacious bullshit if I'm in his position.
ananda
(28,836 posts)Garland really needs to go.
Ohioboy
(3,239 posts)He should be objecting to the premise of 90% of the questions he gets from these republican scumbags.
RussBLib
(9,003 posts)to have an Attorney General that sounds forceful and not timid? I often cringe when I hear Garland stumble and mumble and hem and haw, all with a quivering voice. Geez. It really sounds like he is about to cry half the time.
Toughen up, Merrick!
Yeah, yeah, I know, I am criticizing his style over his substance. I remember the old saying, "It's not what you say but how you say it." Superficial? Sure.
And very frustrating to listen to.
Hugh_Lebowski
(33,643 posts)Hekate
(90,561 posts)
is asking too much. AG Garland is doing fine, imo. Hes just not cut out for mud-wrestling and fending off the lies and slimy insinuations of GOP politicians.
HUAJIAO
(2,379 posts)who WILL mud-wrestle and fend off the lies and slimy insinuations of GOP politicians.
kacekwl
(7,014 posts)stop talking like foghorn leghorn you slow witted moron and make your irrational ingenious point.
AJT
(5,240 posts)Garland was a huge mistake.
Thtwudbeme
(7,737 posts)the Church Lady?
Jesus Christ that guy is a jackwit.
Justice matters.
(6,920 posts)ancianita
(35,933 posts)Kennedy's is a bad faith interpretation of the AG's & DOJ's position about protecting school boards and "chilling" parents -- most of whom throw more heat at board members and need to chill, anyway -- "you've turned into someone you said you wouldn't be."
Translation: "How dare you say the DOJ can investigate our racist parents' threats!"
ShazzieB
(16,281 posts)And that's if you can even call them "questions." They were more like assertions based around bold faced Iies.
This performance was straight out of the "Have you stopped beating you wife yet?" handbook on how to plant false ideas in the minds of listeners.
themaguffin
(3,822 posts)DFW
(54,302 posts)I get that they all watch Fox Noise and think that interruption of someone you think might give an answer you don't like is legitimate discourse. But when they all basically come out and say exactly the same thing and use the same words, it's pretty obvious they are following a script they worked out in advance.
I wonder if they ever saw the film "Z" about the fascist takeover in Greece in 1967? At the end, a prosecutor questions a line of corrupt government officials involved in the murder of a popular opposition figure, and they ALL use the same phrases in their answers. The prosecutor is removed and the fascists take over until the uprising of 1974. The film was made before they were booted out. I hope we don't go there, but listening Republicans with their nasty smirks using the same expressions over and over, one after another, gave me the creeps. These were no questions derived from true inquiry, but rather scripted remarks.
helpisontheway
(5,005 posts)Leith
(7,808 posts)He says "ashoshiayshun" and has 3 different ways of pronouncing "incidents."
That ain't corn pone (like "commit a crahm" ), it's day drinking.
Skittles
(153,113 posts)to distract from the fact he was educated in "elite" universities
Skittles
(153,113 posts)Martin Eden
(12,847 posts)Garland should have pointed that out, because answering the question as asked tacitly accepts the false premise.