'Does Your Department Have A Problem With Anti-Catholic Bias?': Hawley Laces Into Merrick Garland

Mr chairman attorney general Garland let me just ask you does your department have a problem with anti-catholic bias our department has protects all religions and all ideologies it does not have any bias against any religion of any kind well you could have surprised me because given the resources that you are expending and the Apparently intelligence assets that you are deploying against Catholics it appears and other people of Faith while simultaneously turning a blind eye while people are executed gang style on the streets of our cities including in my home state your answer frankly surprises me let's talk about the mark help case for example you've been asked about this already today and frankly your answers really Astound me this is a case where a Catholic pro-life demonstrator father was accused of disorderly conduct in front of an abortion Center the local prosecutor the Philadelphia district attorney who is a Democrat a liberal very Progressive declined to prosecute there was a private suit that got dismissed and then after all of that your justice department sent between 20 and 30 armed agents in the early morning hours to the houck's private residence to arrest this guy after he had offered to turn himself in voluntarily here's the photo once again you can see the long guns you can see the ballistic Shields you can see that they're wearing bulletproof vests why did the justice department do this why did you send 20 to 30 SWAT style agents in a SWAT style team to this guy's house when everybody else had declined to prosecute and he'd offered to turn himself in determinations of how to make arrests under arrest warrants are made based by the Tactical operators in the uh District which you surely looked into it by this point right you know the answer surely they all I know is what the FBI has said which is that they made decisions on the ground as to what was safest and easiest so you do not agree with your description of what happened on this you don't agree with my description I'm pointing out what the photo is there are agents here who have long guns and Ballistic Shields let's take a look at the hardened criminals that your justice department sent these armed agents to go terrorize on that morning here they are here they are at Mass here's the seven children with Mr Houck and his wife in this early morning they were all at home Mrs Houck has said repeatedly the children were screaming they feared for their lives you got these agents demanding that he come out they've got the guns she said pointing at the house and at them he has offered to turn himself in and this is who you go to terrorize what's really interesting to me is this seems to directly contradict your own memorandum about the use of force at the justice department you say officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively control an incident are you telling me that in your opinion as attorney general it was objectively necessary to use 20 or 30 SWAT style agents with long guns and Ballistic shields for these people what I'm saying is that decisions about how to go about this were made on the ground by fbias so you're saying you don't know I'm I'm saying what I just said this is that you're abdicating responsibility I'm not abdicating responses give me the answer is do you think in your opinion you are the Attorney General of the United States you are in charge of the justice department and yes sir you are responsible so give me an answer the FBI does not agree with your just I'm not asking about the FBI you are the Attorney General give me your answer do you think that it was objectively reasonable and they followed your guidelines in sending 20 to 30 armed agents to terrorize these people yes or no the facts I have which are those presented by the FBI are not consistent with your description so you think it was reasonable I'm saying the facts are not as you describe what that the children weren't there that there wasn't that there weren't long guns there that there weren't agents what wasn't what what do you dispute what's the factual premise you dispute specific they don't agree with your description of be specific they don't agree with what of how many agents of the agents who are there and of what their roles were they don't agree do you know the jury in this case acquitted Mr Houck I'm sure you're aware do you know how long it took them I I am aware and we respect the decision of the jury do you know how long it took them I don't know one hour one hour Philadelphia district attorney declines to prosecute the private suits dismissed you use an unbelievable show of force with guns that I just know liberals usually decry we're supposed to hate long guns and assault style weapons you're happy to deploy them against Catholics and innocent children happy to and then you haul them into court and a jury acquits him in one hour I just suggest to you that that is a disgraceful performance by your justice department and a disgraceful use of resources I notice a pattern though the FBI field office in Richmond on the 23rd of January of this year issued a memorandum in which they advocated for and I quote the exploration of new avenues for tripwire and Source development against traditionalist Catholics it's their language including those who favor the Latin Mass attorney general are you cultivating sources and spies in Latin Mass parishes and other Catholic parishes around the country the justice department does not do that it does not do investigations based on religion I saw the document you have appalling it's appalling I'm in complete agreement with you I understand that the FBI has withdrawn it and it's now looking into how this could ever have happened how did it happen that's what they're looking into but I'm totally in agreement with you that document is appalling I'll tell you how it happened the this memoranda which is supposed to be intelligence cites extensively the Southern Poverty Law Center which goes on to identify all of these different Catholics as being part of hate groups is is this how the FBI under your direction and Leadership is this how they do their intelligence work they look they look at left-wing advocacy groups Target Catholics is this what's going on I mean clearly it is how is this happening the FBI is not targeting Catholics and and as I've said this is an uh an inappropriate memorandum and it doesn't reflect the methods that the FBI is supposed to be using should not be relying on any single organization without doing its own work let me just ask you is my time expires here very direct question how many informants do you have in Catholic churches Across America I don't know and I don't believe we have any informants aimed at Catholic churches we have a rule against investigations based on First Amendment activity and uh Catholic churches are obviously uh First Amendment well but I don't know a specific answer you don't know the specifics of anything it seems but apparently on your watch this justice department is targeting Catholics targeting people of Faith specifically for their faith views and Mr attorney general I'll just say to you it's a disgrace because

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 548,556

Keywords: Sen. Josh Hawley, AG Merrick Garland, Senate

Id: PH7i4llRD6E

Length: 7min 40sec (460 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023