'Isn't That Special?': John Kennedy Excoriates Garland Over School Board Memo

good morning general morning senator there's a lot that i couldn't get to general i'm i'm looking at this letter montana attorney general all the county attorneys and all the sheriffs in his jurisdiction [Applause] suggesting ways that parents could be prosecuted the school board mayor for appearing at school board meetings in accordance with your directive and one of the uh suggestions made by your u.s attorney is parents can be prosecuted for repeated telephone calls not threatening anyone just on the theory that telephone calls could be harassment really senator i haven't seen that memorandum i've tried to express as clearly as i can here i i heard you general but this is one of your u.s attorneys said you're thinking again i haven't seen isn't that specially chairing hearing where else server goes to vote he didn't general you're just a vessel sure well let me tell you what i'm talking about with respect to the national school boards association letter you're just a vessel aren't you i'm not sure what you mean by that but i signed this memorandum i worked on this memorandum and this memorandum is my memory well let me tell you what i mean we know that the national school board association was upset because parents were coming to school board meetings to object to the teaching of critical race theory we know that in drafting the letter the national school board association collaborated with the white house for several weeks they worked on it together and we know that the national school board association wants the white house and the association were happy with the letter the national school board association sent the letter to the white house and the white house promptly called you and said shook the fbi on parents and school board hearings and that's what i mean the white house is the prophet here you're just a vessel isn't that correct senator i did not speak with anyone from the white house as well i worked on this memorandum this memorandum reflects my views that we need to protect public officials from violence and threats of violence while at the same time protecting parents ability to object to privacy i get that i heard your testimony were you worried that you would be fired if you didn't issue the memorandum senator i'm not i i i decided on this memorandum on my own i don't care um i i said from the very beginning i've taken this job to protect the department of justice to make independent determinations with respect uh to prosecutions and investigations and i will do that okay general but i don't have much time um now when you when you got the letter that from the white house that that prompted your memorandum to give the fbi new duties and making sure our parents aren't dangerous domestic terrorists you didn't investigate before you issued your memorandum the incidences cited in the letter did you look i took the a statement by the national association which represents thousands of school board members um when they said that they were facing violence and threats of violence and when i saw in the news media of reports yeah but you didn't investigate the incidents in the letter did you no this is the first step this is an assessment step it comes before investigations before you issued your memo you didn't investigate the incident the memo isn't intended to begin assessments it is intended and in fact most of the incidents in the letter were did not involve threats of violence did they i think that's correct most of them did not and they would not be covered by either federal or state law i agree with that and they would be protected by the first amendment but threats of violence are not covered by that can we agree that we have thousands tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of kids growing up today who are more likely to commit a crime than than and go to jail then own a home or get married i don't i don't know about the comparative statistics i do know there are too many people who are committing crime and one of the reasons for that is lack of parental involvement isn't it i think parental involvement is essential i think it's the key both to bringing up good kids so why do you want to issue a memorandum listing incidents that you didn't investigate that anybody who has any fair-minded knowledge of the world knows is going to have a chilling effect on parental involvement with respect to what their kids are learning at school i just want to be clear again senator my memorandum did not list any of those incidents come on general we both know this had a chilling effect you don't think they're parents out there in the real world that said oh my god maybe we we we shouldn't go to the school board meeting there'll be fbi agents there we live in a they're sitting in la la land i tried to make clear as clear as i could and now i have subsequently made clear in every public statement on the map your actions made it clear general let me ask

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 305,153

Keywords: Sen. John Kennedy, AG Merrick Garland, school boards

Id: V7f6MPmCrLM

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021