For Garland, a House grilling devoid of any facts
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
You might be under the misimpression that Merrick Garland is Attorney General of the United States. Judging from the performance of Republicans at the House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, that impression would indeed be wrong.
Garland, it seems, is Attorney General of Hunter Biden.
And only Hunter Biden. Not crime. Not the border or the fentanyl crisis. Not domestic extremists or Chinese spies or gun violence.
No, the president's son was virtually the sole focus of the committee Republicans who converted their oversight authority into an opportunity to pummel Garland - save for a few brief jabs at the supposed outrages of special counsel Jack Smith.
No matter that Hunter Biden is, in fact, being prosecuted on gun charges that almost certainly would not have been brought were his last name Jones. No matter that he seems likely to be indicted on tax charges on which prosecutors had earlier agreed to accept a plea to two misdemeanors.
No matter that the prosecution is being conducted by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, who was appointed to that post by President Donald Trump and kept on during the Biden administration specifically in order to preempt concerns about political interference.
No matter that Garland, again precisely in order to preempt accusations of politicization, has said he was leaving the conduct of the Hunter Biden probe to Weiss.
No matter that Senate Republicans pressed Garland to make that commitment - which he duly made - when he was up for confirmation as attorney general. Imagine the uproar that would have ensued if he hadn't.
No matter that Garland said he'd give Weiss whatever authorities he needed, to bring cases wherever he deemed necessary. Imagine the uproar that would have ensued if he hadn't.
No matter that when Weiss asked to be named special counsel in the Biden case last month, Garland promptly agreed. Weiss "reached the stage of the investigation where he thought that appropriate," Garland testified. Imagine the uproar that would have ensued if he hadn't.
No matter. Nothing matters - certainly not facts - to these Judiciary Committee Republicans. Certainly not to their chairman, Jim Jordan (Ohio), who confuses volume with persuasion, facts be damned and no slur left unslung.
"The fix is in," Jordan declared in his opening statement - and indeed it was: to smear Garland as a political hack and elevate the handling of Hunter Biden's case to Watergate-level proportions.
"Who does the attorney general pick?" Jordan later asked, referring to the choice of Weiss as special counsel. "He could have selected anyone. … But he picks the one guy, the one guy he knows will protect Joe Biden."
Ah yes, the grand conspiracy to set up Weiss as Hunter Biden's protector.
In reality, as Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.), perhaps the only clear-eyed Republican present, observed that Garland, at every step in the investigation, "would have been criticized either way, whether you acted or did not act in that situation. Far from slow-walking … your hands were tied."
Garland is not the first attorney general to be treated like a piñata; lawmakers of both parties have not been shy about using congressional testimony to score political points.
But this was a new low. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) suggested that Garland was "in contempt of Congress when you refuse to answer" questions about pending investigations - and Massie then one-upped himself. "I think you may have just perjured yourself," he warned Garland, when the attorney general said he had not dodged anything.
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), assailing Garland's choices of Smith and Weiss as special counsels, said, "That leads me to only two explanations: either corruption or incompetence. Which is it?"
"Those are the kind of questions that judges would rule out of order," Garland responded, with a mere raise of the eyebrows.
Garland seemed to lose his cool only once - and for good reason - when Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) pressed him about anti-Catholic bias in the FBI. "The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous, so absurd," Garland said, his voice rising. And good for him. As Garland recalled in his opening statement, his family fled Eastern Europe because of political persecution and two of his grandmother's siblings perished in the Holocaust. "There is little doubt that, but for America, the same thing would have happened to my grandmother," Garland said.
It's no mystery what's going on here. The more Republicans smear Garland and the rest of the Justice Department, the more some people believe them. Then, they use the results as a self-fulfilling prophecy, lecturing Garland about declining trust in the Justice Department.
All of this is in service, of course, to just one man. "Mr. Jordan hopes to camouflage his assault on the rule of law by falsely claiming that Donald Trump is the victim of unequal justice and Hunter Biden its beneficiary," said committee member Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.). "It is a claim as transparently political as it is devoid of any factual basis."
And that, come to think of it, is a pretty good summary of what passed for an oversight hearing.
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Even CNN recognizes how poorly Garland did:
Garland testified like a mob boss. As Turley wrote, Garland demonstrated why American's trust in the DOJ has plummeted.
That's a 16 second RNC twitter feed, the likelihood of deliberate editing is kinda high.
When he wasn't too busy claiming "I don't remember" more than an Alzheimer's patient to avoid perjury, and spouting "But Trump" deflections, he claimed to not know who Victor Shokin is nor have any idea why his DOJ let Hunter Biden skip on about $400,000 in taxes he owed on Burisma income by intentionally letting the statute of limitations expire to protect Hunter Biden.
The man's a fool or a partisan hack. I don't think he's that dumb.
He is both. He is a fool for thinking anyone outside of leftist sheep will believe him; and a partisan hack for being the Brandon family and Democrat lackey.
Garland is a complete joke as a attorney general!
The words 'rule of law" and Garland don't belong in the same sentence.
It seems that certain fact deniers are desperately attempting to alter the truth.
Absolutely. Stick with the, "I'm like a really smart guy," dude and maybe he'll toss you a Chinese made MAGA hat.
Pardon me, but wasn't it Reagan who said, "Facts get in the way." ? ?
Some things are truly everlasting.
Are you talking about Mark Twain?
No. President Ronald Reagan. Check it out. It is true.
I thought that was Joe Hill.
[deleted]
Ok
What do you have?
Nope, once again you are wrong. You're not even as good as a broken clock.
Reagan said "Facts are stupid things" but he corrected the line 2 seconds later with "Facts are stubborn things". Maybe someday you will actually check out some proof before you post and embarrass yourself again.
Ronald Reagan - Facts are stubborn things. (brainyquote.com)
Kellyanne Conway had her own variation of that.
I stand with my deleted response to you.
Sorry you are referring to Brandon who said "We choose truth over facts".
Might be the first time he ever told the truth, even if it was by mistake.
Democrat's "truth" has nothing to do with facts.
That is a lie.