The Justice Department’s “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” laid out by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in June as well as the recent memo aimed at parents at school board meetings are both intended to “intimidate” and “silence” concerned parents, according to Nicholas Giordano, a professor of political science and host of The P.A.S. Report, as he pleaded with parents to be “courageous” and “speak out” before “it’ll be too late,” while blasting the notion that the National School Board Association (NSBA) can now define “domestic terrorism.”
On Sunday, Giordano joined Steve Malzberg on his Eat the Press weekly commentary show to discuss the Biden administration’s use of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to target political opponents.
“[T]he DOJ memo is an extension of this [National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism], where they’re using it to target any and all political opponents, it’s clear,” he began, noting that its “fourth pillar” talks about “implementing CRT in the classroom, diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the classroom.”
He then called out the Biden administration, which “has fires all over the place,” for distorted priorities.
“Every issue they’re failing on but they’ve chosen to prioritize targeting American parents who are simply upset at what their children are being taught,” he said.
“They’re upset about their children wearing masks for six to eight hours; they’re upset about mandates; and now they’re being declared domestic terrorists,” he added.
He also described the “targeting” of dissenting citizens as “extraordinarily troubling.”
“I don’t know who’s advising this administration but when we have a situation where the government is now openly targeting people that dissent it’s extraordinarily troubling,” he said.
Claiming to be “waiting for all the conservative organizations” to be more vocal and push back, Giordano urged Congress members to push to investigate the matter at depth.
“I’d like members of congress to start calling for investigations into what’s going on because the full force of the federal law enforcement apparatus with the FBI in addition to the intelligence community is threatening to parents,” he said.
“And this document that the National School Boards Association sent to the DOJ, talks about using the Department of Homeland Security [and] the Patriot Act against ordinary American citizens,” he added. “When did the National School Boards Association get to define domestic terrorism?”
Though an “advocate for small limited government,” Giordano expressed his belief that any time the government is granted even a bit of power, “it tends to abuse that power.”
“Unfortunately, most Americans have been asleep at the wheel not realizing how powerful the government has become,” he added.
He also blasted the media, which is supposed to be the “Fourth Estate” watching for “government abuses of power.”
“They’ve now become an extension of the government and what they do is they try and cover up for the government: they try and hide the corruption and the abuses of power,” he said.
“It’s really astonishing that they just laugh this off and it shows the media — they don’t hide it,” he continued. “They’re activists. They’re looking to push agendas. They’re not journalists anymore; they want obedience and compliance within the system.”
“Everyone has to bow down to the almighty government as long as it fits a certain narrative,” he added.
He also defended those vocal parents, who he described as merely “expressing their anger” over concerning issues.
“Now the school board meetings are packed and what they’re saying is ‘we don’t like your tone. We don’t like the way you’re talking to us,’” he said, adding that parents are not “calling them names” or “threatening them” but merely expressing anger over recent school content.
“What the school boards and the government are now saying is … “since we don’t like your tone, you have the possibility of being declared a domestic terrorist because you’re not speaking to the rulers that be with the appropriate tone,” he said.
Referring to the recent refusal of former President Trump ally Steve Bannon, who served as CEO of Trump’s 2016 campaign and as a senior White House aide, to honor a subpoena to testify before the January 6 committee, and subsequent threats to charge and arrest him as a result, Giordano said the matter was “100 percent” yet another extension of Garland’s first declaration going after “domestic terrorists.”
“It simply falls under the category the National Strategy where they’re targeting political opponents,” he said.
“It’s all about where you fall on the political spectrum,” he said, “and if you are against the powers that be, they are going to target you; they are going to try and take you down.”
Calling it “a message to everyone else,” Giordano claimed the moves are intended to “silence” and “stoke fear in them.”
“It prevents [the people] from defying [the government], that’s what it comes down to,” he said. “It’s about setting examples, making people examples to instill fear.”
Despite such attempts to “intimidate parents” and instill fear, Giordano concluded by calling on parents to be fearless.
“You have to be courageous; you have to stand up; [and] you have to speak out,” he said.
“Because if you don’t these powers will continue to expand and it’ll be too late,” he added. “We’ll look back and we’ll see that we should have spoken up now.”
The Biden administration has been accused of “weaponizing” the DOJ to intimidate concerned and vocal parents, with national organizations of parents expressing outrage over the Biden DOJ’s intention to direct the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose CRT and mask mandates in K-12 schools and speak out about their concerns.
In July, Giordano said citizens should be alarmed by the constitutionality of the Biden administration’s hunt for loosely defined “domestic terrorists” in a strategy being utilized as a “political weapon” to silence and “bludgeon” political opponents
Last week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sounded off on the Senate Judiciary hearing with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco regarding the DOJ’s announcement that it would intervene to address perceived threats against educators and school boards, describing the effort by President Joe Biden’s administration as “intimidation and harassment” against parents.
Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump condemned the Biden DOJ over the memorandum.
“[T]he parents are very wounded by what’s taken place by, in many cases, radical left school boards,” he said, “and you would certainly think they have a voice — and they have a voice — as to how their children are going to be educated, brought up and educated.”
In addition, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted Garland for betraying his promise.
“At his confirmation hearing, Merrick Garland promised not to follow the Obama model of weaponizing [the] DOJ to target and persecute his political opponents,” Cruz wrote.
“Just a few months in, he’s already breaking that promise,” he added.
On Wednesday, a Virginia woman said the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and the DOJ are enacting similar strategies to the ones she experienced when she was a student during China’s Cultural Revolution before immigrating to the U.S.
“When I was in China, I spent my entire school years in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, so I’m very, very familiar with the communist tactics of how to divide people, how they canceled the Chinese traditional culture and destroyed our heritage,” Xi Van Fleet said. “All this is happening here in America.”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein
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