On Friday’s Washington Week with The Atlantic on PBS, fill-in host News Hour congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins set the bar awfully high for Republicans before they were permitted to criticize the Biden Justice Department.
Desjardins brought up Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland (whom the House of Representatives recently voted to hold in contempt) and the apparently Earth-shattering news that he’d penned a defensive Washington Post op-ed calling Republican criticism of the Biden Justice Department “baseless, personal, and dangerous.”
As a Democrat, Garland is immediately presumed to be nonpartisan. Any Trump Attorney General was immediately presumed to be not just partisan, but a co-conspirator in the impending authoritarianism.
The very reason Garland was held in contempt was because his Justice Department has refused to comply with a congressional subpoena and release Special Counsel Robert Hur’s audio interview with President Biden regarding Biden’s past handling of classified documents. Washington Week disposed of that inconvenient fact in a few sentences.
Lisa Desjardins: So, it's in this environment that the former president came to Washington this week. And part of that environment was also about Merrick Garland and the idea that the House held him in contempt. Leigh Ann, I want to talk to you about that, but, first, I want to point out that the attorney general actually did something unusual involving The Washington Post. He posted an op-ed this week about the justice system. This is very unusual for him in the Department of Justice. In this op-ed in the Washington Post, Attorney General Garland wrote, ‘We have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal, and dangerous.’ Now, he published that op-ed the very day before Republicans voted to hold him in contempt in Congress. That has to do with the Biden classified documents case. Republicans want the audiotape of President Biden. But Speaker Johnson came out after that op-ed, and he said this about Garland:
House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA): It`s a rich irony to hear this attorney general talk about weaponizing a function of government. That`s what the Department of Justice has been under his leadership, or lack thereof.
Desjardins was dismissive:
Republicans have offered just a few examples of weaponization. They pointed to the 2023 FBI memo, out of just one bureau, about Catholics. There was also an anti-abortion protester in Pennsylvania who had an aggressive raid at his house. But other than that, really, there`s not evidence of systemic weaponization of the Department of Justice.[!] Leigh Ann, how much do you think Republicans are going to continue to talk about this, continue to keep up these attacks, even as the head prosecutor in the country says it`s dangerous?
So "just a few examples of weaponization" don't count for anything? They don't count with these liberal journalists, who did not want to report on the FBI talk of surveilling Catholic churches or the raid on Mark Houck's home. Her last line above seems to mean: Why won’t Republicans bow to a cynical, partisan accusation of “danger” from the Democratic-run Justice Department?
PBS roundtables will refuse to admit that part of the "weaponization" allegation is the Biden DOJ's incredibly aggressive prosecution of suspects in the January 6 riot. Bringing charges against 1,380 people (with the hope of getting to 2,500) who protested Biden's election isn't seen as "weaponizing."
The Washington Post’s Caldwell took the cynical approach.
Leigh Ann Caldwell: They`re absolutely going to continue this. Not only do they only have a couple instances of weaponization, but they set up an entire select committee in Congress to investigate this issue, which hasn’t really resulted in any proof that there is actual intent to weaponize the Justice Department. But I will say that this is -- the reason this matters is because it motivates the base of the Republican Party, want to keep them fired up and motivated to come out for Republicans and former President Donald Trump on Election Day. And that`s why it matters. Democrats -- getting back to Merrick Garland actually. I was going to go in a couple different directions, but Merrick Garland --
[Crosstalk]
Caldwell: So, Merrick Garland is defending the Justice Department because what the Republican attacks are doing is they are effectively delegitimizing people’s views of not only all the institutions but definitely the Department of Justice. This is something that is seeping deeper, deeper into American consciousness. You see this in polling, not only with all of government institutions, but specifically the Justice Department. And that’s why Merrick Garland is defending the Justice Department and the employees that work there…
A USA Today reporter chipped in later in defense of the credibility of liberal journalistic roundtables like Washington Week's, against Republican attacks.
Francesca Chambers, USA Today: And I was just going to pick up on that and say, go one step further. It's attacks on the justice system. It's attacks on the government writ large. It's attacks on the American media and trying to under undermine the credibility of everyone at this table as well. It's all of American institutions.
Remember that this soppy defense of a Democrat-controlled Justice Department (and of the press) comes in the midst of a Democratic Party/liberal media barrage against conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito truly meant to, ahem, "delegitimize" part of the justice system.
This segment was brought to you in part by Consumer Cellular.
A transcript is available, click “Expand.”
PBS Washington Week with The Atlantic
6/14/24
8:07:00 p.m. (ET)
Lisa Desjardins: So, it's in this environment that the former president came to Washington this week. And part of that environment was also about Merrick Garland and the idea that the House held him in contempt. Leigh Ann, I want to talk to you about that, but, first, I want to point out that the attorney general actually did something unusual involving The Washington Post. He posted an op-ed this week about the justice system. This is very unusual for him in the Department of Justice.
In this op-ed in the Washington Post, Attorney General Garland wrote, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal, and dangerous.
Now, he published that op-ed the very day before Republicans voted to hold him in contempt in Congress. That has to do with the Biden classified documents case. Republicans want the audiotape of President Biden. But Speaker Johnson came out after that op-ed, and he said this about Garland.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA): It's a rich irony to hear this attorney general talk about weaponizing a function of government. That's what the Department of Justice has been under his leadership, or lack thereof.
Lisa Desjardins: Republicans have offered just a few examples of weaponization. They pointed to the 2023 FBI memo out of just one bureau about Catholics. There was also an anti-abortion protester in Pennsylvania who had an aggressive raid at his house. But other than that, really, there's not evidence of systemic weaponization of the Department of Justice.
Leigh Ann, how much do you think Republicans are going to continue to talk about this, continue to keep up these attacks, even as the head prosecutor in the country says it's dangerous?
Leigh Ann Caldwell, Anchor, Washington Post Live: They're absolutely going to continue this. Not only do they only have a couple instances of weaponization, but they set up an entire select committee in Congress to investigate this issue, which hasn't really resulted in any proof that there is actual intent to weaponize the Justice Department.
But I will say that this is -- the reason this matters is because it motivates the base of the Republican Party, want to keep them fired up and motivated to come out for Republicans and former President Donald Trump on Election Day. And that's why it matters.
Democrats -- getting back to Merrick Garland actually. I was going to go in a couple different directions, but Merrick Garland --
Lisa Desjardins: Should we?
Leigh Ann Caldwell: No. So, Merrick Garland is defending the Justice Department because what the Republican attacks are doing is they are effectively delegitimizing people's views of not only all the institutions but definitely the Department of Justice. This is something that is seeping deeper, deeper into American consciousness. You see this in polling, not only with all of government institutions, but specifically the Justice Department. And that's why Merrick Garland is defending the Justice Department and the employees that work there. He also did something very similar in a congressional hearing before House Republicans last week.
Lisa Desjardins: Yes. Let's keep going a little bit bigger picture on this. I was in the Hudson Valley in New York. There's a few good swing congressional districts in that area. I was there earlier this week. And I spoke to one voter who told me he wasn't sure who he's going to vote for. You know, he said, like many voters, he doesn't want to think about it, isn't excited about the election. But then he told me, you know, whoever I vote for and whoever wins, it's rigged anyway, which is sort of a news, like it's not just if this guy wins. It's like if anybody wins, it's rigged.
So, Evan, I want to talk to you about how deeply you see this idea permeating that our institutions, no matter what happens, are corrupt.
Evan McMorris-Santoro: Oh, very deep. I think we're in an actual real crisis moment for the justice system, which is an extremely important element of our democracy. It's not just Republicans who are saying this or people, maybe undecided voters. I spoke with a TikTok influencer who covers news, right, who had a million viewers on our channel, very big deal. And I talked with the end of the Trump trial, because I wanted to see like how was this playing in this new medium, TikTok.
And she said, look, my audience doesn't really care about it. If you have people who like President Trump, they think the thing is just rigged, it doesn't really matter what happens. And if people who don't like President Trump, former President Trump, they think that it doesn't really matter what happens. Nothing will really happen to him, that there is really an absolute, like there's like an ennui that is being built up about around the justice system.
And all this conversations, you know, it's not just what's going on with the Trump campaign and Hunter Biden and everybody else and Donald Trump and all this stuff. Well, you also have a lot of these stories about the Supreme Court that don't look so great. This is a moment where you need people who lead the justice system, who care about the justice system, you need to step up and really defend it a lot more against a lot of people who are starting to think it doesn't count anymore.
Francesca Chambers: And I was just going to pick up on that and say, go one step further. It's attacks on the justice system. It's attacks on the government writ large. It's attacks on the American media and trying to under undermine the credibility of everyone at this table as well. It's all of American institutions.
