I remember when Merrick Garland was nominated by Barack Obama to be on the Supreme Court. Like Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor before him, we were assured that Obama had nominated a moderate to the Supreme Court.
The Washington Post claimed he had “a reputation as being ideologically moderate.” Of course, many liberal networks joined in the media chorus singing Garland’s moderate and centrist credentials.
RIght. Because Barack Obama, who promised to fundamentally transform the United States, was going to nominate a true moderate to the Supreme Court.
Garland was hardly a moderate, of course. Republicans knew it then, and they must have known it when Biden nominated him to be attorney general. Of course, Garland being a liberal is not, technically, disqualifying for serving in government. What should have been a warning sign to Republicans not to give him the courtesy of a bipartisan confirmation was his blatant evasion of questions during his hearings. Garland had an obligation during the hearings to answer questions about various issues and how he might approach them, but instead, he repeatedly claimed not to know enough about various issues to answer questions on them. I wrote at the time that “he proved that he’s not a law-and-order centrist, but a partisan lackey who will bend to the Biden agenda—not the rule of law.”
Garland also refused to call Antifa attacks on federal buildings domestic terrorism and refused to commit to protecting the Durham investigation.
It was obvious to me at the time that Merrick Garland was going to bring back the Obama-era politicization of the Justice Department. Obama’s first attorney general, Eric Holder, referred to himself as “the president’s wingman” during a radio interview in 2014. And he certainly was. His primary job wasn’t law and order but protecting Barack Obama. He launched sham investigations into administration corruption and obstructed dozens more to protect Obama and his allies. In August 2014, 47 of 73 inspectors general wrote an open letter to Congress informing them that the Obama administration was obstructing their investigations. Holder also lied to Congress about Fast and Furious and refused to provide documents to Congress for their investigation, prompting a historic contempt vote.
Just as Eric Holder was Obama’s “wingman,” Merrick Garland is Joe Biden’s “wingman,” hellbent on politicizing the Department of Justice. In just a few short months he’s made it very clear that’s his objective. Soon after Georgia passed its election integrity law, Merrick Garland filed a lawsuit absurdly alleging that the law was passed in order to deny black citizens the right to vote. Merrick Garland also declined to launch an investigation into COVID-19 nursing home deaths in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, protecting the Democrat governors of those states. The Department of Justice also sued Texas over its fetal heartbeat law. And, of course, Merrick Garland’s memo siccing the FBI on parents who protest school board meetings is the latest high-profile abuse of the Department of Justice.
Garland claimed that there has been a “disturbing trend” of teachers being threatened or harassed at school board meetings, but PJ Media’s Megan Fox looked into these allegations and concluded they’re mostly bunk.
Stunningly, twenty Republicans voted to confirm him. Even Mitch McConnell—the man responsible for keeping Garland off the Supreme Court—voted to confirm him. Perhaps it was a consolation vote after denying Garland a lifetime seat on the highest court in the country? Who knows? All I know is that Garland didn’t deserve a bipartisan vote for confirmation. Garland didn’t need Republican support to get confirmed, yet twenty ignored the warning signs and gave him their seal of approval. Did they really think anything different would happen? They voted to confirm a man who gave them every reason to believe he was going to be Joe Biden’s wingman, not the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
