Cruz Grills Assistant AG Kristen Clarke Over FBI Investigation Into Critical Race Theory Critics
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) sparred with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke in a heated exchange during a Senate committee hearing over the Justice Department’s investigation into parental critics of critical race theory.
The exchange took place during a session of the Senate Judiciary Committee where Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, appeared to testify. In his opening statement, Cruz addressed Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Monday memorandum directing the FBI to investigate to investigate alleged “harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrations, board members, teachers, and staff,” a response to widespread parental protests against critical race theory.
After a brief exchange in which Clarke refused to say whether she participated in drafting the memo, Cruz pointedly asked, “Do you believe parents objecting to critical race theory have civil rights in the democratic process?”
Clarke replied that she didn’t “follow the question,” inspiring a follow-up from Cruz.
“You don’t understand the question, whether parents objecting to critical race theory have civil rights?” Cruz said.
“The First Amendment is a core value in our core democracy,” Clarke replied, leading Cruz to interject, saying, “I didn’t say free speech. I said civil rights. School board meetings are democratic — they are petitioning your local government. Do they have civil rights that the [Justice Department] gives a damn about?”
“Yes, they have the right to express their view, to challenge the school boards,” Clarke said, before Cruz interrupted once more to ask, “Is it beneficial for the attorney general to label them as domestic terrorists and direct the FBI to target them?”
Clarke said the memo dealt “with threats against public servants.” Pressed by Cruz to say whether parents who protested critical race theory qualified as “domestic terrorists,” Clarke confessed that they did not — though she refused to offer an assessment of left-leaning groups that had engaged in violence the department declined to investigate.
“Do you believe Antifa are domestic terrorists?” Cruz queried.
“I don’t have a view,” Clarke replied,
“Do you believe the Black Lives Matters protesters who burned shops, who firebombed shops, who murdered police officers, do you believe they’re domestic terrorists?” Cruz inquired.
“Senator, I believe we live in a society where people espouse different views,” Clarke said, provoking Cruz to say it was “amazing” that she wasn’t willing to condemn “people who were murdering police officers and firebombing cities,” but that she was “comfortable calling a mom at a PTA meeting a domestic terrorist.”
Watch above via the Senate Judiciary Committee.
