Laura Ingraham and Jim Jordan Repeat Falsehood That the DOJ Referred to School Parents as ‘Terrorists’

Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Rep. Jim Jordan (D-OH) once again uttered the false claim that the Department of Justice referred to school parents as “terrorists.”

Both had previously made the fake accusation.

For nearly a year and a half, conservative politicians and media figures have repeated the allegation that an October 2021 memo from the DOJ used the aforementioned term – which they sometimes specify as “domestic terrorists” – to describe parents.

The memo, which came amid a spate of incidents at school board meetings across the country where angry parents accosted officials and teachers over Covid policies and classroom curricula, is fairly banal. It began:

Citing an increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools, today Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend. These sessions will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response by law enforcement.

The memo went on for four additional paragraphs, but nowhere does it use the term “domestic terrorists” or any variation thereof. It also does not threaten any parents, either specifically or in the abstract. Instead, the memo addresses violence and threats of violence against school officials.

Nevertheless, the “domestic terrorists” narrative persists, and Friday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle on Fox News was no exception.

Ingraham framed the memo as a tool “to target parents who might be getting out of line.”

She noted Jordan, as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray to seek information about investigations they conducted into possible threats based on tips the bureau received.

“On Oct. 4, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland sent a memo to FBI Director Chris Wray and federal prosecutors, giving the latter the green light to target parents who might be getting out of line at school board meetings,” Ingraham said. “Well, a few months later, we learned that the memo that basically compared concerned parents to terrorists was requested at the behest of the Education secretary, Miguel Cardona.”

She welcomed Jordan to the show and he also repeated the false claim.

Jordan referred to a letter sent on Sept. 29, 2021 by the National School Boards Association asking the Biden administration to assist with threats and violence against school employees. It cited more than 20 instances of “threats, harassment, disruption and acts of intimidation” across the country.

Conservatives seized on the letter to accuse the NSBA of wanting to silence the parents of schoolchildren.

Jordan alleged the Biden administration used the letter as a “pretext” to surveil and intimidate parents. He said he issued the subpoena “to see if we can get those documents to prove what we think actually happened – what a few emails have kind of shown happened, that they were talking before they ever issued the memorandum, which treated moms and dads as domestic terrorists.”

Notably, in Jordan’s subpoena, he did not claim the DOJ labeled parents as “terrorists.”

Watch above via Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!