During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Attorney General Merrick Garland that he should “resign in disgrace” for directing the FBI to investigate and crack down on “parents at school board meetings.”
“You keep citing news reports and that’s the most prominent news report that anyone in America has seen. That refers to Scott Smith, whose 15-year-old daughter was raped. She was raped in a bathroom by a boy wearing girl’s clothes and the Loudoun County school board covered it up because it would’ve interfered with their transgender policy during Pride Month,” Cotton said.
“And that man, Scott Smith, because he went to a school board and tried to defend his daughter’s rights, was condemned internationally. Do you apologize to Scott Smith and his 15-year-old daughter, judge?” Cotton asked.
“Senator, anyone whose child was raped – the most horrific crime I can imagine – is certainly entitled and protected by the First Amendment to protest to their school board about this,” Garland responded before repeatedly denying that “news reports” did not serve as the basis for his October 4 memo.
“But he was cited by the school board association as a domestic terrorist which we now know that letter and those reports were the basis for your directive,” Cotton pressed.
“No, senator. That’s wrong,” Garland falsely claimed
“This is shameful. Judge, this is shameful,” Cotton concluded. “This testimony, your directive, your performance is shameful. Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace, judge.”
