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FBI chief Wray faces MAGA House Judiciary and all their wacky conspiracies [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-07-12
The full range of Republican MAGA conspiracy theory and grievance was on display Tuesday in a House Judiciary Committee hearing featuring FBI director Christopher Wray. He was bombarded with the Russia hoax, COVID hoax, Hunter Biden’s laptop, parental persecution, and Joe Biden’s garage—all of it yelled at top volume by Chairman Jim Jordan and crew. You name it, they ranted about it, threatening along the way to defund the law enforcement agency.
That suggestion set the otherwise relatively unperturbed Wray off. “It would hurt American people, neighborhoods and communities all across this country—the people we are protecting from cartels, violent criminals, gang members, predators, foreign and domestic terrorists, cyberattacks,” he said. “The people it would help would be those same violent gangs and cartels, foreign terrorists, Chinese spies, hackers and so forth.” Like those threats bother the Republicans.
Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, nailed it in his remarks, as captured by @atrupar. “We are here today because MAGA Republicans will do anything to protect Donald Trump, their savior, no matter how unfounded or dangerous it may be to do so. Welcome to the legislative arm of the Trump reelection campaign.”
His fellow Democrats on the committee chipped in as well. Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania wanted to make absolutely clear, as this video from @acyn shows, what proper classified documentation storage is. “A ballroom, a bedroom, a bathroom—are those appropriate places to store classified, confidential information?” she asked. Wray liked her alliteration. “In my experience,” he said, “ballrooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms are not [sensitive compartmented information facilities].”
California Rep. Eric Swalwell provided some necessary context about how farcical the whole hearing was from the start in another video captured by @acyn. “I think it's quite rich that the guy that accused you of lawlessness is 400 days in violation of his own congressional subpoena over January 6th.”
He’s of course talking about Jim Jordan, who refused to answer to the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena seeking information on his actions surrounding the insurrection.
In another video captured by @acyn, Swalwell also had something to say about Republican hypocrisy in accusing Wray and the FBI of violating the privacy of basically everyone in Trump world when they are obsessed with “a private citizen’s laptop” not being made public. “You're essentially saying to the American people that you're guardians of personal security and privacy, but the 2020 election was determined because the FBI didn't let more Americans see a private citizen's nonconsensual nudes?” (He didn’t want to say “dick pics” in a congressional hearing.)
California Rep. Ted Lieu followed up with a few reminders to Republicans about lawlessness, running through the litany of Trump associates who had been prosecuted by Trump attorneys general: Roger Stone and GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy under Bill Barr; Michael Cohen under Matthew Whitaker; and Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos under Jeff Sessions. Who nominated all of those attorneys general, he asked? Trump, Wray answered. And who nominated Wray? Trump.
“We don’t have a two-tiered system of justice,” Lieu said. “We have one Department of Justice that goes after criminals regardless of party ideology,” he continued. "It is not the fault of the FBI that Donald Trump surrounded himself with criminals.” Video from @atrupar.
Not that that even came close to penetrating the brain of Wyoming Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman, who insisted that the FBI had persecuted conservatives on everything from the “Twitter files” to the “Russia collusion hoax” and that Wray—a registered Republican appointed by Trump—had personally “weaponized the FBI against conservatives.” It’s enough to make one miss former Rep. Liz Cheney. “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me given my own personal background.” Video from @atrupar.
And that was just from the first half of the hearing. There is only one positive thing you can say about Jim Jordan and the band of MAGA wackjobs he’s compiled in the Judiciary Committee: It gives Democrats a great opportunity to shine.
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