Categories
GOP Justice Department U.S. Senate

Cory Booker Expertly Debunks Republican Lies About The DOJ At Wednesday Hearing: VIDEO

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) used a Wednesday appearance by Attorney General Merrick Garland before the Senate Judiciary Committee to debunk one lie after another that Republicans are fond of using when it comes to the Justice Department.

It was a master class in debate and logic by Booker, who followed Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) in questioning AG Garland.

First up was the lie Republicans have been repeating all over Fox News that the DOJ had allowed the classification of the drug fentanyl to expire. All drugs are considered for classification from time to time, but the one for fentanyl doesn’t expire until 2024. Garland also confirmed that fentanyl will undoubtedly be classified as a dangerous drug when 2024 arrives.

Booker then moved on to the issue of policing:

“On policing. It took really important steps to ensure that the thought enforcement agencies are engaging in the best practices to make themselves and the public safer. Some of these policies the department has adopted in his making great progress on, including limitations on chokeholds, guidelines for no-knock warrants, which is extraordinarily dangerous for police officers themselves.

“And a cleaner standard for the use of deadly force. Even in the Trump EO included the need for us to have a database that is, I guess, called an accountability database, to serve as a repository for officer misconduct records within the next eight months. Now this past January. Trump’s executive order which was issued in June of 2020 also directed the attorney general to create such a database to collect this information.”

The New Jersey Democrat also mentioned that the Biden administration had worked with Congress on grant programs that fund efforts to help local cops with training and ways to help reduce police violence.

In less than 5 minutes time, Booker effectively swatted down the bullshit that flows from members of the GOP anytime they open their mouths about the Justice Department.

Categories
GOP U.S. Senate

Ted Cruz Picked A Fight With A Biden Judicial Nominee And Got His A*s Handed To Him

During a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), thought he’d try and prove his misogynist credentials by essentially blaming a female nominee to the federal bench for all of the crime committed in the United States.

As Kylie Cheung of Jezebel notes, Cruz worked himself into a frothy frenzy as he attacked Nina Morrison, who has been nominated by President Joe Biden to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York:

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a confirmation hearing for three Biden judicial nominees, although Republican Senators were pretty singularly obsessed with Morrison, a senior litigation counsel at the Innocence Project whom Biden has nominated for a lifetime seat on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Morrison point-blank that she and the policies for which she’s advocated — “letting violent criminals go,” as he described it —are directly responsible for “skyrocketing crime rates, homicide rates, burglary rates” and “carjacking rates” in America.

Hard to believe one lawyer could be responsible for so much crime, isn’t it, especially since she was merely doing her job when she represented people at the Innocence Project who have been sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t even commit.

When Cruz finally got to a question, the one he asked was so patently asinine and arrogant that he probably thought he was scoring big points with the extreme right-wingers who have taken control of the Republican Party and are a growing threat to liberty and justice in the United States:

“Why do you keep advising radical district attorneys to let violent criminals go that send homicide rates skyrocketing? Do you care about the innocent people being killed because of the policies you’re implementing?”

But Ms. Morrison was more than equal to the challenge of the man who was turned into a slavish political eunuch by failed former President Donald Trump on multiple occasions:

“Absolutely, Senator, and to clarify my role in those transition committees were only issue of what is called conviction integrity, not the front end prosecution policies, but on the review of old cases. That is the limited capacity on which I worked. I played no role in formulating front-end  policies, but it is because when the wrong person is convicted of murder, the person who actually committed the crime isn’t brought to justice.”

That’s how you shut down a neutered bully like Ted Cruz: You use facts, logic, and calm resistance in response to his overheated rhetoric.