Watch: Cory Booker goes line by line to dispel Republican conspiracies in Garland hearing
March 01, 2023
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke out in the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday about some of the questions that Republicans have posed throughout the hearing that parrot false conspiracy theories.
It began with Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) addressing Attorney General Merrick Garland by falsely saying that the White House helped teachers' unions write a letter complaining about parents calling teachers Nazis or pedophiles. Insulting teachers was never an issue in the Justice Department, Garland explained. He issued a directive encouraging FBI field offices to track threats against schools and administrations.
"Many of these are bomb threats," said Garland.
Kennedy moved on, handing Booker the right to speak.
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That was when Booker asked Garland about the lie that Republicans spread that this year the DOJ allowed the classification of fentanyl to expire. Booker clarified with Garland that these drug classifications are often reconsidered. In the case of fentanyl, the reconsideration doesn't expire until 2024 and Garland said that it would be renewed.
"On policing," Booker continued, citing President Joe Biden's executive order. "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 and is 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."
Garland explained that there was a "working group" to determine how reporting would be done and promised that the DOJ is "working full speed ahead to get this done."
Booker went on to cite that the Biden administration worked with Congress to have grant programs for police departments to fund efforts to help local police departments with training and other things aimed to stop police violence.
See the full questioning below or at the link here.
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