Former Justice Department acting assistant attorney general for national security, Mary McCord, explained that the Republicans' hearing attacking FBI Director Christopher Wray utilized the same kind of language that radical extremists also use.
Speaking to McCord on Wednesday, MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said that to her that it appeared the GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee were "weakening, dismantling, smearing, destabilizing public opinion about the FBI."
While there have been serious issues facing the failures of the FBI in the lead-up to Jan. 6, Democrats haven't demanded that Wray resign or implied that conservative plants are running the FBI. By contrast, Republicans worked to tear down those fighting "violent gangs, cartels, foreign terrorists, Chinese spies, hackers, and so forth," said Wallace. There's "a very direct line between what Republicans are doing and our homeland security and our national security."
McCord explained that there would be real-world consequences as a result of the Republicans tearing down government institutions. She equated the actions of the GOP members as giving permission to extremists and domestic terrorists.
"Listening to some of the attacks, it really sounds a lot like exactly the way that extremists approach the government," she continued. "Anti-government extremists trying to undermine faith in the government, trying to suggest that the government is against people, and that's oftentimes used to sort of accelerate chaos within our system to benefit the extremists. And now, of course, we have members of Congress who are perpetuating that same sort of anti-government extremism that is exactly what extremists use to try to get to the point of chaos because, in the point of chaos, the extremists can have the upper hand."
Wray made similar comments explaining, "Bad guys win if you dismantle and defund the FBI," as Republicans are talking about.
McCord went on to point out former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Bill Barr, who have been willing to defend the Department of Justice as the GOP goes on the attack against the federal law enforcement.
"I think we have to be really realistic about what some on that committee seem to be calling for because it's completely antithetical to the position of many people, you know, in Congress historically, but also where does it lead?" asked McCord. "It leads to chaos, and it leads to a breakdown of the rule of law, breakdown of our institutions, and then, you know, then we've really lost our democratic system. So you know, be careful — they need to really be careful about what they're pushing for their own political purposes."
She went on to say that when elected officials use that language or promote conspiracy theories, they create the same kind of victimhood that perpetuates violence.
See her full comments in the video below or at the link here.
Former DOJ official says Republicans in Wray hearing sound like radical extremistswww.youtube.com
