During a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) brought up demonstrators against Justices on the Supreme Court who supposedly went without fitting punishment despite a federal law restricting attempts to influence judges and jurors.
The protests took place after a copy of the ruling undoing Roe v. Wade was leaked but before it was finalized. “Your failure to act to protect the safety of the Justices and their families was an obvious product of political bias,” Cruz self-confidently but deceptively bellowed to Attorney General Merrick Garland. “You agree with Roe v. Wade. You disagree with the Dobbs decision. And the Department of Justice under this president was perfectly happy to refuse to enforce the law and allow threats of violence.”
Cruz then began angrily recounting the circumstances of a man who is facing a federal case for plotting what was evidently violence targeting Brett Kavanaugh, one of Trump’s three picks for the Supreme Court. What does Cruz want the Justice Department to do? Prosecute that guy harder? Cruz seemed largely interested in just yelling. During some of his rants, he made a reference to so-called rioters supposedly targeting conservatives on the court — and, as part of his own props, he had a photo on a display board behind him that showed a group… holding candles. Not very riot-y! Cruz eventually asked Garland if the department brought any cases over alleged violations of the law he was referencing that restricts attempts to influence individuals involved in the judicial process, including judges.
“When the Dobbs draft was leaked, I did something no Attorney General in the history of the department had ever done before,” Garland said, trying to bring things back to reality. “For the first time in history, I ordered United States Marshals 24/7 to defend every residence of every Justice.” Cruz predictably cut him off, making some kind of insinuation about the attorney general supposedly being evasive. Cruz let Garland speak for about 15 seconds before jumping back in, making it difficult to ascertain what Garland’s full answer would have even been! Aggressively demanding a more direct reply, Cruz then got even louder. He sounded like a petulant toddler — and you’d have to watch the video to get the full picture, but that’s really not much of an exaggeration. A woman sitting behind Cruz visibly shot her head up in apparent surprise.
Garland tried to explain that the Marshals on the scene have a role in determining what violations of the criminal code to allege among individuals who might be there, but Cruz, well… it’s generous to say he wasn’t listening. “You’re perfectly content with Justices being afraid for their children’s lives!” Cruz insisted. “And you did nothing to prosecute it.” Garland kept trying to answer and got visibly frustrated, but Cruz was denying what was the idea of the Marshals deciding whether to make an arrest, which — as anyone with eyes should know — is the basic first step before any prosecution. Cruz insisted instead on asking about Garland’s supposedly selective decision-making in deciding which laws to enforce, not acknowledging what comes before that point at all.
Cruz also claimed the Justice Department wasn’t devoting any resources — apparently, in one telling, at all — to going after individuals who’ve firebombed crisis pregnancy centers, which are anti-abortion institutions. The Senator’s contentions do not remotely reflect reality. He was obsessively lying, and Garland explained in response that the Justice Department is actually aggressively going after these people and already found some of them. Watch below:
