Though it’s this same crowd that was so enraged when a somewhat similar idea emerged from left-leaning circles, supporters of former President Donald Trump — including individuals in office like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — have promoted the idea of stripping funding from the FBI. Greene has even sold merchandise about it!
The concept has spread amid right-wing outrage at the agency and broader Justice Department daring to pursue investigations and cases like those against Trump himself and participants in the 2021 violent assault on the Capitol. Greene and others, in trying to defend those participants, have consistently simply ignored the documented — and admitted! — violence from that day, no matter the many criminal allegations of even physically assaulting police, who these Republicans so often contend that they passionately support.
During a Wednesday hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Merrick Garland roundly condemned the far-right concept of effectively defunding the nation’s federal law enforcement services, outlining some of the serious consequences that could result from such a thing actually taking place. (In the meantime, there’s a difference between Greene proposing something extreme and actually seeing it enacted.)
“Defunding the FBI would leave the United States naked to the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party; to the attacks by Iranians on American citizens and attempts to assassinate former officials; to the Russian aggression; to North Koreans’ cyberattacks; to violent crime in the United States, which the FBI helps to fight against; to all kinds of espionage; to domestic violent extremists who have attacked our churches, our synagogues, our mosques, and who have killed individuals out of racial hatred,” Garland explained Wednesday.
Despite claims from Trump and others of grand plots towards political interference underlying the criminal allegations that he’s facing, there’s just no evidence of major procedural difference in how the cases have been handled. And no, President Joe Biden himself isn’t secretly behind the charges.
“It would be catastrophic”
AG Garland explains what will happen if Republicans get their way and defund the FBI. pic.twitter.com/9eznaAeAX4
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) September 20, 2023
