Who Weaponized the Federal Government?

On Thursday, Jim Jordan’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government kicked off its first hearing. But it’s clear from the name that the entire premise for the subcommittee’s work is a non-starter. If the federal government was weaponized against conservatives, Donald Trump would be in a federal prison. There would not be a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney still in place in Delaware, investigating Hunter Biden. Chris Wray, a longtime Republican who served as a high-ranking DOJ official during the Bush administration and was appointed Director of the FBI by Trump, would not still hold that position. And so on. You get the point.

It’s about political showmanship. Forget about the challenges Republicans identified heading into the midterm elections. Inflation? Immigration? Crime? Not on the table. Instead, the Republican-led house is going to devote its time and resources to putting on a show trial to try to resurrect debunked conspiracy theories about a deep state.

The committee features an interesting matchup. It’s chaired by Ohio Republican Jim Jordan. He’s joined by luminaries like Darrell Issa, Matt Gaetz, Elise Stefanik, and Mike Johnson. The ranking member is Stacey Plaskett, the Congresswoman from the Virgin Islands. Plaskett was an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx DA’s office and later a senior counsel at DOJ, where she worked for both Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and his successor James Comey—during the Bush administration. Plaskett seems ideally suited to shrug off Jordan’s claims that the deep state is mistreating Republicans.

That’s precisely what she did in her opening statement. She said, “I’m deeply concerned about the use of this select subcommittee as a place to settle scores, showcase conspiracy theories, and advance an extreme agenda that risks undermining Americans’ faith in our democracy.” You could almost feel sorry for Jordan—he’s no match for Plaskett.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), one of the kick-off witnesses for the committee, proved Plaskett’s point, using his opening statement to accuse Hillary Clinton of colluding with the Russians, which, of course, makes no sense, unless Grassley is suggesting that Hillary worked with the Russians to defeat herself. So that’s the takeaway. None of this is about making sense or engaging in good government. It’s just another sad exercise in party over country.

Plaskett is joined by eight other Democrats (the Republican side has 11 members plus Jordan, as these things work for the party in control of the House), including another former prosecutor, New York 10’s first-term Congressman Dan Goldman.

Yes, this subcommittee was a product of the “compromise” a desperate Kevin McCarthy struck to get the votes he needed to win the speakership on the 15th ballot. That’s apparent. But we need to understand the purpose the members who negotiated for its existence had in mind for it. We’ve already established it’s not about responsible governance. It’s purely performative.

The goal seems to be producing a series of video clips and social media posts that Republicans can use for gotcha, for campaigning, and to advance fake claims that will only serve to push the country further into two opposing camps. It’s about writing bumper stickers and own-the-libs punchlines. Look no further than the fact that Fox News didn’t carry the hearing live. It’s all about some 60-second clips where Jordan and friends will be free to harpoon Democrats in a fact-free environment.

Some of the “highlights” of the hearing included talk of Hunter Biden, not a part of the government last time I checked, and questions from another witness, Senator Ron Johnson, about whether Dr. Fauci helped create Covid. You’d be forgiven for thinking none of this is worth your elected officials’ time.

But ultimately, it is worth ours to be aware of what’s going on here. There is nothing like using the hearings themselves to help people understand the stakes here. Voters should know that this is about grandstanding, not governance. Americans who have real concerns about issues that impact their daily lives need to know what Republicans are doing with the House majority the voters gave them. They need to have the information that lets them see that a decision point for 2024 is whether they want to go further down this path. None of this is sexy—a conversation involving process issues about how our democratic institutions work is not the stuff of newspaper headlines and many not of easy-to-have neighborhood coffee conversations. But that doesn’t mean figuring out ways to have those conversations is not worthwhile.

It’s important that we focus on the decisions being made by political leaders who want power and call them out for what they are—Jordan does not seek to help the people of this country or even the people of Ohio. He is focused on attaining power for himself. He is a politician, not a protector. That doesn’t make our friends and neighbors who are Republicans, even those who voted for Trump, crazy. It does mean that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by deceitful politicians who don’t have their best interests at heart. The best response, the only response, is the long patient way back, through civil discourse. With this subcommittee, Jordan may be giving Americans a way back by exposing the hypocrisy of his political rhetoric. It won’t be easy, but it’s up to us to take advantage of that and make the argument.

So, let’s return to the first point. If Democrats weaponized DOJ, why is Donald Trump still a free man, walking around with the benefit of careful due process even while he’s under criminal investigation for more than one matter? If it was political, they’d just lock him up without benefit of a full investigation and a fair trial. Of course, that hasn’t happened. Ask your friends how they can say Democrats have “weaponized” government in the face of the facts. In 2020 and again in the midterms, there were people who examined the facts and decided to vote for Democrats. People of common sense, or at least enough of them, may be persuadable on this point, as they learn how House Republicans are squandering their majority. And if all you do is plant seeds of doubt for them to consider in the future, that’s important work too.

We’re in this together,

Joyce