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Watch Kennedy’s questioning here.


WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The senator’s questions focused on why the Justice Department (DOJ) has not reversed its memo targeting parents after the National School Boards Association stated that it regretted and apologized for its letter asking DOJ to intervene. 

Key excerpts include:

Kennedy: “When you got [the letter] that prompted your memorandum to give the FBI new duties in making sure our parents aren’t dangerous domestic terrorists, you didn’t investigate before you issued your memorandum the incidents cited in the letter, did you?”

Garland: “Look, I took the statement by the National Association, which represents thousands of school board members. When they said that they were facing violence and threats of violence, and when I saw on the news media reports—”

Kennedy: “But you didn’t investigate the incidents in the letter, did you?”

Garland: “This is the first step. This is an assessment step that comes before investigations.”

Kennedy: “Right. Before you issued your memo, you didn’t investigate the incident.”


Kennedy: “Can we agree that we have thousands, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of kids growing up today who are more likely to commit a crime and go to jail than own the home and get married?”

Garland: “I don’t know about the comparative statistics. I do know there are too many people who are committing crime.”

Kennedy: “And one of the reasons for that is lack of parental involvement, isn’t it?”

Garland: “I think parental involvement is essential. I think it’s key both to bringing up good kids.”

Kennedy: “So, why do you want to issue a memorandum listing incidents that you didn’t investigate that anybody who has any fair-minded knowledge of the world knows is going to have a chilling effect on parental involvement with respect to what their kids are learning at school?”

Garland: “Just want to be clear, again, Senator, my memorandum did not list any of those incidents.”

Kennedy: “Come on, general. We both know this had a chilling effect. You don’t think there are parents out there in the real world that said, ‘Oh, my God. Maybe we shouldn’t go to the school board meeting. There'll be FBI agents there.’ This isn’t La La Land.”

Watch the video of Kennedy’s questioning here.