Attorney General Merrick Garland is back in front of Congress this morning, being questioned by a Senate committee on a variety of matters. First and foremost, though, continues to be the DOJ’s handling of so-called “domestic terrorism” threats involving school boards.

As RedState reported, the NSBA has already retracted the letter that prompted Garland’s department to target the father of a girl who has been sexually assaulted, among others. That father, Scott Smith, is now demanding a full apology, something that was absent from the retraction. Legal action is promised if he doesn’t get it.

Now, questions are flying around about exactly what evidence the DOJ had when they made their pledge in response to the NSBA’s initial claim of domestic terrorism. Garland had no answer except to claim he saw it on the news. Sen. Dick Durbin tried to bolster that silly response by claiming Google as a source.

In an exchange with @SenMikeLee, AG Garland is asked to cite specific threats of violence that led to him announce a probe into parents protesting at school board meetings. Garland can't cite a single one beyond "news reports." pic.twitter.com/kERupDGM1F

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 27, 2021

.@SenatorDurbin defends the DoJ targeting parents: "I typed in school board violence on a search engine this morning. Page after page is coming up … I don’t believe we should infringe on free speech but free speech does not involve threats and violence, period" pic.twitter.com/yCgNPNZC16

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 27, 2021

I shouldn’t have to explain this to high-ranking officials in the US government, but the fact that you can google something or see it in the news is not proof that a problem exists. The press is sensationalist and often dishonest, especially when it comes to protecting their choice institutions, public education being one of them. The reports on Scott Smith, for example, were missing key context and were completely unfair. Past that, there’s really nothing else out there of note except some school board members claiming unsubstantiated threats. That’s the evidence (or lack thereof) that moved the DOJ to label parents as domestic terrorists?

As you can imagine, Republicans questioning Garland were none too happy with his obfuscation and excuse-making. Sen. Chuck Grassley made the obvious assertion that the DOJ should retract their initial guidance since the letter it was based on has itself been retracted.

GRASSLEY: "Since you and the White House based your memo on this delegitimized letter, I assume you're going to revoke your extremely divisive memo…This kind of looks like something that would come out of some communist country." pic.twitter.com/9sUD203ngm

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 27, 2021

You can bet that won’t happen. The Biden administration never admits fault, no matter how contentious or sensitive the subject is. They certainly aren’t going to admit to getting out over their skis in taking the NSBA’s word for it that parents qualify as domestic terrorists.

Still, in a sane world, Garland would be resigning for such a disgraceful blunder. Sen. Tom Cotton made that clear during his time.

Sen. @TomCottonAR just erupted on AG Merrick Garland:

"Thank God you are not on the Supreme Court. You should resign in disgrace, Judge." pic.twitter.com/bRc8xsvt6c

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) October 27, 2021

The gloves came off, and someone needed to say it. Garland is a hack and has shown himself to be nothing more than a lackey for the administration. There’s nothing independent about him. The country dodged a massive bullet when he wasn’t confirmed to the Supreme Court. That 20 Republican senators actually voted to confirm this man to his current position is shameful. I’d say I’m hopeful a lesson has been learned here, but I suspect it hasn’t been.