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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) held a subcommittee hearing Tuesday on the Antifa violence happening in Democrat-run cities like Portland and Seattle. As my colleague Bonchie reported, predictable drama queen tactics were on full display from the Democrats who attended, including when Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono stormed out after Cruz asked her to specifically condemn Antifa (she didn’t).

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) also attended the hearing and participated in the expected theatrics. Except in his case he took the gaslighting over the Portland riots to a whole new and disgraceful level, painting protesters as “peaceful” and innocent victims of “unmarked” federal agents using “secret police tactics” who Trump “deployed” to nuke their First Amendment right to peacefully assemble.

Merkley’s only acknowledgment of the ongoing violence came when he spent about 10 seconds of his rambling speech to claim that he did not condone the actions of “a few.” He then went on to falsely claim that Portland had been “peaceful” since federal law enforcement officers pulled back.

I’ve cued up a clip from the hearing where Merkley morphed into a CNN “reporter” in painting a blatantly false picture of the situation on the ground in Portland:

Here’s a shorter clip that includes his lame condemnation of the violence:

Senator Jeff Merkley does not mix words when he describes the events that led up to what we saw in Portland and the impact it has on our nation.pic.twitter.com/KVGKN5n3R4

— Wall Of Vets Command Center (@VetsWall) August 5, 2020

Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli also happened to be at the hearing – and sat right next to Merkley as he spouted off falsehood after falsehood about the Portland rioters. Cuccinelli was understandably incensed by Merkley’s gaslighting, and took to the Twitter machine later to drop receipts on his arguments:

During yesterday’s Senate hearing on Portland, Sen. Merkley declared it’s all peace & love since the state police finally came in to do their job. But the night before he spoke, Monday, and the night that he spoke, last night, his own Portland police declared riots.

— Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) August 5, 2020

Is the senator truly unaware of the nightly violence going on in Portland, or does he care so little about the truth that he would say something so blatantly false? Which is it?https://t.co/RIZZkg5qXh

Gunfire, stabbings, arson = peace and love to Sen. Merkley

— Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) August 5, 2020

This is the “peace” that Senator Merkley was asserting exists in Portland yesterday in the Senate committee hearing… https://t.co/IE8eqy06mE

— Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) August 5, 2020

These are the so-called peaceful protesters that Senator Merkley was praising yesterday in the Senate hearing. As he said, there has been nothing but peace since the state police finally stepped up in cooperation with @DHSgov in Portland. These are their own words folks. https://t.co/QN5NDizf7Z

— Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli (@HomelandKen) August 5, 2020

There’s plenty more where that came from. Plenty more.

Independent journalist Andy Ngo, who has extensively documented Antifa violence in Portland and has the scars to prove it, testified at the hearing. On Twitter, Ngo wondered what it would take to get Democrats to acknowledge Antifa’s dangerous agenda:

I don’t understand the Democrat strategy to coddle #antifa or pretend they don’t exist. We’re confronted w/an insurrectionary anarchist-communist movement that has the explicit goal of overthrowing the US government. If that’s not enough to condemn them, I wonder what it’ll take.

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 5, 2020

The answer is that Democrats simply don’t care, because they have the media in their pocket joining in on the yada-yadaing about how supposedly assaulting peaceful protesters is the norm in the Trump administration. They’ll say anything to get the Orange Man, even at the expense of law and order, and the safety and security of actual innocent Americans everywhere.

Related –>> ‘That Is Scary’: Jim Jordan Absolutely Goes off After Jerry Nadler Gaslights Antifa as ‘an Imaginary Thing’