On Tuesday’s Mark Levin Show, Attorney General Merrick Garland has no authority to label parents that protest as domestic terrorists and use the FBI to silence them. The letter from the National School Boards Association smacks of an inside job to help the Federal government further nationalize its reach into local communities. The Biden administration wants to strike fear in the hearts of parents and community members who dare assemble to question their government. If they succeed, the public will have ceded our children, our future, and our liberty to the Marxist left. Then, Manhattan Institute Senior fellow Chris Rufo calls in and explains that this is simply an outrageous attempt to politicize the DOJ even further and prosecute parents for protesting under the Patriot Act. This is a suppression tactic to infringe upon one’s Constitutional right to free speech and assembly similar to how the Obama administration used the IRS to stifle conservatives in the Tea Party movement in 2010. Later, Victor Davis Hanson, author of “The Dying Citizen: How Progressive Elites, Tribalism, and Globalization Are Destroying the Idea of America” joins the show to explain the fragility of citizenship. The destruction of the middle class, border security, the administrative state, and academia are contributing to the demise of American citizenship.
THIS IS FROM:
National School Boards Association
Re: Federal Assistance to Stop Threats and Acts of Violence Against Public Schoolchildren, Public School Board Members, and Other Public School District Officials and Educators
Twitter
Christopher F. Rufo
Political Insider
FBI Admits It Doesn’t Track Antifa Violence
National Pulse
Facebook ‘Whistleblower’ Donated 36 Times to Democrats, Including to Anti-Primary Extremists And AOC.
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Image used with permission of Getty Images / Kevin Dietsch
Rough transcript of Hour 1
Hour 1 Segment 1
American Marxism is on the rise. Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States. Is now using the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Community Relations Service and Office of Justice Programs. He’s using all of them to unleash to unleash against parents and taxpayers and local communities who are protesting local school boards. I challenge anyone that tell us the federal authority. That this attorney general. And the rest of his band of reprobates has. To interfere in local school boards to nationalize school board meetings. Local police officers. And scoreboard security officers are in charge of keeping the peace. In township and community school board meetings. Not the Federal Bureau of Investigation, not the criminal division of the Justice Department, not the Civil Rights Division, not the U.S. attorney’s office. And on and on and on. Let alone the National Security Division. They have decided, ladies and gentlemen, that those of you who protest. Our domestic terrorists. Our domestic terrorists, the letter from the National School Board Association, in my view, was an inside job. They wrote this letter to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, on September 29 and five days later. Including the weekend. We get a memo from the attorney general of the United States dated yesterday. To the director of the FBI, the director of the executive office of U.S. Attorneys, the assistant attorney general, criminal division. It states in recent months, there’s been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools. While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views to intimidate individuals based on their views. What does that mean? It means nothing. There’s no federal law that says, quote unquote, you can’t intimidate individuals based on their views. It’s done all the time. That’s exactly why Media Matters has been set up. That’s exactly why all these crazy ass left wing groups are chasing down politicians. Intimidate individuals based on their views. What does that mean? Threats of violence. If there’s a threat of violence, first of all, what does that mean, there are threats of violence and then there are threats of violence. And if there are threats of violence, state and local law is what addresses it, not federal law. He goes on, Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values. Oh, here’s a threat to a public official. You’re so pathetic, I’m going to make sure that you never serve on this board again. Now, what does that mean? That means I’m trying to defeat them at the election, right? No, no, no. You’re threatening to harm them. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education while they’re not. In a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety. Fear for their safety. Fear for their safety. Maybe Mr. Galan ought to go into the inner cities of our country and ask teachers if they fear for their safety, in many cases from their students, these crime ridden schools, it’s not the protesters that they have to fear for their safety. The department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources, it has no authority. To discourage these threats, identify them when they occur and prosecute them when appropriate. In the coming days, the department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed towards school personnel. There isn’t a rise in criminal conduct directed at school personnel. There are parents and taxpayers who are furious, furious with the way their children are being abused. With gender ism. With racism. With anticapitalism, with anti-Americanism. This is what happens when a Department of Justice at the top levels is populated with radical kooks. Coordination in partnership with local law enforcement is critical to implementing these measures for the benefit of our nation’s nearly 14,000 public school districts, 14,000 public school districts, they give a little over a dozen examples of what they’re talking about, none of which is a federal offense. 14,000 public school districts, millions of teachers, tens of millions of parents, and this is the best they can do. I am directing the FBI, working with each U.S. attorney to convene meetings with federal, state, local tribunal territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum. No local police force should meet with these people. None. This is the same Department of Justice that is federalizing local police officers and undermining local police officers. These meetings will facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response. So, in other words, if any school board member, any educational bureaucrat, any teacher, anybody, any staff member thinks they’re being, quote unquote threatened, there’s going to be a hotline. And so they’ll send the FBI out to interview the parents, they’ll send the FBI out. You know what, this reminds me of the East German Stasi. Of the East German Stasi, the department is steadfast in its commitment to protect all people in the United States from violence. You’re not their murder rates through the roof. You haven’t done a damn thing about it. You’re not at all the borders wide open, you haven’t done a damn thing about that. Violence, threats of other forms of intimidation and harassment, intimidation and harassment. The purpose of this is clear. It is clear. It is to send fear. Through our communities all over the country, fear through parents, fear through taxpayers. To suppress your First Amendment right. A free speech and assembly to suppress your right to question your elected representatives. It is undermining your right to protest. And you can even yell at protests that’s legal to. The fact that the United States Department of Justice under this clown, Merrick Garland. As decided to intervene to effectively nationalize school board meetings. Because they got a set up letter from this left wing National School Board Association. It’s a threat to this republic, because if they succeed, we have then ceded our classrooms and our children’s education to that Democrat Party. To the NEA, in the AFT, the teachers unions and to all the freaks and frauds in their ideologies that they push on our students, no say on what’s in the textbooks now, say about what’s in training now, say about what goes on in the classroom, because you are a persona non grata, you are considered a threat because one phone call away. To calling in federal authorities. To question you. Because one of the educational bureaucrats feels threatened. More people should show up at school board meetings than ever before, nonviolent. Remember Gandhi nonviolent, but yes, expressing yourselves, expressing yourselves. More people should show up than ever before. Peacefully, nonviolently, unlike Antifa, unlike Black Lives Matter, unlike all the other nutjob groups on the Marxist left. That had done severe damage to our cities. This is clearly intended. Intended to threaten you. To threat, you talk about intimidation and threats. That’s what this is, the federal government has absolutely no legal authority. None to be monitoring any of this, to be involved in any of this period. This is totalitarianism. That is exactly what it is. That’s what it is. Christopher, Rufo. At the Manhattan Institute, senior fellow has been on top of this for years. And if it wasn’t for his tweet, I wouldn’t even have seen this memo. He’ll be on in just a moment. We’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 2
Chris Rufo, senior fellow Manhattan Institute, he’s been on top of this critical race theory issue for years. Chris, thank you for all that you’ve done and all that you’re doing in this National School Board Association letter. I was an old school board member when I was 19 or 20 years old. This board represents nobody. This looks like an inside job. They write a letter on the twenty ninth with all this these allegations of very few examples and to the president of the United States. And then within five days, the Department of Justice issues this spicy like memo. What do you make of this? Yeah, I think it’s absolutely clear from the timing and also the context that school board officials, as well as the National Teachers Union, including Randi Weingarten and the NEA, which represent millions of public school teachers, they’re starting to lose the argument about critical race theory about Mafeking in schools. And so they realize that they have to take more heavy handed measures. So they reached out to their long time partners, people who are willing to do their bidding and the Biden administration. And you see immediate compliance and an immediate celebra. Jason from the School Board Association, president from the National Teachers Union president, this is a very clear politicization of the Justice Department, of the FBI, of the office of the attorney general to send a very clear signal. If you’re protesting against the authorities in your local area, we’re going to monitor you. We’re going to suppress you. We’re going to chill your speech and defend your very basic rights of speech and assembly. I think it’s very concerning and I’m glad that people are starting to take notice and push back. You know, Chris, Rufo, I don’t know of any federal basis for the Department of Justice to be involved in this at all. Do you? Yeah, I don’t and Senator Whorley from Missouri asked the Department of Justice point blank, is there any precedent for the FBI to intervene in local school boards? And the Department of Justice admitted that there is not. But there’s even really a deeper problem here that if you look at the justification or the pretext for these aggressive actions, they actually look through every example cited by the school board association. They only produced one example of actual physical violence and aggravated battery in Illinois, which is condemnable. You shouldn’t be conducting Abigroup aggravated battery battery against anyone, but it’s hardly the pretext for turning a dissent at school board meetings into domestic terrorism. And they’re actually being very clear with their intentions. They said we want to now prosecute school board dissent as as domestic terrorism using the Patriot Act. But this is a brazen, unconstitutional and frankly, outrageous abuse. I’m I’m shocked that it’s gone this far, this fast. You know, when you tweeted this out, my wife sent it to me first. I didn’t believe it. I says that’s a fake tweet. And we went back. My God, it’s not a fake tweet. This is unbelievable. I just want the American people to understand how far this goes. This is this is saying that if you appear at a local school board meeting and you protest and one of the individuals you’re protesting, the school board or teacher or staffer, so feels intimidated, there’s going to be a hotline for that person to call federal authorities and they may well send the FBI or somebody to interview you. Isn’t that right? That’s how I read this. Yeah. I think if you read between the lines, that’s absolutely right. This is a suppression tactic. They’re taking a false pretext that there is kind of mass violence at school board meetings, which has not been proven, is absolutely false. And using it to basically cast the net. And they’re saying that this is a federal, state, local, tribal and territorial coalition of every law enforcement agency in this country covering all 14000 local school districts. They’re usurping local control and they’re going to assert federal authority into every nook and cranny. And then school board officials, union officials can then report it to the FBI who will you know, who could be knocking on your door. And that’s the message they’re sending. They’re taking the January 6th political strategy and now trying to apply it to more and more areas of American life. And we know full well the thugs run these the teachers unions, my words, because in my view, that’s what they are. They are certainly capable of calling in federal law enforcement against parent teachers excuse me, parent organizations, even monitoring parent organizations. Are you able to hold on till after the break, Chris? Yes. All right. We’ll be right back with Christopher. Rufo and I’m like a Doberman. I’m not going to let this go. We’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 3
Christopher Rufo it looks like the federal government, all these entities, I mean, the National Security Division for crying out loud and other entities of the Department of Justice, they’re going to be involved in monitoring social media, postal service mail. I mean, that was the request from the National School Boards Association. I should tell people that this is a very left wing, mostly Democrat organization that doesn’t represent a lot of school boards, I think claims to do it. So they talk about how they need help, that they need threat assessments. These acts of malice, violence, threats against public school officials have increased. They request joint expedited review from the Department of Justice, virtually every federal agency that has any aspect of any kind of law enforcement. But it looks like they’re going to be monitoring people, monitoring social media. They specifically raise the United States Postal Service. Threats are made through that as well. This is this is a huge act of totalitarianism, in my view. Your thoughts? I think that it’s important to understand how the narrative has progressed. And if you look at the history of this fight over critical race theory, the left has always struggled to accurately define and then inaccurately defined its opposition. For a while, they tried to maintain this fiction. That critical race theory isn’t in schools. It doesn’t exist. It’s only in legal seminars, which is absolutely false. We’ve disproven that. Then they upped the ante and started calling people who oppose critical race theory, people who protested school boards, racists and white supremacists, arguing that opposition to critical race theory is, quote, white backlash. And when that didn’t work, we have now have new polling data that shows that a strong majority of all racial groups in the United States, white, black, Asian, Latino, now oppose critical race during the curriculum. They’ve decisively lost the argument on the merits. So they’re going and escalating one step further to the domestic terrorism label, which they’re now trying to paint on, on parents and hardworking people all over this country. And that’s a crucial it’s a crucial twist because calling someone a racist undermines their moral credibility and allows you to attack them on moral grounds. But now calling them a domestic terrorist actually turns that person into a criminal. And then you can use the apparatus of the state to destroy that person, not only morally but physically through through interrogation, through incarceration, through arrest, through prosecution. And they’re setting the table for that. We’ll see if they actually go all the way. But it is deeply concerning at this early stage. So the parents out there and the taxpayers out there, what do you recommend they do at this point? We have no choice but to double down, obviously, you know, refrain from violence, go there with the best arguments. I’ve put together a critical race theory briefing book on my website at Christopher Rufo dot com, giving parents the language that they can use to be successful in making their argument. But we have to double down. You can’t be intimidated by the federal government. You can’t be intimidated by the administration. We have to make a principled case. We have to tell the truth and we have to stand firm in our convictions that the public is the ultimate authority over public institutions, not the bureaucrats or the teachers unions, not the bureaucrats at the National School Board Association and certainly not the corrupt agents at the FBI. The the parents and American citizens have to reassert the very basic premise of our republic that the voters, that the taxpayer, the families are in control of our institutions because if we lose that, we lose everything. And I just hope that people are now inspired to redouble their efforts and get out there, because this is our country. This is the fate of our kids. And nothing is more important in our in our country right now. And if we fail here, Christopher Rufo, at the local level, we will never have a say in what goes on schools, period, ever. The unions, the Democrat Party, the educational bureaucrats, they’ll determine everything, everything. And furthermore, a power hungry Department of Justice or administration will expand this kind of suppression far beyond a school district. So it’s very, very important that people. In a non-violent way, I would argue, show up in mass. Make your statements, make it clear that you reject what’s taking place here. Also, I think we’re going to need some of these nonprofit legal groups, should the federal government intervene to challenge them immediately and to take them to court and to defend parents and so forth and taxpayers here. But on a bigger scale. Christopher Rufo, is it not amazing to you that the Democrat Party is utterly silent about all of this? It is amazing in one sense, but it’s not amazing in another because they’re able to play this political shell game where they have seemingly neutral institutions, formally well respected institutions, do their bidding for them. They don’t have to get their hands dirty. And as you suggested, the goal here is to federalize education is to create it literally. In a memo released by the attorney general, they federalized coalition of law enforcement, FBI, federal agents to now police the speech and assembly of parents in all of our 14,000 local school districts. It can’t be left to stand. It is a deep threat to our system of federalism and local control. And the end game is clear. The Biden administration’s department secretary of education said last week said parents should not be the primary stakeholders in their children’s education. They want to replace parents with federal bureaucrats. That’s the end game. That’s what we have to stop. That’s what’s at stake. What is your website if people want to check it out? The website is Christopher Rufo dot com, and if you scroll down, you can read the critical race theory briefing book. It’s a free resource showing parents and elected officials exactly what’s happening in the schools and giving them the language that they need to make a good argument at their local school boards. Mr. Producer, put those on Geter and and parler for me, please put his website, Christopher Rufous website. All right. Keep up the fight. We’re going to continue to monitor this ourselves. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Mark. All right. Take care of yourself. Unbelievable what’s taking place here in America. I don’t care what party you’re in, there should concern you enormously what’s taking place here. I want you to listen to this. Here’s Senator Holly. At the hearing today, the deputy attorney general of the United States, Lisa Monaco, happened to be present at 7:00. Go is parents waiting sometimes for hours to speak at a local school board meeting to express concerns about critical race theory or the masking of their students, particularly young children? Is that in and of itself, is that harassment and intimidation is waiting to express one’s view at a school board meeting, harassment and intimidation. As the attorney general’s memorandum made quite clear, spirited debate is welcome is a hallmark of this country. It’s something we all should engage in. And I don’t think so. Miss Monica, with all due respect, it didn’t make it quite clear. It doesn’t define those terms, nor does it define harassment or intimidation. It talks about violence. I think we can agree that violence shouldn’t be condoned or looked aside from in any way swept under the rug at all. But harassment and intimidation, what are those terms mean in the context of a local school board meeting? I mean, this seems to be the First Amendment context. We talk about the chill, the chill to speech. If this isn’t a deliberate attempt to chill parents from showing up at school board meetings for their elected school boards, I don’t know what is. I mean, I’m not I’m not aware of anything like this in American history. We’re talking about the FBI. You’re using the FBI to intervene in school board meetings. That’s extraordinary. Senator, I have to respectfully disagree. That is not with me. To an instance. The the attorney general’s memorandum made quite clear that violence is not appropriate. Spirited public debate on a whole range of issues is absolutely what this country is all about. The why is it being investigated by the FBI? It is not when and if any situation turns to violence, then that is the appropriate role of law. That’s not what the memo says. You’re a liar. I’m disgusted with all of you. You’re a liar. While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under the Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views. That doesn’t say when and if any situation turns to violence and its appropriate role of law enforcement to address it goes well beyond that. And you’re going into threat assessments, which means you’re going to monitor people’s social media, are you going to monitor the social media of appearance groups to try and taxpayer groups that are trying to push back against the left and the unions and critical race theory? You’re a liar, Minako. Absolutely liar. It’s much broader than that. That’s number one. Number two, if there’s a situation where there’s violence, that’s local law enforcement’s jurisdiction. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has no such jurisdiction. None. These are not federal buildings. Her local and state facilities. Everything related to these schools, state facilities, local taxpayers. The Department of Justice has no role whatsoever. It may try and concoct one, but it has none caudate go. All I can say is this is truly extraordinary. I think, you know, it is it’s unprecedented. You can’t point to a single instance where anything like this has happened before. And I think parents across this country are going to be stunned to learn, stunned that if they show up at a local school board meeting, by the way, where they have the right to appear and be heard, where they have the right to say something about their children’s education, where they have the right to vote and you are attempting to intimidate them, you are attempting to silence them. You are attempting to interfere with their rights as parents and, yes, with their rights as voters. This is wrong. This is dangerous. And I cannot believe that an attorney general of the United States is engaging in this kind of conduct. And frankly, I can’t believe that you are sitting here today defending it. I intend to get answers to these questions. You won’t answer my questions. I’m going to get answers to these questions. Mr. Chairman, we need to have a hearing on the subject. We need to hear from the attorney general himself. He needs to come here, take the oath, sit there and answer questions. We have never seen anything like this before in our country’s history. And frankly, I want to say I think it is a dangerous, dangerous precedent. He’s excellent and right on, Senator Holly. This is like the East German Stasi and this guy, Merrick Garland, pretended to be a moderate when Obama nominated him, you know, he was a no moderate. He’s a radical like every other senior person in every senior position in this Department of injustice. And when we come back, I will give you additional thoughts on what I think we, the people should do. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 4
This book, American Marxism, was more pressure, more on point than I originally thought when I completed it. But you’re surrounded by this. And if you look at the final chapter, Chapter seven. And you look specifically on page 254 and those of you who have the audio, you understand, and those of you who don’t have it, I would strongly suggest you get it and pass to as many your neighbors as possible. This is. This is truly a turning point. I point out in every school district in America, local committees of patriotic community activists must organize, as some are already doing. Among other things, they should get involved in virtually every aspect of local public education. We can no longer leave the education of our children and the well-being of our community to the so-called professionals. As we’ve learned, especially since the pandemic, the educational bureaucracy does not have the best interests of our children as their top priority, and consequences for such an attention are disastrous. What shall be done? Number one, the community committee should ensure that members attend every school board meeting to make certain that the public’s interest and that of the students are being served, not the monopoly interests of the teachers unions, Marxist activists and other special interests. By this, I mean hundreds of Patriot activists showing up and being heard at every school board meeting throughout the year. The classrooms and schools must be taken back by the community. No, to the furtive nature and practices of local school systems must come to an end. Community committee should examine classroom curriculum, textbooks, teacher training and seminar materials. The teachers contract with the school district and school budgets where there’s resistance by the school boards or school administrations to providing transparency, which is likely. Activists should use local and state freedom of information procedures and other legal tools to gain the information. Persistence is key if necessary. Seek the services of a local lawyer in the community who’s willing to voluntarily assist in assessing the information. While it may be necessary to approach national legal groups for help. The goal here is to create a permanent local presence and voice of community committees in your school system to counter and monitor the school board’s educational bureaucrats and unions that have had free run and total control over education. Up to this point. Number three, community committees should insist that contracts with teachers unions prevent teachers from using classrooms and abusing academic freedom to proselytize or indoctrinate students about CRT critical gender theory or other movements within the Marxist orbit that have suddenly been imposed on our students. No more brainwashing of your children with racist hate and contempt for their country. Teachers are paid to teach, and by teach we mean objective, factual, scientific, mathematical learning. More school administrators should be on notice that you expect them to ensure that the teachers they overseeing the content, of course, curriculum are appropriate. For example, students should be taught. History is written by real historians, not the widely condemned and discredited 1619 project, which has CRT pablum. If they’re incapable or unwilling to run a tight ship in this regard, they should be removed. No, for private attorneys and legal groups are joining together in lawsuits against CRT training and teaching in public schools, arguing discrimination on the basis of race and color in addition to sex, gender and religion in violation of Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title six and Title nine of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the creation of a hostile educational environment based on Campell discriminatory speech and the perpetuation of racial stereotypes. Community committees, parents groups and other Patriot activists should file their own lawsuits against as many school systems as possible that practice and oppose racism and other Marxist related ideologies. The Legal Insurrection website, founded and operated by Professor William and provides some helpful resources, and I provide that information. Parents Defending Education is one of several grassroots organizations, and I provide that link number five in states where their friendly legislatures and governors community committees should urge them to pass laws preventing the indoctrination of students and training of teachers in the ideologies of the various Marxist related organizations. Some states, but not nearly enough, have passed such laws. American patriots should demand that state law require schools to teach students civics. The foundational principles in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, school systems receive significant state funds. This is another way to hold them to account now. I will continue after the top of the hour with a few more items that I have here. In other words. We need to muscle up with legal groups, muscle up with local lawyers when we go to school board meetings, we should conduct ourselves appropriately and but we should not be be intimidated at all. And I would argue. That the local lawyers and some of these conservative and libertarian and just education legal groups ought to be thinking of ways to preemptively attack in court. The Department of Justice and with the Department of Justice is doing this is clearly an assault on freedom of speech, freedom of association and federalism. The federal government has no authority whatsoever in any of these school board meetings. you tomorrow.