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There are two ways to tell that Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich takes his job very seriously and should be trusted by news outlets to educate millions of Americans about sensitive issues.
One is that he shortens “attorney general” to “general” in his Twitter handle, as if serving as Arizona’s top legal official confers some sort of military acumen or relevance.
The other is this:
Serious politician that he is, Fox News invited Brnovich on the air Monday to discuss what could happen to parents who are voicing their objections to mask mandates and critical race theory at school board hearings.
“Joe Biden and Merrick Garland essentially want to weaponize the Department of Justice,” Brnovich said. “Just because parents are exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against critical race theory or even vaccine mandates does not make them domestic terrorists. If we allow the Biden administration to continue this, God forbid, you’re going to end up with mom and pop at Gitmo. Think about how outrageous that is, Harris.”
Now, Harris Faulkner, who was conducting the interview, had an opportunity to mix a bit of journalism into Fox News’ regular fare here, as she could have pointed out that there is not a shred of evidence that aparent has or ever will be sent to Guantanamo Bay for voicing their concerns at a school board meeting. So how did Faulkner respond?
“That is outrageous,” she said. “Could that really happen?”
Brnovich then blathered for a few more second about the need for rights to be protected, to which Faulkner said that one thing can lead to another and that it’s “a slippery slope.” The implication here is if people aren’t careful, parents very well could be sent to Guantanamo.
What inspired all of this, exactly?
In early October, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing federal law enforcement to assist localities in dealing with a rash of violent threats directed at school officials stemming from the uproar over mask mandates and critical race theory. The memo was inspired in part by a plea from the National School Boards Association for the Biden administration do something about the increase in “physical threats” toward school officials. The NSBA described some of the threats as “domestic terrorism” in their letter. They later apologized for the letter’s language, but Garland stood by his memo.
“The only thing that Justice Department is concerned about violence and threats of violence,” Garland said in defending the memo last week at a hearing in which several Republican senators were practically frothing at the mouth to defend the rights of parents who want to violently threaten school officials.
So to recap: The situation went from schools trying to protect the health of their students and faculty by requiring masks, to parents threatening the lives of school officials over these mandates, to it getting so bad that the National School Boards Association described the threats as “domestic terrorism” in a letter to Biden, to a fringe Republican like Brnovich equating “terrorism” to “Guantanamo Bay,” to Fox News inviting him on the air, to countless of Americans now believing the Biden administration is going to send parents to an island to be tortured because they said something at a school board meeting.
It’s a slippery slope, indeed, Harris.
