Attorney General Merrick Garland and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sparred with one another in a fiery exchange regarding the Department of Justice’s response to protests outside Supreme Court justices’ homes in 2022. (You can watch the back-and-forth between the two below.)
Cruz, who characterized demonstrators as “rioters,” shouted as he went after Garland on how the Justice Department acted in the wake of the leaked draft opinion that indicated the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court was in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade last May.
In the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Cruz accused Garland, a former federal judge whose own nomination to the Supreme Court was blocked by Senate Republicans, of allowing threats of violence against the justices, and he claimed that Garland and the DOJ “did nothing.”
“You sat on your hands,” claimed Cruz as he railed about one group’s publication of justices’ addresses and the arrest of a man with a gun near Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home.
Garland swiftly tackled Cruz’s claims and remarked that he’d done something no other attorney general in the Justice Department’s history had done before: He ordered U.S. marshals to protect justices’ homes.
Cruz then interrupted Garland and asked if he had enforced a federal statute that prohibits picketing or parading with the intent to influence justices outside their homes.
“Senator, you asked whether I sat on my hands, and, quite the opposite, I sent 70 U.S. marshals to defend... ,” Garland responded before Cruz interrupted him with a question again.
You can watch more of their exchange below.
(H/T Mediaite)
