MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell fretted that the new House GOP-created Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will be populated with incompetent hacks while Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson predicted violence as a result.
Mitchell described the subcommittee as one that will have “extraordinary powers and this committee will be able to look at all of the top secret intelligence that's turned over to the Intelligence Committee.”
In a proclamation that she would never make about Eric Swalwell, Mitchell continued, “But these people on this committee are not properly prepared or briefed or cleared for all of that, as well as people like Scott Perry from Pennsylvania, saying that there's no reason he shouldn't serve on a committee that is investigating the January 6 investigation at DOJ which is investigating Scott Perry. How does that work?”
For his part Johnson lamented this alleged politicization of national security, “You know, what's interesting to me is we have come a very long way in our politics when Republicans used to be pro-law enforcement and pro-defense. Now we see Republican attacks on law enforcement, on the intelligence community, on the Defense Department.”
Only MSNBC could think criticizing the Pentagon’s non-defense related social agenda or the FBI being Twitter’s joke police is the very definition of being anti-defense or anti-law enforcement.
However, Johnson was just getting started, “the thing that I think is important to point out, the rhetorical assaults on the FBI have, have in fact, translated into physical assaults on FBI offices. The one in Cincinnati in November, for example. This type of rhetoric does lead to violence.”
Johnson also tried to use his tenure at DHS as a shield against criticism of this outlandish accusation:
I'm putting on my Homeland Security hat here and those who engage in this sort of irresponsible, overheated rhetoric, ought to be held accountable when the natural chain of events leads to some deranged person out there with a gun that decides to try to take matters into their own hands and attack a field office of the FBI or other locations across the country. And so, from where I sit, it's not just the absurdity of the politics here. This type of overheated rhetoric in Washington does lead to real dangerous consequences across the homeland.
Naturally this segment did not also suggest that left-wing rhetoric about law enforcement was responsible for the violence waged throughout the summer of 2020.
This segment was sponsored by Constant Contact.
Here is a transcript for the January 10 show:
MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports
1/10/2023
12:38 PM ET
ANDREA MITCHELL: Let's talk about this new select committee because this is going to have extraordinary powers and this committee will be able to look at all of the top secret intelligence that's turned over to the Intelligence Committee. But these people on this committee—
JEH JOHNSON: Right
MITCHELL: -- are not properly prepared or briefed or cleared for all of that, as well as people like Scott Perry from Pennsylvania, saying that there's no reason he shouldn't serve on a committee that is investigating the January 6 investigation at DOJ—
JOHNSON: Right.
MITCHELL: -- which is investigating Scott Perry.
JOHNSON: Right.
MITCHELL: How does that work?
JOHNSON: Good question. First, I was in the Department of Defense when we had the turnover to Republicans in the House majority 2011 and then 2015 when Republicans won control of the Senate, I was at—I was at-- DHS.
You know, what's interesting to me is we have come a very long way in our politics when Republicans used to be pro-law enforcement and pro-defense. Now we see Republican attacks on law enforcement, on the intelligence community, on the Defense Department.
We’ve come a long way from the school of thought of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Liz Cheney was the mainstream thinking in the Republican Party and the thing that I think is important to point out, the rhetorical assaults on the FBI have, have in fact, translated into physical assaults on FBI offices.
The one in Cincinnati in November, for example. This type of rhetoric does lead to violence. I'm putting on my Homeland Security hat here and those who engage in this sort of irresponsible, overheated rhetoric, ought to be held accountable when the natural chain of events leads to some deranged person out there with a gun that decides to try to take matters into their own hands and attack a field office of the FBI or other locations across the country.
And so, from where I sit, it's not just the absurdity of the politics here. This type of overheated rhetoric in Washington does lead to real dangerous consequences across the homeland.
