Biden admin 'most definitely not on parents’ side' on education: Sen. Ted Cruz
The Texas lawmaker said that those at the Department of Justice "continue to target parents" with investigations into threats made to local school boards.
LAS VEGAS, NV. - Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Nevada GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt blasted the Department of Justice for not backing away from its infamous directive to investigate protesting parents as domestic terrorists.
"Unfortunately, the White House has made a decision, and they’re most definitely not on parents’ side," Cruz told Fox News Digital at the Club for Growth School Freedom Forum. "One of the saddest things we’ve seen under Joe Biden has been a deeply politicized Department of Justice and FBI."
In the fall of 2021, upon a request from the National Association of School Boards, the DOJ decided to investigate potential acts of violence against school boards across the country. Parents had been speaking out during local meetings against COVID-19 mandates, progressive curricula such as critical race theory, and more controversial lessons they argued had more to do with a social justice agenda than with academia.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice on Jan. 5, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Carolyn Kaster-Pool/Getty Images)
Cruz said the DOJ had overstepped its authority. And he suggested it had become a pattern and that the agency showed its political colors more recently with the raid on former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.
"We saw that just this week with the FBI showing up in massive numbers to raid Donald Trump’s home, which was a complete abuse of power," Cruz said. "But even before that, we saw that when the National Association of School Boards wrote a letter to the White House under the attorney general, asking that the FBI go after parents and use the Patriot Act to investigate them as domestic terrorists. And the Attorney General Merrick Garland five days later turned around and wrote a formal memorandum to the FBI, directing the FBI, ‘Target parents.’"
Cruz cited an example in Loudoun County, Virginia, where "a boy in a skirt" sexually assaulted a young woman in the women's bathroom. Scott Smith, the father who spoke out about the incident at a school board meeting and accused the school of covering up the abuse, was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in August after he was filmed being dragged by police from the Loudoun County School Board meeting on June 22. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, all suspended, contingent on a year of good behavior, Loudoun Now reported at the time.
"NSAB cited that as an example and the Biden Department of Justice said to the FBI, ‘go after these parents,’" Cruz said of the incident.
Heather Fruzzetti makes a public statement as people protest different issues including the board’s handling of a sexual assault that happened in a school bathroom in May, vaccine mandates and critical race theory during a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia, U.S., October 26, 2021. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)
Cruz had the chance to confront FBI director Christopher Wray about the DOJ memo regarding parents during the latter's recent testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, telling the witness he had "created a specific threat tag directed at parents."
"I asked him about the dozens of parents that they have targeted, that they have interviewed, that they have harassed as a result of that direction," Cruz said. "The FBI refuses to back away from it. They continue to target parents."
"First and foremost, as a former attorney general, I plan on continuing to hold them accountable for labeling our parents domestic terrorists," Nevada Senate candidate Adam Laxalt told Fox News Digital at the school choice forum, similarly blasting the DOJ directive. "That memo is still in place, parents can still be investigated on this now. It needs to be revoked permanently. It needs to be made clear parents have a First Amendment right to defend their students."
Nevada Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt speaks during a panel on policing and security prior to former President Donald Trump giving remarks at Treasure Island hotel and casino on July 8, 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bridget Bennett/Getty Images)
"But I can tell you, parents are on fire here," Laxalt continued. "They're not going to be deterred. They're fighting for their children. Don't ever get in the way of a mama bear."
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One of those self-proclaimed "mama bears" in attendance, Helen F. Oseguera, a candidate for Clark County assessor, said she had been speaking out against "Marxist" material or "sexualizing" lessons in local schools. But she said the local school boards don't listen.
"And the bad part about the whole thing is, no matter what we say as parents, they're not listening," she said. "They play on their phones, they ignore us, they throw us out. They just totally don't do anything about it."
"I think it is an amazing and I think it is a really powerful movement that we’re seeing moms, we’re seeing pissed off moms that don’t like treated like domestic terrorists, that don’t like being treated like they don’t have a voice in their child’s education," Cruz said.
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