As someone who is always skeptical of Republican declarations that they will do something about government malfeasance outside of issuing strongly-worded condemnations, even I can admit there are some promising signs in this regard. After a tumultuous battle to decide who will be the next Speaker of the House has been concluded, House GOP lawmakers appear to be getting down to business.
In the year leading up to November’s midterm elections, Republicans constantly promised that if they won control of the House, they would launch a series of investigations into the Biden administration. Newly-elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) seems determined to make good on that promise. He is overseeing the creation of a new select committee, which will be led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to investigate abuses of power and the “Weaponization of Government.”
This group is being referred to as the new “Church committee” and will look into various areas in which federal agencies have been used for political purposes. This includes obtaining communications between the Biden White House and big tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and others after the release of the Twitter Files brought to light extensive collusion between these entities.
The committee will look into “the politicization of the FBI” in relation to the Hunter Biden laptop story and also its actions against parents speaking out against problematic material being presented to children in K-12 classrooms. But there are some other areas in which government agencies appear to be exhibiting a political bias.
For starters, the FBI has shown remarkable bias in how it has approached the abortion issue. Indeed, the Bureau’s conduct shows a distinct level of apathy for protecting those who are pro-life compared to how it has handled situations in which it protects those who are pro-abortion.
Last year, I wrote about how the FBI showed up at the home of Paul Vaughn, a 55-year-old who had participated in an anti-abortion protest in from of an abortion provider in 2021. They arrested him and 11 others ostensibly for blocking the entryway to the facility.
But what about the thugs who began firebombing and vandalizing buildings belonging to pro-life organizations after it became apparent that the Supreme Court would be overturning Roe v. Wade? Pro-abortion activists carried out these violent actions against churches, crisis pregnancy centers, and other organizations that advocate on behalf of unborn children.
As of this writing, not a single individual has been arrested in connection with these crimes. Apparently, the Bureau doesn’t have time to apprehend people who actually engage in violence because dangerous pro-life protesters once stood too close to an abortion facility. You best believe that if these firebombings were carried out against Planned Parenthood facilities, it would be a dramatically different story.
Next, we have the Bureau’s treatment of former President Donald Trump. Indeed, FBI agents declared war on the Orange Man What Is Bad™ even before he first became president. Russiagate, anyone?
The Bureau and other government agencies worked around the clock to dig up, or concoct, evidence that would prove that Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were best buds, collaborating to destroy these here United States of America. After falsifying a FISA application to justify spying on one of Trump’s former campaign aides, agents spied on the campaign to help perpetuate their narrative.
Of course, we can’t forget the raid on Mar-a-Lago, right? While the Department of Justice has been quiet on that front for the time being, the fact that it has not produced evidence of serious wrongdoing also lends credibility to the idea that it is being weaponized against the former president and his associates.
Last, but most certainly not least, we have the gun issue. President Joe Biden has been promising to crack down on legal gun ownership since before taking office. He has not been very successful in that endeavor. Now that Republicans are in control of the House, his chances of infringing on Second Amendment rights are close to nil.
But this does not mean he is not still trying.
The White House has been low-key targeting legal gun ownership by going after firearms retailers. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has been focusing on shutting down gun dealers using the flimsiest of pretexts. Indeed, Michael Cargill, a gun seller located in Austin, Texas, is suing the agency for its questionable practices.
Nate Curtisi, an attorney with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), which is also suing the ATF, said:
The administration has begun revoking licenses based on a handful of these inadvertent mistakes among thousands of Form 4473s that do not result in criminals or prohibited possessors obtaining guns. There’s just one problem: The administration’s enforcement policy ignores the text of the Gun Control Act.
The ATF is being accused of using small clerical errors on paperwork to revoke the licenses of gun dealers across the country. They are abusing a process that was originally designed to make sure criminals were not trying to game the system, not to strip law-abiding, well-intentioned gun dealers of their licenses.
This is yet another way the White House seeks to make it harder for responsible people to own firearms. Since Democrats have almost no chance of passing widespread gun restrictions, Biden’s team is resorting to more covert methods of curtailing gun ownership.
If Jordan’s team is going to be investigating federal agencies for political bias, it will have a heaping helping of subject matter on its plate. These three examples are likely but a few cogs in a gargantuan corruption machine. The truth is that most of these agencies have been corrupt for decades. They have wielded their power against the left and right alike.
But none of this will matter if there is no accountability. If nobody is punished for their malfeasance, the only benefit is that some members of the American public will be more aware of how our government agencies are being weaponized to push a political agenda. This knowledge means little if there is no action behind it.