The Daily Signal - Why Democrats' Domestic Terrorism Bill Actually Goes After Political Opponents

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

Democrats are calling for a crackdown on domestic terrorism, but Republicans say their colleagues want to pass legislation that endangers the privacy of all Americans.  Democrats' proposed legislation is “nothing more than empowering the federal government to police thought and speech in the United States of America,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, says.  The House last week passed the bill, dubbed the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, days after a gunman in Buffalo, New York, shot and killed 10. The bill is now before the Senate, which is expected to vote on it Thursday.  Lora Reis, director of The Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, says the legislation should be of concern to all Americans.  “I hope this bill fails this week because Americans, they don't deserve this,” Reis says, adding that the bill “is just a tool to go after political opponents.”   Reis joins this episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss what exactly is in the bill and the effects it would have on Americans if it clears the Senate.  Also on today's show, we cover these stories: A shooting at an elementary school in Texas leaves 14 children and one teacher dead. An illegal immigrant and suspected terrorist is allowed to wander the country for over two weeks. The insurance company State Farm quickly reverses course on a plan to donate books on transgenderism and gender identity to school children. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, May 25th. I'm Doug Blair. And I'm Virginia Allen. Democrats say they are trying to stop domestic terrorism through a new bill called the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. Republicans say their colleagues are seeking to pass legislation that is a danger to the privacy of all Americans. Heritage Foundation expert Laura Reese joins the show today to explain what exactly is in the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act and the likelihood of it passing through the Senate and why Republicans say the bill is so dangerous. Before we get to Virginia's conversation with Laura Reese, let's hit our top news stories of the day.

This morning, we are all grieving the tragedy of the school shooting in Uvaldi, Texas. 14 children and one teacher are reported to have been shot and killed by a gunman who entered the elementary school late yesterday morning. The school is located about 85 miles west of San Antonio. And Texas Governor Greg Abbott was quick to address the tragedy and provide updates on the situation during a press conference Tuesday per KHOU 11. The shooter was Salvador Romis, an 18-year-old male who resided in Uvaldi. It's believed that he abandoned his vehicle and entered into the Rob Elementary School in Uvaldi with a handgun, and he may have also had a rifle, but that is not yet confirmed, according to my most recent report.

He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher. Mr. Romas, the shooter, he himself is deceased and is believed that responding officers killed him. The shooter is dead and is believed to have been killed by law enforcement who are responding to the tragedy. Of course, our prayers are with all of the family members and we'll continue to keep you all updated as we learn more about the situation. An illegal immigrant and suspected terrorist was allowed to wander the country for more than two weeks before he was captured. On April 18th, Isnaro Garcia-Amado was detained by Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Arizona. and then released into the interior. Fox News reported that three days later, the FBI confirmed that Garcia Amado was on the

terror watch list. However, immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, didn't receive permission to arrest Garcia Amado until May 4th. Garcia Amado was eventually arrested two days later in Florida, marking a nearly three-week gap between when he entered the country and his arrest. Garcia Amado is currently in ICE custody. conservatives expressed their frustration with how long it took to apprehend Garcia-Amado after it was confirmed that he was on the terror watch list.

In a statement to Fox News, Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said, We demand to know why the Department of Homeland Security released a suspected terrorist into the United States and allowed him to live freely in Florida for weeks. How many more known or suspected terrorists has the Biden administration allowed into our country? Tom Homan, former acting ICE director and Heritage Foundation visiting fellow, called the department's actions inexcusable. The Texas Association of School Boards is no longer associated with the National School Boards Association. The Texas Group is cutting ties with the national organization after the release of a private investigation into the group.

The investigation found operational deficiencies and lack of internal controls and processes, within the National School Board's Association. The investigation also brought to light that the National School Board's Association considered asking for Army, National Guard, and military police to be deployed to a certain school district in a draft letter to the White House.

The final version of that letter removed that language, but did ask for the resources to investigate whether parents' actions at school board meetings could be considered acts of domestic terrorism. Texas is the 23rd state to now cut its membership with the National School Boards Association.

Insurance Company State Farm has quickly reversed course on a controversial program to donate books on transgenderism and gender identity to school children in the face of public pushback. On Monday, the company announced it would no longer participate in the program, saying that these types of conversations shouldn't take place in schools. In a statement provided to the daily signal and distributed internally to company staff, State Farm's chief diversity officer, Victor Terry, said, Conversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents. We don't support required curriculum in schools on this topic.

We support organizations providing resources for parents to have these conversations. The statement continues, We no longer support the program allowing for distribution of books and schools. We will continue to explore how we can support organizations that provide tools and resources that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion. State Farm initially came under fire Monday for a planned initiative with LGBT advocacy group, Gender Cool, to donate books promoting gender ideology

to schools and public libraries for children. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Heritage Foundation expert Laura Reese as we break down what exactly is in the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. As conservatives, sometimes it feels like we're constantly on defense against bad ideas. Bad philosophy, revisionist history, junk science, and divisive politics. But here's something I've come to understand. When faced with bad ideas, it's not enough to just defend. If we want to save this country, then it's time to go on offense. Conservative principles

are ideas that work, individual responsibility, strong local communities, and belief in the American dream. As a former college professor and current president of the Heritage Foundation, my life's mission is to learn, educate, and take action. My podcast, The Kevin Roberts Show, is my opportunity to share that journey with you. I'll be diving into the critical issues that plague our nation, having deep conversations with high-profile guests, some of whom may surprise you. And I want to ensure freedom for the next generation. Find the Kevin Roberts Show wherever you get your podcast.

Democrats say that they are trying to crack down on domestic terrorism, but Republicans say it's nothing more than party politics. So here with us to break it all down is Laura Reese. Laura is the director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. Laura, thank you. So much for being here. Sure, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

So last week, the House voted on and passed the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. Just one Republican voted for it, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. And now the Senate has the opportunity to vote on this bill. We're expecting that vote likely on Thursday. Now, it's being put forward in response to this very tragic shooting in Buffalo, New York, that took the lives of 10 people. So break down for us what exactly is in this bill. How would it combat domestic terrorism? What this bill is about is increasing the size of the government.

It stands up not just one, not two, but three domestic terrorism offices in the departments. of Homeland Security and Justice and the FBI. And what the bill focuses on is white supremacy. It is only an eight-page bill. I think white supremacy appears about 13 times. The issue is that the Democrats only are concerned with one type of domestic terrorism. So we had the Buffalo grocery store shooting, and it was tragic. 10 people were killed.

The, if you read the manifest of the shooter, very racist, anti-Semitic, it was disgusting. But all types of violence need to be condemned. And the left is only focusing on the violence committed generally by white people. And quickly ignoring, for example, the Christmas parade. mass killing that happened in Wisconsin, the New York subway shooting, both racist acts in the other direction. And so all such violence needs to be called out, but the left is only viewing one type. Yeah. Well, and we're hearing so much debate among lawmakers about, about this and about, okay, how do we move forward?

Because some tragedies like this, they happen, and there's automatically this demand for response. And of course, people want to act. They want to do something. But the question is what and how is that carried out correctly? Senator Josh Hawley called this bill the disinformation board on stair rides. And of course, the disinformation board, that has been put on pause. It was an initiative from the Biden administration to investigate, quote-unquote,

disinformation. So is Senator Josh Hawley right that this is essentially sort of again this effort to try and somehow investigate what is truth, what is it truth, but in even more extreme way? He is right. And if you look at the National Terrorism Bulletin that the Department of Homeland Security puts out periodically, the most recent one lists three main concerns for the homeland. The first one it lists is misinformation disinformation. The second that it lists is domestic terrorism, in part based on race. And it lists foreign terrorism, third. That is completely backwards.

But the left is using a combination of what it dubs domestic terrorism. And, you know, if we're talking about parents going to a school board meeting, clearly this administration views that as domestic terrorism, because we've seen the memo by Attorney General Garland. and the FBI has in fact been tagging parents going to such meetings. The left is combining in this administration domestic terrorism with misinformation, disinformation, which they themselves get to determine what is or is not such information, as we saw with Nina Jenkowitz, and using those to basically go after their political opponents.

Well, I want to ask you about the parents' issue, because that's a concern. and we're hearing. Of course, also this week, we learned that this original draft letter from the National School Board's Association to the White House that they issued last year, that there was a draft version that included language asking for Army National Guard and military police to go to certain school districts. This is on everyone's mind right now that parents have already been targeted for speaking out at school board meetings. Would this bill, specifically this bill be used to target parents and call them domestic terrorists? It could. I mean, it's wide open this bill and creating three offices across two departments

to pursue very vague standards and language that's in this bill. It's a tool and a weapon for this administration to use against political opponents. So they can shape it how they wish. And Americans have to be concerned given what has already been revealed in terms of the memo coming out of DOJ, the prior draft requested and the use of military to go after parents. This is very scary stuff. This is tyrannical. And Americans need to have their eyes wide open and be highly, highly skeptical of what this government. is seeking to do. Yeah.

Laura, Republican representative Chip Roy of Texas, he said that the bill is nothing more than empowering the federal government to police thought and speech in the United States of America. Do you think that's a pretty accurate assessment? I do. I do. It involves more hate crime language. And, you know, it's never clear how you can see into someone's mind about their intentions.

occasionally we get these maniacs who leave behind these manifestos. And it's rather clear to see their intent, but not many people do that. And so when you have very vague language and all sorts of infrastructure across multiple parts of our government to go after, to investigate, to prosecute, then they are weaponizing this, absolutely. Now, we're hearing mainly concerns right now from conservatives. Does the bill specifically target conservatives in any specific way? Not by name, no.

But like I said, it is very focused on white supremacists. And when we've seen this administration ignore mass killings based on race and then try to tag their political opponents as being white supremacists who either support or provoke such mass killings, the intentions and the plans of this administration seem pretty clear. Okay, okay. Now, the bill specifically talks about white supremacy, many times as we've talked about. Are there any groups that you were surprised the bill doesn't reference that you thought maybe it should if it's talking about combating domestic terrorism? Well, frankly, it should be silent on groups.

Okay. Domestic terrorism, the acts, already is defined in statute. And that's also another overarching issue is I have yet to hear a good explanation from supporters of this type of bill as to what statute, what tool do they need to not investigate and prosecute legitimate acts of domestic terrorism. And so this just seems to be window dressing and truly, increasing the bloated bureaucracy to be tools of the left to go after their political opponents. And, you know, Americans just need to be very concerned. Meanwhile, their eyes completely off the ball in terms of what truly threatens this country. And just today, we have a great example of this, where we have news of FBI discovering an ISIS plot to assassinate former president George W. Bush.

Our border is wide open. The administration's policies have opened the border, and they are encouraging mass populations to cross that border. We've had foreign nationals from over 160 countries crossed through that border. it is going to blow up in our face. That is what this administration should be most concerned about in securing the homeland. So then is there a need for something like this legislation? Or do we pretty much, you know, already have enough sort of teams or departments in place to be investigating domestic terrorism? Or is that something we should be ramping up, but maybe just in a different way? We do not need this bill. We have plenty of tools and bureaucracy in place to investigate domestic terrorism. It is the job of the FBI. The fact that the Department of Homeland Security seeks to focus on it more is really stepping on the toes of FBI. And DHS was not stood up to be another FBI. It was not stood up to focus on domestic terror. it was stood up in response to 9-11 and to protect the homeland from foreign terrorists.

And that's where it needs to refocus its priorities. Okay. Now, the vote is expected Thursday. Is this bill going to pass? I don't know. It's going to be close. I mean, the House vote was 222 to 203. So I don't know what the outcome is.

It's going to be very close. If it does pass, then we need very stringent oversight by Congress over how the Biden administration implements it. If at least the House flips to a Republican majority and perhaps the Senate after November, then they should be able to do a thorough oversight of these offices, of investigations of cases, and make sure that DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security are pursuing legitimate cases of terrorism, be it foreign or domestic. Would this open up access for the government to have greater access in, to personal information of the average American people like you and I.

Do we know any of those details? Well, I imagine, I mean, as you increase the bureaucracy and have more investigators and more resources, then sure, they can get access to surveillance tools that these departments already have to pursue other types of investigations or, you know, other types of work. So it's just putting more eyes on our data, our way of life, our information. So absolutely.

Yeah. Laura, any last thoughts before we let you go? I hope this bill fails this week because Americans, they don't deserve this. And any type of crime, murder, needs to be condemned equally across the board. and we can't just be ignoring one subset of it in favor of another because really this is just a tool to go after political opponents and that's just un-American. Heritage Foundation's Laura Reese.

Laura, thank you so much for time. We appreciate it. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast. If you haven't already, please be sure to subscribe to the Daily Signal podcast on your podcast listening app of choice. That's Google Play, Apple Podcast.

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