Senator Ted Cruz criticized Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to answer his questions during a Senate hearing Wednesday — as Cruz pressed Garland’s son-in-law’s education company and its potential impact on his recent memo involving the FBI in disputes between parents and school boards.
Garland was questioned by Cruz over a controversial memo issued earlier this month announcing the involvement of federal law enforcement authorities in investigations into a “disturbing rise in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff.”
Cruz, along with several other Republican lawmakers during the hearing, accused Garland of targeting parents to speak out against the implementation of mask mandates and critical race theory in K-12 schools.
The Texas senator went further, questioning the attorney general about his son-in-law’s education company, Panorama Education.
Cruz asks Garland if he is seeking an ethical opinion in light of his brother-in-law and claims that the company supports the release of critical race theory approaches.
Garland responded, telling the Texas Republican that the memo had nothing to do with critical race theory.
‘Would you decline to answer if you find that there is a moral telling you–‘ said Cruz.
“No way–” Garland tried to reply.
“So you say no, just answer it directly. You know how to answer the question directly. Did you seek a moral opinion?”
“I’m telling you that if I thought there was anything reasonable — if there was a conflict of interest, I would,” Garland said.
Cruz and Garland kept going back and forth, as the Texas Senator repeated the question and urged Garland to answer.
As Cruz’s questioning time expired, he said, “Let the record reflect that the attorney general refuses to answer whether he has sought an ethical opinion, and that ethics is clearly not a top priority for — by the Department of Justice.”
Panorama Education has denied any association with CRT, saying on its website, “Panorama Education is not affiliated with any particular academic or legal philosophy, including Critical Race Theory (CRT). Jigsaw is not connected to a CRT network and is not a CRT education tool.”
“Panorama Education does not sell Critical Race Theory (CRT) to schools. The jigsaw is not related to Cash Race Theory (CRT) and is not a tool for teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), the company continued.
During his line of questioning, Cruz also criticized Garland for not doing independent research into any cases of alleged violence prior to releasing the much-discussed memo.
“You are the Attorney General of the United States. This was not a tweet I sent. This is a memo to the FBI that says ‘Go investigate the parents as domestic terrorists,'” Cruz said.
Cruz cited a letter from the National Association of School Boards, sent a few days before Garland’s memo asking for help from the federal government to combat alleged acts of violence they compared to “domestic terrorism” — the NSBA’s board has since apologized for the language in the letter.
The senator noted that in the letter, the NSBA cited 20 incidents of violence against school personnel.
“Did you search for 20 cases?” Cruz asked.
“I didn’t–” Garland said before Cruz backtracked, “Has anyone on your team looked for them?”
“I don’t know the answer but it’s up to–” began Garland.
“But of course you don’t, General,” Cruz said.
The Texas senator went on to accuse Garland of failing to do any independent research before the warrant was issued and asked the attorney general several times if he had done so.
Garland failed to provide Cruz with a direct answer on the matter.
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