Putting Party Above Country

“FBI leadership has been so keen on prosecuting the Democrats' opposition in recent times it's questionable if they even know what their primary purpose is anymore.”

– Rep. Mike Garcia

The warning being delivered by FBI Director Christopher Wray to Congress could not have been more dire. Following the deadly attack on a concert in Russia by a radical Islamic group, Wray spoke of his increasing concern for “the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland.” The Director stated that as he looks “back over [his] career in law enforcement, [he] would be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once, but that is the case as I sit here today.”

Instead of taking Wray’s warnings seriously and asking probing questions, California Representative Mike Garcia used his time during a Congressional committee meeting to tell Wray: “I don’t trust you.” The Republican cited the Director’s “weaponization and politicization of issues and [use] instruments of national security against innocent Americans and institutions like churches.”

The accusation by a Republican that Wray, whom Trump appointed, has somehow politicized the FBI is laughable. Not only is the Director a Republican himself, but he is also a member of the Federalist Society. This is a “conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.” If Wray were to lead the department in a political direction, it would not be to the left.

On Garcia’s campaign website, he claims to be “a vocal critic of the Defund the Police movement” who “has proudly stood with our officers as they’ve faced cuts in funding [and] an increase in violence against police”. This should have made him receptive to Wray’s message that “we have seen a substantial jump in threats towards FBI personnel and facilities from [the] fiscal year 2022 to [the] fiscal year 2023.” Instead, Garcia’s response to the Director’s pleas for additional funding was that he does not “think that this is necessarily a funding problem”.

This is not the first time the “Law and Order” Congressman has attacked the FBI. Garcia, who has endorsed Trump’s attempt at re-election, is among the former President’s “most stalwart backers” who used increasingly “incendiary language, including references to Nazi Germany, to defend” Trump after a warrant was issued to search Mar A Lago. The FBI was forced to take this action after Trump refused to return sensitive national security documents, an action that his lawyers warned could land him in jail. Garcia called this judicially sanctioned action literal tyranny and accused the FBI of “acting more like a Third Reich.” This “horrific trivialization of the Holocaust” was an insult to the six million Jews killed by Hitler and his millions of other victims.

This offensive comparison to Nazi atrocities was not an isolated incident. In 2022, Garcia said that the Capitol Police protecting his life from insurrectionists on January 6, 2021, were “acting effectively as the Gestapo.” The newly elected Congressman’s words were much different on the day of the attack. On January 6th he issued a statement that said “The actions we are seeing by those charging the Capitol today should not be condoned or encouraged” urging the rioters “to peacefully exit” so that the Capitol Police may safely go home to their families.”

After the Trump supporters had been cleared from the Capitol Building and their feces cleaned from the walls, Congress returned to complete the job of certifying the 2020 election results. In the aftermath of the chaos, Garcia voted to disenfranchise the voters of Arizona and Pennsylvania. In doing so, he disregarded his oath to uphold the Constitution that he had taken as a Congressman (and before that in the military as a fighter pilot) and instead gave his loyalty to a wannabe dictator whom most of his constituents had voted against. Those constituents must hold him responsible for his fidelity to Trump over his obligations to the country.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.