Mark Levin on the current ‘assault’ on freedom of speech – Fox News

This is a rush transcript from "Life, Liberty & Levin," October 10, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARK LEVIN, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello, America. I'm Mark Levin, and this is LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN.

We have two great guests tonight: Senator Josh Hawley, who is helping to lead the charge against tyranny in this country, and Christopher Rufo with the Manhattan Institute, an expert on critical race theory.

And this program tonight is about liberty -- your liberty. It's about speech -- your speech, your freedom of association. It's about your school districts, it is about your kids in the classroom it is about your neighborhoods and communities -- all of which are under assault by the Biden administration, specifically the Attorney General the United States, Merrick Garland, and his Department of Justice.

Let's begin at the beginning. The First Amendment to the Constitution, which you would think they would understand over there at the Department of Justice, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

"To petition the government for a redress of grievances." We are focused on free speech, freedom of association, and the petition the government for a redress of grievances. The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, is under attack by the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland and his staff.

And now, we've learned it is also under attack by Joe Biden's staff, as well as others at the White House in a coordinated attack to try and silent parents and taxpayers, the citizens of this nation who elect their school boards, who send their children into these classrooms. Why? Well, because they're challenging the poison, the rot, the radical Marxist propaganda that is being taught to your children from kindergarten through 12th grade.

And apparently, that is too much for them to tolerate.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the memo that will go down in history as one of the most egregious violations of your liberty. It is a memo that is signed by Merrick Garland. It is a memo that has gone to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department, the National Security Division, and the Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- as if this is kind of an East German Stasi.

And make no mistake about it, parents in this country, they are going to spy on you, they're going to gather Intelligence on you. They are going to track you and the organizations you belong to, and a special phone number is set up, so a teacher or a bureaucrat, or a union, or whomever thinks if you're threatening or harassing them, they will set loose the F.B.I. to come to your home and to interview you.

Among other things in this memo, loose language, like they're going to look at efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views. They're going to be committing to using their authority and their resources. They have a dedicated line of communication for threat reporting.

Now there's a problem here. The Federal government has absolutely no authority whatsoever in the classroom, in the school district, at board meetings. Period. There is no Federal nexus of any kind whatsoever, and they know it, and I'm going to prove that to you in a minute.

Moreover, the Constitution of the United States, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Nazis can march in Skokie, Illinois, at that time of mostly Jewish community. They had ruled on the Supreme Court that you can burn the American flag as a representation of speech, and on and on and on.

But if you're a parent, and you go to a school board member and you're raising your voice or even hollering, or you have a sign that they think is offensive, or you're warning school board members that you're going to defeat them. Well, apparently that's a threat. That is a lie.

The Department of Justice has gone rogue again. And this is an attack on your liberty, the liberty of the entire country. And of course, the propaganda corrupt media is mostly silent. They walk in lockstep with this administration or any Democrat, for that matter.

There's an organization called America First Legal, and there is a letter that was sent to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, by Reed Rubinstein, and he is a senior counsel for this group and I want to tell you what they have uncovered.

Listen to part of this letter because this shows how pernicious this has become with the Biden administration, the Democrats, the teachers unions, the bureaucrats in the education establishment, and of course, the Democrats.

Our understanding the facts, they write to the Inspector General, this in part, "In early September, Biden administration stakeholders (that will be the unions, the school boards and so forth) held discussions regarding avenues for potential Federal action against parents with a key Biden Domestic Policy Council official, (who they call Jane Doe #1) and White House staff (who they call John Doe #1). Stakeholders also held discussions with senior Department officials (that's the Department of Justice) including at least one political appointee in the department's Civil Rights Division, (Jane Doe #2)."

"Jane Doe #1 and John Doe #1 and others in the White House separately expressed concern regarding the potential partisan political impact of parent mobilization and organization around school issues in the upcoming midterm elections."

This is about as sleazy and untoward as it gets. "Upon information and belief at the express direction of or with the express consent of Jane Doe #1, Jane Doe #2 and other Biden administration officials developed a plan to use a letter from an outside group, which they said is not the usual suspects."

That would likely be I assume the letter from the National School Boards Association, this outrageous, outrageous letter, " ... as pretext for Federal action to chill, deter, and discourage parents from exercising their constitutional rights and privileges."

So according to this, the Department of Justice at the most senior levels of the Biden administration, and these organizations, including the National School Board Association, colluded, conspired to set up the parents and parent organizations and taxpayers of this country to silence them.

"Upon information and belief in or about mid-September, work began on developing what became the Attorney General's memorandum. Concerns expressed by department staff included (1) The absence of Federal law enforcement nexus and authority." Exactly, there is none.

"And (2) The constitutionally protected nature of parents protest." Absolutely, it is protected.

"However, Jane Doe #2 made it clear, this was a White House priority, and a deliverable would be created."

Next, "On or about September 29, citing legal authorities including the Patriot Act, the National School Boards Association made public a letter demanding Federal action against parents, citing authorities including the Patriot Act, the justification for Federal action included among other things, parents who were posting watch lists against school boards and spreading misinformation that boards are adopting critical race theory curriculum and working to maintain online learning for haphazardly attributing it to COVID-19. It's not clear yet whether and to what extent drafts of this letter were shared with Biden administration officials, including Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, and whether changes were suggested or made by them prior to the ostensible public release date."

You know, on my radio show, I said I smelled a rat that this letter from the National School Boards Association and the eventual a memorandum from the Attorney General, the overlap was -- could not simply be coincidental. Moreover, the fact that that letter was written on the 29th of September, an action, a memo was put out five days later is way too fast.

"On October 4, the Attorney General's memorandum was made public. The short timeframe between the September 29 letter and the Attorney General's memorandum suggests that either the entire matter was pre-coordinated and the September 29 but pretext, or that the normal clearance process and standard order both within the department," and the other agencies of the Federal government were bypassed or corrupted.

"Now on October 5, (that's the day after the memo went out). There was a follow up call involving among others, the White House Counsel's Office, Jane Doe #2, and many other Biden administration political and career officials. The briefing included how to talk about equity initiatives to avoid liability for violating discrimination laws, and critically to hide equity measures, initiatives, and action from Freedom of Information Act disclosure, (which is a violation of law)."

"The intention, it seems is to evade public scrutiny of these Biden administration activities."

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a letter that's gone to the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that the White House senior officials in domestic policy, Biden's staff coordinated with senior officials at the Department of Justice including at the Civil Rights Division to squash, to squelch parents who are protesting, parents who are objecting, parents who are speaking up at board meetings, because the Biden administration fear it would have a negative political impact on the upcoming elections.

So what do they do? They act like a totalitarian Marxist regime. They're going to unleash Federal law enforcement, the Civil Rights Division, the Criminal Division, the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorneys, they're going to unleash in coordination with friendly state law enforcement, friendly local law enforcement. The entire law enforcement apparatus of the United States against parents.

Ladies and gentlemen, these school buildings belong to us. We taxpayers have paid for them. These union members, they are our employees, the school board members, they are our representatives. They act like they are an operation all among themselves. They don't want to be challenged, they don't want to be questioned.

And one more point, the Attorney General of the United States, in addition to all of this has a conflict of interest.

His son-in-law, that is the husband of his daughter, started a company called Panorama. Panorama provides guidance and seminars and information to promote what? Critical race theory, genderism, the whole Marxist agenda -- in our classrooms. And the company is worth millions, and 25 percent of the schools, it is reported in this country are already using the materials from this company.

And so what better way to enhance the millions of dollars earned by your family than to squelch the parents and prevent them from having an impact on what their children are taught.

So the Attorney General of the United States failed to recuse himself. As a matter of fact, he is the point of the spear he signed the memo, one of the most grotesque act of totalitarianism we've seen in this country, quite frankly.

When we come back. We're going to have Senator Josh Hawley. We're going to have Christopher Rufo, and we're going to have a further thorough discussion about all of this.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: Welcome back, America. Senator Josh Hawley, last week you had a hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Deputy Attorney General of the United States was answering questions or was she?

She seemed to be ducking a lot of very significant questions you were asking about the ambiguity of this memo, about the First Amendment, about civil liberties and so forth. What did you make of her?

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Thanks for having me, Mark. It's great to be with you. I've made -- well, I've heard that she didn't want to answer any questions, that she didn't want to actually take any responsibility for this extraordinary memo from the Justice Department at the direction of Joe Biden.

The idea that they would use the F.B.I. to intervene in school board meetings with the purpose of -- let's be honest -- intimidating and harassing parents, just unprecedented. And I said to her, I said, listen, this isn't about violence. We all know that if somebody threatens violence, the local police will book that person and they'll charge that person and they'll get them out of there.

This is about using Federal law enforcement to try and intimidate parents because these parents are daring to stand up and criticize critical race theory. That's what this is about.

So I said to her, I said, what are the standards? Your memorandum says the F.B.I. is going to investigate intimidation and harassment? Well, according to who? I mean, by what standards? And she wouldn't answer those questions, Mark. She wouldn't give me any definition. She just kept coming back to, well, everybody is against violence. Well, of course, we're against violence.

What we're not against, though, is free expression. What we're not against is the First Amendment. But that's what this administration is doing. They are attacking our basic First Amendment principles, and it is all in an effort to try and shut down moms and dads, parents who are paying their taxes, who have kids in schools, and by the way, who are voters, and they have a right to express their opinion at school board meetings.

This is just unprecedented, and I tell you, I'm going to do everything I can to stop it.

LEVIN: You know, Senator Hawley, this is the same Attorney General when he was testifying at his confirmation, he refused to call the attacks on the Portland Federal Courthouse acts of domestic terrorism because they happened at night and nobody was there. I'm not aware of a pattern of violence in these various school districts, and they haven't presented any, neither the National School Boards Association nor the Attorney General in his memo.

I'm not aware that violence is so out of control that local police are unable to handle this. That is an absolute flat out lie.

Are you aware of any Federal nexus are Federal basis that would allow the United States Department of Justice and its various instrumentalities to go into school boards, to monitor parents, to question parents who dare to get -- become vociferous or provocative?

HAWLEY: None whatsoever, Mark. I mean, I can't imagine what the basis is for having the F.B.I. get involved here. I will say this. I mean, it is interesting that the Biden administration has finally found some form of violence that it doesn't approve of. I mean, as we're seeing violent crime surge across our country, homicides a year on year high, violent attacks are at highs, and the Biden administration has done nothing. They won't lift their finger, but yet, they want to shut down parents from speaking by calling that violence.

I mean, it's just -- it is truly extraordinary, and it is dangerous. And you talked about this earlier, this is a dangerous precedent, to use Federal law enforcement to go after citizens to stop them from speaking about things you don't like.

If this is allowed to stand, I shudder to think what will happen in the future under this administration or any other administration when it comes to trying to silence law-abiding citizens, parents, and taxpayers, who are just speaking their mind.

Can understand by the way, Mark, they've got every right to speak their mind about any topic, but critical race theory, they are right to stand up and say they don't want their kids being taught these lies. They are right to stand up and say they don't want their kids to be indoctrinated. And the idea that you would use the Federal government to shut them down, that's wrong.

LEVIN: And it is very interesting, Senator Hawley, how different groups and different people are treated differently by this administration. They haven't gone full bore against Black Lives Matter, which has, as part of its mission overthrowing the United States government, a Marxist organization, a very violent organization as we saw this summer. They won't even recognize Antifa as an organization. They're not tracking down Antifa and its funding sources and so forth.

I mean, people aren't showing up at the school board meetings with frozen water bottles or umbrellas or Molotov cocktails, or anything of that sort. The effort to characterize all these parents as domestic terrorists -- and that's what they're doing, because there is no other hook -- is really disgusting. It's appalling.

And the lack of media outcry, except on a few outlets is really shocking. Are you not -- I mean, appalled by the fact that the media in this country isn't even standing up for freedom of speech?

HAWLEY: I am appalled, and I'm disturbed by it. And I think, again, the trend is very, very dangerous. And it's just an extraordinary thing, Mark, to see this government, to see Joe Biden go after and try to silence parents, taxpaying parents, by using Federal law enforcement.

Can I just say that you know that you've lost the argument, you know that you are totally out of touch when you're trying to use the arm of the Federal government to tell moms and dads that they don't have the right to speak? And then if they want to get up and question what's going on in their own kids' schools, they might get an F.B.I. agent knocking at their door.

I mean, that is just -- it is extraordinary. And I don't think parents are going to put up put up with it. I know what the intent of this is, that the intent is meant to silence parents. I don't think it's going to have that effect. I think the American people are going to look at this and they're going to say, no way, I've got a right to know what's going on in my kids' school. I've got a right to have an opinion about it. I've got a right to express it and I'm not going to be intimidated.

LEVIN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JILLIAN MELE, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to "FOX News Live." I'm Jillian Mele.

The going could be rough for thousands of U.S. air travelers in the coming days. That's because Southwest Airlines has canceled more than a thousand flights blaming bad weather and air traffic control problems. Hundreds of other flights have been delayed, too. As a result, many travelers are stuck at airports with no place to go right now. Other airlines do not appear to be as severely impacted.

In Qatar, the U.S. is weighing its words carefully after its first face-to- face talks with the Taliban since the pullout from Afghanistan. The dialogue focused on security and terrorism concerns, but also on safe passage for American citizens and others from Afghanistan.

The Taliban claims the U.S. has agreed to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

That's it for now. I'm Jillian Mele, now back to LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN. Have a great night.

LEVIN: Senator Josh Hawley, the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice, over the last several years has not exactly conducted itself in exemplary way. As a matter of fact, I would argue it's been thoroughly politicized and lawless. What can a senator do about these sorts of things, particularly when you're in the minority? I mean, you can't even call for hearings and so forth. What can be done?

HAWLEY: Well, I think what we can do is stand up and demand answers, Mark, which is my job. I mean, this is why when we had Justice Department officials up in front of us last week, I took the opportunity to ask about the F.B.I.'s crackdown on these local school boards and to drive for answers.

And I actually had Democrats on the committee say, oh, this isn't the right forum, Senator Hawley. You need to -- you know, this is a hearing about something else. You need to wait.

Well, the answer is that it can't wait. I mean, you've got whatever you have opportunity. You've got to push for answers. You've got to push for accountability. And Republicans need to keep doing that.

You know, speaking of the F.B.I. for a second. We also heard testimony recently that when it comes to those U.S. gymnasts who were abused, you know, they went to the F.B.I. They gave their cases, they gave their details to the F.B.I., and what they testified was, the F.B.I. didn't do anything.

So here you have the F.B.I. not acting on what turned out to be credible allegations of abuse, but now, the Biden administration wants the F.B.I. to go to local school boards? I mean, this is the priority? Not going after crime, but going after parents? I think that speaks to the kind of misplaced priorities.

And you're absolutely right about what we learned in the last administration. What we learned was, officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice falsified evidence to a court in order to get wiretaps on the former President's campaign and campaign officials by lying to a court about it. If that's not corruption, I don't know what is.

LEVIN: It just seems to me that the culture, the media, the Democratic Party surrogates have a very low standard when it comes to morality and ethics and complying with the law. We saw the summer before last, all the violence that was taking place, and that was called mostly peaceful.

You saw Democrat mayors painting BLM in their boulevards and so forth. You saw basketball players and others contributing heavily to Black Lives Matter. The organization was celebrated, the Marxist founders were celebrated. And here, we have parents, and we have taxpayers who are voicing -- and let me say this. The Constitution, Senator, doesn't say you've got to go up there and sound like a host on NPR. It doesn't say to go up there and be monotone throughout.

You're allowed to raise your voice. You're allowed to wave your arms. You're allowed to picket.

You're allowed to protest. You're allowed to bring street signs. You're allowed to be energetic.

You're allowed to do all those things, but you're not allowed to be violent, but that's different. And they provide no evidence, certainly, it's very, very sketchy, no evidence of this widespread violence.

And so, the civil libertarian groups, well, let me ask it to you this way. Any Democrats in the Senate join you when you were raising concerns with the Deputy Attorney General about how these parents were about to be treated?

HAWLEY: No. In fact, what they said at the time was, Mark, they attempted to stop me from asking the questions and, you know, said, oh, this is not a hearing about that. This is, you know, a mocking. This is not the right time or place to ask these questions.

I mean, listen, when you come before the United States Senate, you take an oath. And you've done something like what this administration has done, trying to use the F.B.I. against citizens.

If you come before me, and you're under oath, I'm going to ask you questions. If you come before me, I'm going to ask you tough questions. I'm not going to let you off easy, and I'm not going to be told that, oh, well, I've got to get the Democrats' permission beforehand.

And just to speak a second about the left's double standard. You know, Mark, the left has really gotten weird. I mean, have you noticed this? They're following Kyrsten Sinema in the bathrooms. They're breaking the law by following people around and shining cameras in their faces on airplanes. They are violating basic principles of decency and the law. And so they're doing all of that.

But yet, when it comes to parents wanting to express their views at school board meetings, oh, we can't have that. Oh, no, that's harassment. I mean, the left is really -- they've gotten their priorities exactly backwards. They've got their standards totally doubled up. And it's also -- it's just weird behavior, weirder and weirder from the left, and it would be something that we could just say, boy, that's strange, but the fact that they are using the Federal government to enforce these speech codes and to enforce their political ideology, that's dangerous.

LEVIN: Senator, you specifically said to the chairman of the committee last week, we need to have a hearing on this issue. On this memo, we need the Attorney General up here under oath. We need to question the Attorney General about what he's done here. Is the Chairman of the committee calling a hearing?

HAWLEY: No. In fact, he waived that off and they will look away, Mark, like they do every time. You know, the Democrats have been doing this on every subject -- Afghanistan, the debacle there. They looked the other direction. They don't want to talk about it.

The F.B.I.'s abuses in the last administration, they look the other way. Now, the F.B.I.'s abuse and the Justice Department's abuse when it comes to school boards, they just look the other way. They are enablers. They are enabling this administration in its lawlessness, and in its fecklessness, and the dangers that they're creating for this country.

But I can tell you this, the Attorney General of the United States will have to come back up to the Senate. He will have to come back up to the Judiciary Committee. And when he does, you can expect that I at least, am going to press him for answers and I'm not going to be put off.

He might try to stonewall me, he might try to deny me the ability to get the answers, but I am going to put the questions to him and I hope my colleagues will join me.

LEVIN: I also notice, Senator, the head of the F.B.I., Christopher Wray has an objective, certainly not publicly, certainly not the Members of Congress. So, I guess he's all in.

Senator Josh Hawley, I want to thank you. You're a breath of fresh air and I want to thank you for your patriotism. God bless you, sir.

HAWLEY: Thanks for having me.

LEVIN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVIN: Welcome back, America. Christopher Rufo has been on this issue of critical race theory before anybody that I'm aware of. He is an expert on it. He's also a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. He's a Contributing Editor at "City Journal" and a national resource.

Christopher, would you please first explain to the American people, what is critical race theory?

CHRISTOPHER RUFO, SENIOR FELLOW, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: Sure. Critical race theory is an academic discipline that holds that the United States was founded on white supremacy and critically that white supremacy still serves as the foundational ideology of our country today.

The critical race theorists argue that our rights, our Constitution, our Declaration, are all mere camouflage for naked racial oppression. They argue that white supremacy today is just as bad as it was a hundred years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago -- that racism is it permanent endemic condition and that all white Americans, by virtue of their skin color are inherently racist --

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Mark Levin on the current 'assault' on freedom of speech - Fox News