Congressional Delegate Stacey Plaskett spoke plainly Thursday, calling the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, of which she is a member, a publicity stunt and distraction that not only wasted time but was a deterrent to civic engagement by stoking potentially violent reprisals.
Plaskett’s offices had been awash in the same menacing messages she said kept expert witnesses from testifying before Congressional committees.
“I have had a lot of threatening phone calls, Facebook messages, Twitter messages, you know, letters to our office. We have alerted Capital Police but I know that I am not the only person who has experienced that,” she said during a Zoom presentation. “What’s unfortunate is that, quite often, individuals who would, in normal circumstances, come and testify don’t want to testify, as well as witnesses as experts, because they’re afraid of the amount of vitriol that will come to them and their family.”
There have even been times Virgin Islands police have been asked to up their protection of the Democrat who helped manage impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump.
“In extraordinary times, when misconduct in the executive branch threatens to undermine our democratic institutions, congressional oversight can also serve to protect the integrity of our republic,” Plaskett said.
The opposite can be true, where Congress can undermine democracy by fixating on myths and unfounded conspiracy theories, she said. Republican leadership on the committee was more interested in testing potential fringe talking points for a 2024 Trump presidential run than ferreting out real ways in which federal agencies may be improperly politicized, the delegate said.
“The multiple conspiracy theories underpinning much of the content of MAGA politicians’ allegations have been debunked with facts, time, and time, again. But Republicans don’t want to be bothered with this inconvenient truth,” she said.
Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Plaskett said, fixated on fantasies by aggrandizing testifiers who embraced the lie that Trump was robbed of the 2020 presidential election and claimed the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, was a peaceful protest. All the while, she said, he ignored her calls to find relevant places where the federal government may be in danger of failing its partisanship-free ideals.
“I can’t tell you the amount of letters that have been written that I send to the chairman, like, outlining: Here are areas that I think that we can agree on. We might be able to have a hearing about it to look at weaponization potentially of the federal government. They’re completely ignored in favor of what the MAGA agenda is. But despite Republicans’ pursuit of power and notoriety, their investigations have proven to be failures. And continually a reminder that Republicans care more about power than they do the truth.”
Plaskett said she was skeptical of the committee from the start but grew more convinced the effort was folly at best but probably a purposeful misdirection of public interest.
“One of my first letters was to ask the chairman for us to meet regularly and gave him a list of issues that I thought were important. And, you know, to let’s go over what the rules are going to be, and the fact that they would not create rules that were similar in other congresses for committees, you know, there’s no notice given to us about witnesses that are going to testify,” she said.
“We often find out about a hearing through Twitter rather than discussions between professional staff members or members. There have been no indications that they’re interested and looking at the issues that I have brought forward such as, let’s talk about the use of IRS. Why do they disproportionately audit people of color, middle-class Americans? Let’s look into that. And, you know, be fair. Let’s look into the weaponization that was utilized by Donald Trump in furtherance of his own agenda,” said Plaskett.
