Marco Rubio blasts ‘alarming and hypocritical’ Justice Department over school board guidance

No taco: Rubio has fun with Jill Biden comments. Image via A.G. Gancarski

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio joined a chorus of criticism of threats from the federal Department of Justice to crack down on school board protests.

“Well, first of all, it’s alarming. And second of all, it’s hypocritical. This idea that somehow parents show up at a school board meeting to complain. If somebody there decides ‘we don’t like the tone of his voice, we don’t like how loud he’s speaking, we don’t like how often he shows up, then you can be reported,” Rubio said Wednesday on Fox News Primetime.

The Senator was reactingguidance from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland this week. Garland wants federal law enforcement to take a look at parents who take issue with “radical curriculum,” including so-called critical race theory, which spotlights structural racism as a persistent problem in American institutions.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which should be focused on organized crime, should be focused on drug traffickers, things like terrorism and others who seek to harm this country, is now going to divert resources to investigate parents because they scream too loudly or maybe are rude at a school board hearing,” Rubio lamented.

Rubio said the guidance was “hypocritical” given that Senators on the right are often “harassed in their private life,” including people confronting his family at his home.

“They have normalized this behavior when it comes to left-wing protesters,” Rubio thundered. “But then, when it comes to a parent speaking out about a school board, they want to sic the FBI on them. This is crazy.”

“If you’d told me five years ago this was going to happen, I’d have said there’s no way. There’s no way this is going to happen,” Rubio added. “It’s happening.”

Rubio’s position is shared by other prominent Florida Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott.

“Joe Biden’s attorney general wants the FBI to go after parents for speaking out at school board meetings to protect kids from radical curriculum like critical race theory,” Scott tweeted. “Biden’s disgusting socialist agenda must end. We won’t let him intimidate & silence parents.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration has banned critical race theory officially, promised to fight the feds in a tweet Tuesday also.

“Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation. Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent,” DeSantis vowed.

Earlier this week, Garland issued a memorandum calling for the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders regarding the “disturbing trend” of threats against school board members, teachers and workers in public schools.

“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Garland wrote. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

Garland envisions a task force, in which representatives from the department’s Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service and the Office of Justice Programs will search for federal enforcement mechanisms, even when the threats made don’t rise to the level of federal crimes.

Threats against board members are not hypotheticals. As the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported, School Board Chair Shirley Brown has had protesters outside her home, calling her a “tyrant” for backing a mask rule and calling for her resignation.

Even as the Department of Justice moves to thwart pandemic-era school board activism, expect that school board races will be cauldrons of conflict in 2022, if the words of both DeSantis and Scott are a guide. DeSantis has vowed to get his “political apparatus” involved, and Scott has urged Republicans to challenge in those races.