FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday expressed growing concern
about rising extremist violence in the United States driven by several
recent big political events.
I'm sure you have no idea what that could possibly mean.
So in an oversight hearing Thursday before the Senate judiciary committee,
Ray bluntly laid out his assertion that political violence is on the rise
in the United States.
But he was unwilling to pin the violence on one side or the other or
even on one issue in particular.
He pointed both to ongoing election related disputes from 2020 as
well as anger following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe versus Wade for
this uptick in violence by and against Americans.
So he said in this testimony that, quote, I feel like every day I'm getting briefed
on somebody throwing a molotov cocktail at someone for some issue, it's crazy.
But people are acting like he has in fact chosen which side he's on and
which side he thinks is more violent.
Including Texas Senator Ted Cruz who focused in in this hearing on
a list of symbols that the FBI has deemed expressions of violence.
So Newsweek reports that the Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide,
which was obtained by far-right organization Project Veritas
includes common images such as the Betsy Ross flag and
earlier design of the US flag that features 13 stars instead of 50,
the Gadsden flag, the Gonzales Battle flag, and the Liberty Tree.
So Ted Cruz has a very close physical relationship with this
Gonzalez Battle flag that I think we have a photo of we can show you here.
It is one of these symbols that is on this list Project Veritas released.
And the Senator is going to really great lengths to defend this exact symbol.
So let's take a look at his most recent meltdown.
>> Also included on this as a text that I was particularly
struck is the Gonzalez Battle flag, come and take it,
as indicative of being a violent extremist militia.
Well I will self report right now that every day in the Senate I wear my boots
that have the Gonzalez Battle flag on the back of them.
Director Ray, what are y'all doing?
>> So Ray responded that he didn't recognize this particular easel that Cruz
had brought in and that he was referencing.
But the FBI goes to great lengths to provide context and
nuance when they released warnings like this.
So on the one hand we've got the Director of the FBI talking about a clear
uptick in politically motivated violence.
And then on the other hand we've got Ted Cruz saying that
the definition of violence is downright ridiculous.
So what do we think here?
I'll throw it to you, Jayar, are we buying Cruz's defense here?
>> [LAUGH] His defense, it's more of like an aggression is more what it is.
And that's really the whole point of Ted Cruz and these types of things, and
really most Republicans when it comes to whether or
not they're talking about how oppressed they are in their violence and
their anger and their desire to spread it to more and more people.
So you're gonna slam a boot on the, I wear this every day.
Well now everybody has to smell your socks under the table or
you weren't wearing that boot and you're just doing this as another prop.
Maybe it's because we work in production and we actually see things get set up, and
we're in LA, maybe, I don't know, maybe we're exposed to the fact that so
much fakeness in everything that these folks do.
All these guys are actors, they're just on the other side of the country.
So he's gonna slam his boot on the table and
that sticker that he got printed down at the Staples this morning and
slapped it on the back of his boot and said, I wear this every day.
And you think somebody wouldn't have talked about him wearing that
filthy boots every day into the Senate without anyone noticing it before, but
he has to make this political demonstration.
So everyone thinks, man,
Ted Cruz is a badass, he wears that battle flag on the back of his boots every day.
What does that do for you?
What does that mean?
It means don't, what does it say, come and take it.
Because that's the way to prove that you're not part of a violent approach to
politics anymore and you're not inspiring others to think, hey, you know what,
I'm gonna rise up against this country cuz I have a AR15.
And you know what, I'm gonna start shooting everybody,
because that's the thought process so many people that people like Ted Cruz inspire
to think they can do with their guns.
And instead they shoot themselves in the foot or their wife or their kids or
then someone else they got mad at in a road rage incident,
that's how these things work.
But Ted Cruz doesn't care, he doesn't care that there's extremism going across
the board throughout our country.
What Ted Cruz cares about is his political expediency in getting to that next step.
I'm not sure if he's gonna run for president again, but
that was embarrassing enough the first time.
But slamming boots on the table and acting like a badass,
I guess he thinks is the next step coming back.
>> My God, yeah, the extremism point's very important to get home.
I want to get to that in a moment.
But Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz doing the boot thing,
he's a person we've known to expect a lot of animation from and
a lot of theatrics, but that boot anecdote sent me on one.
So people have known that he's worn boots in Congress for a while,
he has talked about this during one of the Obama filibusters back in the height
of the Tea Party days during like 2012 or whatever.
But what I think is the weirdest thing is his fixation with boots.
He once said a vote for Marco Rubio is a vote for men's high heeled booties.
That's what Ted Cruz, sorry,
Ted Cruz's Communications Director said about Marco Rubio at one point.
So he's got this weird boot interest what's to say.
But Ted Cruz is all about fanatics,
even people on the right are kind of sick of when he does this.
What are these theatrics for?
What is this lame attempt at trying to get the FBI director in a gotcha moment for?
It's for Ted Cruz and a lot of prominent Republicans to establish a narrative
that this rise in political violence and any effort to fight back in this political
violence is actually government overreach targeting conservatives.
It's government overreach targeting things that conservatives and
symbols that conservatives like to ally with.
Ted Cruz is well aware there's this middle ground,
it's like a shaky territory between the extreme right wing and
the moderate center of the party, quote unquote, and what symbols they like.
And he's willing to play within those waters for cheap political credit and
maybe an attempt to win an election down the line, whether it's for Senate or
the presidency.
But it's really sick and disgusting what he's doing because he's playing with fire,
he's playing with extremism.
And we know, by paying attention to the stuff, that this has downstream effects
for people on the left and marginalized groups.
>> Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I'm glad you pointed that out because actually a little bit later in his
testimony, Ray basically details that he's on these weekly calls
with sheriff's departments and local police departments.
And they are just nonstop talking about the violent crime and
there's communities and and how just these police departments are struggling.
And you hit the nail on the head, Dan, when you said the overreach, if there
is to be an overreach and a backlash to violence, politically based violence.
It's not going to be targeting conservatives in Texas, or
it might be in certain cities, but it's definitely not this remember the Alamo
type situation where conservatives have to get their arsenal ready.
It's going to be largely in cities, largely to communities of color.
And so, yeah, you're absolutely right.
He is weaponizing this moment and creating a backlash that
is never even going to affect the people that he is talking about.
And that's infuriating to me, and then we continue the cycle of talking
about how crime is so much worse in different urban city communities.
And it's because people like Ted Cruz continue this narrative that
conservatives are just protecting the rule of law and things like that.
>> It's my last thought on this, Alyse, is so this trying to equate the two types of
things, cuz Christopher Ray was talking about how there's violence on both sides.
Folks are upset about the court ruling that struck down Roe versus Wade, so
they got violent.
And then other folks are mad about anything else they can generate to be mad
about cuz there's no actual policy that they're following behind,
and then they get mad about it.
And he equates the two as such a thing.
When one group has lost their rights and many of them are not violent, in fact, or
then some of the crimes that are committed maybe are property crimes and
things like that.
We're gonna be equate that when you literally have for the past several years,
specifically when Donald Trump was in office, this build up of all these militia
groups that specifically have the intent and purpose of trying to
overthrow the government or wait for the government to come and take something.
That's why there's a specific direction that Cruz took with that stupid boot when
he's talking about come and take it cuz that's inspiring those same groups.
But they need to be victims, they can't be these aggressors.
And at the same time these soft safe space libs they like to call,
somehow the violent ones, they never determine which one it is.
Are they soft and weak or are they violent, bloodthirsty and
ready to kill you?
It doesn't matter,
it just matches up with whatever they need to give that different narrative so
that those same folks can continue to feel this righteousness in their violence.
And until you're a Josh Hawley running for
your ass in the middle of the of the capital, you're all on board.
Then when they come, you're scared looking for
that safe space where those libs are hiding.
I can't stand these people.