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MINOT, N.D. — As a matter of policy and governing philosophy, President Joe Biden was never going to be the sort of leader I could support. I'm a conservative; he's a liberal.
Still, I held out hope that his administration could usher in a return to normalcy, much like President Warren Harding promised for post-World War I America.
Unfortunately, like Harding, Biden seems doomed to fail.
We have learned today that a controversial letter sent by the National School Boards Association to the Biden administration was done so at the behest of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
That letter described parent-led protests at school board meetings across the nation as potential hate crimes and acts of domestic terrorism. The letter asked the Biden administration to investigate the protests for potential violations of the Patriot Act.
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The Biden administration obliged. Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into the protests .
Why wouldn't he?
As we know now, the letter from the NSBA was requested by a member of Biden's cabinet. White House officials coordinated with the NSBA on the content of the letter. That the Biden administration was going to act on a letter they instigated was a given.
This is inexcusable.
Secretary Cardona must resign.
Garland should resign.
If President Biden was aware of this orchestration, he ought to be impeached.
We just lived through four years of the Trump administration abusing its authority. We're still living with the disgraced former president's ongoing efforts to undermine our democracy by insisting that he's the legitimately elected national leader.
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That is challenging enough without the in-power administration manufacturing an excuse to send federal law enforcement after parents protesting education policy.
Whatever you might have thought about those protests at school board meetings -- and I thought many of them were overwrought, inspired by exaggeration and hyperbole, and featuring behavior unbecoming from adults — powerful federal officials using back channels to a friendly advocacy group to create an excuse to treat parents and activists like domestic terrorists is inexcusable.
This is disgraceful.
Before you left-of-center readers rush to defend the president, remember that Biden spent much of his campaign for the White House, and the bulk of his first year in office, talking about restoring the trust of the American people.
I ask you, how does this restore trust? How does this give Americans confidence that their government is acting in good faith?
You don't get to make excuses for this because you think the critical race theory thing is a non-issue, or because you found the people protesting at school board meetings to be insufferable deplorables.
Biden promised to do better.
He's not doing better.
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That's a problem for every American.
