Three GOP lawmakers are demanding an answer from the Biden administration after several conservative organizations were likened to domestic terrorists.
The Department of Homeland Security bestowed a $352,109 research grant to the University of Dayton’s Human Rights Center to “study” domestic terrorism.”
According to the DHS, the funding allows for colleges and institutions, along with state, local, and territorial governments to study and prevent terrorism.
The weaponization of the federal government
🚨BREAKING MRC REPORT🚨 Biden’s DHS uses your tax dollars to weaponize against Christians, conservatives, and the GOP https://t.co/fHbtKX4EW1
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) May 25, 2023
The controversy comes after a report corralled groups like Fox News, Breitbart News, PragerU, the Heritage Foundation, and the RNC with Nazis. The report was published by the Conservative Media Research Center.
The college branded the groups as gateways to radicalization and extremist violence, displaying them over a pyramid graphic with neo-Nazis at the top.
Secretary Mayorkas must answer my questions in full.
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) June 4, 2023
He must also justify why a multi-million dollar counter-terrorism program designed to prevent the next Osama Bin Laden is being used to prey on innocuous conservatives. https://t.co/2Z86LT9uaN
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs responded to the findings by dispatching a letter, cosigned by Reps. Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna, to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the inherent bias behind the grant program.
A Danger to the First Amendment
Biggs called out the initiative taken by the DHS as an unconstitutional attack on free speech. He pointed out how the First Amendment of the Constitution prevents the federal government from using third-party means to attack speech.
Historically, Biggs drew upon the record of the Biden administration attacking free speech, such as with the Disinformation Governance Board and using social media outlets to suppress content.
Further, Biggs called upon Mayorkas to fulfill his duty to the Constitution by stopping the un-American targeting of diverse viewpoints.
He also noted that Michael Loadenthal, a research fellow at the Dayton Center, called the report’s graphic an accurate depiction of the modern American Right and conservatism.
Loadenthal is a self-proclaimed member of Antifa.
Biggs makes it clear that the DHS under no circumstance should be supporting institutions that assist in encouraging civil unrest.
This article appeared in The Political Globe and has been published here with permission.
