One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard a member of Congress say was Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) urging Democrats upset with the Republican agenda to “file a hurt feelings report and move on.”
GOP LA Sen Kennedy on Fox on Schumer/Barrett nomination: Right now Chuck is kind of like a teenager he’s mad at everybody. We’re going to confirm Judge Barrett. Senator Schumer needs to fill out a hurt feelings report and move on.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 22, 2020
Democrats filing such reports is a fairly common occurrence on Capitol Hill, as evidenced by an exchange between Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland” – including those at the Southern border.
The witnesses for the hearing were Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid.
It was the embattled Mayorkas who was on the hot seat most of all with Republican committee members, including McCaul, who during his opening remarks quoted U.S. Code and point-blank accused Mayorkas of “aiding and abetting” drug cartels and human trafficking at the border:
Who are the nearly 200 individuals on the terror watchlist who tried to enter the US this past year? It's time the Biden admin provide that crucial information to Texas' @GovAbbott & to @HomelandGOP — like the admin did when I was chairman.
— Michael McCaul (@RepMcCaul) November 15, 2023
My full remarks from today's hearing⬇️ pic.twitter.com/PROdG4PXHY
It’s something McCaul has accused the Biden administration of before, but this time around, Goldman decided to file a hurt feelings report over it, telling McCaul during the hearing that he found it “incredibly dangerous” that McCaul would accuse Mayorkas of intentionally committing crimes, saying it was a “very serious” and “unwarranted” allegation to make.
Goldman also threw in the fact that McCaul, himself, and Mayorkas were all at one time federal prosecutors, suggesting he should know better than to make the accusation.
In response, McCaul – who maintained his cool as as-a-cucumber stance throughout – told Goldman in so many words that unlike him, he (McCaul) lived in a border state and had been working to resolve the border crisis issues for 25 years but had “never seen it” as bad as it is now, and that he was unpersuaded by Goldman’s rebuke.
McCaul also threw the prosecutor card back in Goldman’s face, telling him and Mayorkas that they both “knew better” than to defend/uphold the new border policies under Joe Biden that were in effect endangering millions of people and getting hundreds of thousands hooked on dangerous drugs, with some of them dying or being killed in the process.
Watch:
.@RepMcCaul responds to @RepDanGoldman saying that criticisms of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas are "unwarranted:"
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) November 15, 2023
"I live in a border state – you don't." pic.twitter.com/8FrIjKQ44X
I’m far from a legal expert, but even if Mayorkas isn’t technically “aiding and abetting” under the legal definition of the term there’s certainly a moral argument that can be made in the court of public opinion that it’s exactly what he’s doing. The disturbing pictures that we see, the horrifying stories that are reported, and the records that keep getting broken at the border in terms of the sheer volume of illegals crossing are all proof enough as far as I’m concerned.
