Sen. Cruz Challenges Biden’s DOJ Civil Rights Nominee on History of Radical Ideology

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senate Democrats are rubber stamping President Biden's radical nominees that are fulfilling partisan promises made to the far-Left, and President Biden's nomination of Kristen Clarke to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division is another example of just that. Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary, questioned Clarke on her ability to lead without partisan bias based on her career and radical ideology, including a previous op-ed calling for defunding the police. Watch the full exchange here and read excerpts below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz Challenges Biden's DOJ Civil Rights Nominee on History of Radical Ideological Partisanship

On Ms. Clarke's op-ed for Newsweek titled: ‘Defund the Police - but be Strategic,' Sen. Cruz asked:

"The title of your article was ‘Defund the Police.' But let's not just look to the title, your article begins by saying that the national protests we saw last year, ‘opened up space for transformative policy discussions.' You then continue to write, ‘into that space has surged a unifying call from the Black Lives Matter movement to defund the police.' Do you really believe defund the police is a unifying call?"

Ms. Clarke responded:

"I don't support defunding the police."

Sen. Cruz later continued, in part:

"You just said you don't support cutting funds from police. I find that astonishing, and Ms. Clarke, frankly, not credible because I'm holding the article you wrote, and I actually pulled out a highlighter and highlighted the beginning of each paragraph going through, and about midway through, you have a paragraph that says, ‘We must invest less in police and more in social workers.' The next paragraph is, ‘We must invest less in police and more in social support to our schools.' The next paragraph begins, ‘We must invest less in police and more mental health aid.' Three paragraphs in your article, you begin with the words, ‘We must invest less in police,' and you just told this committee under oath you don't support investing less in police. How do you square those?"

Ms. Clarke responded:

"If I may, Senator, I support the fact that President Biden is committing 300 million new dollars for the cops programs, 300 million new dollars for resources to the police. I wrote that op-ed without having the power of the purse strings behind me and talked about how we can allocate a limited pool of resources in a more effective way."

Sen. Cruz continued:

"So, do you believe you were wrong last year when you called for defunding the police and investing less in the police?"

Ms. Clarke responded:

"That's a poor title chosen by the editor."

Sen. Cruz continued:

"It's not just the title. It's your text. ‘We must invest less in police.' Three paragraphs you begin with those words. You wrote those words. Do you agree with those words today?"

Ms. Clarke concluded:

"Without the power of the purse string, I wrote those words, but President Biden is committing more resources to police. And I think that's a great thing, Senator."

Read what they are saying about Sen. Cruz's line of questioning below.

Daily Wire: WATCH: Ted Cruz Grills Biden DOJ Nominee For Allegedly Organizing Event That Celebrated Cop Killers
"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Kristen Clarke, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the civil rights division of the Department of Justice, during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday over her controversial past. 'Your advocacy and frankly, extreme position on defunding the police is paired with a history of not only excusing, but celebrating, murderers who have murdered police officers,' Cruz said. ‘It's been reported that during law school you helped organize a conference with speakers who referred to convicted cop killers as ‘political prisoners.' This included Mumia Abu-Jamal, who murdered a Philadelphia police officer, and Assata Shakur, who was convicted of murdering a New Jersey state trooper, escaped from prison, and is on the FBI's most-wanted list.' ‘Did you organize the conference and do you support celebrating those who murder police officers as heroes and political prisoners?' he asked. Clarke said that the conference was organized by a ‘noted historian' and that she was ‘a student providing support for the institute, working on a range of projects.' She said that she does not celebrate the loss of life. ‘So if you say you didn't organize the conference, why did multiple speakers at the conference thank you by name for inviting them to speak at the conference?' Cruz pressed. ‘Because I was a hardworking student that made sure people were fed, mailed out invitations, provided the agenda,' she responded. ‘I was a student providing logistical support to a notable historian who was the one who organized that conference.' 'So, if there is a police officer in Philadelphia or New Jersey today watching this hearing, how are they supposed to react to your nomination to one of the senior positions of the Department of Justice, knowing that as a student you participated in a conference celebrating and lionizing cop killers who murdered a Philadelphia police officer and a New Jersey state trooper?' Cruz asked. ‘How should a cop today watching this react to that news?'"

National Review: Biden DOJ Nominee Kristen Clarke Grilled Over ‘Defund the Police' Op-Ed
"At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Kristen Clarke, President Biden's nominee to serve as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, was repeatedly pressed over a 2020 Newsweek op-ed in which Clarke endorsed proposals to ‘defund the police.' ‘I do not support defunding the police,' Clarke said in response to a question from Texas GOP senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday. ‘The impetus for writing that op-ed was to make clear that I do not support defunding the police." She added that she merely wanted to "channel resources to places such as mental health treatment" and reiterated: ‘I don't support taking away resources from police.' Clarke blamed editors for choosing a poor headline for the op-ed (‘I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police-But Be Strategic'). But Cruz correctly noted that Clarke had written three separate times in the body of the 2020 op-ed that ‘we must invest less in police' and more in social services."

Washington Times: Kristen Clarke, DOJ nominee, says she doesn't support defunding police, despite her op-ed
"She appeared at the hearing with Todd Kim, Mr. Biden's pick for assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. 'I do not support defunding the police,' Ms. Clarke said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ms. Clarke last year authored an op-ed for Newsweek, titled 'I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police - but Be Strategic.' ‘I advocate for defunding policing operations that have made African Americans more vulnerable to police violence and contributed to mass incarceration while investing in more programs and policies that address critical community needs,' she wrote. Republicans on the committee pressed Ms. Clarke how she could claim she didn't support defunding the police, after calling for it in an op-ed. ‘Do you disagree with your article?' asked Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican. Ms. Clarke insisted the article was authored to "make clear" she does not support defunding the police. Mr. Cruz called her response "astonishing and not credible." The senator continued to read three paragraphs from the article that began, ‘We must invest less in police.' ‘Without the power of the purse string, I wrote those words, but President Biden is committing more resources to police, and I think that's a great thing.' Ms. Clarke blamed the editor for choosing a 'poor title' for the op-ed."

The Hill: Biden's DOJ civil rights nominee faces sharp GOP criticism
"At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans criticized Clarke's advocacy as a civil rights leader on policing and voting rights. ‘As I look to your record, I see the record of someone who has spent a career as a partisan advocate,' said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz and other conservatives hammered her on an op-ed that she wrote in Newsweek last year following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, that included the progressive talking point "defund the police.' Clarke denied that she believed in defunding the police and said that her column was intended to advocate for investing in initiatives that would make law enforcement's job easier while promoting public safety."

Epoch Times: Biden Civil Rights Nominee Says She Does ‘Not Support Defunding the Police'
"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), asked Clarke about her op-ed in Newsweek, headlined: ‘I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police-But Be Strategic.' ‘Do you still believe it is a good idea to defund the police?' Cruz asked. ‘I do not support defunding the police,' Clarke replied, adding that 'the impetus for writing that op-ed was to make clear that I do not support defunding the police.' She added that she argued for resources to be channeled to areas like mental health aid in order to "alleviate some of the burdens that we place on the doorstep of law enforcement. [...] She argued in the article for the need to be "smart and strategic about how and where we look to ‘defund the police.' At the same time, she wrote that ‘defund the police' had become ‘a unifying call from the Black Lives Matter movement," something that Cruz took issue with. ‘Do you really believe that ‘defund the police' is a unifying call?' he asked. She responded by reiterating that she doesn't support defunding the police, adding that she sought, in the article, to "provide a different perspective.' ‘I don't support taking resources from the police and putting communities in harm's way,' she added. Cruz said he found her response ‘astonishing' and ‘frankly, not credible,' before quoting from the article her words: ‘we must invest less in police.' ‘You just told this committee that you don't support investing less in police. How do you square those?' Cruz said."

Breitbart: Kristen Clarke Questioned About ‘Defund the Police' Op-Ed
"Kristen Clarke, President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as assistant attorney general over the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, faced scrutiny at a hearing on Wednesday for a past op-ed she penned calling to 'defund the police' and her unwillingness to recognize justification in some police-involved shootings. Clarke's controversial opinion piece, titled ‘I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police-But Be Strategic,' was published by Newsweek in 2020. Republicans at the hearing who intensively questioned Clarke, who now claims she does not want to defund the police, include Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). ‘I do not support defunding the police,' Clarke said in response to a question from Cruz. ‘The impetus for writing that op-ed was to make clear that I do not support defunding the police.' According to Clarke, her motive was to 'channel resources to places such as mental health treatment,' telling the senators she does not 'support taking away resources from police.' Cruz was quick to refer to Clarke's piece, which noted three separate times throughout the body that 'we must invest less in police.' ‘I wrote that op-ed without having the power of the purse-string behind me,' Clarke replied, suggesting she now supports funding local police departments. Cotton questioned Clarke about the 2014 officer-involved shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri."

National Review: Biden DOJ Nominee Kristen Clarke Grilled Over ‘Defund the Police' Op-Ed
"At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Kristen Clarke, President Biden's nominee to serve as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, was repeatedly pressed over a 2020 Newsweek op-ed in which Clarke endorsed proposals to ‘defund the police.' ‘I do not support defunding the police,' Clarke said in response to a question from Texas GOP senator Ted Cruz on Wednesday. ‘The impetus for writing that op-ed was to make clear that I do not support defunding the police.' She added that she merely wanted to 'channel resources to places such as mental health treatment' and reiterated: ‘I don't support taking away resources from police.' Clarke blamed editors for choosing a poor headline for the op-ed (‘I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police-But Be Strategic'). But Cruz correctly noted that Clarke had written three separate times in the body of the 2020 op-ed that "we must invest less in police" and more in social services."

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