TALLAHASSEE, FL – Florida governor and aspiring presidential nominee, Ron DeSantis, issued a vow to supporters that, if elected president, he would protect Catholics from the ostensible weaponization of the FBI.
Furthermore, the delivered oath to his supporters was also accompanied by a tacit threat to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s job security.
Over the past year, particularly in light of the federal indictment lodged against former president Donald Trump, the notion that the FBI has been weaponized against Conservative Americans (particularly those of Christian/Catholic faith) has been adopted as a somewhat mainstream concept by roughly half of the U.S. population.
In reality, while the talking point regarding the federal government weaponizing their law enforcement apparatus has only been mainstreamed in the past year or so, various circles in academia have been discussing how the FBI has been politically weaponized for nearly a century.
While the concept of dismantling the FBI’s perceived corruption racket could be construed as a tall, ostensibly insurmountable, effort, Governor DeSantis claims he can accomplish such if elected to the Executive.
Taking to social media in response to a piece from The Wall Street Journal titled “The FBI and ‘Radical Catholics,’” DeSantis wrote, “Our Founding Fathers knew that if you allow power to accumulate like they have in Washington, if you don’t hold these agencies Constitutionally accountable, they WILL abuse their power.”
The presidential hopeful continued from there, emphasizing that his administration would not “sit idly by and let them mobilize power against people of faith and people with whom they disagree,” further adding, “As President, I will defend religious liberty, stop the weaponization of our federal government once and for all, and I will fire Wray.”
The aforementioned Wall Street Journal opinion piece that sparked the comments from DeSantis pertains to an internal FBI memo that stirred controversy earlier in 2023, as the memo suggested the FBI should be monitoring Catholics as the agency believe the religious group is susceptible to acts of domestic extremism.
Despite the agency publicly rescinding the memo after it was leaked in early 2023, the damage was already done insofar as the public learning that the agency was using the likes of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) characterization of Catholics to imply traditional Catholics are inherently dangerous.
For the sake of context, the SPLC is notorious for smearing a myriad of Christian-adjacent churches, organizations, and institutions, likening those mentioned to hate groups like the KKK and even placing churches on the interactive “hate map” featured on their website.
The SPLC has even dubbed parental rights groups as being on the same wavelength as the KKK.
As Tyler O’Neil wrote this past February regarding the SPLC being used as motivational fodder for the FBI to target Catholics, “The FBI has no business citing the SPLC's discredited 'hate map,' which inspired a terrorist to target the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., in 2012.
The gunman told the FBI that he intended to shoot everyone in the building and smear Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches in their faces, sending a clear ideological message at a time when Chick-fil-A's foundation had come under fire for funding socially conservative organizations.”
Furthermore, the delivered oath to his supporters was also accompanied by a tacit threat to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s job security.
Over the past year, particularly in light of the federal indictment lodged against former president Donald Trump, the notion that the FBI has been weaponized against Conservative Americans (particularly those of Christian/Catholic faith) has been adopted as a somewhat mainstream concept by roughly half of the U.S. population.
In reality, while the talking point regarding the federal government weaponizing their law enforcement apparatus has only been mainstreamed in the past year or so, various circles in academia have been discussing how the FBI has been politically weaponized for nearly a century.
While the concept of dismantling the FBI’s perceived corruption racket could be construed as a tall, ostensibly insurmountable, effort, Governor DeSantis claims he can accomplish such if elected to the Executive.
Taking to social media in response to a piece from The Wall Street Journal titled “The FBI and ‘Radical Catholics,’” DeSantis wrote, “Our Founding Fathers knew that if you allow power to accumulate like they have in Washington, if you don’t hold these agencies Constitutionally accountable, they WILL abuse their power.”
The presidential hopeful continued from there, emphasizing that his administration would not “sit idly by and let them mobilize power against people of faith and people with whom they disagree,” further adding, “As President, I will defend religious liberty, stop the weaponization of our federal government once and for all, and I will fire Wray.”
The aforementioned Wall Street Journal opinion piece that sparked the comments from DeSantis pertains to an internal FBI memo that stirred controversy earlier in 2023, as the memo suggested the FBI should be monitoring Catholics as the agency believe the religious group is susceptible to acts of domestic extremism.
Despite the agency publicly rescinding the memo after it was leaked in early 2023, the damage was already done insofar as the public learning that the agency was using the likes of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) characterization of Catholics to imply traditional Catholics are inherently dangerous.
For the sake of context, the SPLC is notorious for smearing a myriad of Christian-adjacent churches, organizations, and institutions, likening those mentioned to hate groups like the KKK and even placing churches on the interactive “hate map” featured on their website.
The SPLC has even dubbed parental rights groups as being on the same wavelength as the KKK.
As Tyler O’Neil wrote this past February regarding the SPLC being used as motivational fodder for the FBI to target Catholics, “The FBI has no business citing the SPLC's discredited 'hate map,' which inspired a terrorist to target the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., in 2012.
The gunman told the FBI that he intended to shoot everyone in the building and smear Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches in their faces, sending a clear ideological message at a time when Chick-fil-A's foundation had come under fire for funding socially conservative organizations.”
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