'Special Report' All-Star Panel on DOJ's 'war' on parents after conflicts in school board meetings

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Mollie Hemingway calls out the ‘unconscionable’ war on American parents

‘Special Report’ All-Star panel discusses the controversy around DOJ’s new effort to combat threats of violence against school officials.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," October 5, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON, (R-AR): Is it domestic extremism for a parent to advocate for their child's best interests?

LISA MONACO, DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: No, I would not describe that as domestic extremism.

COTTON: Is waiting to express one's view at a school board meeting harassment and intimidation?

MONACO: As the attorney general's memorandum made quite clear, spirited debate is welcome. When and if any situation turns to violence, then that is the appropriate role of law enforcement to address it.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, (R-MO): You are attempting to intimidate them. You are attempting to silence them. You are attempting to interfere with their right as parents, and, yes, with their rights as voters. This is wrong. This is dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: Let's bring in our panel and see what they think, Harold Ford Jr., former Tennessee Congressman, CEO of Empowerment and Inclusion Capital, Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at "The Federalist," and Guy Benson, political editor at Townhall.com, and host of "The Guy Benson Show" on FOX News Radio. Great to see all of you.

I will start with the agreement point that I think we all agree. Anything that crosses into violence is unacceptable. In many places it's criminal and illegal, but this is what we are talking about now today. From the DOJ, the memo says "threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation's core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety." Mollie, what do you make of it?

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": It's just amazing what the Department of Justice and FBI will do and what they won't do. Last year we had a series of violent riots that cost $2 billion worth of damage, killed dozens of people, attacked the White House, federal courthouses, police precincts, hundreds of American businesses. And the Department of Justice and FBI were basically nowhere to be found. You mentioned earlier tonight about how little they did with the gymnast coach, who you had credible reports of him raping people, and the FBI was nowhere to be found.

And yet, here, when parents very reasonably are concerned about all sorts of things that have been happening in their school, whether it's teaching their students -- teaching their own children to hate other people based on their race or to think that they're victims who can never succeed because of their race, or that the country is systematically racist a way that is irredeemable, of course parents are going to want to weigh in on that. And to intimidate them and to declare war on American parents particularly when the FBI and DOJ have been nowhere to be found on issues where they actually were needed is just unconscionable. A politicization of our DOJ that is not tenable.

BREAM: So I want to play a little bit from a board meeting, one of these school board meetings that we keep hearing so much about, and a little bit more of the debate on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: No more masks! No more masks! No more masks!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to adjourn this meeting.

BETSY DEVOS, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: There is no place for physical violence anywhere for anyone. But there's also no place for intimidating parents from speaking their mind and caring about their kids' education and their futures.

REP. KEN BUCK, (R-CO): Justice should not be used to attack a group of people expressing their opinions at school board meetings. That's political speech that needs to be protected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: It's gotten heated, Harold, but do you worry that this may be an attempt to chill some parents' speech?

HAROLD FORD JR., FORMER TENNESSEE REPRESENTATIVE: First, thanks for having me on. I hope it doesn't chill anyone from sharing their views. We should all remember that most school boards across the country are elected. There are some that are controlled by city government or the mayors or the county executives in those areas. But I think the instances we are talking about here are elected members of the school board. So we, as voters, have every right to vote them out of office. That's the ultimate powerful expression of whether we agree with or disagree with.

I think we have now gotten to a very delicate balance here. And I would side with Mollie on a lot of what she said and disagree with some. Whenever you threaten someone who is in public office, whenever you try to exact violence on someone to impose your political view, whether it's a view I agree with or disagree with, that's wrong. And I think what the Justice Department is trying to achieve, trying to achieve here is to say that the violence and the threats are wrong. All of the dissent, all of the debate, we should welcome that, whatever side of the wall you fall on on any of these issues that are being debated.

But I don't think any person, be they conservative or liberal, be they Democrat or Republican, if they are an elected official, the way you really act against an elected official is to vote that person out of office, not to threaten them with violence or threaten their family with retribution.

BREAM: Meantime, Guy, a lot of folks will point to local ordinances, state laws that do ban and prohibit threats and violence already. They are on the books.

GUY BENSON, POLITICAL EDITOR, TOWNHALL.COM: Yes, there is no place for violence. There's no place for threats. There's no place for going to someone's private home or their family's home, for example. There's no place for hounding or chasing someone into a bathroom while filming them, to pick another example at complete random. There are certain bright lines in our politics that should not be crossed.

And if they are crossed, especially on the criminal side, I have no problem with law enforcement getting involved, particularly at the local level. I don't understand why the federal government and the Department of Justice and the FBI needs to be involved in this potential problem at all. I feel like if there are people issuing threats or engage in violence, that is something for law enforcement to deal with. Of course, it's totally unacceptable and serious.

But I worry about with the feds getting involved and the attorney general from this administration sort of wading into this is that this is an attempt to delegitimize the legitimate complaints that many parents have with school boards, with teachers' unions, and others, and to say well, because there might be some threat and some violence elsewhere, now this is a federal law enforcement matter, so you better contain yourself, restrain yourself, maybe think twice about showing up and making your voice heard at a school board meeting, for example. I think that that is significant overreach.

BREAM: I want to touch on the Facebook whistleblower today as well, play a little bit of the clips from her today and then get a quick comment from each of you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCES HAUGEN, FORMER FACEBOOK PROJECT MANAGER: Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy. The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.

Kids who are bullied on Instagram, the bullying follows them home. The last time they see before they go to bed at night is someone being cruel to them. Facebook is stuck in a feedback loop that they cannot get out of. They have been hiding this information because they feel trapped. They need to admit they did something wrong and they need to help solve these problem. And that's what moral bankruptcy is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BREAM: Quickly, we'll work our way back, Guy, then Harold, and Mollie.

BENSON: Look, I think Facebook has some real serious questions to answer. I think oversight and accountability are both appropriate ends here. However, I do have some questions about how much of this might be politically motivated. And when we start wading into the misinformation wars, that's where I get a little bit nervous.

BREAM: Harold?

FORD: This whistleblower, her testimony was plainspoken, stunningly compelling, and, frankly, it puts Facebook on its edges. And the other thing that Facebook has to worry about, this is bipartisan. That entire committee, Republican and Democrat alike, all side to not only oversight but new regulations.

HEMINGWAY: There is every reason to be suspicious about this. This is Democratic information operation. It's being run by a Democratic P.R. firm. And we already know that tech companies have been colluding with the Democratic Party to suppress conservative speech, and that's what's happening here. And people need to be on guard about what they're being asked to do in response to this alleged whistleblower.

BREAM: Thank you, panel. When we come back, we will get your headlines for tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BREAM: Finally tonight, a look at tomorrow's headlines. We kick it off with Harold.

FORD: Thanks, Shannon. Mine is Bubba makes history. Bubba Wallace becomes the second African American win a NASCAR Cup series race in a car owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin. Congrats to NASCAR and him.

BREAM: All right, Guy?

BENSON: Shannon, my headline is Senate Republicans hold firm on debt ceiling vote as promised, and Democrats mull next steps.

BREAM: Mollie?

HEMINGWAY: Yes, after calling for the cancellation of Christmas again, somehow Anthony Fauci still has his job.

BREAM: Well, and hopefully we all still have Christmas. Panel, thank you very much. Great to see you tonight.

Tomorrow on SPECIAL REPORT, part two of Bret's interview with former Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott. We have got more information on that. And plus a little bit of news, it sounds like, coming from President Biden as saying that possibly there could be a one-time change to Senate rules to prevent a filibuster of legislation to suspend the debt limit, saying that moments ago. We'll have more throughout, that news on FOX News tonight.

Thank you for watching SPECIAL REPORT. I'm Shannon Bream. I'll have more on that on FOX NEWS AT NIGHT at midnight eastern, 9:00 pacific. "FOX NEWS PRIMETIME" hosted by Ben Domenech starts right now. Hey, Ben.

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