Fox Business host Lou Dobbs slammed Republicans who joined House Democrats to reauthorize the FISA Court, saying it made his “blood boil.”
Dobbs vented about the 278-136 vote to reauthorize the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court process with Andrew McCarthy, former Assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, during Wednesday’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
(Source: Fox Business)
“We don’t know whether we can call them reforms yet. There were no committee hearings or public discussion whatsoever. This secret court, a Soviet-like court system for the surveillance of supposedly foreigners on our soil. But it turns out to be a Soviet-style court system used in a Soviet-style way,” Dobbs said.
He mocked Attorney General William Barr’s comments applauding the resolution for “addressing past failures,” saying Americans still don;t know what those failures were.
“We haven’t seen a report. We haven’t seen anyone held to account for the fraudulent use of those courts,” Dobbs said.
“My blood boils to think that the attorney general and Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican-controlled Senate and [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy and a number of his colleagues in the House voted with the Democrats to simply move this aside, effectively in the dead of night without a public hearing or a discussion or dialogue with the American people, and ignoring the president’s demand for reform before it’s reauthorized,” Dobbs said.
“This is a shoddy, sorry moment, I think,” he added, asking for his guest’s reaction.
“I’m going to respectfully disagree with you on that, Lou,” McCarthy replied.
“What was at stake here was not FISA reform,” he added. “You are not going to get FISA reform unless somebody has an appetite to deal with what is actually wrong with FISA which is that it’s not a judicial responsibility. I quite agree with you on what you said about the court system. The court system is a travesty…If you want to reform what’s wrong with FISA you have to go to the structure of FISA.”
He proceeded to explain the three surveillance provisions that were set to expire Sunday that were at issue in the move to pass the legislation which also requires the attorney general to personally sign off on any surveillance of government officials.
Dobbs responded by saying he disagreed with McCarthy.
“I think right now that this creates a channel to proceed that ignores all that has occurred to this point, which is over three years of abuse of the FISA court system,” he said.
“It shows that the attorney general and Christopher Wray think that they somehow should have the power to tell every American we’re going to pat you on the head, trust us. This ignorance has got to stop. I don’t care what you want to call it,” Dobbs contended.
“If you want to rip in whole cloth the entire FISA court system from our government, I would be just as happy. But to be told that we are not going to have public hearings, we are not going to have a report on all that has been — all the wrongs done by the FBI at the top, the Justice Department. This is ignorance!” an exasperated Dobbs added.
“And for it to be tolerated by the American people – and particularly the Republican Party which has, with this president been the most seriously egregiously injured,” Dobbs said. “The American people have been insulted. Now to have the chief law enforcement officer say everything will be fine. Hell, no, it’s not fine! And it’s time for everybody to grow up and understand that.”
He later slammed “reckless prosecutors” and called out the Justice Department as “a hideous place where truth goes to die.”
“This is sickening what we are witnessing,” he said, adding he is often told there are “good people” in the FBI and the Justice Department.
“I ask, where the hell are they? Where are the whistleblowers? Where are the people who knew damn well what was going on as this president is attacked and good people were injured?” he asked.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
