This week, DHS Secretary Mayorkas and FBI Director Christoper Wray were supposed to show up and testify for the year-end Senate hearings.
Both decided to skip the public hearing, saying they would feel better about doing a classified behind-closed-doors meeting.
The snub was so bad and so unprecedented, even Democrat Senators were livid.
The Snub
Just hours before the two men were scheduled to testify, the committee was informed that they would not be showing up.
A spokesperson for the administration stated, “DHS and the FBI have offered to the Committee a classified briefing to discuss the threats to the Homeland.”
Needless to say, Republican senators went off right away.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) stated, “The American people deserve to hold these officials accountable for their actions under the Biden Administration.”
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) piled on, stating, “They are cowards. Mayorkas must face the American people and answer for his historic failures that allowed for two assassination attempts on [President-elect Donald Trump] and created a wide-open border with terrorists, criminals, and deadly drugs like fentanyl pouring into our communities.
“America is less safe because of him.”
Senator Hawley (R-MO) added, “Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray’s refusal to testify publicly today in the Senate is an outrage — and a brazen attempt to avoid oversight for the political abuses at FEMA, the FBI, and more.”
On the other side of the aisle, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Committee, went off.
He stated that this was “a shocking departure from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation,” noting it was “the first time in more than 15 years” that a US homeland security secretary and FBI director refused to testify at the annual hearing.
“Their choice to not provide public testimony about their departments’ efforts to address wide-ranging national security threats robs the American people of critical information and the opportunity for public accountability of what the federal government is doing to keep Americans safe.”
Remember when Joe Biden promised this would be the most transparent administration in modern history?
I think it is fair to say that he has fallen well short of that promise during his term.
