In the Pennsylvania case discussed during the segment, the Justice Department alleges that the defendant “twice assaulted a man because he was a volunteer reproductive health care clinic escort,” causing injuries that required medical attention for the 72-year-old victim.
Fox anchor Shannon Bream says it’s “just not good optics” for DOJ to arrest suspect who allegedly assaulted an elderly man outside abortion clinic
Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth suggests the DOJ and the FBI have been “weaponized” because they’re charging election deniers and abortion opponents for breaking the law
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From the September 25, 2022, edition of Fox & Friends Weekend
WILL CAIN (CO-HOST): So, let’s talk about this case for just a moment, Shannon. You know, here we have the statute, the law that is being applied here. I think the question for everybody is selective application, is discretion, and deployment of resources: 25 agents to apply this law — which, by the way, I think he’d been sued in civil court by the same abortion activist, and it got thrown out. So now, here we have the FBI, the DOJ, pursuing criminal charges. Why?
SHANNON BREAM (ANCHOR, FOX NEWS SUNDAY): Well, remember we’ve heard from this administration that they were going to take very seriously any threats to abortion clinics, to abortion providers. They have also said in the wake of more than a hundred attacks of vandalism, arson, those kinds of things on pro-life centers, or religious groups that are pro-life, that they were going to crack down on those, as well.
But to play this out, the optics of this are not great for the Biden administration, and it does beg the question of what most average Americans, I think, whether they would describe themselves as pro-choice, pro-life, or just nowhere on the issue. Showing up when you know who this man is, you know he has seven young children at the house. Do you need 25 armed agents to do that? I think the DOJ’s going to have to answer those questions, because it’s just not good optics for them. Even if by the law, legally, they’re doing everything by the book, you know the criticism that’s out there about overplaying your hand with some of these arrests, and making examples out of people. While people wait for any arrests on the attacks on the pro-life clinics, you might have wanted to massage this a little differently. I’m guessing this guy, if you had told him, “You’re going to be facing some charges, you need to turn yourself in” —
PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): Yes.
BREAM: Then he probably would have.
PETE HEGSETH: And that seems to be standard protocol in most cases, that they simply could’ve asked him. Shannon, the bigger “why?” here is the fear of the weaponization of the DOJ and the FBI. This idea that domestic extremism is the biggest threat — we’ve heard that from political leaders time and time again. So, could domestic extremism be described as being pro-life or a pro-life activist? We saw it with Mike Lindell and others who don’t believe the 2020 election was above board. You see it with January 6. So, Will talked about a couple hours before, ultimately, what you decide to prosecute is at the discretion of people at the very top. And they've certainly focused on one side of the spectrum, it seems.
BREAM: It would appear that way to people, when you hear about cases like this. And there is a lot of prosecutorial discretion out there. So, how about this group, Jane’s Revenge, that has claimed responsibility for more than a dozen attacks -- whether it’s people taking their name onto it, whether they themselves — you saw what they posted online, they made very specific threats, they used very specific language, it was not vague, about going after these pro-life or, you know, pregnancy care centers. How about tracking some of those folks down and making some arrests there? At least in a good faith show that you are — they say they're investigating — but to show that you are worried about people whose places have been set on fire, that they have been vandalized, that people have been threatened. I think it would go a long way to encouraging people to believe that you are going to prosecute down the middle, regardless of who is doing the wrongdoing or alleged wrongdoing.
RACHEL CAMPOS DUFFY (CO-HOST): Yeah. Tucker Carlson had a New Jersey mom on, who some neighbor, you know, turned her in for supposedly being at the January 6 rally — she wasn’t — they showed up at her door. I mean, this is becoming really scary stuff, and I think it has a really chilling effect on anyone who opposes this administration, which is, frankly, half the country. It’s scary.