During an address to DOJ employees, Garland fought back against threats made against them, which he said were spurred by “dangerous falsehoods” that the department is being weaponized for political purposes.

Garland said his department follows the Constitution, which “protects civil liberties.”

“That is what I want to talk about today — this workforce’s ironclad commitment to the principles of fairness and impartiality,” he added.

“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon,” Garland said. “And our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics.”

Gabbard shared that she found it “hard not to laugh” at Garland’s claims that federal agencies are “never” politicized with Fox News host Laura Ingraham. 

“This is what they are doing currently and what they have been doing for years, even going all the way back during President Trump’s administration,” Gabbard argued. 

The former Democrat-turned-Trump ally alleged that a day after saying Vice President Kamala Harris would be a danger to the United States if elected president, the Transportation Security Administration placed her on a “terror watch list.”

“I would tell Merrick Garland today, if you are serious about the words you have just delivered to the American people, why don’t you start by investigating some of your own federal agencies, like the Department of Homeland Security and TSA, and ask them why, after one day, the very next day after I called out Kamala Harris for being a danger to our country should she be elected as president, I got added to a secret domestic terrorist list,” Gabbard said. 

She also argued that former FBI agent Steve Friend was doxxed after he brought to light that the agency was using the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to focus counterterrorism efforts on citizens. 

“Those who are in power, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, are weaponizing and politicizing the Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies, both at the federal level and the state level, to take out their political opponent, the greatest threat to their power, in a way that has never been done before in our country’s history,” Gabbard said.