Whether the Department of Agriculture is threatening to withhold funds from schools that will not push LGBTQ ideology, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is getting involved with gas emissions, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is targeting concerned parents at school board meetings, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) told Washington Watch Thursday the Biden administration has shown its eagerness to use any governmental department – regardless of its mission – to achieve political goals.
"One of the things people ought to pay attention to is the phrase 'whole of government,'" he said. "You're starting to hear this from bureaucrats and politicians in Washington over and over again. That should be a red flag. It's kind of a code; it's that whole of government mindset where they try to take every bureaucratic alphabet soup agency to do something that it was never designed to do."
State AGs on the frontlines
The administration has taken a few hits in the courts, but knowing that litigation could take months or years to get sorted, Biden remains willing to violate laws to achieve his goals.
"We have to rely on the genius of the founders' separation of powers," Yost told show host Tony Perkins. "The courts and Congress both have the ability to rein in an overreaching executive. Congress hasn't been too interested in doing that of late, but fortunately, in a lot of places, the courts are doing their jobs as attorneys general are going to court and challenging these things."
State attorneys general have become the best chance to protect the rights of citizens. With that in mind, Yost said Americans need to be aware and engaged.
"We have to realize we're in a battle," he stated. "This is not a civil debate or some 'Schoolhouse Rock' kind of civics lesson. These folks don't care about the norms. They don't care about the rules or the rule of law. We are in a pitched battle, and we need everybody to help."
In their lawsuit against the administration, Attorneys General Jeff Landry (R-Louisiana) and Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) charge "at least 11 federal agencies" for efforts to censor opposing political viewpoints on social media.
That case, Missouri v. Biden, is still winding its way through the legal system.
