Hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively ending the right for approximately 40 million women and girls nationwide to have an abortion, the attorney general of Missouri used the term “Third World” not to describe the high court’s ruling, but the Department of Justice’s response to protests occurring because of it.
Eric Schmitt, who on Friday authorized a “trigger law” that immediately bans all abortions in the state except in the case of a medical emergency, complained to Tucker Carlson later that night about the potential for violence in the wake of the ruling—something that the Department of Homeland Security has warned of.
“I think what you are seeing now with this ‘night of rage’ that has been talked about—the Justice Department has no interest in condemning it. They haven’t done anything to stop it,” Schmitt said.
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“We’ve seen an assassination attempt of a Supreme Court justice. This is going to continue,” Schmitt predicted. “The Justice Department is way more interested in siccing the FBI on parents who show up to school board meetings under the Patriot Act than arresting folks intimidating Supreme Court justices. This is out of the banana Third World republic.”
Schmitt’s criticism of the DOJ echoes other right-wing complaints about the department, including those made earlier in the week by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). After predicting that protesters spurred into action by the Roe ruling “are going to try to use political violence to advance their ends,” Cruz added, “I halfway expect the attorney general to be rioting alongside them because this Department of Justice has been so politicized.”
