Biden’s DOJ Under Fire as Tucker Carlson Slams Pro-Lifer’s Arrest

Tucker Carlson Network founder Tucker Carlson has accused President Joe Biden’s administration of targeting a pro-life father for praying and singing outdoors of an abortion clinic, warning that the administration “fears” that sort of exercise.

Carlson interviewed Paul Vaughn, the Tennessee father of 11 kids who was arrested by the FBI in October 2022 and charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. During an interview with The Daily Signal on the time of his arrest, Vaughn stated that the FBI got here to his house, “guns pointed at the door, banging on the house, yelling and screaming, ‘Open up! FBI.’”

“I had kids in the yard walking out to get in the car to go to school. I was about to take them to school, and other kids in the house,” he advised The Daily Signal on the time. “So, seeing that the easiest path to de-escalation was me in handcuffs, I stepped outside and put an end to the ranting and the banging and the yelling.”

Carlson requested why precisely the Biden Justice Department would arrest Vaughn in such a dramatic method.

“The question is,” the previous Fox News Channel host requested, “what precisely did he do? Was he a terrorist, a serial killer? Was he making an attempt to invade the nation? No. Paul Vaughn, the daddy of 11 kids, had dared to wish and sing hymns within the hallway of an abortion clinic.

“In other words, he did what the Biden administration really fears,” Carlson continued. “He prayed. And for doing that, he faces 11 years in prison.”

Video supplied to The Daily Signal by Vaughn, taken by his spouse, reveals FBI brokers outdoors the household’s house. Vaughn’s spouse follows them, videotaping their dialog.

“I want to know why you were banging on my door with a gun,” she says. “Are you not going to tell me anything?”

“No, we are not,” one agent replies, whereas one other says, “I tried.”

“No, you didn’t!” she shouts again. “You did not try.”

Carlson requested Vaughn whether or not he had ever thought that praying could be a federal crime with a penalty of 11 years in jail.

“I always thought praying for our nation is what we were instructed to do,” the pro-life father responded. “I thought that was what was required for freedom. And liberty is to beseech the favors of God on our land and to reach out to him. And, of course, we’re praying because our nation has allowed the sinful, atrocious action of abortion and killing unborn children. So, that’s ultimately what the Biden DOJ doesn’t like.”

Vaughn stated that he believes the Biden DOJ’s intent with its “heavy-handed raid” was to “strike fear into Christians in the nation.”

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“It’s an act of war against religious people,” he stated. “And so that was their intent. Fortunately, God is gracious and kind, and his grace has been poured out upon our family, in ways we never could have experienced. And my children are growing up seeing a level of persecution that strengthens them, that provides a meaning in a foundation for their faith.”

He says he sees two methods of responding to those occasions.

“We can be bitter and upset and angry,” Vaughn stated, “or we can be gracious, and we can be forgiving to the enemies. And trusting God is a God of justice, and he will work this out. And that’s the message that I’m telling my children. And I see them growing in this and understanding this.”

Vaughn praised the Christians all around the United States who’ve reached out to him to let him know they had been praying for him. Asked by Carlson whether or not high-profile Christian leaders had drawn consideration to his case, he stated that he had not skilled a lot support from Christian leaders.

“It really is a moment for the church,” Carlson mirrored. “If you’re an American Christian leader and you’re standing by without saying anything as a man faces 11 years in prison for saying prayers, I think it’s time to assess yourself.”

“Yep,” Vaughn replied, “I would absolutely agree. I would call on them to actually do that … we tend to divide the spiritual and material, and we either make it all one or the other, and we don’t do a good job as the American church of understanding that it’s both.”

Vaughn’s arrest got here amid the Biden DOJ’s concentrating on of pro-life activists with the FACE Act. The FACE Act protects not solely abortion clinics, however also pregnancy resource centers and homes of worship, however the Biden DOJ has largely used it to prosecute pro-life people.

Since 2022, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has charged dozens of pro-life people with FACE Act violations. In 2023, the DOJ charged 4 people with FACE Act violations associated to assaults on being pregnant useful resource facilities in Florida, although pro-abortion vandals have attacked not less than 88 such centers and 218 church buildings for the reason that May 2022 leak of the Supreme Court draft opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade could be overturned, in accordance with CatholicVote.

In February, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, urged the DOJ to comply with Republican calls for to launch FACE Act knowledge. Though he had referred to as on the DOJ in October 2022 to reveal FACE Act prosecution knowledge, the DOJ didn’t launch that knowledge (although the DOJ’s Kristen Clarke told Roy that she would make sure that he obtained the requested knowledge in December).

Roy, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, warned that “DOJ’s failure to produce FACE Act prosecution data is particularly troubling in light of the apparent disparity between prosecutions targeting pro-life protesters and pro-abortion attacks on places of worship and pregnancy resource centers.”

“DOJ’s refusal to comply with this request hampers the committee’s constitutional duty to conduct oversight over the Department and the Civil Rights Division,” he stated within the February letter, first obtained by The Daily Signal. “DOJ must return to its core mission of protecting all Americans, not simply those that it favors.”

“The Civil Rights Division continues to use the FACE Act to unfairly target pro-life advocates,” Roy wrote. “On January 30, 2024, six pro-life advocates were found guilty of violating the FACE Act, and they now face up to [10-1/2] years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $260,000.”

Roy particularly talked about pro-life activist Mark Houck, one other father with a big household.

“These prosecutions come after DOJ conducted an aggressive raid on the home of pro-life advocate Mark Houck to arrest him on an overzealous FACE Act charge stemming from Mr. Houck’s earlier encounter with a belligerent abortion activist who attacked his young son,” Roy stated. “A Pennsylvania jury rightly acquitted [him] in January 2023.”

Houck and his spouse, Ryan-Marie Houck, beforehand advised The Daily Signal that they had been focused by the Biden DOJ in an effort to intimidate, silence, and scare the family for his or her pro-life work—praying outdoors abortion clinics for the ladies headed inside to abort their unborn infants. 

In November, the Houcks sued the Biden administration for “malicious and retaliatory prosecution.”