I don't know Harmeet Dhillon, but I've followed her on Twitter/X for some time. She's always struck me as a staunch defender of people's rights and has actually represented a couple of my acquaintances over the years, so I'm predisposed to like her.
When she got tapped to serve as assistant attorney general, I was thrilled. I have every reason to believe she'll be good in the job.
But when the media started attacking her, I knew that she was the right one to helm the part of the DOJ that would protect our Second Amendment rights.
After Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon acknowledged she is expanding the mission of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to include a sharp focus on protecting and enforcing the Second Amendment, as noted by the Daily Caller, the establishment media went on the attack.
Instead of even mentioning her interest in gun rights, major media news outlets portrayed her as endangering voting rights and protecting minorities from discrimination. For example, MSNBC’s spin was to report what appears to be a mass exodus of Civil Rights Division attorneys, blaming Dhillon’s political agenda and referring to her as a “MAGA lawyer.”.
“Rather than execute the Trump administration’s oppressive plans to weaponize the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division against political enemies, dozens of DOJ attorneys have chosen to walk off the job instead,” MSNBC reported.
“When MAGA lawyer Harmeet Dhillon, a key figure in Donald Trump’s bogus attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss, was nominated to lead the DOJ’s civil rights efforts, it seemed clear the division was poised to abandon — if not outright attack — the rights it has historically stood to protect,” the report added.
It is as though the networks decided if they ignore Dhillon’s comments about protecting gun rights, and concentrate their energy on smearing her unpopular politics, her Second Amendment remarks either never happened or the story will just go away.
Since Dhillon was confirmed, she's decided to refocus the division's priorities from things like voting rights, bias in housing, and discrimination in recipients of federal funding. It's not so much that they won't address that, mind you, only that it's not going to be their top priority anymore.
Which is probably good since the Second Amendment will be a top priority for the division.
The truth of the matter is that you can tell a lot about someone from their enemies. Not everything, of course, but a good bit. Dhillon has angered the media establishment, and that's a good sign that she's someone who will do the things that folks like gun rights supporters want to see.
Don't get me wrong. I don't like discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or other superficial characteristics. I want that addressed when it happens, especially on things like voting rights or housing.
But I'm tired of seeing a constitutionally protected right being dismissed on a regular basis simply because the powers that be just don't think it matters. We've made up a lot of ground in the courts during my lifetime, but we've done it all without the help of the United States Department of Justice, which is just wrong.
Dhillon's efforts, coupled with what we just saw from the DOJ on Thursday, are very promising signs.
I know many of you are impatient, but I'd advise you to just hold up for a bit. We didn't lose our rights in a day. We won't get them back in a day.
Right now, we're seeing very good things from the Trump administration via Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
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