Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon often shares photos of her personal knitting projects on social media. When she shared the photo below of a project in progress, she wrote: “This hat is an hour behind schedule thanks to influencer retards.”
Eric Michael Garcia, senior Washington correspondent for The Independent, responded: “FWIW, Dhillon is deputy assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division is in charge of enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act. And here she is using the word ‘retarded.’”
[Note: Organizations including the Special Olympics are pushing to end the use of the “R-word, also known as the R-slur.” The Special Olympics says: “Those who use the R-word often do so with little regard for the pain it causes people with intellectual disabilities—and the exclusion it perpetuates in our society.”]
FWIW, Dhillon is deputy assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division is in charge of enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act. And here she is using the word “retarded.” https://t.co/qB6R7aX18e
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) December 30, 2025
Several MAGA loyalists are defending Dhillon’s choice of words and responding to Garcia by calling him the slur. (Note: Garcia, author of the book We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation, is autistic.)
Zachary Kramer, Senior Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division where he works with Dhillon, replied to Garcia: “Assistant Attorney General (not deputy) and, who cares?”
One X user voiced concern by responding to Kramer: “The people she’s supposed to advocate for in her literal position of power and their friends, families, and caretakers?? No empathy or self awareness is such a maga trait.” Another replied: “Because we expect better from people in positions of authority, not some grade school insults?”
It isn’t just “woke” Democrats who don’t appreciate the level of discourse that’s seen as increasingly common during Trump 2.0.
Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) responded to another of Dhillon’s recent posts, writing: “The ridiculously unserious people that Trump has at the Justice Dept like @HarmeetKDhillon now spend their time online attacking other MAGA – calling them ‘hoes’ when they aren’t sharing their knitting tips….and you still don’t have all of the Epstein files. The cover up continues.”