Freshman Congressman Chip Cravaack from Minnesota’s 8th District took on Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca at Thursday’s Muslim hearings in Washington and implied that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is, basically, a terrorist organization that might be using the sheriff.

“Basically, you’re dealing with a terrorist organization, I’m trying to get you to try to understand that they might be using you, sir, to implement their goals,” Cravaack said.

A Talking Points Memo item notes the sheriff’s response:

“It sounds more like a possible accusation, of me being misused by an organization … Let me answer this way, if the FBI has something to charge CAIR with, bring those charges forward and try them in court and deal with it that way.

“There is a reality that in my culture as a police officer that you have facts and you have a crime, deal with it.

“We don’t play around with criminals in my world. If CAIR is an organization that’s a, quote, ‘criminal organization,’ prosecute them, hold them accountable, and bring them to trial.”

Another Minnesota Congressman,  Keith Ellison, a Muslim, broke down in tears while testifying at the hearings about a young Muslim-American who was killed in the 9/11 terror attacks. Ellison says the hearings unfairly target the Muslim-American community.