(CNS News) -- Following the FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate yesterday, Republican leaders and commentators reacted to the news, demanding answers and speculating at potential political motives for the search.
President Trump announced yesterday that his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., had been raided before dawn by FBI agents executing a search warrant. Many believe the search is connected to a larger investigation by the FBI into Trump’s handling of classified documents.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before,” said Trump in a statement. “After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
BREAKING: FBI raids Trump's home in Mar-A-Lago, according to statement pic.twitter.com/zUCdcMXGQB
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 8, 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) responded to the news, tweeting, “I’ve seen enough. The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) also criticized the search, tweeting, “The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries?”
The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) August 9, 2022
Conservative talk-radio host and best-selling author Mark Levin said on Hannity, “This is the worst attack on this republic in modern history. Period. And it’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on everybody who supports him. It’s an attack on anybody who dares to raise serious questions about Washington, D.C., and the establishment in both parties.”
“I haven’t heard a damn thing from the Republican leadership in the Senate!” he said on Monday evening. “Have you? Not one of those guys has put out a statement. Because they’re weak. That’s why.”
The Department of Justice is headed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is a member of President Biden’s cabinet and reports directly to the president. The White House claimed that they did not know about the Mar-a-Lago raid ahead of the public.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) speculated that political animosity from Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was later replaced by a Trump nominee, may have played a role. He tweeted, “Is AG Garland bitter that Trump kept him from becoming a Supreme Court justice? Is that why, according to news reports, he raided Trump?”
Late on Monday, Aug. 8, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted,
1/x The FBI raiding Donald Trump is unprecedented.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2022
It is corrupt & an abuse of power.
What Nixon tried to do, Biden has now implemented: The Biden Admin has fully weaponized DOJ & FBI to target their political enemies.
And with 87K new IRS agents, they’re coming for YOU too.
“No one is above the law. The law must be above politics,” tweeted South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R), “Time will tell regarding this most recent investigation. However, launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic.”
Republicans also compared the news of the raid to foreign, exploitative governments, with Governor DeSantis dropping the phrase, “Banana Republic.”
Senator Marco Rubio, who campaigned against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, harshly condemned the FBI and Department of Justice’s actions. He tweeted, “Biden is playing with fire by using a document dispute to get the @TheJusticeDept to persecute a likely future election opponent. Because one day what goes around is going to come around. And then we become Nicaragua under Ortega.”
Biden is playing with fire by using a document dispute to get the @TheJusticeDept to persecute a likely future election opponent
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 9, 2022
Because one day what goes around is going to come around
And then we become Nicaragua under Ortega pic.twitter.com/LwODnsYtcr
Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) tweeted, “The @FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin’s history of going after parents & other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff. We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why.”
The @FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin’s history of going after parents & other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) August 9, 2022
We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why.
Others were also shocked at the rare move by the FBI, one former Republican saying the Department “Crossed the Rubicon here.”
The liberal Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer for Trump during his 2020 impeachment trial, said to Newsmax, "A raid is supposed to be a last resort, but this administration has used the weaponization of the justice system against its political enemies."
Dershowitz continued, "It's arrested people, denied them bail, put them in handcuffs – used all kinds of techniques that are not usually applied to American citizens, and I just hope this raid has a justification.”
“They crossed the Rubicon here. This is very serious, it's unprecedented,” former Republican and a founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, George Conway said to CNN. “They crossed the Rubicon here. This is very serious, it's unprecedented. Not even San Clemente, Richard Nixon’s house in San Clemente, was searched by the FBI, as far as I know. And so it's just a remarkable thing to see that the FBI and the Justice Department would take such a step and the fact that a federal judge approved it shows that, hey, they’ve got something there, we just don’t know what it is yet.”
