The FBI raid of Donald Trump’s Florida home continues to dominate the news, and for good reason. This was an extraordinary abuse of power on the part of the federal government. The fact that the raid took place over something so mundane like the Presidential Records Act just confirms it.
It is obvious that Republicans must draw a line in the sand in light of an FBI that has been weaponized and the larger federal bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the spineless GOP establishment isn’t doing that.
Here’s the supposed “future of the party,” Sen. Tim Scott, going on CBS News to say we need to let things “play out.”
Republican Sen. Tim Scott said he was shocked but would not rush to judgment after the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, a major escalation of the Justice Department’s probe into potential mishandling of White House records.
“We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens. But we should have been stunned and surprised and shocked with what happened yesterday,” the South Carolina senator said Tuesday on “CBS Mornings.”
Scott recently endorsed leftwing GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, calling her a “strong leader,” and now he goes off and does this? We do not need to “let this play out” because there can be no justification for raiding a former president’s home under the guise of the Presidential Records Act. The President has the power to release classified documents. There have been many debates about this issue over time. Not once did the FBI escalate matters to the point of raiding a former president’s home, and for good reason. The FBI executed a search warrant despite Hillary Clinton not having classified information on her bathroom server.
Clearly, there are two different sets of rules at play, and it is incredible to see Republicans still playing the “well, we just need more information” game as if the FBI’s corrupt history isn’t already established. Another establishment figure was Sen. John Thune who had the exact same response.
FBI should provide details as to the reason they raided a home belonging to a former American President.
Complete statement⬇️ pic.twitter.com/dZ1bNoWuAa— Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) August 9, 2022
Notice how Thune steadfastly chooses to not even mention Trump’s name, as if the former president’s identity isn’t at the core of this government abuse. And to suggest that we just need an “explanation” from the very agency that has lied and manufactured evidence against Trump and other Republicans for years is insane. I’d call Thune gullible, but he’s not gullible. He’s just an establishment shill who doesn’t have the guts to call out the FBI for what it has become. You can send another letter with strong words and have Christopher Wray attend another hearing.
Meanwhile, Chris Christie, who is probably deluded enough to think he can run for president again in 2024, called the raid “fair game.”
“It’s fair game, and you just have to display probable cause to a federal judge that … there are contents in that safe that would assist in proving a violation of the law,” Christie said in an interview with Sirius XM’s Julie Mason.
“It’s not anything that’s out of bounds to go into a safe, and it happens frequently in federal law enforcement. But again, you have to have the factual underpinnings to be able to convince a federal judge that you need and have the right to do that.”
Then there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Unlike Scott and Thune, who at least put out weak statements, he’s actually refusing to respond to the raid at all.
Sen. Senator. pic.twitter.com/tYjrkLZ2Gl
— The Recount (@therecount) August 9, 2022
That’s it for me. I enjoyed the “Cocaine Mitch” memes as much as the next guy, but the last few weeks have revealed McConnell for what many have long said he is: A pathetic, ineffective clown. Even putting aside his unwillingness to call out the FBI’s corruption, he’s fresh off getting played by Sen. Joe Manchin. At what point does the “master parliamentarian” start to show some mastery?
This must end. This establishment cannot continue to hold the Republican Party. There must be major changes at the top levels of its leadership, specifically in Congress, and those changes won’t happen unless the voters demand them. Voting in November is a way to make sure that those anti-establishment GOP nominees (who won the primaries) are elected. It’s time for a changing of the guard, and that should begin with McConnell himself. He doesn’t get to live off scuttling Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination forever, and besides, McConnell turned around and voted to confirm the guy as the attorney general. How’s that worked out?
Scott and others need to stop believing in their grandeur. If Republicans can’t count on them on an issue as black and white as this, they are useless.
UPDATE:
McConnell issued a statement just minutes before this article was scheduled to go public. Surprise, surprise, it’s another pathetic call for an “explanation.”
New Mitch McConnell statement: “The country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation of what led to the events of Monday. Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately.”
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 9, 2022
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