The FBI raid on the Mar-a-Lago house, the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump, on Monday threatens to be the new and bitter cause of confrontation between the two political factions that divide the United States. While the Democrats celebrated that the investigation of the feds shows that justice works even against someone as powerful as a former president, the Republicans reacted furiously, echoing the accusations of the former president, for whom the Justice Department is carrying out a hunt for witches for political reasons.
The search-and-search operation in what was once known as the Winter White House appears to be linked to a Justice Department investigation into Trump over the alleged removal of presidential records and theft of official documents.
But the conservatives only see another proof of the political persecution that, according to them, the president suffers from the Democrats. Some Republican voices even suggested that the federal agents should be arrested while others hinted that the police operation approved by a judge will lead the country to chaos and riots in the streets.
For the leader of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, the Department of Justice has reached "an intolerable state of armed politicization," according to a statement. At the same time, he promised a Department investigation if Republicans regain control of Congress. "Attorney General Garland: Keep Your Documents and Clear Your Calendar."
In the same direction, the president of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, pointed out: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely; countless times we have examples of Democrats who flout the law and abuse power without recourse."
Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson called the FBI "the enemy of the people." America's top criminal investigative agency is headed by Christopher Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017. One of the most vicious attacks on federal law enforcement last night came from Florida state legislator Anthony Sabatini, who is running for Congress as a Republican in a district near Orlando: "Any FBI agent performing law enforcement functions outside of our State (for Florida) should be arrested on sight."
Already in a post last week, Ric Grenell, who was Trump's acting director of national intelligence, suggested that if the former president is re-elected, he should "clean up the FBI and the Justice Department." And Fox News host Jesse Watters called for Wray's head as "corrupt."
In fact, Trump's possible candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, whose effort may be affected depending on the result of the police investigation, was a recurring theme among the comments. In addition to this topic, the US senator from South Carolina and Trump ally, Lindsey Graham, also mentioned that the midterm elections are about a hundred days away: "Initiating an investigation of this type of a former president so close to a choice is more than problematic.
In this sense, the former strategist of former Democratic President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, considered that precisely the police operation will give the former Republican president more reasons to run for re-election. "Trump wants to portray any criminal investigation or prosecution as a plot to prevent him from becoming POTUS again. Many of his supporters will believe him, as they did with his lies about the last election." The same ones that fueled the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2020.
Republican reactions also included attempts to scare people. "If (the feds) can do it to a former president, imagine what they can do to you," warned the House Republican Judiciary Committee on its Twitter account. More radical voices on the right took a somewhat more worrying stance when they hinted that the operation could spark street riots. "Suddenly, there is a very real risk of violent political instability in this country for the first time in more than 150 years," wrote Joel B. Pollak, editor of the far-right website Breitbart News.
The Republican outrage was to be expected considering the position that Donald Trump has always defended, who considers himself the victim of a witch hunt especially since the FBI launched an investigation into his ties with Russia.
Instead, from the other end of the political spectrum, Democrats hailed the raid as proof of the independence of the judiciary. Congressman Eric Swalwell tweeted: "We are witnessing the difference between an honest system and a corrupt one. In 2020, Donald Trump brought us perilously close to a permanently corrupt America. The rule of law is taking shape. And accountability is coming." ". Ted Lieu, another Democrat in the House of Representatives, posted on Twitter: "No one is above the law."
And Joe Walsh, a Trump critic and former Republican congressman, went further, accusing the GOP of having "abandoned the rule of law. Just listen to them tonight. They're at war with the rule of law."
