Multiple Republican elected officials criticised the FBI’s raid on former president Donald Trump’s home at Mar-A-Lago on Monday evening.
Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Mr Trump’s biggest defenders in Congress, tweeted an upside down American flag. She also wrote in all-caps “DEFUND THE FBI!”.
The former president released a statement criticising the raid at his estate in Florida, which reportedly happened while he was in New York.
“It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls, and who will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections,” he said.
The Twitter account for the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican members, who are led by Representative Jim Jordan, also criticised the actions.
“If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you,” the committee tweeted.
Republican National Committee chairman Ronna McDaniel said it was all the more reason to vote for Republicans.
The leader of the House Republican caucus, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, vowed investigations in January if Republicans took the House later this fall. They are favoured to do so.
“Democrats continually weaponize the bureaucracy against Republicans,” she said in a statement. “This raid is outrageous. This abuse of power must stop and the only way to do that is to elect Republicans in November.”
Many Florida Republicans criticised the raid. Senator Marco Rubio, who ran against Mr Trump in the 2016 presidential primary, called it political persecution.
“Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships,” he tweeted. “But never before in America.”
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is considered a potential challenger to Mr Trump in a 2024 GOP primary, also criticised it and used the raid to criticise the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed in the Senate over the weekend, particularly a provision to increase IRS spending. Democrats say it will to better enforce tax laws but many Republicans have criticised it and say it will be used to target conservatives.
“The raid of [Mar-a-Lago] 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,” he tweeted. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”
