‘I Have Never Heard Republican Voters This Angry and Fired Up’
Political right stirs talk of violence over raid on Mar-a-Lago
The FBI raid carried out Monday on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Florida estate has enraged the political right to such an unprecedented degree that some are actively fomenting violence over the execution of a legal search warrant.
Some 30 FBI agents carried out the raid Monday at Trump's home in Palm Beach, Fla., carrying out dozens of boxes of evidence, reportedly in relation to an investigation into the former president carting more than a dozen boxes of classified materials to Florida with him when he left the White House last year.
By law, those records should have been turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The raid — which multiple experts have said would have been reviewed by the entire upper leadership of the Justice Department, and approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland before being signed off on by a federal judge — has stoked claims of extralegal, Gestapo-like tactics on the part of the FBI and the Biden administration by many on the political right.
“They are gearing up for something big. The only solace I have to offer anyone is that they don't have clear plans yet. These people don't have a clear date. There is no January 6 thing to circle on a calendar,” said Ben Collins, of NBC News. “There is no one person who is barking out directions like it was happening in the days and weeks before January 6. But the violent rhetoric is more violent and louder than ever.”
There was neither political interference — nor even foreknowledge — of the FBI's action against his predecessor on the part of President Biden, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“No. The president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No. No one at the White House was given a heads-up. No, that did not happen,” she said.
Although Trump's been losing political support for months to such potential rivals as Florida Gov Ron DeSantis (R), the raid has had the effect of immediately bringing Republicans back into the Trump fold, according to former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, a prominent “Never Trumper.”
“The vast majority of Republicans are reflecting what I’m hearing every day, the last day or two, from Republican voters. I have never heard Republican voters this angry and fired up, and ‘I’m behind Donald Trump now all the way.’ I haven’t heard this in a long time,” Walsh said. “And you can bet those Republican office holders are hearing it as well.”
The reaction to the Trump raid has been calculated political intimidation and violence, according to Rep Eric Swalwell (D-Calif).
“It’s very clear that Republicans have recognized that they can no longer win elections with the votes. So, they are leading in hard to try to win elections with violence,” he said. “They are fomenting that violence right now, with the threats they’re making against the [attorney general] right now, with the online chatter you are continuing to see, with the failure to condemn it on their own side.”
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