On Tuesday August 9, U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was in Wake County campaigning for Congressional District 13 Republican candidate, Bo Hines. The event came a day after the unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
“You have never done that to a former president so if this was going to be the case, shouldn’t the Attorney General lay it out to the American people today? Wouldn’t that be the very first thing, explaining why?” McCarthy told the media gathered in Fuquay-Varina. “Why would you go to this level without communicating? That’s what different to me.”
Republicans in North Carolina’s congressional delegation are also responding to Department of Justice and the FBI’s actions this week.
“The American people’s faith in the Department of Justice has been eroding due to the perception that political considerations can override the fair application of the law,” U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said in a tweet on Twitter. “The FBI’s search of former President Trump’s home will further fuel this distrust, especially when the DOJ has provided no transparency on the process or level of merit behind the decision. The optics are especially disturbing considering that Presidents Biden and Trump are past and potentially future political opponents.”
Tillis continued, saying the DOJ owes the American people a thorough explanation regarding their decision-making process, including the release of the warrant, the warrant application, and why they decided to execute this search when President Trump’s lawyers were already cooperating with the National Archives.
“We desperately need Congress to provide robust oversight and accountability to ensure partisan politics are not dictating decisions at the DOJ,” he ended.
The FBI searched Trump’s home as part of an investigation into whether he took classified documents from the White House illegally. The National Archives and Records Administration notified the DOJ earlier this year that they received 15 boxes of White House records from Mar-a-Lago. Agents were looking to see if there were any remaining documents at the residence. Trump was at his penthouse in Trump Tower in New York City when the raid occurred.
Trump issued a statement on the raid on his Truth Social media platform Monday night. “These are dark times for our Nation…… Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. 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.”
“The raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is unprecedented,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat Cheri Beasley. “The American people deserve a full explanation from the Biden administration about what happened and why.”
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued the following statement on her website, “The Department of Justice and FBI have established a damning pattern of brazen behavior that should concern every American – their actions cannot be glossed over and pushed under the rug. After they targeted concerned parents at school board meetings and are now setting their sights on a former president – presumably pursuant to statutes that are inherently political – it’s understandable that Americans are fearful that they will be next on the chopping block.”
“Come next Congress, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, myself included, will leave no stone unturned in search of the facts – which we will place directly in front of the American people. Under one-party rule, true oversight has been forsaken in Washington, and we will see to it that it is fully restored.”
U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn tweeted from his personal Twitter account that people should study the rise and fall of the Roman republic. “The actions of Biden’s FBI are markedly similar in style to when Sulla came to power or when it became commonplace to persecute and kill the Tribune of Plebs. (Literally , “tribune of the people.”),” he said.
“The raid on President Trump’s home is a startling and unprecedented showing of the political weaponization of the FBI and DOJ,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson on Twitter. “It is unacceptable, and I echo @Jim_Jordan in demanding these agencies explain themselves. The American people deserve answers!”
Rep. Dan Bishop said on his Twitter page that the FBI and DOJ are acting as the political enforcers of the Democrat Party, and the FBI must immediately release the information used to obtain the warrant. “Garland and (FBI Director Christopher) Wray must immediately come before @JudiciaryGOP,” he said. “Republicans must smash the FBI into a million pieces.”
U.S. Reps. Patrick McHenry and David Rouzer also commented on Twitter.
Nearly a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee, including its chairman, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind, met with Trump Tuesday night at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Banks reported back that Trump is “fired up” and has made a decision about 2024, saying he would announce his plans soon.
