Republicans are vowing to get revenge on the FBI if they take back Congress in November in response to the ‘rogue behavior’ of the agency after it raided Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday night.
The former president said on Monday that the Florida home was ‘under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents’ – reportedly raided as part of an investigation into whether he took classified documents with him when he left the White House.
Several GOP leaders slammed the DOJ for the raid, and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy vowed revenge on the agency.
McCarthy called out US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Twitter, telling him ‘preserve your documents and clear your calendar.’
‘I’ve seen enough,’ he wrote. ‘The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.
When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.’
The raid on Monday night comes as Trump is considering another bid for the presidency and his actions after the 2020 election, where he tried to invalidate Joe Biden’s victory, are under investigation by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s son Eric Trump appeared on Hannity later Monday night where he revealed he was the one who alerted his father to the raid and said his father’s office was ransacked but that agents found ‘nothing in the safe.’
‘I was the guy who got the call this morning and I called my father and let him know it happened, and I was involved all day,’ he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. ‘Welcome to politics in the 2020s.’
‘To have 30 FBI agents — actually more than that — descend on Mar-a-Lago, give absolutely, you know, no notice, go through the gates, start ransacking an office, ransacking a closet — you know, they broke into a safe. He didn’t even have anything in the safe. I mean, give me a break.’
He charged President Joe Biden’s White House as the force behind the raid.
‘This didn’t come from a local FBI field office in Palm beach, Florida. You know this came from? This came from one place and one building, and that is the White House in Washington, D.C. They want to attack a guy who they view as his greatest threat, Biden’s greatest threat,’ Eric Trump said.
Biden’s White House had no heads up on the matter. Senior White House officials found out about it via Twitter, the New York Times reported.
Trump’s other son Donald Jr. son slammed the Biden administration and the DOJ for ripping the country apart.
‘Biden’s out of control DOJ is ripping this country apart with how they’re openly targeting their political enemies. This is what you see happen in 3rd World Banana Republics!!!
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis echoed the sentiment, comparing Biden’s administration to a regime and and America to a Banana Republic.
‘The raid of MAL 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,’ DeSantis said. ‘Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the raid ‘rogue behavior of communist countries, NOT the United States of America!!!’
She tweeted: ‘The FBI is raiding President Trump’s home in Maralago! This is the rogue behavior of communist countries, NOT the United States of America!!! These are the type of things that happen in countries during civil war. The political persecution MUST STOP!!!’
Trump didn’t say specifically what the federal agents were looking for, but complained about the FBI agents breaking into his safe.
‘They even broke into my safe!’ the former president complained.
The investigation is focused on material that Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House, the New York Times reported.
The 15 boxes of material reportedly contained classified information, which would be a violation of federal law.
It began Monday morning and took hours. A Florida reporter tweeted at 6:36 p.m. that the agents had ‘just left.’ Trump released his statement announcing the raid at 6:52 p.m.
‘These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,’ Trump said in shocking statement released on Monday night.
‘After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.’
Many GOP leaders fumed about the raid on Twitter.
Marco Rubio wrote: ‘After todays raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?’
Lauren Boebert tweeted that the DOJ ‘must be held accountable.’
‘Biden’s FBI just raided the house of the man most likely to be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2024…on top of all the other fake investigations into President Trump. Stop weaponizing federal agencies to distract from your own failed agenda!’
‘The GOP must set up a Select Committee to investigate the FBI’s politically-motivated raid on Mar-a-Lago and on ALL the fraudulent persecution of President Trump from our government. This cannot wait. We are turning into a banana republic at record speed,’ she added.
Nick Smith, an author endorsed by Trump called the raid an assault on the US Constitution.
