On both sides of the aisle, lawmakers have pleaded with their GOP colleagues to stop their attacks on the FBI.
Since Monday’s (August 8) FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, dozens of Republican lawmakers and leaders have come out in defense of Trump and condemned the FBI’s actions as evidence it’s being used by the Biden administration in its “political weaponization.”
Among the harsh criticism of the Bureau are calls for the agency to be defunded and suggestions that FBI agents could go after every American, showing up in ordinary innocent Americans’ living rooms.
But on Sunday (August 14), after nearly a week of harsh criticism aimed at the FBI and Department of Justice, both Democrat and Republican lawmakers denounced their colleague’s statements.
During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) linked the attempted breach of the FBI’s Cincinnati field office to the rhetoric of the GOP.
She said that the Thursday incident — that resulted in the suspect being shot and killed after attempting to break into the FBI’s office with an AR-15 style rifle — is what happens “when you’ve got a president that attacks law enforcement and attacks the law.”
She continued her statement, saying, “I thought in the old days the Republican Party used to stand with law enforcement.”
“And I hope some of them do today because this kind of rhetoric is very dangerous to our country. These are career men and women that are simply doing their job,” Klobuchar added.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R) also defended the FBI against attacks from those in his party, saying agents were “simply carrying out their responsibilities under the law, a lawful search warrant that a magistrate signed off on.”
Hutchinson then called on his party to “stand with” the FBI, as they always had with law enforcement.
