Donald Trump’s political support has been eroding over the year in small but growing cracks.
Republican primary voters who weren’t happy started looking at other presidential candidates. The damaging information that the committee’s investigation on January 6 left GOP donors reeling. Several party leaders thought about opposing Trump for the party’s nomination in 2024.
However, the Republican Party came together quickly to support the former president after the FBI searched his Florida estate by a search warrant.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is most likely to be Trump’s strongest primary rival, called the Biden administration a “regime” and referred to Monday’s search at Mar-a-Lago for improperly taken classified documents as “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents.”
The Republican campaign to paint Trump as the victim of a politicized Justice Department failed to mention any potential criminal activity that might have warranted the search in the eyes of a federal judge.
It disregarded Trump’s involvement in the appointment of Chris Wray, the FBI director who is now widely despised and who formerly held a senior position in a Republican-run Justice Department. Meanwhile, the Biden White House insisted that it was unaware of the search beforehand.
However, the forceful defence serves as a timely reminder of the former president’s enduring hold on the GOP, fueled by his ability to capitalize on a sense of resentment among many Republican voters toward the government and other institutions.
To defeat two impeachments and the effects of an uprising, Trump tapped into this animosity. Tuesday, his allies claimed that the FBI investigation would only help him.
Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, the head of the Republican Study Committee, stated in an interview that the sooner he begins his campaign, the better.
Banks was one of a dozen or so Republican lawmakers who visited Trump at his Bedminster, New Jersey, vacation home on Tuesday evening for several hours.
The group discussed the upcoming midterm elections and the 2024 presidential race over a meal that included steak, scallops, mashed potatoes, salad, and a Trump cookie, according to Banks.
The former president assured the lawmakers that “we’ll all be happy with his decision” and that “his mind is made up” regarding a 2024 campaign.
Trump’s advisers, who had been privately advising him to hold off on making public announcements about his intention to run for president again until after the midterm elections, appeared to change their position in response to the FBI search.
Suddenly, some of those same advisers were advising him to begin his campaign before the November elections.
By sharing a campaign-style video on social media in the hours following the search, Trump fueled this rumour. The best is still to come, he declared.
You must understand that the homes of all patriotic Americans, for whom I have been fighting, were also violated, he said in a subsequent fundraising appeal.
Sen. Lindsey Graham claimed in Columbia, South Carolina, that he spoke with Trump and was confident that another campaign was on the horizon.
I can tell you one thing, Graham said. “I previously thought he would run. My conviction has grown stronger.
Democrats rebuffed GOP claims of political interference while Republicans supported Trump and offered no supporting evidence. Some claimed that the Republican Party had abandoned its long-standing commitment to “law and order.”
Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, stated that Donald Trump had appointed the FBI director.
When asked if the raid could harm Democrats in the upcoming elections in November, she responded, “You’re talking about if the Justice Department decides to have a warrant to go in because they suspect something is justified, it’s going to have an impact on the election? I must strongly object.
Even some of the most outspoken Republican opponents of Trump resisted praising the outgoing leader. Additionally, it was unclear how the new developments might affect Republican and independent voters who have grown weary of Trump’s polarizing leadership.
Former governor of New Jersey and potential presidential candidate for the GOP in 2024, Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, pointed out on Tuesday that a federal judge had to approve the warrant.
In an interview, Christie stated that “the former president is presumed innocent.” But just because the prosecutors come from a different political party, we can’t automatically cast doubt on their intentions.
The action is extraordinary. And it had better be supported by some truly extraordinary facts. If so, they have every right to carry it out.
Other Republican officials also appeared to be expressing ongoing reservations about Trump by remaining silent.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has privately urged his party to move past Trump, is at the top of the relatively small list of GOP leaders who kept quiet Tuesday afternoon.
The Kentucky Republican, however, eventually spoke up and stated: “The country deserves a thorough and immediate explanation of what caused the events of Monday. The Department of Justice and Attorney General Garland need to respond to the American people right away and should have already done so.
The vast majority, including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and DeSantis, accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department while ignoring any potential wrongdoing by Trump.
According to Republican commentator and frequent Trump critic Charlie Sykes, “the GOP now fully embraces the notion that Trump should, in fact, be above the law, and that Trump 2.0 will be a bonfire of vengeance.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is preparing to run for president, expressed “the deep concerns of millions of Americans” regarding the search for Trump’s home.
However, he refrained from directly criticizing the FBI. The Attorney General, Merrick Garland, should instead “give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken and he must do so immediately,” he said.
Republicans Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton of Missouri and Arkansas both harshly criticized the Justice Department on behalf of Trump.
The search was “an unprecedented assault on democratic norms and the rule of law,” according to Hawley. Garland’s ouster or impeachment was demanded, as well as the dismissal of FBI Director Wray.
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Garland, according to Cotton, had the Justice Department “weaponized” against his political rivals. There will be repercussions for this, he said.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson, an additional Republican from Arkansas who is considering a run for office in 2024, referred to the search as “unprecedented and alarming.” Like Pence, he emphasized that “we must see the probable cause affidavit before making a judgment.”
The months-long investigation into how classified documents ended up in boxes of White House records discovered at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year was intensified by the search.
Investigations into Trump and his allies’ attempts to rig the 2020 presidential election results are being conducted by a different grand jury.
Long before the most recent development, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late June found that 48% of American adults believed that Trump ought to be criminally prosecuted for his involvement in the attack on the Capitol on January 6.
