The other view

[Noah Sombrero]

Arkansas governor:

He added: “We need to pull back on casting judgment on them. … No
doubt that higher ups in the FBI have made mistakes, they do it, I’ve
defended cases as well, and I’ve seen wrong actions. But we cannot say
that whenever they [FBI officers] went in and did that search that
they were not doing their job as law enforcement officers.”


The article:

A handful of Republican governors have criticized the “outrageous
rhetoric” of their party colleagues in the US Congress, who have
accused federal law enforcement officers of a politicized attack on
former president Donald Trump after executing a court-approved search
warrant on his Florida home this week.

Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a Republican moderate, described
attacks by party members as both “absurd” and “dangerous”, after a
week in which certain Republicans have compared the FBI to the Gestapo
and fundraised off the slogan: “Defund the FBI”.

Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Hogan described the comparisons of the
FBI to Nazi Germany’s secret police, made by Florida senator Rick
Scott, as “very concerning to me, it’s outrageous rhetoric”.

He added: “It’s absurd and, you know, it’s dangerous,” especially
after an armed man enraged by the raid was killed in Ohio when he
tried to invade an FBI office. “There are threats all over the place
and losing faith in our federal law enforcement officers and our
justice system is a really serious problem for the country.”

On Monday, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the former
president’s private members club and residence in south Florida with
an unsealed warrant later revealing Trump is under investigation for
potential violation of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice
over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

The episode inflamed conservative commentators and politicians still
deeply loyal to the former president, and was followed by the attack
on the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday, which led to
a six-hour armed standoff that left the lone gunman shot dead.

Hogan, who is rumored to be considering a run for the Republican
presidential nomination in 2024, argued that many of his colleagues in
Washington had been “jumping to conclusions without any information,
which I think was wrong”.

He added that revelations in the unsealed warrant were a “serious
concern” but argued investigators should provide further details on
the contents of the seized documents.

Hogan’s comments were followed by remarks from Arkansas’s Republican
governor Asa Hutchinson, who appeared on CNN on Sunday and partially
mirrored his Maryland counterpart.

“If the GOP is going to be the party of supporting law enforcement,
law enforcement includes the FBI,” Hutchinson, a former US prosecutor
and private practice attorney, said.

He added: “We need to pull back on casting judgment on them. … No
doubt that higher ups in the FBI have made mistakes, they do it, I’ve
defended cases as well, and I’ve seen wrong actions. But we cannot say
that whenever they [FBI officers] went in and did that search that
they were not doing their job as law enforcement officers.”

The comments marked a growing split on the extremist rhetoric from
certain Republican party members following the execution of the search
warrant. Many senior senate Republicans have remained largely quiet in
the wake of the unprecedented law enforcement action, while others
have appeared on conservative news channels supporting baseless
accusations that the FBI planted evidence during the search.

The Republican congresswoman from Wyoming Liz Cheney, a ranking member
on the House committee investigating the January 6th attack on the US
capitol, has condemned her colleagues’ rhetoric as “sickening”.

“I have been ashamed to hear members of my party attacking the
integrity of the FBI agents involved with the recent Mar-a-Lago
search,” Cheney wrote on Thursday. “These are sickening comments that
put the lives of patriotic public servants at risk.”

Her stance is slowly being mirrored by other House Republicans after
the warrant was made public on Friday.

Dan Crenshaw, a Republican congressman from Texas told Axios on
Saturday that sloganeering against the FBI “makes you look unserious”.
And ranking homeland security committee member John Katko told the
website: “This is not something you rush to judgment on. ... It’s
incumbent upon everybody to take a deep breath.”

Meanwhile on Sunday, the White House continued refraining from
commenting on the search warrant. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
repeatedly declined to answer questions on the matter during an
interview with ABC News, citing the US justice department’s
independence on law enforcement matters.

When shown video of comments made by House Republican Elise Stefanik,
a staunch Trump loyalist, who described the search as “complete abuse
and overreach” by the FBI, Jean-Pierre broadly fired back.

She said: “The Department of Justice, when it comes to law
enforcement, is independent. This is what we believe, and this is what
the president has said. This is not about politicizing anything. That
is not true at all.”

Jean-Pierre added a reminder that US attorney general Merrick Garland
was confirmed by the US Senate in bipartisan vote, and that Trump
nominated FBI director Christopher Wray to his position in 2017.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/14/fbi-trump-search-gop-outrageous-rhetoric?utm_term=62fa2e390d364ccebd79408bccda49ca&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

If there is an american political machine, I don't think britain's
press is part of it, even if this one does lean a little left.
--
Noah Sombrero

[Wilson]

On 8/15/2022 8:21 AM, Noah Sombrero wrote:
>
>
> When shown video of comments made by House Republican Elise Stefanik,
> a staunch Trump loyalist, who described the search as “complete abuse
> and overreach” by the FBI, Jean-Pierre broadly fired back.
>
> She said: “The Department of Justice, when it comes to law
> enforcement, is independent. This is what we believe, and this is what
> the president has said. This is not about politicizing anything. That
> is not true at all.”

LOL. ROFL even.

[Noah Sombrero]

It is so good to see that you are amused. Now get up off the floor
and say something intelligent.
--
Noah Sombrero