OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
After admitting to signing off on the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s residence in Florida, Attorney General Merrick Garland is in a bit of hot water.
During a press conference last month, Garland said he “personally approved” the matter against the former president. The FBI’s raid was allegedly tied to boxes of classified information that Trump had supposedly taken to his Florida estate.
In the wake of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, a recent Politico poll found that Trump increased his popularity and enjoyed a 10-point bump in the poll as 57% of respondents said they’d support Trump if ran in 2024, up 4% from only a month ago.
These results follow a Rasmussen poll that suggests Garland is fairing relatively poorly following the raids. Interestingly, Garland’s “favorable” and “unfavorable” numbers increased, month-over-month.
While 36% of respondents said they viewed Garland favorably, up 6% from last month, 42% of respondents said they viewed him unfavorably, an increase of 3% from a month ago.
This means the raid, approved by Garland, played well with liberals and was not supported by conservatives, which is another indication that the move further divided the country.
According to a Harvard-CAPS Harris Poll, 51%, of voters believe the FBI raid was a politically motivated use of police force.
Respondents were asked if they believed the Justice Department was “really seeking just classified documents and presidential records, or was it using the warrant to carry out a fishing expedition.”
Forty-eight percent believe the operation was above board, while 52% believe the FBI was trying to find other materials to use against Trump.
A whopping 60% of respondents said they think the DOJ should have resolved matters in court as opposed to seizing documents using a warrant.
Kimberley A. Strassel, an opinion writer for the Wall Street Journal, says Democrats will face even more trouble because of Garland’s move.
“Trump derangement syndrome has a curious way of scrambling coherent thought,” Strassel wrote in a recent column. “Witness the Democratic-media complex’s blind insistence the Justice Department raid on Donald Trump’s home is just and necessary—rather than a dangerous move for their party and the republic.”
“In descending on Mar-a-Lago, the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation shifted the U.S. into the category of countries whose ruling parties use government power to investigate political rivals. No attorney general has ever signed off on a raid on a former president’s home, in what could be the groundwork for criminal charges,” she added.
Another issue for Garland is that Trump said that several of his attorneys “had been cooperating fully with federal authorities on the return of the documents to the National Archives and Records Administration.”
Assuming that is true, it certainly raises questions about why the FBI needed to conduct an unannounced raid just to retrieve the documents.
Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul slammed the raid and called for an investigation into Garland.
“Without question, I think the order to allow the raid on Mar-a-Lago on Trump’s house has to be revealed,” Paul said. “It’s going to have to wait until November till there’s a full investigation.”
“And I’ve never been a fan of overusing impeachment, but I think there has to be an investigation. And if it warrants it, there’s going to have to be a look at whether or not the attorney general has misused his office for political purposes. Have they gone after a political opponent? I mean, this is beyond the pale.”
“No one would have ever imagined before that we would be using or one political party would be using the FBI to attack their political opponents,” Paul said. “This is really something that’s going to require an investigation. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the investigation leads to abuse of power that this could even lead to an impeachment of the attorney general.”
