While at a rally in Arizona, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the FBI’s raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
During his speech supporting Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, DeSantis said the FBI has gone “totally off the rails” with the unprecedented raid.
“These agencies have now been weaponized to be used against people that the government doesn’t like,” he said. “And you look at the raid at Mar-a-Lago.”
The Florida governor then listed several instances where he believed the FBI was politically motivated, including the Russian collusion story and parents attending school board meetings.
DeSantis said the FBI did not probe Hillary Clinton’s server, and instead promoted the “false conspiracy theory” that Trump colluded with Russia.
“Meanwhile, when you have a law that protects Supreme Court justices is the FBI out there protecting our conservative justices?” he added. “No.”
He also called on Congress to get the agency under control, especially if Republicans gain control of both houses.
“They are enforcing the law based on who they like and who they don’t like,” he said. “That’s not a republic. Well, maybe that’s a banana republic.”
Last week, shortly after the raid, DeSantis posted a tweet saying it was “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents.”
He noted that people like Hunter Biden are “treated with kid gloves” and 87,000 new IRS agents are being added. “Banana Republic,” he added.
Other prominent Republicans have condemned the FBI’s search on Mar-a-Lago. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ripped the agency for “weaponized politicization.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said “Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships. But never before in America.”