Dan Abrams Rips GOP Leaders for Dropping Legal ‘Guardrails’ Amid Report of Trump $10 Billion Lawsuit Against IRS and Family’s $500M Crypto Firm Sale
Dan Abrams ripped top Republicans for doing away with legal “guardrails” on corruption while simultaneously seeking “accountability” for past incidents of what some in the GOP claim to be political weaponization.
On Monday’s edition of The Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM, Abrams, the founder of Mediaite, opened by playing a clip from a CNN interview with Chad Mizelle — an attorney who has been working with the Trump administration — who argued the DOJ’s efforts are necessary to prevent future politicized justice, citing the Biden FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“Do we really think the Department of Justice raided the home of the former president and candidate to be the next President of the United States and nobody in Joe Biden’s White House knew about that?” Mizelle asked incredulously.
Abrams promptly called out Mizelle for spouting “BS” — noting that he had been asked whether Biden personally ordered the raid. Instead, he focused on whether anyone in the White House knew ahead of time, which was not the question he had been asked.
“Completely different issue,” Abrams pointed out.
He also called out Mizelle wanting to pursue “accountability” in the form of cases for lying to Congress.
“There’s a reason they’ve had such trouble with these cases about lying to congress because it involves nuance, and a nuance that the previous administration never would have prosecuted,” Abrams said. “‘[Without accountability] we’re gonna repeat the mistakes of the past. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.’ What the hell is he talking about?!”
After that, Abrams widened his aperture to address the GOP’s handling of political justice issues more broadly.
“The guardrails have come down in the GOP, and it’s scaring the heck out of me,” Abrams said. “When the right starts saying, ‘This ..feels wrong,’ you can see corrections occur. Which is why it is so important that Republicans stand up. Democrats yelling and screaming isn’t going to do anything. It’s gotta be Republicans. It’s gotta be right-leaning independents, who say that this is just wrong!”
From there, the SiriusXM host brought up a Wall Street Journal report, titled “Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company,” which detailed how Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan traded $500 million for a 49% stake in Trump’s cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial. The deal was finalized just four days before Trump was inaugurated for the second time. Abrams called out Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who defended Trump by accusing the Biden family of doing “exactly the same thing.”
“What?! The Biden family did the same thing?!” Abrams said. He pointed out that the AI chips at issue here were a “a national security issue” and added, “Hunter Biden worked at a Ukrainian firm using the Biden name when Joe Biden was the vice president. There is no indication of a) anything like the kind of money we’re talking about here, and b) any investment in a company where Joe Biden benefited in any way, shape, or form.”
Abrams also delved into the recent FBI raid on a Georgia election hub over Trump’s continued claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him — taking particular issue with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who claimed over the weekend, that it was about “election integrity” but that “we’re not going to re-litigate” the unfounded election interference claims.
“No, that is what they’re trying to do!” Abrams said — blasting the comments from Johnson. “That is what President Trump is trying to do. And it’s going to only stop if people like Speaker Johnson stand up and say, ‘This isn’t good.’ I mean, I get it. I don’t expect Speaker Johnson to go on some tirade against Trump, but he could say, ‘I wish he wouldn’t be so focused on this. I wish he’d be focused on the future. The SAVE Act, etc., blah, blah. You know, I really wish he’d stop talking about it.’ Even those subtle things could make a difference. But he won’t do it…He can’t do it because Trump would be too angry at him.”
The host then discussed the “ridiculous lawsuit that Trump has brought against the IRS for $10 billion, where he can now pressure or decide that the government is going to pay the $10 billion to him.”
“He’s claiming, ‘Well, I’d give it to charity,'” Abrams continued. “So, $10 billion of taxpayer dollars should go to ‘charities,’ quote unquote. I don’t know what those quote unquote ‘charities’ would even be, but that the president decides.”
“At what point are Republicans going to say, ‘This is crazy. This is nuts!’ And yet here’s Lindsey Graham, again, one of the people who I would hope would be one of the folks saying, ‘Mr. President, this is not where you should be focused your attention on.’ I’m not saying that they should be yelling and screaming at him. I’m saying that you can say it in a suck-uppy way, but still making the point that of course it’s insane that the president is suing the IRS for $10 billion over someone who didn’t even work for the government leaking his tax returns.”
The SiriusXM host closed out his fiery monologue with a plea to lawmakers on the right.
“For those of us who are independents and for Republicans who are not in the purely in the MAGA universe, come on, don’t do it, man!” Abrams said. “Don’t leave the guardrails! Don’t let ’em knock them down! So bad for the country. So dishonest.”
Watch above.
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