GOP Strategist on CNN Whiffs When Repeatedly Challenged to Back Up DOJ Politicization Claim
Republican strategist Kristin Davison insisted that the Obama and Biden administrations had politicized the Department of Justice, but was unable to name a culprit when repeatedly challenged.
On CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five, the panel discussed the FBI’s raid on the home and office of John Bolton, a former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, and now one of the president’s harshest conservative critics. The bureau executed a search warrant at Bolton’s home in Maryland on Friday. Trump insisted he did not know about the raid and called Bolton a “sleazebag.”
The raid has divided pundits largely on ideological lines, with conservatives claiming that Trump himself had been the victim of lawfare during the Biden administration. Until winning the 2024 election, Trump faced federal criminal charges in two cases stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and his retention of government documents after leaving office. Those cases were dismissed last year. Trump was also indicted on state charges in New York and Georgia, and was convicted in the former case of falsifying business records.
Davison alleged that the two previous Democratic administrations politicized and weaponized the DOJ.
“The examples of political retribution that we do have proof of is Biden and Obama,” she said. “Go back in time. Those are the ones we know for sure, that the IRS was weaponized, the DOJ was weaponized. Those are the examples that we’ve actually seen. This one we don’t yet.”
Phillip pushed back on the claim.
“I guess my critique of that argument, which we hear a lot from conservatives, is that you might argue that these institutions – the IRS and the DOJ – went overboard, but there has yet to date been no proof that any of that was directed by the president of the United States,” the host said. “If I’m wrong, where is the proof? Because I have yet to see any proof of Joe Biden directing that.”
Later in the segment, Phillip reiterated her point in the context of the prosecutions against Trump.
“The main reason that Trump is not facing criminal penalties is that he ran for president again,” she said. “But it’s not fully accepted that, first of all, that even this idea that this was a weaponized– these were all these different prosecutions and all these different jurisdictions were not all directed from one place. There’s absolutely no evidence of that. You guys can tell me what evidence you have of that, but I’ve never seen it, and I’ve never heard anybody actually.”
Davison objected, leading to this exchange in which Phillip repeatedly asked, “Who?”
DAVISON: The Obama and Biden administrations didn’t politicize the DOJ?
PHILLIP: Ok, who?
DAVISON: Oh, I mean–
PHILLIP: Who?
DAVISON: I mean, you could, they were better at hiding–
PHILLIP: No, no, no. Hold on. I’m just saying, if you are making the claim that this was directed some kind of big puppeteer at the top of the pyramid, who is that person?
DAVISON: So, how did the IRS only go after conservatives–
PHILLIP: You’re not answering my question. Who is the person? Who are they?
DAVISON: I’m talking about the conservatives that Obama and Biden–
PHILLIP: There’s no proof.
Watch above via CNN.
