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Former President Donald Trump recognized that the “temperature has to be brought down” in the country following the retrieval of classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago residence, and offered to do whatever he could to help in an interview with Fox News. But in the very same interview, he continued to assail law enforcement in a manner that will only continue to divide the nation.
Late Sunday evening, Trump posted on Truth Social about the investigation into classified and top secret documents retrieved from his home, the mishandling of which is a felony offense according to a law he signed in 2018. Trump wrote:
America has never suffered this kind of ABUSE in Law Enforcement! For the FBI to RAID the home of the 45 President of the United States, or any President for that matter, is totally unheard of and unthinkable. This Break In was a sneak attack on democracy (our Republic!), and was both unannounced and done at a time when the President was not even present. It was for political, not legal reasons, and our
entire Country is angry, hurt, and greatly embarrassed by it. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Since a list of materials retrieved was made public, Trump has used several specious excuses that have ranged from the investigation being a hoax to a curious “standing order” he says he made for all documents to be declassified upon leaving a secure location. His excuses have led to bipartisan rebuke and mockery.
Trump has also openly derided the Department of Justice and FBI for what he has called a “raid” of his home, which has led to such toxicity that an armed man attacked an FBI Bureau office in Cincinnati, where he was shot dead.
Trump spoke exclusively with Fox News Digital Monday morning and seemed to cover the full spectrum of sentiment: from things need to calm down to he is still a victim to what he sees as an unfair hoax or scam. From the article:
“The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one—years of scams and witch hunts, and now this,” Trump said.”If there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that,” Trump said.”There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States,
and there is tremendous anger in the country—at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,” Trump said.
Skeptics might see Trump’s offer to do anything to help lower the temperature in the country immediately undermined by his bashing law enforcement for breaking into the house of a former president.
First of all, his home was not broken into. Federal authorities entered Mar-a-Lago with a search warrant approved by a Florida judge after he and his team refused a subpoena.
Secondly, the unprecedented nature of classified document retrieval from a former president’s home is entirely a result of the unprecedented nature of a former president possessing top secret material in an unsecured location. Actions have consequences.
Or put another way, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.