Abby Phillip Confronts Byron Donalds for Claiming Biden Authorized ‘Deadly Force’ Against Trump: ‘Why Would You Say Something Like That?’

CNN host Abby Phillip confronted Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) for suggesting that President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice authorized “deadly force” against former President Donald Trump on Thursday.

During a tense interview with Donalds on CNN NewsNight, Phillip questioned Donalds about insinuations from some in the GOP that Biden attempted to assassinate Trump.

“Just recently there was an issue of the search warrant for the search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and it authorized the use of deadly force for the FBI agents, standard boilerplate language, but you and others have described it as an assassination attempt on the former president,” said Phillip. “That’s just not true. Why would you say something like that?”

Donalds replied:

Well first of all, my view of it is very simple. You have the FBI going in to do this raid on Mar-a-Lago. This is not like any other raid that they would do. FBI agents who did that raid did not want to do it. They didn’t think it was necessary, and this is all politically motivated at the end because Merrick Garland wanted that to happen. Merrick Garland wanted the scene, which your network did cover, of going into Mar-a-Lago. Did they not?

Phillip noted, “Congressman, with all due respect, the language for the search is standard operating procedure for every operation of that kind that the FBI does. They did the same thing when they searched Joe Biden’s house. So how is that weaponizing it?”

“When they searched Joe Biden’s house, there weren’t all the networks, from my recollection, with helicopters flying over the beach house,” Donalds shot back, to which Phillip pushed, “Congressman, I’m talking about the conspiracy theory that the FBI was trying to assassinate Trump. Would you acknowledge that that is not true?”

After Donalds dodged the question, Phillip asked again, “Real simple question. Is it true or false that the FBI was trying to assassinate Trump?”

After the congressman dodged the question a second time, Phillip protested, “You are not responding to a very simple question about a conspiracy theory that you voiced.”

“What conspiracy theory?” asked Donalds.

“That the FBI, by having on a document that they are authorized to use deadly force, was trying to harm or assassinate former President Trump,” Phillip replied. “That is false. Will you acknowledge that?”

Donalds answered, “Can I be very clear with you? I’m not sure what Merrick Garland is trying to do these days because it is clear that the Department of Justice is being weaponized against Donald Trump. That is clear.”

Watch above via CNN.

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