At a rally that the former president did not attend over the weekend in Phoenix, several of the most important contenders for the 2022 election criticised the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
During his about 46-minute presentation at a gathering for Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis remarked, “I genuinely expect that the state of Florida will be the one to get the election wave off the ground.”
Despite the fact that the survey was conducted before to the FBI search, DeSantis, who is up for reelection in 2022, placed in second place, 45 points behind Trump, in a recent CPAC straw poll for the 2024 presidential race.
However, DeSantis took the lead once Trump was eliminated from the survey.
The hectic six days that followed the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago and seizing 11 sets of sensitive papers came to an end with DeSantis’ visit to Phoenix.
Trump is being investigated for destroying, removing, or destroying data, obstructing an investigation, and breaking a portion of the Espionage Act connected to collecting, transferring, or losing defence material, according to the released search warrant.
Every time the FBI’s search and seizure of papers at Mar-a-Lago were mentioned, attendees in Phoenix were energised, and some were obviously angry.
The founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, used his opening speech to claim that the raid has only increased support for Trump.
The GOP primary was won by former TV journalist and ardent Trump supporter Lake on August 2. Lake said that the FBI officers were “politically motivated.”
“How could they? Joe Biden, enough now. “Government formed by the people, for the people, and by the people” is our motto. That administration has turned against “us,” the people. And we’ll start coming after them “said Lake.
DeSantis’ Sunday appearances in Arizona and New Mexico to address “Unite and Win” events for statewide GOP candidates were arranged by Turning Point USA, a conservative group aimed at young Republicans.
DeSantis criticised the FBI’s search and said it’s another instance of agencies being “weaponized to be used against individuals that the government doesn’t like” even though he did not specifically mention Trump by name during his speech.
“They are applying the law according to people they like and don’t like. Not a republic, that.
Then then, maybe it becomes a banana republic when that occurs “He then mentioned how the FBI was looking into the use of a personal email server by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Why was this possible to occur? Congress allows these agencies to get away with it because “said he.
If Republicans get control of both houses of Congress, I hope they will utilise their constitutional authority to hold an out-of-control bureaucracy accountable.
Although Masters didn’t mention the search during his speech, he said that it was “obvious” that the FBI wasn’t abiding by the “rule of law” and that it was “political persecution” when he appeared on Kirk’s programme on Monday.
Everyone is aware that the goal is to neutralise Trump and remove him from consideration for president in 2024, according to Masters, who also said that if Trump is elected again, he must dismiss “every political operator” in the FBI and “clean house.”
Following the FBI’s investigation of the former president’s residence, federal authorities have issued a warning about a rise in threats against law enforcement personnel.
In the days that followed the FBI’s authorised seizure of 11 sets of classified documents from the former president’s home, including four sets that were classified “top secret,” according to the unsealed search warrant, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the threats, which are “occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms, including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms, and image boards.”
According to CBS Phoenix station KPHO, there were several armed demonstrators outside the Phoenix FBI offices on Saturday morning, which is permissible under Arizona law.
Ellie Summers, a Republican who supports Donald Trump and thinks the 2020 election was “rigged,” said after the meeting that she wants Congressional Republicans to speak out more against the FBI raid.
“How is McCarthy doing? McConnell is missing. Where is anybody defending us? We are so irate because Republicans are not standing up for us for this reason.
They need to stop writing books and asking for money, and instead should start fighting and doing their damn jobs “She spoke.
“I believe the FBI must be disbanded. If the upper echelons of the FBI don’t completely disappear, I believe they should be replaced.
The lower level appears to be functioning perfectly. However, the individuals at the top must leave “Added she. “They are destroying this nation.”
Ari Corr, an independent voter, and Matt Bevans, a recent Democrat-to-Republican convert, said they were willing to see what the FBI investigation would lead to.
“I want to see if there’s grounds for it. If there isn’t, I’m afraid that’s going to cause more divisiveness and more of an issue and that terrifies me,” said Corr.
“I believe in the institutions of this country and I want to have faith in them,” added Bevans. “So I don’t have a reaction until I see evidence.”
DeSantis’ visit to Arizona in particular, a perennial presidential battleground former President Donald Trump narrowly lost in 2020, comes after multiple polls show DeSantis as the second pick for most GOP voters for president in 2024, behind Trump.
But attendees in Phoenix gave raucous applause to the southeast governor as he ticked through his COVID-19 response, his criticisms of Mr. Biden, and a string of controversial bills he passed related to education that restricts conversation about gender identity and sexuality from kindergarten through the third grade.
“You should not have kids in elementary school having lessons on gender ideology.
You do not take a six year old boy and tell him he may actually be a girl. That is wrong, and that is illegal in the state of Florida,” he said.
Lake, who joked about the governor having “BDE” (“Big DeSantis Energy”), said she was honoured to have received the nickname of “the DeSantis of the west.”
Most Republicans at the Phoenix event dreamt of a potential Trump-DeSantis ticket in 2024, but were confident if DeSantis decided to run on his own against the former president, that he’d lose.
“You aren’t going to beat that team. That would be the way to go. I hope they do it,” said Summers.
When asked who she’d choose if the two went head-to-head against one other, Summers swiftly said, “Trump all the way.”