'Banana Republic': Ron DeSantis denounces FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday denounced the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's estate of Mar-a-Lago in Florida and asserted that the Biden administration was using federal power to attack political opponents.
FBI agents from the Washington Field Office, a unit already embroiled in scandal for whistleblower complaints alleging political bias, raided the former president's estate seeking classified documents Trump may have taken from the White House, sources briefed on the raid told Just the News.
"These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents," Trump said in a statement confirming the raid. "Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before."
Republicans quickly condemned the raid, warning that the alleged politicization of law enforcement would only get worse under the Biden administration.
"The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime's political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves," DeSantis wrote Monday evening. "Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic." The recent $740 billion spending package Democrats passed over the weekend allocated funding for an additional 87,000 IRS agents.
His remarks echo sentiments Trump expressed suggesting the country was sliding into backwater status.
"Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries," the former president lamented. "Sadly America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe!"
DeSantis' comments show a degree of solidarity with Trump amid speculation the Florida governor could serve as an alternative candidate or even primary rival to the former president in 2024.