After the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence earlier this week, some questioned whether President Joe Biden was informed about the raid ahead of time.
During a Tuesday briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre contended that Biden was not informed of the raid prior to its execution. However, the White House’s denial that the president had prior knowledge of the raid has not kept some conservatives from believing otherwise.
Thursday, on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program,” U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) expressed skepticism over the notion that Biden was unaware of the FBI’s plans to search Trump’s Florida compound.
“I refuse to believe that,” Carl said. “Anytime you’re going to anything that involves the president of the United States or the ex-president of the United States, you had better brief the president, because he’s got to protect that office — not just for Trump — but for Obama before and himself in the future. This has opened up a whole new avenue that I hope we don’t go down.”
The South Alabama congressman conveyed worry that the raid set a dangerous precedent.
“Now you’re saying that you can serve the president with unlimited warrants and go through all of his personal stuff?” he asked. “Well guess what everybody’s going to want to do with Joe Biden.”
Carl also refused to believe that the search was conducted simply due to a dispute over classified documents.
“I think that it has everything to do with January 6th, I think every bit of it — because January 6th is dead,” he argued. “Everything that they had and they uncovered, all they’ve done is tarnished Trump’s name in some way or the other, and it’s based on their opinion. So I don’t see any other reason why.”
The lawmaker expressed frustration at one particular aspect of the search, which he asserted was entirely unnecessary.
“The one thing that I think we’re all overlooking that infuriates me the most is as an elected official, I realize I’m held to a different standard,” continued Carl. “I realize that when they look for stuff they’re going to look past what I tell them, I get that and I understand that. But when you go through my wife’s personal stuff like they did Mrs. Trump, that is just kinky. I’m sorry, that is far past something that I would consider normal, especially in that situation.”
Carl admitted that the public did not have all the details behind the FBI’s decision to conduct the search. However, he contended that it was difficult to find a logical explanation for the law enforcement agency to go to such drastic lengths over a document dispute.
“To blow in there the way they did with 30 or 40 agents and make a big scene out of it, I do not for the life of me understand what the advantage was for the FBI to do that, because he’s not a threat to police,” he added. “I mean, he’s a president. Once a president, always a president. He’s a President for God’s sake. Let’s respect the office if nothing else.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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