Trump supporters stand outside Mar-a-Lago after FBI conducts search warrant.Photo: GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty
CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivannotesa “big spike in tweets referencing ‘civil war’ right after the news of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago broke.”
NBC News reportsthat the war theme was rife on pro-Trump forums, quoting users who posted everything from “When does the shooting start?” to “Are we not in a cold civil war at this point?”
The outlet notes that one of the users who wrote about “civil war” is currently awaiting sentencing forbreaching the Capitolon Jan. 6, 2021 — an indication that some of those posting on extremist forums after the Mar-a-Lago search “have taken real-life action in the past.”
Talk of “civil war” and taking up arms in the midst of the Department of Justice’s investigation are also circulating on the darker corners of the web, such as 4chan, where some users are imploring others to harm FBI agents “asap.”
Greene, a controversial Georgia lawmaker and staunch Trump ally, took to Twitter to say she was “leaning into” talk of a “civil war” within the Republican Party.
“I’ve talked a lot about the civil war in the GOP and I lean into it because America needs fearless & effective Republicans to finally put America First,” Greene wrote on Tuesday. “Last night’s tyrannical FBI raid at [Mar-a-Lago] is unifying us in ways I haven’t seen. In January, we take on the enemy within.”
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty
In an interviewwith Fox Business Tuesday morning, Florida Sen.Rick Scottspoke of the search in similarly stark terms, saying, “The way our federal government has gone, it’s like what we thought about the Gestapo, people like that, that they just go after people, what we thought about the Soviet Union, look at Latin America.”
Boebert meanwhile,arguedthat the U.S. was “turning into a banana republic at record speed,” writing that the GOP “must set up a Select Committee to investigate the FBI’s politically-motivated raid on Mar-a-Lago and on ALL the fraudulent persecution of President Trump from our government.”
DeSantis also used the phrase “banana republic” when describing the FBI’s investigation on Twitter: “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. Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”
DeSantis' claims that the president’s son Hunter Biden is being treated “with kid gloves,” is also not entirely accurate, considering the younger Biden is currently the subject of afederal investigation himself.
The probe into Trump, meanwhile, reportedly hinges on whether he took classified documents from the White House and to his private residence at Mar-a-Lago after he left office,Politico,CNN,The Washington Postand other news outlets reported.
The FBI’s search was focused on the office and personal quarters of the former president, CNN reported. Trump said in a statement Monday that the FBI agents at Mar-a-Lago “even broke into my safe!”
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As some Trump critics have noted, the probe into Trump’s documents somewhat mirrors a probe the FBI conducted in 2015, intoHillary Clinton’s use of a private email serverduring her time as secretary of state.
The issuing of the search warrant does not mean that the subject is guilty or even accused of a crime, asThe New York Timespoints out.
source: people.com
