Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said on Tuesday she will work to "totally gut" the FBI and Department of Justice after agents raided the Florida home of former President Donald Trump.
During an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network, Greene complained about an anti-inflation bill that would allow the IRS to hire new agents.
"They are launching a new IRS army," she said. "This is the thing that everyone needs to understand, this IRS army is going to be armed with weapons."
"This is who the Democrats are," the lawmaker continued. "We've seen this happen in many countries where dictators rise and they rise through actions just like we saw at Mar-a-Lago yesterday."
Greene asserted that President Joe Biden ordered the raid although the White House has denied that he had any prior knowledge of Monday's actions.
According to Greene, the "ultimate goal" of Democrats is to prosecute Trump so he can't run for office again.
"Many Republican members are now unified and we'll be taking back the House and once we do, we're going to be going after and taking down this corrupt communist-style government," she added. "And we have got to do something to totally gut the Department of Justice and the FBI."
The FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Monday has amplified the volume of MAGA rage, but one of its targets continues to be mainstream Republican elected officials – aka, “RINO’s.”
Lost in the attacks on Attorney General Merrick Garland – and calls for retribution – has been an uptick in the Republican civil war, with MAGA fanatics targeting mainstream figures for failing to exhibit an acceptable level of rage.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene didn’t even bother to wait for official responses to use the occasion to attack the Republican establishment.
“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 posted on Telegram Monday night. “Last night’s tyrannical FBI raid at MAL is unifying us in ways I haven’t seen. In January, we take on the enemy within.”
After Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell declined to answer questions about the Mar-a-Lago search, Alex Bruesewitz, one of the organizers of the Stop the Steal organization that helped plan the January 6 protest, tweeted, “Mitch McConnell is an anti-American POS. Any “Republican” that supports this guy is either on his payroll, a coward, or a traitor.”
Earlier in the day Bruesewitz called McConnell “a disgrace to our nation." He also tweeted a list of 20 Republican senators, including McConnell, who voted to confirm Garland urging followers to contact the senators with demands to defund the Department of Justice unless Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray are removed.
MAGA attorney Jenna Ellis apparently was unmoved by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threat of retribution against Garland the DOJ should Republicans regain control of the House in November.
Rather than celebrate McCarthy faux profile in courage, Ellis tweeted, “Is McCarty” all talk?” It’s not clear whether the misspelling of McCarthy’s was intentional.
Christopher Bedford, a senior editor at the Federalist Society, attacked multiple GOP leaders. “It’s been 15 hours since we learned the FBI raided President Trump’s private home. If you turn to McConnell, Sen. John Thune, Sen. John Barrasso and Sen. Joni Ernst, however, they’re just talking about tax cuts. There’s no better encapsulation of the weakness of Senate GOP leadership.”
Prominent MAGA podcaster Liz Wheeler exploded at a comment by Sen. Tim Scott on CBS News calling for patience.
“Are you joking??” Wheeler railed in her Tweet. That prompted this retweet by MAGA influencer Scott Greer, a reputed white nationalist: “The good news is that Tim Scott took himself out of VP consideration with this.”
Veteran journalist Sarah Posner, who has spent years writing about religion and the Christian right, has an explanation for the outraged response from some Trump supporters over the FBI executing a legal search warrant on Mar-a-Lago.
Hours after the news broke, Florida Republican state representative Anthony Sabatini called for "an emergency legislative session" to "Sever all ties with DOJ immediately" over the FBI executing a legal search warrant of Trump's home. "Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight," he wrote, apparently unaware of the U.S. Constitution.
Tuesday night Trump supporters formed a small convoy driving outside Mar-a-Lago, some with Trump banners, Trump flags, or the American flag, – even one vehicle painted with the American flag – to show their support for the former president who might be facing legal consequences, as video from NBC 6 reporter Cristian Benavides shows.
"The GOP position is that Trump is above the law," writes The Washington Post's Greg Sargent. "That's what the GOP position on Trump was throughout his presidency, and that's what it is now. Say it that way. Don't let Republicans get away with using fake outrage to obscure this fundamental reality."
Posner has written two books on the Christian Right including "UNHOLY: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, And the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind."
In response to Sargent's remarks she advises: "Remember too that much of Trump's base believes that God anointed him, that it's God's will that he be back in the White House. And that they need to engage in 'spiritual warfare' with 'demonic' enemies of Trump -- keep this in mind as right-wing influencers call for civil war."
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Monday night tweeted, "The FBI is raiding President Trump’s home in Maralago! This is the rogue behavior of communist countries, NOT the United States of America!!! These are the type of things that happen in countries during civil war. The political persecution MUST STOP!!!"
Tuesday morning CNN's Donie O'Sullivan posted a graph and noted the "big spike in tweets referencing 'civil war' right after the news of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago broke last night."
Dr. Caroline Orr Bueno posted an image of a large number of tweets that mention civil war and other related calls, including: “I already bought my ammo,” “Civil war! Pick up arms, people!” “Civil War 2.0 just kicked off,” “Let’s do the war,” and “One step closer to a kinetic civil war.”
The case against Donald Trump in Georgia seems fairly open-and-shut, but there's a good reason not to expect the special grand jury to indict him on charges related to his effort to overturn his election loss in the state.
Prosecutors in Georgia may convene "special purpose" grand juries to conducted yearlong investigations of complicated crimes, but the 23-person panels may only issue official reports recommending further action, and then it's up to the local district attorney to determine whether they'll impanel a regular grand jury that can seek an indictment, reported The Daily Beast.
“In Georgia, it’s primarily been used for government corruption cases and secrecy," said B. Michael Mears, a professor at John Marshall law school who previously headed the state's public defender's office. "The special purpose grand jury is an investigative tool that the prosecutor can use."
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, a first-term Democrat who called the special grand jury, will review its report once finished and determine whether to continue the case against Trump -- who was recorded asking secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to "find" the 11,780 votes he needed to defeat Joe Biden.
Attorneys for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), whose efforts to help Trump overcome his loss have also fallen under investigation, have argued the special grand jury isn't set up to take action as part of their effort to fight off a subpoena for his testimony -- but legal experts say these panels can do much more than a regular grand jury.
“This sort of investigation is so wide-ranging and impactful, it merits first the fact-finding of a special grand jury relatively unlimited in time," said Ronald L. Carlson, who chairs the University of Georgia’s law school. "They don’t have to finish up by the end of July or something like that."
Witnesses in a criminal conspiracy cannot be forced to testify against themselves, of course, thanks to the Fifth Amendment, but special purpose grand juries may offer them immunity to encourage their testimony.
“You can lock testimony down," Mears said. "You can force people to come testify, and you can prevent them from changing their testimony later on. In a regular grand jury, that type of coercion is not used.”
“The special grand jury can say, ‘We're not indicting, we'll ask the judge to grant you use immunity,’" he added. "If you take away the possibility that person can be indicted because they may say something, then there's no purpose invoking the Fifth Amendment. It allows the special purpose grand jury to develop testimony to get other leads."
In breaking down the news of the search at Trump's resort, Rangappa explained why Trump presents unique risks to national security, especially given the revelations that he has been storing classified documents inside Mar-a-Lago where they could be targeted by foreign operatives.
"Trump is sort of a counterintelligence nightmare," she said. "In addition to blabbing secrets, Mar-a-Lago has a lot of traffic, including traffic from foreigners and including possible trespassers from foreign intelligence services... someone was arrested there several years ago."
She also said it was highly unlikely that the FBI would have taken the politically explosive step of searching Mar-a-Lago unless the documents it believed he possessed were of significant importance to national security.
"These aren't just the Kim Jong-un love letters," she said, referring to Trump's friendly correspondence with the North Korean dictator. "These are possibly secrets that could really harm national security and so I think they want to make sure... before they take this extreme step."
The Department of Justice executed a search warrant granted by a judge to take the unprecedented step of searching the former president's home, and the "Morning Joe" co-host said GOP lawmakers were fanning the flames of violence from Trump's extremist base.
"We are keeping tabs on the fallout from the search online, including growing concerns over the reaction from possible right-wing extremists," Brzezinski said.
The top comment on a pro-Trump online forum used the phrase "lock and load," while others made references to civil war, and Brzezinski said lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene were encouraging violent action with their social media posts.
" Trump supporters are also posting upside-down flags across social media to signal a distress call, including this post from a sitting Republican congresswoman in Georgia," Brzezinski said. "It's just putrid, it's putrid what these people are doing, whatever, but not whatever because we all saw what happened on Jan. 6."
"For Trump to come out and say he was sieged and make it sound like doors were broken down, he is rallying the base," she added. "He is being the martyr, he is making himself the victim, when he is not the victim. Putting that all aside, how important might it be, what the FBI was looking for, for them to actually walk on the grounds of Mar-A-Lago, peacefully, they did call the Secret Service, who has to protect Donald Trump, and let them know they were coming. It was peaceful, but it was an FBI search and documents were removed."
On Monday, the San Antonio Express-Newsreported that a South Texas church is putting on an unauthorized knockoff production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" — complete with added-in religious proselytizing and attacks on LGBTQ people.
"The 'Hamilton' team in New York also says it did not give a license or permission to the Door McAllen church in McAllen, Tex., to stage the performance, thus making the show an illegal reproduction," reported Timothy Bella. "The version of 'Hamilton' produced by the Door McAllen and RGV Productions that was performed and live-streamed Friday and Saturday included scenes in which the characters Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton talked about how Jesus 'saved' them, according to videos of the show from author and podcast host Hemant Mehta. After one of the performances, Pastor Victor Lopez gave a sermon with language that compared being gay to alcohol and drug addiction, according to the OnStage Blog, the first to report about the show."
"[God] knows exactly what you've gone through," said Lopez in the sermon, which was caught on video. "You've gone through maybe broken marriages. Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs — with homosexuality — maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins."
According to the report, senior pastor Roman Gutierrez claimed to the Dallas Morning News that the church had acquired legal permission for the show. However, Hamilton spokesman Shane Marshall Brown appeared to contradict this, telling The Washington Post, "Hamilton does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church. We issued a cease-and-desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton's intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere."
Hamilton took musical theater by storm when it first debuted in 2015, winning 11 Tony Awards, a Grammy, and a drama Pulitzer Prize. A dramatized account of America's founding era, the show is renowned for its diversity and for drawing on hip-hop music.
Republican commentators have sometimes butted heads with the cast of the show. When Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the show, criticized Mike Pence in 2016, Fox's Jeanine Pirro raged at him on air, demanding that he stick to "hip-hop and dancing around the stage."
Arizona GOP state Sen. Wendy Rogers is known for peddling conspiracy theories, has ties to the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers, and even pals around with white nationalists. Now, she's lamenting the fact that Alex Jones was held accountable to spreading vile conspiracy theories about children killed in the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
“It’s wrong what they did to Alex Jones. He should be able to criticize the official story any time he wants," she wrote in an online post flagged by PatriotTakes. "I hope he appeals the verdicts because the kangaroo courts already made him guilty before the trials started. Americans should help cover his bills. Sick of censorship!”
A jury in Texas this Friday ruled thatJones must pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis. The decision came one day after the jury awarded $4.1 million in compensatory damages.
Writing for the Arizona Republic, EJ Montini points out that Jones wasn't simply questioning the "official story" -- he was outright "lying about the murder of children."
"He was not censored. Each of us is free to say whatever we want. But there can be legal ramifications to lies," Montini writes. "None of Rogers’ crudeness or idiocy is surprising."
"A woman who suggested that people she proclaimed to be 'traitors” should be publicly hanged. A woman who threatened to 'personally destroy the career of any Republican who partakes in the gaslighting of me.' She is also a woman who once tweeted, 'I am just a sweet grandma who loves Jesus and America,'" writes Montini, referring to Rogers.
In a recent interview, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that while she didn't like the fact that Alex Jones was spreading conspiracy theories about the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, "Alex has apologized over and over again."
On Friday, a jury in Texas decided that Jones must pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis. The decision came one day after the jury awarded $4.1 million in compensatory damages.
Greene went on to say that "most of those videos" that featured Jones pushing Sandy Hook conspiracy theories have been wiped from the internet.
"But here's the issue: There's no amount of apologies, no amount of settlements that are going to bring those children back," Greene continued, adding that "at the same time, what's happening to Alex Jones is political persecution."
"We see it non-stop -- President Trump, his family ... but Alex Jones, I really like him because he's a good friend of mine," she said. "I think it's wrong what's happening to him, and his entire business wasn't built on what he said about Sandy Hook, it was built upon many other things, and it's not right."
Fox News continues to prop up Donald Trump as the leader of the Republican Party, but he hasn't appeared on the network for months.
The conservative network has been giving two potential 2024 challengers, Mike Pence and Ron DeSantis, plenty of airtime, including two recent prime-time interviews, although coverage of the former president remains overwhelmingly positive, reported The Guardian.
“You were allowed to attack Donald Trump during the primaries in 2015 and 2016 on Fox News," said Angelo Carusone, Media Matters’ president and chief executive. "That doesn’t happen now, at all -- ever."
The media watchdog conducted a recent study that found Fox News continues to talk about Trump far more than any of his potential rivals -- 8,556 mentions of Trump from January to July, with 1,083 for DeSantis and 589 for Pence -- but the network has been less willing to carry his speeches live to avoid the sort of false election claims that got them served with a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
“The debate among the liberal media on this topic is the very reason Fox News exists and is the most watched cable news channel in the country with more viewers of every political persuasion than any other network," said a network spokesperson.
Although the twice-impeached former president hasn't been interviewed on Fox News for more than 100 days, the network's hosts still daydream about how Trump would handle various challenges and praise his record in office.
“They’re still fetishizing and fantasizing, it’s just that there’s no longer an audience of one,” Carusone said. “There are other people in the audience that they care about.”
Explaining that conservatives embracing the militant Christian stance -- with its overtones of racism -- are "wolves in sheep's clothing," Episcopal Rev. Nathan Empsall claims that the far-right conservative is guilty of the "bastardization of the Christian faith."
In a recent interview, the controversial lawmaker was asked about her embrace of the movement and she replied, "We need to be the party of nationalism. And I'm a Christian. I say it proudly we should be Christian nationalists. And when Republicans learn to represent most of the people that vote for them, then we will be the party that continues to grow without having to chase down certain identities or chase down, you know, certain segments of people."
Empsall bashed her exclusionary view of acceptance as un-Christian.
"It’s not the first time she has embraced the label. And it’s a dangerous turn of events that requires active, loud opposition from all of us, especially from American Christians, for whom Greene and her allies claim to speak," he wrote. "As a pastor, if there’s one thing I understand, it’s that Christian nationalism is unchristian and unpatriotic. Academic researchers define the authoritarian ideology as a political worldview—not a religion—that unconstitutionally and unbiblically merges Christian and American identities, declaring that democracy does not matter because America is a 'Christian nation' where only conservative Christians count as true Americans."
To illustrate his case he added, "The clear goal of Christian nationalism is to seize power only for its mostly white evangelical and conservative Catholic followers, no matter who else gets hurt or how many elections have to be overturned. This is the unholy force that incited the failed coup of Jan. 6, 2021, brought us the recent spate of theocratic Supreme Court opinions, and has inspired multiple wave upon wave of dangerous misinformation about elections, climate change, and COVID-19—all in direct contrast to Jesus’ teachings of love, truth, and the common good."
According to the religious leader, Greene "would have you believe that all of her critics “hate America [and] hate God,” but this ignores the fact that most Christians are appalled at the way she hijacks the Gospel to justify attending white nationalist rallies and spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," adding, "They don’t speak for American Christians. And it's up to us to finally deflate their claims of a monopoly and thus their hold on power, reclaim our religion and its prophetic voice for the Gospel’s true values of love, dignity, equality, and social justice."
Former President Donald Trump spoke for nearly two hours in his closing address at the CPAC summit in Dallas.
In Trump's view, America has been destroyed in the 18 months since he left office, with out-of-control crime, inflation, and oddly enough unemployment, which Trump estimates to be three times the official number.
Trump took the stage to the song "God Bless the USA" and began by thanking the "proud patriots" in attendance.
Trump said he was proud to be joined by Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-TX), who was his White House surgeon.
"He was an admiral, a doctor, and now he's a congressman," Trump noted, saying he asked him which was the best.
"And he sort of indicated doctor, because he loved to look at my body. It was so strong and powerful," Trump said.
Trump then introduced Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
"This is no time for complacency," Trump warned. "We have to seize this opportunity to deal with the radical left socialist lunatic fascists. We have to hit them very, very hard. It has to be a crippling defeat."
He went on to complain about Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed a procedural vote after Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote while Trump was speaking, resulting in harsh words for GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
"But McConnell is the most unpopular politician in the country, even more so than crazy Nancy Pelosi, and something has to be done," Trump urged.
Trump said Biden "surrendered our strength and our everything [in Afghanistan], they surrendered our dignity."
Michael Hardy, senior editor at the Texas Monthly, was one of the local journalists covering the speech. He said that line had "echoes of the Nazi 'stab in the back theory' of losing WW1."
Trump then described crime in "Democrat-run (sic) cities" in very dark terms.
"The streets of our Democrat-run cities are drenched in the blood of innocent victims," Trump claimed. "Bullets are killing little beautiful little children who never had a chance. Car jackers lay in wait like predators."
Hardy described that as "some literal blood-and-soil rhetoric."
And Trump went on saying "we need the courage to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done," which Hardy said "is a rallying cry for street violence and worse."
Trump went on to call for a military takeover of San Francisco, New York, Chicago, and Portland.
"Trump's rhetoric is significantly more extreme than even a few years ago," Hardy said. "This might be most frightening speech I've ever heard. Full-on, unapologetic fascism. Trump has either been reading Mein Kampf or having someone read it to him."
Trump repeated his lies about election fraud and teased a 2024 presidential comeback.
Former RNC official Tim Miller said, "I know everyone in the DC GOP is just hoping Trump will die but it’s impossible to watch this CPAC speech and not come to the conclusion that he’s going to run and be very hard to beat in a primary. Sorry to be the bearer of bad weekend news."
After his speech, Trump danced on stage to the song "Hold On I'm Coming" by Sam and Dave.
"Don't you ever feel sad; lean on me when times are bad," Sam and Dave sang. "Then the day comes and you're down; in a river of trouble and about to drown. Just hold on, I'm coming. Hold on, I'm coming."
A display set up at the Conservative Political Action Conference offered a performative portrayal of jailed U.S. Capitol rioters by a failed actor whose testimony landed some of them in prison.
The booth consists of an unidentified man wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit and a MAGA hat sitting in a mock jail cell and crying, and passersby are offered headphones that play testimony from suspects arrested for various offenses during the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to freelance journalist Laura Jedeed.
Jedeed noted that the man never broke character for the half hour that she observed the performance, saying that he continued crying throughout the entire time and wrote tally marks on a chalkboard.
Various Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), have described the Jan. 6 defendants as "political prisoners."
The "prisoner" was identified by WUSA-TV reporter Jordan Fischer as "Walk Away" founder Brandon Straka, who avoided prison for his own role in the insurrection by providing "substantial" testimony to investigators about other defendants, including Dr. Simone Gold, who was sentenced to 60 days in jail.
