Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), one of the candidates at the top of Donald Trump’s vice presidential shortlist, refused to condemn the former president’s false accusations that the FBI was “locked and ready” to take him out during the elections. 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago property.
In a fundraising email sent last week, Trump claimed that the FBI agents who searched his Florida home for classified documents he took with him when he left the White House were prepared to shoot him, a move that according to him, was orchestrated by the president. Joe Biden to intimidate him.
“It has just been revealed that Biden’s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their HORRIBLE raid on Mar-a-Lago,” the email reads. “You know they’re just eager to do the unthinkable… Joe Biden was locked and loaded, ready to take me out and put my family in danger.”
Trump appeared to distort the essence of the standard language used in the search warrant, which authorizes the use of deadly force only when necessary. Attorney General Merrick Garland said this “standard search operations plan” was used even when the FBI searched Biden’s home for documents, calling Trump’s claims “extremely dangerous.” (Biden was investigated for his handling of classified documents but ultimately not charged.)
In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Scott sided with Trump as he repeatedly dodged questions about the former president’s comments.
“I do not agree with Attorney General Garland on any issue,” Scott said. “I will say that I saw the video of the FBI SWAT team raiding Mar-a-Lago. I haven’t seen the same video of them robbing Joe Biden’s garage. So I would like to have that comparison.”
The South Carolina Republican claimed that Trump’s treatment in this case points to the existence of a “two-tiered justice system,” even though the same policy was followed in the search of Biden’s home.
“It is very difficult to see this justice system playing out right now in a way that is fair to both Donald Trump and the Republicans as we have seen the kid gloves and the isolation around Joe Biden and his family,” Scott said.
After repeated questions from CNN’s Dana Bash about whether Trump’s comments about the raid concerned him, Scott switched to another topic: student protests over the Gaza war.
“Well, the rhetoric that really concerns me is not coming out [Trump’s] emails,” he said. “They are coming to college campuses as we see actual physical violence taking place against our Jewish students.”
Scott, a former candidate for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination, is reportedly among the top candidates to become Trump’s running mate in November’s presidential election.
Federal prosecutors on Friday asked the judge presiding over Trump’s classified documents case to impose a silence order on the former president, saying his words “endanger law enforcement officials involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of this procedure.”
The trial in this case has been postponed indefinitely.
