Yahoo Finance Violent Rhetoric, Talk of Civil War Intensify in Extremist Circles Following FBI's Lawful Search of Mar-a-Lago
GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Trump supporters stand outside Mar-a-Lago after FBI conducts search warrant
In the minutes after news broke that Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was searched by the FBI executing a federal search warrant on Monday, some Republican officials as well as extremist figures began talking about a "civil war," arguing that the search was politically motivated and using phrases like "banana republic" to describe the state of the U.S.
CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan notes a "big spike in tweets referencing 'civil war' right after the news of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago broke."
NBC News reports that 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 for breaching the Capitol on 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."
Loaded language has been pushed by far-right elected officials, too, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, all of whom seem to be following similar scripts that criticize the FBI and frame the search as a fight between the Biden administration and Republicans — despite the fact that the search warrant was carried out by the Department of Justice, not the White House.
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.
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"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 the hours after the FBI search warrant was confirmed by Trump, Greene also tweeted an upside-down American flag, called to "DEFUND THE FBI!!" and proclaimed, "What is happening will NOT be tolerated!!! We are coming."
In an interview with Fox Business Tuesday morning, Florida Sen. Rick Scott spoke 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, argued that 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."
What DeSantis — a former attorney who graduated from both Yale University and Harvard Law School — didn't note is that the search was carried out with a subpoena by the FBI, which is removed from the president and directly overseen by the Department of Justice.
The FBI is currently led by a Trump appointee, Christopher Wray, who approved the search at Mar-a-Lago.
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 a federal 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 Post and 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, into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during 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, as The New York Times points out.
