TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida’s top officials didn’t waste any time in sharing their thoughts this week on the search of former President Donald Trump’s home in the Sunshine State.
The major escalation happened Monday night when the FBI searched Trump’s estate for alleged classified documents that were reportedly taken from the White House to Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
While some Floridians flocked outside of Trump’s home, some of the state’s top officials took to Twitter to weigh in.
“We’ve never been a country where people who take power, like becoming president, now use that power to prosecute their past or future political opponents. We’ve never seen that. Until tonight,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said last night.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also weighed in on Twitter, calling it a “Banana Republic.”
“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,” DeSantis said. “Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.”
Both Democratic opponents of the governor weighed in as well.
“Gov. DeSantis’s knee-jerk partisan response to this law enforcement action proves yet again he is more interested in playing politics than seeking justice or the rule of law,” Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., said.
The other Democratic primary candidate, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, held a news conference on the lawn of the governor’s mansion Tuesday morning.
“We should always seek truth and justice – that is the American way,” Fried said. “Nobody is above the law. Not Donald Trump, not Ron DeSantis, not me.”
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is calling for statements from both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray with more explanation on why the raid took place.
The midterm elections are now just a few months away and this major news out of Florida could play out in November. It could also potentially affect the former president’s future candidacy for office in 2024.