Despite the fact that Donald Trump is currently under investigation for inciting the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021 — which was a violent attack on the Capitol police as much as it was on democracy as we know it — he has a habit of painting himself as an unwavering supporter of law enforcement officials and a “champion of law and order.” But Anderson Cooper is calling bullsh*t.
On Wednesday night, as Mediaite reports, the CNN host opened his show by laying into Trump and Republicans like Lindsey Graham, who have allowed the former president to pick and choose when to praise law enforcement and intelligence officials (a.k.a. when it benefits Trump) and when to criticize and question their integrity (a.k.a. again, when it benefits Trump).
Cooper played a clip of Trump’s speech from January 6th, in which he lamented that “We’re living in such a different country for one primary reason: there is no longer respect for the law, and there certainly is no order. These are great people. Border patrol, ICE, and our police, of course, our police, all of our law enforcement.”
But, based on Trump’s own statement regarding the FBI raid on his home, Cooper added a caveat to that “great people” sentiment:
Except for FBI agents, who applied for the search warrant whom he’s now heaping scorn upon, and whom his followers in Congress are now threatening to defund and dismantle or drag before committees if they win control in November. Great people except for the federal magistrate judge who is thought to be the person who approved the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, whose identity is now being concealed because of threats on his life. Great people in fact.
Trump’s official statement on Monday echoed the wording of his January 6th speech, but with one marked difference: law enforcement are now the bad guys.
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump wrote. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate.”
As Cooper noted, Trump even went so far as to suggest “without anything at all to back it up, that federal agents planted evidence when they searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday, which then quickly became a Republican talking point.” (With Fox News’ Jesse Watters seemingly trying to lead the pack of getting Trump’s version of the story out there.)
You can watch the full clip above.
(Via Mediaite)