Texas, US politicians react to FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home

Since news broke that the FBI searched former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, a growing number of US and Texas political leaders have posted reactions online.

Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter to call the raid “unprecedented” and “an abuse of power.” He later added in a thread that Congress needs to hold hearings and issue subpoenas to hunt down “answers.”

Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn reshared tweets from other prominent GOP leaders who called for Americans to be “deeply concerned about using the Department of Justice as a political weapon.” He also tweeted out a link to a news article where he was quoted saying the reported reason for the raid was “thin gruel.”

Agents were looking for classified documents that the former president is accused of unlawfully removing from the White House, Trump’s son said in a Fox News interview. Trump also wrote online that agents accessed his safe.

However, little information is available about the focus of Monday’s raid. A federal judge based in Florida approved the FBI search, according to the Miami Herald. Senior White House officials also told national reporters that they did not have foreknowledge of the raid.

The Texas Tribune reported legal experts said “a very high standard of probable cause” would have to be present to conduct such a raid, especially since the operation marks the first time in history federal agents have searched a former president’s home. 

Several prominent GOP members criticized the FBI directly, while others took aim at President Joe Biden.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who served in Trump’s cabinet during his tenure, wrote on Twitter that people should be alarmed if the FBI didn’t have a good reason to search Trump’s property.

Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote, “Biden’s decision to wield the FBI against Trump is a brazen & ill-fated attempt to distract from his own failures.”

Gov. Greg Abbott called the FBI search “next-level Nixonian” in a tweet. He went on to say that no administration had ever targeted a former president in the way that the current administration has focused on Trump.

Other Texas GOP members traveled to New Jersey to dine with Trump at his golf club a day after the raid. 

“With our great President! The FBI Hierarchy & DOJ & the White House should be ashamed!” U.S. Rep. Randy Weber of Friendswood and Beaumont wrote in a tweet, which included a picture of Trump seated at a table topped with bread baskets and beverages.

CBS News reported that the dinner was previously planned by U.S. Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana and was expected to include about a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee, which includes 20 Texans among its membership. The dinner is now being seen as “a solidarity moment.” 

Meanwhile, Democrats in Texas — like gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke — have yet to comment about the Trump case.

However, Democrats across the country had varying responses.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacted to the GOP response in an interview on the TODAY show with, “No person is above the law.” 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to comment when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pressed him for his thoughts on her show Monday evening.

Chair of the Jan. 6th committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., had more to say though.

“I got accused of sending the FBI to Trump’s house,” Thompson said. “I didn’t, but if you asked me, if they did the right thing, I’d say yes.”

Former Democratic presidential nominee Andrew Yang theorized millions of Americans will see the raid as as “unjust persecution.”