OPINION:
In 1972, in the midst of his first campaign for U.S. Senate, a 29-year-old Joe Biden watched as operatives of President Richard Nixon were caught breaking into the headquarters of the Democrat National Committee at the Watergate complex in Washington.
Then between 1973 and 1974, a youthful Sen. Biden had a front-row seat as he witnessed the Senate Watergate Committee expose how Nixon systematically weaponized various levers of the federal government under his control to target his political enemies.
Now, with the shocking news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, it’s clear that then-Sen. Biden was taking notes for future use.
This action by federal law enforcement — under the control of Mr. Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland and Mr. Biden himself — aimed at a former president and future political rival less than 90 days from the all-important 2022 midterm elections, reeks of a heavy-handed political operation designed to hurt the GOP in ’22 and Trump in ’24. The thought of this happening in the United States of America was once unimaginable, but not anymore.
The Biden White House’s contention that they knew nothing about the raid beforehand is a lie. The unprecedented search of a former president’s home — which would clearly be seen as yet another political stunt by a politicized Department of Justice and FBI by tens of millions of Americans — would never have been conducted without President Biden’s sign-off. It’s simply inconceivable to believe that FBI Director Christopher Wray would have taken this historically detrimental leap without direct approval from his bosses Biden and Garland.
That’s why it’s imperative for both Mr. Garland and Mr. Wray to offer their testimony to Congress immediately, and the Democrats in the House and Senate should demand no less. The American people deserve an explanation posthaste about why this pre-dawn raid at the home of the 45th president of the United States happened, who ordered it, and why. The more time that elapses before this critical testimony takes place, the more it looks like what happened in Florida was a politically inspired event that the Justice Department, FBI, and Democrats in Congress are colluding to cover up. Any delay and obfuscation will ultimately hurt Biden and the Democrats at the ballot box.
Sadly, this latest anti-Trump move by the FBI should come as a surprise to no one because it’s been going on for the entire duration of Mr. Trump’s career in politics. Who could ever forget the yearslong phony Russia hoax and the infamous 2016 text messages between then-senior FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page in which they openly discuss “stopping” the ultimate political outsider Trump from becoming president?
This is the same Justice Department and FBI — then under the direction of President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden — that was simultaneously giving Hillary Clinton and her cronies a free pass despite overwhelming evidence of criminal activity in the case of Mrs. Clinton’s private email server and handling of classified information. If there was ever a need for a search warrant to be executed, it was in that case — especially after then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch was caught at an undisclosed meeting with former President Bill Clinton in an airplane on the tarmac at Phoenix airport as the investigation was reaching its culmination.
Fast-forward to 2022, with Republicans poised to make big gains in Congress, Mr. Biden’s approval rating at dangerously low levels, and Mr. Trump getting ready to declare himself a candidate for a second term in the White House — here we go again. For a casual political observer, the raid at Mar-a-Lago comes at a very fortunate time for Democrats. The Jan. 6 select committee is on August recess, and this partisan operation keeps negative Trump stories dominating the news cycle instead of the crushing Biden inflation crisis that is devastating so many American families.
The American people are sick and tired of the two-tiered system of justice that is poisoning our republic and the obvious double standard that’s hiding in plain sight. Why does Mr. Trump get raided by 30 FBI agents over Presidential Records Act questions while the internationally compromised Hunter Biden gets the kid gloves treatment? Why does Steve Bannon get prosecuted for contempt of Congress but not Lois Lerner? The list goes on and on, and it paints an unflattering picture of a country morphing into a banana republic being run by a darling of the political establishment who is allowed by the mainstream media to behave like some tin-pot dictator.
Similar to the precedent that’s been set by the illegitimate one-sided Jan. 6 committee on Capitol Hill, the precedent that this FBI raid will set should be of great concern to patriotic Americans who simply want their country and its form of government to continue to be the envy of the world. Using the massive power of government to go after political opponents must never become the norm, because where would it end? Just imagine if the next Republican president took office and immediately ordered a raid of the Clinton and Obama foundations.
Mr. Trump is exactly right, these are dark times for our nation. And unless the American people get some transparency on the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago from the people who ordered it, don’t expect things to turn around anytime soon under President Joseph “Milhous” Biden.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.