Joe Scarborough’s Fury Boils Over Regarding GOP Claims Of ‘Planting Evidence’ Against Trump

“And this was just a search warrant.”

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It is a refrain heard all over Twitter regarding the reckless and dangerous response from the Right over the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. The level of animosity, the willingness to jump to the most ridiculous conclusions, the gnashing of teeth, and the violent rhetoric – especially the violent rhetoric, it has surprised even those of us who have followed politics and the MAGA movement for years. Yesterday the MAGAs used what can only be called terrorist language in an apparent attempt to scare the administration from continuing its investigation and possibly indicting Trump. This morning Joe Scarborough was the first to respond, “Damn you, Newt Gingrich!”

Many more will follow.

Yesterday, Gingrich said that the FBI could plant evidence at Mar-a-Lago, which was clearly the talking point of the day.  Everyone tied to Trump suggested that the FBI might plant evidence because they searched “alone,” without Trump’s attorneys present. Law enforcement always clears everyone out from a search. Suggesting ahead of time – before we know what was found – that the FBI would plant evidence is identical to asserting that the only way one could lose an election is if it was rigged. Bad results will always be laid at the feet of bad actors.

Gingrich went on to compare the FBI to “wolves” that want to eat the American people.

Scarborough began by indicting the MAGA movement generally, noting the language used and – without citing it – the number of people talking about possibly planting evidence:

“Some of the same people are making dark, ominous threats, now comparing the FBI to Stalin, now suggesting that this is a banana republic, now saying we have to go to war against the FBI. These people hate law and order. I thought they were the party of law and order. They don’t believe in the rule of law when it applies to the most powerful, I guess.”

And then he moved on to Newt specifically and the suggestion that the FBI would plant evidence:

“Newt Gingrich, damn you. You know better … you are taking another cheap shot at law enforcement officers when they don’t serve your interest, in saying we’d be better off to think of the FBI as wolves? Wolves who want to eat you? Wolves who want to dominate you? You say the FBI has, quote, ‘declared war on the American people?'”

“You have all of these freaks, fools, insurrectionists, and people who were causing violence in America, these people who hate law enforcement, these people who were declaring war against the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, because it doesn’t serve their political purposes for the moment. They’re declaring war and calling — Newt, you’re calling Christopher Wray a wolf who wants to eat the American — what’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you? What a freak you are.”

As said above, the recklessness in the response invites both stochastic terrorist responses along with somewhat more organized asymmetric warfare. The cold Civil War threatens to get hot again, and it looks to many like the MAGA leaders are purposefully pushing the “troops” in that direction in order to frighten the administration from going any further. Meanwhile, American faith in democracy, the rule of law, and tolerance of one another as Americans is eroding to the point where one must ask if there is even one country to save.

The MAGAs and Trump constitute less a political movement than they do a religion, and that religion creates their entire identity and value system. Now that the leader of their church is threatened. They know that the FBI may now have documents that near prove that Trump was traitorous in holding them. They know Trump, they know he is feckless, that he’s reckless, and they damn well know he’s corrupt. They are terrified of what comes next and that explains the reaction, the “And this was just a warrant” refrain.

Planting evidence? Damn you, Newt, and damn all of the politicians spouting the talking point, one so dangerous it could easily lead to another Oklahoma City-type bombing, especially when the violence can be justified by religion. We are only just beginning.

Jason Miciak

@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, and currently studies philosophy of science, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact with any concerns.