Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called on Congress to strengthen federal law enforcement despite the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid of former president Donald Trump and his arraignment.
In remarks concerning the weaponizing of the Department of Justice (DOJ) following Trump’s indictment, McConnell told NBC News that lawmakers “ought to be looking for ways to spend more on law enforcement.”
“I think I can pretty safely say that I’ve not met any Republicans in Congress who want to spend less on law enforcement,” McConnell said.
Watch: Sen. McConnell: 'We ought to be looking for ways to spend more on law enforcement' https://t.co/IG0jaqysZi
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) April 18, 2023
McConnell’s comments contradict how several lawmakers, including some of Trump’s critics, felt about the charges brought against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who received over $1 million in funds from liberal billionaire George Soros.
Fox News reported that in 2021, Soros provided $1 million to the Color of Change Political Action Committee, which spent the funds supporting Bragg’s candidacy for district attorney. Soros’ family members, including his son and wife, donated directly to Bragg’s campaign.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who supported Trump’s impeachment twice, denounced the indictment as an “overreach” that “sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents.”
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said. “Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
Trump’s opponents for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination argued that the indictment was a political witch hunt, yet McConnell refused to speak about it.
Moments after Trump’s indictment reached the news, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he would establish Republican committees to investigate the prosecution of Trump. McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, however, remained silent on the issue.
In March 2023, Fox News host Tucker Carlson presented 40,000 hours of footage concerning the Capitol protests of Jan. 6, 2021. McCarthy gave Carlson access to the footage, weakening Democrats’ narratives about the protests being “violent.”
McConnell, referencing Carlson’s release of the footage, spoke to reporters at the Capitol, condemning Fox News.
“With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on Jan. 6,” McConnell said.
McConnell: It was a mistake in my view for Fox to depict this in a way that’s completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official at the Capitol thinks pic.twitter.com/gfStuaTmKd
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 7, 2023
Before McConnell’s remarks, Capitol Police Chief Tom Magner criticized Carlson’s coverage as “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions.”
Instead of denouncing the political prosecution of Trump, McConnell condemns the release of footage concerning the Jan. 6 protests. The American people have a right to form their perspectives of that day.
