Donald Trump drew disbelief after suggesting that standard language from an FBI search warrant executed in 2022 showed that US president Joe Biden wanted armed agents to shoot him.
Trump’s latest incendiary claim was in response to a court filing outlining plans for the FBI search at the Mar-a-Lago club, where he kept classified national security documents after leaving the White House.
The filing included standard FBI wording stating that agents are allowed to use deadly force if someone is in imminent danger.
But Trump, who is running to unseat Biden in November’s election, distorted the statement to say that it showed the Justice Department was ready to shoot him and harm his family.
Trump: distorted or just massively silly?
In a fundraising email, Trump said:
It’s just been revealed that Biden’s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE for their DESPICABLE raid in Mar-a-Lago. You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable.
Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger. He thinks he can frighten me, intimidate me, and KNOCK ME DOWN!
The wild remarks add to the pile of false claims made by Trump against Biden, whom he has repeatedly accused without evidence of weaponising the justice system to target him.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for all lawmakers to condemn Trump’s “outlandish and dangerous” remarks in a speech in the upper chamber of Congress. Schumer continued:
We cannot let this man, Donald Trump, or anybody else, throw these kinds of matches to light flames that could burn our democracy.
David Axelrod, a White House aide under Barack Obama, called Trump’s comments “patently nuts… and dangerously provocative” in a post on X.
Media Matters fellow Matthew Gertz had to explain the incredibly basic facts Trump was having a shitfit about:
The idea here is that Joe Biden ordered an FBI hit on Donald Trump, put the orders in writing, and then… the FBI didn’t try to kill Trump — in fact ensured he’d be in a different state when they showed up — and never tried again.
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) May 22, 2024
The stupid spreads
Of course, several of Trump’s staunchest allies joined him in misrepresenting the court filing.
Georgia congresswoman and so-called “bleach blonde bad-built butch body” Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that the Justice Department and the FBI “gave the green light” to assassinate the former president:
I made sure that he knew.
The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.
Does everyone get it yet???!!!!
What are Republicans going to do about it?
I tried to oust our Speaker who funded Biden’s DOJ AND FBI, but Democrats stopped it. https://t.co/XSTevEQsNI pic.twitter.com/o0lUjcEdix
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 21, 2024
Trump has, of course, repeatedly threatened multiple times to use FBI raids for his own gain:
We went through 13,000 of Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts, and found that he keeps threatening his enemies with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and jail time.
Here’s a roundup, with a call to action to prevent the worst-case scenario: https://t.co/Z7MqDmCEsM
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) May 23, 2024
On the day of the raid, he was not even in Florida but at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey.
The FBI issued a rare statement, saying:
there was no departure from the norm in this matter.
Trump is accused of wilfully retaining national defence information and obstructing government efforts to recover it. He denies 40 felony charges, but the trial has been indefinitely postponed.
Girl, sit down
In a statement to Agence France-Presse, the Trump campaign said reporting of the fundraising email was:
a sickening attempt to run cover for Joe Biden who is the most corrupt president in history and a threat to our democracy.
Okay, girl. Whatever you need to tell yourself.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
Featured image by Unsplash/Max Letek
