KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Rep. Diana Harshbarger was among the many Republicans who swiftly took to social media Monday to lash out at the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
On Twitter, the congresswoman accused the FBI of “inconsistent and partisan application of the law” and called the raid “an attack on our Republic.”
Harshbarger, whose current re-election bid earned Trump’s endorsement, spoke with News Channel 11 on Tuesday morning.
“It’s inconsistent partisan application of the law, honestly,” she said. “You know it’s a brazen attempt by the Department of Justice to weaponize the FBI against political opponents or rivals, and that’s exactly what this is.”
Harshbarger called it unprecedented “that you would go into the home of a former president without announcement to go raid anything and everything.”
On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R–Calif.) threatened that if Republicans take back the House after the November election, they would investigate the Department of Justice.
“I’ve seen enough,” McCarthy said. “The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”
Harshbarger echoed that sentiment.
“And I’m telling you, come 2023 when we’re sworn in in January, you know what we’re going to do? Oversight, oversight, oversight,” she said. “They better be ready, because whatever they’ve done, we’re going to uncover.”
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, she also said she would make it her top priority “to slash the budgets of most federal agencies including FBI, DOJ, ATF, and the IRS” if the GOP takes back the House.
Other members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation also voiced their outrage.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn called it a “political witch hunt.” Sen. Bill Hagerty said “the current administration doing this to the sitting President’s top political opponent is beyond comprehension—particularly when neither Bill nor Hillary Clinton ever faced similar treatment.”
Republican Reps. Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, and John Rose all condemned or at least questioned the raid. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen, however, said the former president faces “many legal troubles” and “has more avenues to prison than Al Capone did.”