After being indicted on 34 felony counts, former President Trump now is calling on Congress to defund the Department of Justice and also the FBI.
Trump on Wednesday declared that “Republicans in Congress should defund the DOJ and FBI until they come to their senses” a response to the Justice Department’s investigation of whether he incited the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and his handling of classified documents at his personal residence.
For the Republican party which paints itself as tough on crime, this presents a dilemma. Republicans attack Dems as being the weak-on-crime party and now one of their own wants to cut funding for the nation’s top enforcement agencies.
“Trump is creating problems for Republicans everywhere,” said Steven S. Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis. “It’s almost impossible to see anything good from this kind of comment coming for the Republicans.
Whit Ayres, a prominent Republican strategist, pointed out — without irony — that the Justice Department and FBI had nothing to do with Trump’s arraignment on 34 felony counts in a New York City courthouse Tuesday.