The past week starts and ends with the FBI’s unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago resort. The raid, subsequent fallout, hot takes from both sides, and the unsealing of the warrant have dominated the headlines. Meanwhile, Democrats quietly passed landmark legislation as President Joe Biden has had a quietly solid summer. Here are the quotes of the week:
“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before. After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate. It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”
- Former President Donald Trump announced in a lengthy statement that the FBI conducted a raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I’ve seen enough. 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. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says a new House Republican majority will pursue investigations into Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department following the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Florida home.
“That’s what happens when you break the law, try to steal an election, and incite a deadly insurrection. Donald Trump should be in jail. I’m glad to see the FBI taking steps towards accountability.”
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) praises the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago and says Trump belongs in jail.
“First, I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter. Second, the department does not take such a decision lightly.”
- Attorney General Merrick Garland reveals he personally approved the decision to seek a warrant for Mar-a-Lago.
“Number one, it was all declassified. Number two, they didn’t need to ‘seize’ anything. They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago. It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request.”
- Trump pushes back on reports that the items seized were classified.
“NARA moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to a NARA facility in the Chicago area, where they are maintained exclusively by NARA. Additionally, NARA maintains the classified Obama Presidential records in a NARA facility in the Washington, DC, area. As required by the [Presidential Records Act], former President Obama has no control over where and how NARA stores the Presidential records of his Administration.”
- The National Archives and Records Administration pushes back on Trump’s assertions that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had taken classified documents from the White House.
“So, you want to know why the American people don’t trust our institutions? It’s things like this, because the decision they made defies logic.”
- Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) said the FBI can’t be trusted because it’s still withholding answers on the 2017 congressional baseball shooting.
“Friends, I’ve decided that, after 20 years, I’m leaving @cnn after my vacation. Was great to spend my last day on air with pals Wolf, Anderson and Don. Love all my former colleagues.
- CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin announces he is retiring. His 20-year career there had been somewhat overshadowed after he accidentally exposed himself to colleagues while on a Zoom call in the early days of the COVID pandemic.
“This is an easy solution that Washington, D.C., just continues to fail to act on. We’re done waiting for them.”
- Tim Roemer, the director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, says the state will not wait for the Biden administration to build a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico boundary.
“It’s extremely frustrating because I have owned [Batson’s] since 1995, but this pharmacy has been in this county since the 1950s, and for me, to be the last one remaining to provide services for the whole county and for [pharmaceutical middlemen] not to really care whether they are paying me enough to stay in business is just crazy.”
- Kansas pharmacist Julie Perkins explains how she struggles to break even thanks to competition from larger chains and the pressure from pharmaceutical middlemen
“I thought, surely this is not about classified documents and the president being in possession of those. It has to be more than that, because the Department of Justice and the FBI have already set a standard that makes it virtually impossible to prosecute a case like that.”
- Trump’s former spy chief John Ratcliffe argues that it is “virtually impossible” to prosecute his onetime boss for alleged mishandling of classified material.
“The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
- Andrew Wylie, agent of author Salman Rushdie, gives a grim update after he was stabbed in a frenzied attack on stage.
“Today is really a glorious day for us. We send to the president’s desk a monumental bill that will be truly for the people: the Inflation Reduction Act. … Sadly, for all the good that it does, [it passed] without one Republican vote.”
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) touts the successful passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, finally getting the Democrats’ landmark legislation over the line.
“As some CEOs rush to support tax hikes & government price setting in Manchin-Schumer, House Republicans are asking: Why defend a pro-growth business climate that businesses & associations themselves won’t defend — or will eagerly sacrifice for a favorite tax subsidy?”
- Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) is dismayed at big business, especially oil companies, praising the Democrats’ healthcare and clean energy legislation.
