Republicans Recycle Docs Raid Tweets
Amid Silence on Porn Star and Centerfold
Capitol Inside
March 31, 2023
Texas Republicans dusted off the talking points they shared on the Mar-a-Lago raid in August when they erupted on Thursday night in angry indignation over Donald Trump's indictment in New York City without a shred of evidence to back up their caustic rhetoric.
Eschewing originality with individual variations on a singular canned theme, GOP leaders and lawmakers in the Lone Star State opted instead to parrot a party line about the weaponization of government against political enemies in a collective response that revolved on unsubstantiated allegations and insults that they aimed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Governor Greg Abbott - a Republican who has more to gain than to lose if Trump goes down - lobbed the same criticism at Bragg that he fired at President Joe Biden in August after the FBI confiscated classified records that Trump had removed from the White House and taken to his winter home in Florida.
"Weaponization of our courts for political grievances is an abhorrent abuse of power," Abbott tweeted shortly after learning last night that Trump had become the first former American president to ever be charged with a crime."
Abbott made the same accusations against Biden last summer. "Never before has the country seen an Administration go to such extent to use the levers of government to target a former President and political rival," the governor declared in a Twitter post. "This weaponizes power to squelch dissent. Such abuses must have limits."
Abbott was one of the first elected Texas Republicans to take a shot at the NYC prosecutor based on a donor. "The George Soros-supported NYC DA is only furthering the radical liberal agenda to have elections determined at the jury box rather than the ballot box," the Texas leader asserted. "America deserves better."
Abbott sounded off the wealthy New York liberal more than an hour after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis based Soros in a tweet about the Trump indictment. DeSantis - like Abbott - came across as equally insincere in their rhetorical rides to Trump's defense as aspiring politicians who both have visions of running for president themselves in 2024. The Texas and Florida both have cause to be secretly pulling for Trump's demise sooner than later.
But DeSantis actually made news while Abbott and the Republicans in Texas did not with their reactions to the criminal case against Trump in NYC where a sealed indictment is believed to include 30 counts. DeSantis said he would not cooperate in the extradition of Trump if he refuses to turn himself in next week. The Texas governor and his allies here provided background noise in contrast to his counterpart in the Sunshine State.
The obvious message between the lines of criticism without any supporting evidence is that Trump is above the law in the eyes of the Republicans who would all deny such an assumption. The lack of emotion and authenticity in the protests was most glaring in the use of the exact term as the hook for Manhattan DA bashing.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Houston all agreed wholeheartedly with Abbott when they pinned reactions to the Trump indictment on Thursday night on claims that the New York prosecutor was using the grand jury process as a weapon.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick - the Trump state campaign chairman here - waited until Friday afternoon before endorsing the weaponization conspiracy in a social media post. Patrick arguably made the wildest claims after having an entire night to sleep on what he would about the ex-president who's a major ally.
"Political prosecutions, the Left’s new favorite weapon, will be their own undoing," Patrick warned in a tweet. "Americans of every stripe understand that this perversion of our system of justice will further divide our nation and destroy our Republic."
Based on Patrick's logic, every Democrat is buying into the weaponization theory as well. But it's too early for partisans on either side to make an intelligent comment that has any credibility in light of the fact that none outside the Manhattan grand jury have seen the evidence.
The Texas Republicans run the risk of making it appear that they're condoning adulterous affairs and hush money payments to porn stars and centerfolds like Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal respectively with campaign funds. But that could be the widespread appearance nonetheless based on the party line up to now.
The only major difference between the Abbott tweet on the Trump indictment and the classified documents case is that he didn't bring any dead presidents for the GOP like he did in August. The Texas governor characterized the FBI haul at Mar-a-Lago as "next-level Nixonian" on Twitter at the time. It wasn't clear if Richard Nixon had been the victim or perpetrator in the Watergate scandal post. That may explain why Abbott left his name out of it this time around.
But GOP State Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock invoked the name of former Russian dictator Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria as the "secret police chief" during his rule. "Trump’s indictment reflect methods Stalin and his Communist Party used to destroy their political opponents," Burrows tweeted Thursday night. "Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime."
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson - an Amarillo Republican who served as Trump's physician in the White House - was one of the few Texans who responded to the indictment in a manner that didn't seem superficial.
“Alvin Bragg is a NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT to our justice system," Jackson said on Twitter. "President Trump has been proven to have done NO wrong. This is nothing more than a political stunt to prevent Trump from becoming President in 2024! WITCH HUNT!
"This is a dark day in American history," Jackson added. "President Trump’s only ‘crime’ was MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! These cowardly Democrats HATE Trump and HATE his voters even more. When Trump wins, THESE PEOPLE WILL PAY!!”
more to come ...
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