As Republicans erupt over the FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, some Democrats have taken to social media to point out the GOP’s hypocrisy.
Back in 2016 when former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was alleged to have used a private email server for communication with her State Department staff, Republicans applauded then-FBI director James Comey for doing everything in his power to investigate. Now, the FBI is investigating Trump.
Soon after the FBI searched his property, Trump issued a statement where he called the investigation a “weaponization of the justice system.”
“Hillary Clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 emails AFTER they were subpoenaed by Congress,” Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable.”
The investigation into Clinton’s email server found that of the thousands of emails reviewed, 113 contained classified information, and three of them had the official classification market. The FBI concluded that while Clinton had acted with extreme carelessness, it was not her intention to break the law and no charges were filed.
But Comey then publicly reopened the case 12 days before the election, a decision of his that some studies suggest cost Clinton the biggest price of them all: the presidency.
Now, Republicans are acting at odds with their own outrage over Clinton’s emails and the FBI’s decision to investigate further.
A video, which was first published by Trevor Noah’s “The Daily Show,” calls out Republicans for being hypocrites. The video shows clips of prominent Republicans applauding the FBI for investigating Clinton next to footage of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago. The tweet has more than 50k likes.
“The FBI stepping forward at this moment has demonstrated real integrity.” former Vice President Mike Pence said.
Fox News hosts Harris Faulkner and Sean Hannity both piled onto Clinton at the time.
“I mean common, are we supposed to believe that after all this time that she just didn’t know what the rules were,” Faulkner said.
“Multiple felonies that we are talking about here.” Hannity added.
But now that the roles are reversed Republicans cannot seem to fathom that the FBI is acting without political motivation. Cries of “defund the FBI” are circulating among the GOP.
After Trump was elected to office, he signed a law that strengthened the penalty for the unauthorized removal and handling of classified documents, making the act a felony offense.