Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Congress to beef up federal law enforcement on Tuesday after the FBI’s raid of Donald Trump and the former president’s unprecedented arraignment.
In his first remarks related to the weaponization of the Justice Department following Trump’s indictment last month, McConnell told NBC News that lawmakers “ought to be looking for ways to spend more on law enforcement.”
“I think I can pretty safely say that I’ve not met any Republicans in Congress who want to spend less on law enforcement,” the GOP Senate leader reportedly said.
The comment stands in stark contrast to how lawmakers, including even some of the former president’s biggest rivals, reacted to the partisan charges brought against Trump by the Manhattan district attorney. Trump pled not guilty to a 34-count felony indictment carrying a maximum 136-year prison sentence over 2016 hush-money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who was the only Republican in the upper chamber to support Trump’s impeachment twice, condemned the indictment as an “overreach” that “sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents.”
“I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office,” Romney said. “Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
Even Trump’s competitors for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination slammed the indictment as a political witch hunt. McConnell, however, remained silent.
While Trump’s charges came from a local prosecutor in
