Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Tuesday if the Biden administration is “weaponizing” the Department of Justice (DOJ) against political opponents.
Doocy asked Jean-Pierre if the administration views former President Donald Trump as a “political rival” of President Joe Biden following the FBI raid on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home. The press secretary denied Doocy’s claims that she “talks about Trump all the time.”
“Ultra-MAGA, you guys were criticizing his handling of COVID last week, you mentioned his January 6 response a couple days ago,” Doocy said. “So based on all that, I didn’t say anything about Mar-a-Lago, I’m just asking you if you consider the president—”
“I’m just saying from here, I’m not gonna comment on that,” Jean-Pierre said.
Doocy then asked if Biden is confident he could defeat Trump if he were to be the presidential nominee in 2024, reading a previous quote when the president said, “I would be very fortunate to have that same man running against me.” Jean-Pierre declined to comment.
The Fox News correspondent then again alluded to the accusations. (RELATED: ‘An Abuse Of Power’: Republicans Slam Mar-A-Lago Raid)
“Is this White House weaponizing the Justice Department and the FBI against political opponents?” Doocy asked.
“The president has been very clear from before he was elected,” Jean-Pierre said. “Very clear on this throughout his time in office … the president believes in the rule of law, the president believes in the independence of the Department of Justice.”
“Yes or no?” Doocy pressed.
“It’s a yes or no for you, I’m answering the question,” she said. “You may not like it, but I’m answering the question—nope, nope, I’m answering the question and I’m telling you that we’re not going to comment on a criminal investigation. The president has been very clear. I laid out what his thoughts were back on January 7, 2021, about how he saw the Department of Justice. And I’m just going to leave it there.”
Trump announced Monday evening that FBI agents raided his home in Florida, where it was later confirmed that the search warrant was in connection to 15 boxes of White House documents that were moved to his private residence. Some of the papers were reportedly classified.
The former president, politicians and some media figures on both sides of the aisle condemned the raid as a political stunt, with many claiming searching for documents does not justify the raid of a person’s private home. Former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the incident will be viewed as a “political tactic” unless the DOJ can justify the raiding of his home.
CNN legal analysts Andrew McCabe and Paul Callan suggested Tuesday that there is “more to this than meets the eye” in the investigation, arguing that searching for the documents does “not warrant” a raid.
A handful of Trump critics supported the raid, even disapproving of using the term “raid” since a lawful search warrant had been executed. Several have claimed it was a justifiable, lawful “search,” arguing no one is above the law.