This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis echoed arguments from former President Donald Trump that Congress should use the ‘power of the purse’ to defund the FBI and Department of Justice if they are using their power to pursue a political agenda.
DeSantis also reiterated that he has previously fired politically biased prosecutors and would have dismissed Bragg if he was within the Governor’s jurisdiction.
‘If we had somebody in Tampa that was trying to pursue that agenda, I’d have yanked him from his position.’ The Florida Governor said, referencing Bragg.
DeSantis dismissed state attorney Andrew Warren last year after he said that he would refuse to enforce abortion laws in the state. Warren sued, arguing his dismissal was unlawful, and ultimately lost.
The @LELDF has released a new map showing the location and status of all 70 Soros-linked prosecutors in the US. The only state that can say it “removed” one of these progressive prosecutors is Florida, where DeSantis took Andrew Warren out of office last year. pic.twitter.com/7Cq1trtIwC
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) March 30, 2023
Speaking at Hillsdale College in Michigan on Thursday, DeSantis said that the Department of Justice and FBI’s politicization is inevitable when Republicans have failed to hold them accountable. ‘If you never hold them accountable through the legislative process, either through law or through budget, of course, power is going to accumulate there.’
He also questioned the idea that law enforcement agencies should be ‘independent’ of the executive, arguing that it makes them unaccountable to the public and shields them from scrutiny.
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‘You’ve also had kind of a trope that a lot of Republican presidents have accepted over the years that DOJ and FBI are, quote, independent of the White House. And first of all, these people have guns, they can put you in jail, saying they’re independent means they’re unaccountable,’ he said.
DOJ & FBI are not in a fourth branch of government – they are accountable to the President of the United States.
Also, Congress has been feckless at using our power of the purse to rein them in.
Watch this video. Governor Desantis is absolutely right!
pic.twitter.com/JIQp8hfIky— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 7, 2023
DeSantis elaborated on comments similar to Trump’s about defunding the FBI or Department of Justice if they run afoul of standard procedures or the Constitution.
‘You’ve had an executive branch that’s not wanted to do anything to reel them in by holding them accountable and getting involved in what they’re doing. And then I think you’ve had a Congress, which is just totally given up on using the purse strings, and it’s almost like these agencies have a right to operateinfinitumWhen you send that signal over many decades, it’s just human nature. They are going to abuse their power. I mean, the founders would have predicted that in a New York minute,’ he concluded.
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DeSantis’ comments echo other Republicans such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. and Trump, who has called for the FBI to be defunded until they ‘come to their senses.’
‘REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SHOULD DEFUND THE DOJ AND FBI UNTIL THEY COME TO THEIR SENSES. THE DEMOCRATS HAVE TOTALLY WEAPONIZED LAW ENFORCEMENT IN OUR COUNTRY AND ARE VICIOUSLY USING THIS ABUSE OF POWER TO INTERFERE WITH OUR ALREADY UNDER SIEGE ELECTIONS!,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform.
Donald Trump pressures Republicans to defund the (federal) police. pic.twitter.com/yJoLbYYwgI
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) April 5, 2023
DeSantis is one of many Republican politicians who has expressed concern about the outsize influence that progressive megadonors such as George Soros have on Attorney General and District Attorney elections.
‘You got the guy in Manhattan, but honestly, he’s one of maybe a dozen or more across the country that get elected on an ideological agenda, usually with funding from people like George Soros, and they come in, and they’re trying to manipulate the law or advance a political agenda,’ he said.
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