Trump says temp. ‘has to be brought down’ aft search, then repeats attacks

Source: The Hill | August 15, 2022 | Zach Schonfeld

Trump says temperature ‘has to be brought down’ after FBI search, then repeats attacks

Former President Trump on Monday said his aides have reached out to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to offer “whatever we can do to help,” saying the “temperature has to be brought down” after a spike in threats against law enforcement following the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“Whatever we can do to help — because the temperature has to be brought down in the country,” Trump told Fox News. “If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.” 

At the same time that he talked about taking the temperature down, however, Trump repeated attacks on the FBI over the search for classified documents that took place at his Florida estate last week.

Trump defended his supporters’ attacks in the interview, saying they are “not going to stand for another scam” and describing the FBI’s past investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as a “witch hunt.”

“People are so angry at what is taking place,” he said.

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The New York Times reported over the weekend that a person close to Trump reached out to a DOJ official to convey a message from the former president on Thursday.

“The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?” stated the message Trump wanted conveyed to the attorney general, the Times reported.

Trump told Fox News he has not yet heard back from the department on his offer for help but added he thinks “they would want the same thing.”

Yet the former president himself has been one of the most vocal critics of the FBI and DOJ since the search, repeatedly denouncing the investigation as being politically motivated and at times suggesting an unproven conspiracy that the FBI was planting evidence to hurt him.

Trump as recently as Sunday evening called the search “abuse in law enforcement” and a “sneak attack on democracy” on TruthSocial.

“There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country — at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,” Trump told Fox News.

His allies have echoed that sentiment, but Trump’s offer to DOJ comes after Democrats and some Republicans called for Trump to tamp down his rhetoric amid the increased threat level.

Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas), the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called Trump’s rhetoric “inflammatory” during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

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