Former President Trump is “forced into a position of running” in 2024 after the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) said Tuesday on the Todd Starnes Show.
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The Pennsylvania congressman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation “grossly underestimated” conservatives in Congress and have now forced Trump to show his hand.
“What you saw on display was a political hit job,” Reschenthaler said. ” And it’s not going to work because President Trump can overcome this and run and win in 24.”
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Host Todd Starnes agreed.
“I think he almost has to run now to restore the legacy and to vindicate himself, at least in the eyes of history, because this is such an unprecedented event,” Starnes said.
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“It goes to show that the FBI was trying to sensationalize this, get headlines and again, cast doubt over President Trump’s run in 2024,” Reschenthaler said. “But I can tell you if there was any doubt that this man is going to run in 2024, you have now backed him into a corner. I think the president will run again and I think he will win.”
Reschenthaler believes Trump will get more support because of the the Biden administration’s actions.
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“I think that moderates and people that might have been on the fence about the president are going to galvanize around him because the American people know that inherently this is an abuse of power by the FBI, an FBI that turned into a political tool of the Democratic Party,” Reschenthaler said.
But he warned it goes beyond Trump.
“People are mistaken if they think that this is just about Donald Trump. It’s the regime, the ruling elite that have nothing but disdain for everyday Americans. Donald Trump is just getting in the way. And if the FBI can do this to Donald Trump, what can they do to an everyday citizen?” he said.
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:
Starnes: [01:18:22] Let’s go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line. A good friend of this program, Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, joins us. Congressman, very disturbing developments from last night. I understand that a group of Republicans will be meeting with the president later today. What can you tell us in the aftermath of that FBI raid? [01:18:41][19.2]
Reschenthaler: [01:18:42] Absolutely. Hey Todd. First off, thanks for having me on. Please call me Guy and congrats on the 75 years. That’s huge. As far as this raid last night, Todd, you know people are mistaken if they think that this is just about Donald Trump. It’s the regime, the ruling elite that have nothing but disdain for everyday Americans. Donald Trump is just getting in the way. And if the FBI can do this to Donald Trump, what can they do to an everyday citizen? That’s the overarching takeaway. But in terms of how this pertains to Donald Trump, it’s absolutely disgusting that there weren’t other means necessary to do this to effectuate getting these documents. And the FBI can say, ‘well, these documents belong to the National Archives and so forth.’ Okay, that’s fine, but why would you do a raid on Mar-a-Lago if you’re not trying to cast doubt upon President Trump’s 2024 run? Continue to harass and annoy the president and try to delegitimize his legacy. But I can tell you this isn’t going to work. I think that moderates and people that might have been on the fence about the president are going to galvanize around him because the American people know that inherently this is an abuse of power by the FBI, an FBI that turned into a political tool of the Democratic Party. [01:19:57][75.4]
STARNES: [01:19:58] And I think it’s important for people to understand here that, you know, this is not, you know, President Trump sitting down with the National Archives or with the FBI. These are conversations that were had with the attorneys. So this is you know, again, I think people are maybe not understanding how these kinds of things operate. So typically you have an attorney and you’re able to work these things out privately or quietly without having to have the FBI stage a pre-dawn guns drawn raid. [01:20:31][32.7]
Reschenthaler: [01:20:33] Right. Exactly. And that’s how it was handled with former presidents when there was [inaudible] documents. I remember when Hillary Clinton was accused of basically acid washing her hard drives, she was allowed to be present when the FBI came to get some documents with her lawyer present, from my understanding. So the fact that this was handled in such a way, like you said, pre-dawn raid guns drawn. It goes to show that the FBI was trying to sensationalize this, get headlines and again, cast doubt over President Trump’s to run in 2024. But I can tell you if there was any doubt that this man is going to run in 2024, you have now backed him into a corner. I think the president will run again and I think he will win. It’s going to be amazing to see how the tides turn. And I think that the FBI grossly underestimated conservatives in Congress because I believe after talking to so many of my colleagues, that there’s one thing that everybody has in common, and that’s a lack of confidence in the FBI. So get ready when we take back the House in 2022 and the Senate in 22, because there’s going to be a lot of oversight, there’s going to be a lot of investigation, and we need to rein in the FBI, if not totally revamp it. [01:21:46][73.6]
STARNES: [01:21:47] Yeah, I’m for the latter there. I just don’t see how anything can be salvaged here. It looks to me the rot goes pretty deep there at FBI headquarters. [01:21:58][10.9]
Reschenthaler: [01:22:00] Right. And everybody talks about, oh, the rank and file, there’s the rank and file that. Where were the leaks that there was going to be a raid on Mar a Lago? Because if this would have been the Biden household, you can bet there’s somebody with a leak that. So I’m very skeptical. I think the FBI has had a troubled history going back to when was the Department of Investigation? Back in the 1920s and, of course, a a history of corruption, domestic spying and so forth. Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, who, of course, founded the FBI, turned the [inaudible] over to the FBI. But but I digress. But I can tell you Todd that what you saw on display was a political hit job. And it’s not going to work because President Trump can overcome this and run and win in 24. [01:22:46][45.8]
STARNES: [01:22:46] Yeah, I mean, I think to your point, I think he almost has to run now to restore the legacy and to vindicate himself, at least in the eyes of history, because this is such an unprecedented event. It angers me, Congressman, the the level of hate and the vitriol that’s been directed from the deep state towards President Trump and the Trump family. [01:23:09][22.5]
Reschenthaler: [01:23:11] Can I just say I agree with you, by the way, that he’s now forced into a position of running. And I’m thankful because I think his presidency was incredibly successful. And I would love to see another four years of a Trump White House. But in terms of the disdain you were talking about, I can tell you having to go to DC two or three weeks a month, dealing with people in the bureaucracy, the disdain is real. I often say that if you eat at a cracker barrel, if you shop at a Walmart, if you go to church on Sunday, they mock you, they laugh at us. So there really is a schism. And if you think that this isn’t an us versus them scenario after this raid, you’re kidding themselves. You had the woke yuppie liberals, the ruling elite, the regime, whatever you want to call them, the deep state, the bureaucracy, you name what you want to say, but you have that class and you have it pitted against everybody else because they view us as a bunch of country bumpkins in flyover country. [01:24:12][60.9]
STARNES: [01:24:13] No doubt about that. But they certainly do love to audit us. I mean, when you look at the map, I mean, most of the audits are taking place in red states. [01:24:21][7.3]
Reschenthaler: [01:24:22] And just wait until you have 87,000 more IRS agents. So in light of what you saw last night with this raid, just extrapolate that to what the IRS is going to be doing with conservatives, small business owners, conservative charities. Remember Lois Lerner. [01:24:39][17.1]
Starnes: [01:24:40] Yep. [01:24:40][0.0]
Reschenthaler: [01:24:40] In this bill that we have to vote on on Friday, the reconciliation bill, the Democrats are adding 87,000 new IRS agents and they say, oh, it’s going to we’re going to go after billionaires. There’s a handful of billionaires in the United States. You don’t need 87,000 agents. Those thousands, tens of thousands of agents, they’re going to be used to go after conservative business owners. They think you’re the guy that only that companies, the guys that are plumbers, the guys that have a dog, you know, care business or whatever, those are the people the IRS is going to be targeting. It’s going to be the backbone of our economy, small business owners and in the core of the Republican base, which is small business owners. [01:25:18][37.9]
STARNES: [01:25:19] Congressman, we’re going to leave it there. Really appreciate your insight here. And and I really do hope that, you know, we’re able to take back the Congress in the fall. Real quick, are you going to be at this meeting this afternoon? [01:25:31][11.4]
Reschenthaler: [01:25:32] No. Unfortunate. I’m not going to be there. [01:25:34][1.5]
STARNES: [01:25:34] All right. All right. Well, very good. Congressman, again, thank you so much for your time. [01:25:37][3.2]
Reschenthaler: [01:25:38] Thanks, Todd. Take care. [01:25:39][0.6]