'Visibly uncomfortable' Chuck Schumer declines comment when Rachel Maddow presses him on FBI Mar-a-Lago raid
Trump said his home was 'under siege' on Monday after the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}MSNBC's Rachel Maddow pressed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., about the FBI raid at former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home on Monday evening, but Schumer was so reluctant to talk about it, one journalist called him "visibly uncomfortable."
After Maddow asked Schumer for his reaction to the breaking news, he said, "I know nothing about it other than what I’ve read like everybody else, so I think it’s wise for me to withhold comment until we learn more."
Maddow followed up with asking for a response to a statement from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who said "when Republicans take back the House, they will conduct immediate oversight of this [Justice] Department."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Look, I think we don't, none of us know the facts and any comments are premature," Schumer said.
Chuck Schumer joined Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Monday night. (Screenshot/MSNBC/TheRachelMaddowShow)
National Journal's Josh Kraushaar remarked Schumer was "visibly uncomfortable" at the questions.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Maddow said she wouldn't press him further on the matter because she understood it would be "futile."
"Yes it would," Schumer agreed. After asking Schumer about the sprawling Inflation Reduction Act and working with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Maddow brought up the Mar-a-Lago raid again but noted that she understood he didn't want to talk about the substance of it.
"With the FBI raiding the president’s house today at Mar-a-Lago — and I know you don’t want to talk about that in substance — it seems clear, I think it seems obvious to both of us that we’re about to enter into a new and more intense area of the Republicans and the Trump-supporting Republicans really waging war on law enforcement and especially on the idea of federal law enforcement. And I wonder if you’ve been thinking strategically about that, about defending those institutions, defending that part of the executive branch that enforces federal law against the sort of politicized attacks that are coming their way?" she asked.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Schumer said a large portion of Republicans have become "MAGA Republicans" who have "little respect for rule of law" and "little respect for the balance of power of institutions."
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. (Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images) (Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
CLINTON-LINKED LAWYER SAYS TRUMP COULD BE BARRED FROM RE-ELECTION DUE TO FBI RAID, CITES US CODE
Several Republicans criticized the raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, with McCarthy describing it as a "weaponized polarization."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The FBI raid on President Trump’s home is an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department. They’ve been after President Trump as a candidate, as President, and now as a former President. Using the criminal justice system in this manner is un-American," Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump claps as the crowd cheers him on during a rally in Washington Township, Michigan, U.S. April 2, 2022. (REUTERS/Emily Elconin)
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The FBI executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago on Monday related to documents the president allegedly took with him to his private residence after leaving the White House in 2021.