China News Service, September 2 (Reporter Meng Xiangjun) After the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, the private residence of former US President Trump, the turmoil has continued to this day.
In fact, this "big search" did not happen suddenly, but one of the signs of the intensification of the donkey-elephant battle ahead of the mid-term elections in the United States.
Aerial view of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
[Searched more than once, who is hiding? 】
U.S. law requires that all documents of the president be retained and transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) upon leaving office.
Back in February, NARA seized boxes of documents that Trump brought from the White House.
Trump returned 15 boxes containing about 184 documents.
The National Archives found that some of the documents involved privileged information and secret informant resources for intelligence gathering.
As a result, the materials were handed over to the FBI.
In June, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago for the first time.
The U.S. Department of Justice pointed out that Trump handed over 38 more confidential documents at the time, saying that all information from the White House was stored separately, and some sensitive materials were taken away "inadvertently".
Data map: On January 14, 2021, after Trump lost the election, a batch of boxes were transported away from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.
But the U.S. Department of Justice didn't think that was all, so it launched an Aug. 8 search.
This time, the FBI turned around and seized about 20 boxes of documents, notes, photos, etc., including 11 sets of classified documents, including those marked as "top secret".
The U.S. Justice Department believes that Trump is "deliberately concealing" and "obstructing" the government's investigation.
[FBI posing? Trump calls for independent review
Trump immediately stood up and rebutted, scolding the FBI for "posing for pictures", "throwing confidential documents all over the floor" and "probably pretending that it was me."
He believes he is being politically persecuted because U.S. President Joe Biden and the Democrats do not want him to run in the 2024 presidential election.
The FBI gave documents revealing new details in response to a motion by Trump's legal team to freeze material seized by the FBI.
Trump wants to appoint a "special expert" to review whether the material is admissible as evidence in court.
The U.S. Department of Justice released part of the FBI's written testimony when it requested a search of Mar-a-Lago on August 26.
Multiple pages of the document are almost completely blacked out.
According to reports, "special experts" are independent third parties, appointed by courts in some sensitive cases, to review material that may be protected by attorney-client privilege to ensure investigators do not improperly view evidence.
U.S. District Judge Cannon intends to approve the appointment of "special experts", but foreign media disclosed that Cannon was nominated during Trump's presidency.
The Justice Department strongly objected, arguing that the "special expert" reference was illogical and that Trump had no ownership of the documents and could not assert privilege over the executive branch.
[FBI under pressure, Biden came forward to defend]
The White House had previously assured reporters that Biden had no knowledge of the Mar-a-Lago raid and had not received a report on the results.
Biden also said that he "had no prior notice" and "zero. Not at all."
But Trump insisted that Biden knew.
The conservative US media Fox News disclosed that at the request of the Justice Department, the Biden-led White House agreed to let the FBI and intelligence services review hundreds of pages of confidential documents that Trump handed over to NARA in the spring.
Biden said he was "completely unaware" of the FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
Image source: Screenshot of USA Today report
After the investigation of Mar-a-Lago, polls showed that 44% of American voters lost their trust in the FBI; 70% of the surveyed Republicans said they no longer trust the FBI.
In addition, the Cincinnati branch of the FBI was recently attacked. A man suspected of "under the gauntlet" on Trump's own social platform broke into the FBI branch building, exchanged fire with law enforcement officers with an AR-15 assault rifle, and was eventually killed.
The Washington Post pointed out that this matter may be related to the search of Trump's estate.
In this regard, Biden couldn’t help but speak again and made a substantive defense of the FBI for the first time.
"The new attack on the FBI, which threatens the lives of law enforcement officers and their families, is disgusting because they are just doing their jobs," he said.
[Republican revenge is on the way]
Some Republicans were angry that Trump was being searched.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Green, a Georgia Republican, called for the impeachment of the key person who approved the search warrant on Trump's estate, US Attorney General and Attorney General Garland, on the grounds of "abuse of power".
Green also stated through a spokesman that he hoped to "impeach" Biden himself as soon as possible.
In fact, when Biden first took office in 2021, Green launched a motion for impeachment, but the control of the House of Representatives was not in the hands of the Republicans, and the motion was not passed.
Republicans said they would step up their investigation of Biden if they win control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections.
Former US President Trump.
Trump continues to attack Biden's "soft underbelly". He believes that the FBI covered up the laptop of Biden's son Hunter Biden before the election. If not, "Trump will easily win the 2020 election. ".
Trump shouted through the air that he would either declare the "real winner" (himself) or cancel the 2020 presidential election results and "hold a new election immediately."
In 2020, Hunter Biden's laptop was found in a repair shop in Delaware, and some emails and photos were leaked to prove his involvement in criminal activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution.
The computer was later confiscated by the FBI.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted he heeded the FBI's advice to limit controversial coverage of the computer in user news feeds ahead of the 2020 election.
[The battle between the donkey and elephant behind "Wrist-wrestling"]
Recently, when Biden campaigned for the mid-term elections, he condemned the Republicans represented by Trump for promoting "semi-fascism".
The Republican National Committee countered, saying, "Biden has consistently ignored multiple crises of his own making and only talked to liberal elites in Washington."
The Republican Party also listed a set of numbers to "slap in the face" Biden, saying that he has vacationed 228 days in office, more than all his predecessors.
Trump took 132 days of vacation 19 months after taking office, compared to 100 days for the other two former US presidents George W. Bush and 38 days for Obama.
US President Biden.
In fact, everything has never left politics.
Biden and Trump are both locked in the 2024 US presidential election.
But a joint poll by The New York Times and Siena College in July showed that only 26 percent of Democratic supporters agreed with Biden running for a second term in 2024, with no supporters in the majority, mainly because of Biden's age and working performance.
According to a joint poll by Reuters and Ipsos, Biden’s approval rating has fallen again in recent days, with only 38% of Americans in favor of his policies.
Biden's current lowest approval rating of 36% is on par with Trump's lowest approval rating of 33% when he was in office.
A joint poll by USA Today and Ipsos shows that 59% of Republicans support Trump's "re-fight", while 41% believe that the candidate should be re-elected.
When asked about Trump's virtues, 90 percent of Republican respondents believed Trump "will use all the tools at his disposal to accomplish his goals."
On January 6, 2021, local time, during a joint meeting of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to confirm the results of the Electoral College vote, Trump supporters broke into the Capitol and caused riots.
The picture shows the U.S. House of Representatives after lawmakers evacuated.
Foreign media expect that the Democratic Party will lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives and even the Senate in the mid-term elections, and the "ruthless words" of the Republican Party may come true.
As long as they control the House, Republicans can bring Biden's legislative agenda to a halt and launch a politically damaging investigation.
The idea that Biden could be impeached has also begun to appear in the media.
But Trump is more difficult to protect himself.
In addition to the "document gate", he is also involved in many criminal investigations such as riots in the U.S. Congress, alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election, and financial fraud in his business organizations.
Whether it can be refunded is unknown. Trump's campaign road will not be smoother than Biden's.
Behind the "arm-wrestling" and "head-to-head" of American politicians, who do their best to criticize each other, is the dangerous trend of intensified partisanship and political polarization in the country.
When the United States is caught in a serious "political disease", when will it wake up?
(Finish)