Following the FBI’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, the White House is attempting to distance itself from the controversial effort.
During a news briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked whether the Biden administration knew about the planned raid.
She denied that the administration was ever briefed on the raid.
“No, the president was not briefed, was not aware of it. No. No one at the White House was given a heads up, no. That did not happen.”
WH Press Sec on FBI raiding Trump’s home:
“No one at the White House was given a heads up. That did not happen.” pic.twitter.com/FXL5kdKENT
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 9, 2022
Under a normal administration, this would be hard to believe. Most presidents would be keenly aware of the FBI’s plans to execute a massive search warrant on anyone, especially a former president of the United States.
But given how dysfunctional the Biden administration is, it is almost believable that Biden and his staff had no idea the raid was planned. If that is the case, it is a massive indictment of many government officials.
First, if no one in the White House knew about the raid, it would be an indictment on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. As attorney general, he almost certainly knew about the raid, and he should have communicated it to President Joe Biden.
Will this strategy benefit the Biden administration?
Second, the Department of Justice, and specifically the FBI, would be culpable. They would certainly have been expected to communicate such a high-profile raid to Biden or someone in his administration, and if they did not, it was a failure to execute their duties.
Either the White House knew about the raid and is now lying about it, or the FBI and DOJ deliberately executed the search warrant behind Biden’s back.
In either scenario, the federal government is caught with egg on its face.
Nonetheless, Jean-Pierre continued with the strategy of denial and silence throughout the news briefing.
When another reporter asked her whether she was concerned about the optics of the Justice Department raiding the home of a former president, Jean-Pierre said nothing.
“Again, we’re just not going to comment on any ongoing investigations from here,” Jean-Pierre said.
After the reporter pressed her about Republicans saying the raid “reeks of politics,” Jean-Pierre again suggested Biden had no advanced knowledge.
“Look, I’ll say this: the president and the White House learned about this FBI search from public reports,” she said. “We learned just like the American public did yesterday, and we did not have advanced notice of this activity.
“President Biden has been very clear from before he was elected president and throughout his time in office that the Justice Department conducts its investigation independently.”
As many Americans continue to express their concerns about government overreach, the White House’s strategy in dealing with this public relations nightmare is simple: deny, deny, deny.
