There is bipartisan House concern the Biden administration is falling short in the obligation to protect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump before the task force hearing this week.
"Look, this is not a Republican or Democrat issue — this is an American issue," Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., told ABC's "This Week," in a joint appearance with fellow task force member Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. "We have to protect those who we have up for election and those that are already serving.
"It's a very dangerous time for us to be looking at this and thinking: This is just the way the world is. It's not, and we cannot accept this as Americans."
Crow agreed on the bipartisan support for one standard for both parties amid elevated political tensions and rhetoric.
"There's a big difference between having tough debates during the political season, which is what we should do in condemning political violence and saying there is no place in American society, whether you're a Republican or Democrat, for anybody ever to take actions into their own hands and resort to violence," Crow said.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio, R-Fla., pointed to Americans' "lack of trust in institutions," particularly when it comes to the weaponization of the Biden administration's Justice Department against political dissent and Trump.
"Look, multiple people in the Federal Bureau of Investigation faced charges or were fired for misconduct in the way they handled issues about Donald Trump just eight years ago," Rubio told CBS' "Face the Nation." 'So, I think people are rightful to be suspicious and distrusting."
It is not a question of the FBI from the ground up, but the top down from politicized leadership as the same agencies seeking to prosecute Trump are probing security breakdowns in protecting him under "Harris' Department of Justice," according to Rubio.
"I trust rank-and-file, on-the-field FBI agents to do their job," Rubio said. "I don't know what their leadership in some of these agencies and the midlevel will do with it."
"You've seen a history in the past of their being biased," he added, with the caveat, "I hope that’s not true."
Rubio pointed back to the "51 spies who lie" intelligence letter backing President Joe Biden before the 2020 election with a timely letter suggesting October 2020 Hunter Biden laptop reports were "Russian disinformation."
"This is an example of how these agencies and our institutions work against candidates they don't like," Rubio warned. "It undermines people’s trust in our institutions, and that lack of trust is eroded in government, in the media, in our agencies within government.
"That's why disclosure and openness with regards to these investigations is so critical, not just because we want to know. It's because it's important to preserve trust in our institutions. And we're not getting that."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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