Billy Long: If Biden authorized raid on Trump, it's significantly worse than Watergate

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

“What did the President know and when did he know it?” For those of us old enough to remember Watergate, those two questions come immediately to mind as soon as the subject is broached. You see they were central to the Senate’s investigation into the famed break in of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters located in the Watergate Office Building and the ensuing cover up. 

This major political scandal brought about the end of President Richard Nixon’s career in politics when he resigned the presidency less than two years into his second term. The more things change the more they stay the same and now a mere 50 years later the same two questions are tantamount to getting answers as to who knew what and when did they know it in regard to the F.B.I.'s unprecedented raid on former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. 

Given the outstanding nature of conducting a search warrant on a former president’s home by a current president, not to mention a potential political rival, it's vital we ask who was involved in the decision making process, was it politically motivated and most important of all did the raid on a former president’s home start and end with President Biden or as he says he only learned about the whole torrid affair on T.V.? Unfortunately, we do not yet have all the questions, let alone all the answers.

We know that President Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland was involved in the decision to go ahead with the raid. He said as much at his press conference several days after the fact. Obviously, a raid of this magnitude would be discussed at the highest levels of the Justice Department and F.B.I. but the American people deserve to know if President Biden, or any White House senior staff were also involved. The president has claimed that he learned about the raid the same way we all did, on TV, but recent reporting from John Solomon at Just the News calls this denial into question.

Solomon has received a series of memos from the White House Counsel’s office, showing that they had been in contact with the National Archives in the months leading up to the raid. The most notable memo came in May, when the Counsel’s office told the National Archives that the White House would not object to waiving President Trump’s executive privilege claims. In effect, this move gave the National Archives and F.B.I. the green light to open a criminal investigation, and eventually conduct the raid.

We know that the White House was somewhat involved in the investigation, so now we need to know how involved they were. Did President Biden really find out about the raid on TV, or did he have prior knowledge? Did he give the greenlight to conduct the raid? These are questions that must be answered. 

The Justice Department and F.B.I. should be independent from political interference from the White House, and if the president or his staff were coordinating with the F.B.I. on this raid, that is not acceptable by any standard of fairness and decency. 

Never before has a president told the F.B.I. to investigate his chief political rival, and it is important for Congress to investigate these allegations. 

President Nixon resigned for trying to cover up the Watergate break in and it was one of the most egregious presidential scandals in American history. 

If President Biden personally authorized the raid on President Trump, it would be significantly worse than the Watergate scandal. I never thought President Biden looked anything like President Nixon but boy oh boy he sure sounds like him.