Keller @ Large: Not all Republicans back Trump during FBI search of Mar-A-Lago
BOSTON -- "This is a very convenient way to just throw a little more mud on Donald Trump," said a furious Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law, as word spread of the FBI search of Mar-A-Lago.
And some top Republicans were quick to condemn an event they knew little about. Several GOP governors denounced the search as a political attack by what Florida's Ron DeSantis called the Biden "regime." House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened Attorney General Merrick Garland with a House probe.
But other Republicans were notably more restrained.
Senator Lindsey Graham observed: "No one is above the law." And his fellow South Carolinian Senator Tim Scott was also cautious. "We need to let this play out and see exactly what happened," he told CBS This Morning.
And here at home, a study in contrasts.
Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Geoff Diehl called the search a "political weaponization of our judicial system" and "an affront to our democracy." But his opponent, businessman Chris Doughty, told WBZ we should "let the judicial process play out the way it should" because more feverish finger-pointing isn't what voters want to hear. Doughty said he felt for "the exhausted middle who don't want to get dragged into all of this political extremism and just want to focus on the issues that are affecting us here in this state."
And the state GOP nominee for attorney general, veteran trial lawyer Jay McMahon, says the facts will tell the tale. "There's a lotta hurdles that they have to go through in order to get a search warrant," he said in a WBZ interview. "If they convinced a federal judge that there's probable cause and they come up with zip there's gonna be hell to pay. So I think they know something might be there."
This mixed-bag of reactions to the search gives you some insight into the bind the Republican party finds itself in these days, nationally and locally. The Trump loyalists are a large, vocal segment for whom the FBI action is a major red flag.
But there are plenty of Republicans who believe no one is above the law and seem to want to let the truth - not knee-jerk partisanship - call the shots.