Raid Blunder Could Clear the GOP Primary Field for Trump

CLAY: Kevin in Houston, let’s start off with you. What you got for us?

CALLER: Okay. How did the FBI execute said warrant? You don’t just walk up to a former president with Secret Service detail and just say, “We’re here to execute a warrant.” It had to be coordinated through the Justice Department.

CLAY: Yeah, that’s a good point. We’ve talked about that. And we talked about it in the context of even, for instance, if Hunter Biden were arrested, he has Secret Service protection. And if you think about it in the context of Trump, how would you arrest someone with Secret Service protection, it seems virtually impossible. And then it’s honestly a ridiculously absurd but also kind of funny question, Buck. What if Trump were… Like, let’s just play this out, the fevered dreams of left wingers who have Trump Derangement Syndrome. If Trump were convicted of a crime, he couldn’t actually be put in prison because the Secret Service agents would have to go and protect him in prison, right?

BUCK: I think Joe Biden would have to pardon him, and then I think you’d be in the situation… I’m still —

CLAY: We just play it down the line. Nobody’s ever talked about this that I’ve heard, but the former president is provided Secret Service protections at all times. We know that it’s not very safe in prison, right? Even if it’s a low security prison.

BUCK: That’s statutory. That’s not constitutional, meaning that if you wanted to change the Secret Service, Congress could just say, “You lose your protection.” It depends on who’s in charge of, obviously, but the Congress, I guess, could have a —

CLAY: After what we’ve seen with Epstein and everybody else even in security, I would think that Trump…

BUCK: This is getting crazy.

CLAY: The point on this is, I don’t think… It’s such a ridiculous hypothetical to go down if you continue to follow it. So, they had… To his question, there are reports that they notified the Secret Service that they were coming and that they had these warrants because we talked about this early on, Tuesday morning — or Tuesday during the start of the show — when we said, “Hey, the Secret Service would never allow the FBI to have access to the grounds.” Now, Trump wasn’t there, which also I imagine factors in too.

BUCK: They also, though, have to know, this narrative that has switched because I do think that there’s a recognition it was either a blunder pushed by a combination of bureaucracy being so incompetent but also Trump Derangement Syndrome. “He’s so bad that we have to do this even though he’s a former president,” or it was pretext to do it. It might be a combination of these things as well. But to do the nine-hour search, fishing expedition, right? Let’s see what we can find. And to your point maybe this confidential informant either did believe or, for whatever reason, led them to believe that there was something, that there was smoking gun stuff to go into the safe.

CLAY: That they had to go get these documents.

BUCK: Like, what do they think? This is what I meant about, do they think there’s a love note from Vladimir Putin, like, “So glad we stole the 2016 election”?

CLAY: It’s true.

BUCK: I don’t think so. So, what do you think you’re gonna do by getting into the safe?

CLAY: Remember, there’s also security camera footage that Trump’s evidently continued to run, which is smart.

BUCK: But I also have to point out, as we’re assessing this, that they got FISA warrants. I mean, they went after George Papadopoulos. I know George. He’s a nice guy. George was just like an adjunct foreign policy fellow on the Trump campaign, but he was in contact with people. They went after him. They went after Carter Page. They went after these individuals, and based on nothing.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: It was all just, Carter Page had worked with the government against Russian interests. And they just kind of fabricated this whole story. Papadopoulos, they said, was talking to somebody in Italy who said he knew something about a guy. So, in an environment where they’re that stupid or that dishonest or a combination of both, I think everything’s on the table here.

CLAY: Yeah. And I was thinking about this after we finished the show yesterday. I think Joe Biden knew and I think Merrick Garland knew. If they didn’t know… Let’s pretend that Joe Biden is actually competent. I would be furious because they have so misplayed their hand at least so far that Trump has not been stronger since November of 2020. Like, I think Trump supported is surging to the point, Buck, where if you’re Ron DeSantis or you are Mike Pompeo or you are even Mike Pence and you were thinking, “Hey, I’m gonna challenge Trump for the nomination,” I think this changes the calculus. I don’t even know that there’s a lane for you now.

BUCK: The original magic of Trumpism, if you will, the original impulse from so many people that you talk to across the country — you saw this early on — was that Donald Trump was going to be the extended middle finger to the establishment. That was driving so much of it. And what can you think of…? Now he’s a former president. He’s playing golf, he’s hanging out, we saw him a couple of weeks ago. They do a nine-hour FBI raid at his house? Really? People are gonna say you know what we need right now? An extended solitary finger to the machine.

CLAY: No doubt, Buck. And also, if Trump were sitting around and trying to come up with the best thing that could validate his candidacy that somebody at the FBI could do, this might well have been it.

BUCK: Short of rolling in the flash-bangs and coming in through the ceiling, yeah, this is pretty bad.

CLAY: It played so much in his favor.