Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday urged Republicans to stop lashing out at the FBI over its search last week at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.
During an event in New Hampshire, Pence said Republicans can question the FBI and Department of Justice "without attacking the rank-and-file law enforcement personnel." The Republican Party, he continued, "stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal and state and local level, and these attacks on the FBI must stop."
The FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago as part of an investigation into Trump's handling of classified material. This outraged Trump's most vocal supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who said Congress must "defund the FBI," and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who tweeted, "We must destroy the FBI."
Pence pushed back at these statements, saying, "Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police." In the wake of the Mar-a-Lago search, a gunman tried to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati, and the Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning they have seen an "increase in threats and acts of violence" against federal law enforcement.