In a message to supporters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) issues a warning to FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has been the subject of scrutiny from Republicans, and the comments continue in reference to the FBI’s alleged targeting of Catholics.
Republicans have long criticized the FBI under the Biden administration, arguing that the FBI has been weaponized to unjustly target conservatives. In a message sent to supporters, DeSantis is now directing criticism at the FBI, citing that the FBI has targeted Catholics as “extremists.”
Adding that he is “disgusted by what the FBI has become,” DeSantis expressed that “the government has been weaponized against those who dare disagree with the controlling party’s agenda.”
DeSantis took to social media to share a Wall Street Journal Opinion piece titled “The FBI and ‘Radical’ Catholics,” which explores the possibility of the FBI’s probe being wider than the Government led on to it being.
“Our Founding Fathers knew that if you allow power to accumulate like they have in Washington, if you don’t hold these agencies Constitutionally accountable, they WILL abuse their power,” DeSantis warned in his message, adding that “we are not going to sit idly by and let them mobilize power against people of faith and people with whom they disagree.”
“As President, I will defend religious liberty, stop the weaponization of our federal government once and for all, and I will fire Wray,” DeSantis vowed on social media.
Wray commented in July on the report, saying that it had come from “a single field office,” and when he found out about it, he was “aghast.” He then “ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems.” However, lawmakers like DeSantis suggest that the damage has been done.
The report provides a definition of “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as individuals that attend the Latin Mass while adhering to “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and white supremacist ideology.”
