Imagine voting to reward the FBI. Short of coercion, what would it take to make such a vote?
On Wednesday, 70 Republicans did exactly that, joining 203 Democrats in defeating a measure that would have denied the FBI a sprawling new headquarters priced at $300 million.
Readers can find the names of the 70 Republicans who voted with Democrats and the FBI here.
The shameful vote occurred on the same day that FBI agents appeared in force in the small town of Helmetta, New Jersey, to serve an arrest warrant for Gregory Yetman, who allegedly sprayed pepper spray toward Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
According to the town mayor, that show of force included heavy armor.
“A situation like this of course brings heightened anxiety — it’s not normal to see FBI agents and vehicles and tanks in your community,” Helmetta Mayor Christopher Slavicek said, according to USA Today.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia expressed disbelief over the FBI’s tactics.
“FBI manhunt and tanks for a guy who used pepper spray at police on Jan6?” Greene posted on X on Thursday. “They don’t do this for Antifa/BLM rioters or Ceasefire Now Pro-Hamas/terrorists insurrectionists or 1.8 million unknown illegal gotaways that came across our border or Epstein’s client list. Only J6’ers.”
FBI manhunt and tanks for a guy who used pepper spray at police on Jan6?
They don’t do this for Antifa/BLM rioters or Ceasefire Now Pro-Hamas/terrorists insurrectionists or 1.8 million unknown illegal gotaways that came across our border or Epstein’s client list.
Only J6’ers. https://t.co/n5voQFPla2
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 9, 2023
Should the FBI get a $300M building bigger than the Pentagon?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
As one would expect, Greene voted to deny funding for the new FBI building.
The list of Republicans who voted with the tyrannical Bureau, of course, is too lengthy to reproduce in full. It featured some notorious RINOs, such as Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado and Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama.
Other recognizable names included Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas and Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California — the former House speaker — did not vote.
Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida sponsored the anti-FBI measure as an amendment to an appropriations bill.
Wednesday on X, Gaetz chastised Womack and other Republicans for wanting to reward the FBI. The Florida congressman also suggested that the Bureau should not go anywhere until its weaponization against the American people ceases.
“Those in the J. Edgar Hoover Building should sit in that rat-infested building until they get their act straight,” Gaetz posted.
Republicans like @Rep_SteveWomack believe the FBI should be rewarded with a new $300M headquarters larger than the Pentagon because the building is “crumbling.”
Guess what? Our country is crumbling when a weaponized security state targets the civil liberties of American citizens… pic.twitter.com/MbQaYxsE9e
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) November 8, 2023
After the amendment failed, Gaetz complained that Republicans had gifted the FBI a new building “larger than the Pentagon.”
70 Republicans voted to reward the Weaponized FBI with a new $300M headquarters – larger than the Pentagon.
Sad! https://t.co/QwbOZFQMov pic.twitter.com/owtPkHEI9I
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) November 9, 2023
After rattling off a list of the FBI’s recent misdeeds, the prominent conservative commentator known on X as “DC_Draino” echoed Gaetz’s complaint.
“FBI needs REFORM not rewards,” DC_Draino posted on Thursday.
The FBI was caught spying on President Trump
The FBI raided Mar a Lago
The FBI kills Veterans at their homes in surprise raids
The FBI storms the houses of pro-life protestors
So what does the GOP do?
Give them a new HQ bigger than the Pentagon
FBI needs REFORM not rewards https://t.co/wb9hGj4Jr4
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) November 9, 2023
Lamenting those 70 Republicans’ brazen betrayal of their own voters is one thing, but explaining it is another.
In January 2017 — and in a much different context — Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York gave one possible explanation.
“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Indeed, the powerful heads of federal agencies have always had “ways” of controlling elected officials. That well-documented tradition dates to notorious former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover himself.
On the other hand, in this case we might not even need to speculate about the FBI’s “ways.”
After all, nearly one-third of House Republicans voted with the FBI. That percentage roughly corresponds to a segment inside the Republican Party that despises former President Donald Trump.
In other words, they want the FBI weaponized. They want Trump and his supporters out of the way, so the party can go back to business as usual.
It is coercion or establishment politics. No other explanation makes sense.
Either way, that list of 70 Republicans will serve as a handy reference. Each one must have a primary opponent in 2024.
