GOP governors rebuke party members’ ‘outrageous rhetoric’ over Trump search

A handful of Republican governors have criticized the "outrageous rhetoric" of their party colleagues in the US Congress, who have accused federal law enforcement officers of a politicized attack on former president Donald Trump after executing a court-approved search warrant on his Florida home this week.

Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a Republican moderate, described attacks by party members as both "absurd" and "dangerous", after a week in which certain Republicans have compared the FBI to the Gestapo and fundraised off the slogan: "Defund the FBI".

Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Hogan described the comparisons of the FBI to Nazi Germany's secret police, made by Florida senator Rick Scott, as "very concerning to me, it's outrageous rhetoric".

He added: "It's absurd and, you know, it's dangerous," especially after an armed man enraged by the raid was killed in Ohio when he tried to invade an FBI office. "There are threats all over the place and losing faith in our federal law enforcement officers and our justice system is a really serious problem for the country."

On Monday, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the former president's private members club and residence in south Florida with an unsealed warrant later revealing Trump is under investigation for potential violation of the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

The episode inflamed conservative commentators and politicians still deeply loyal to the former president, and was followed by the attack on the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday, which led to a six-hour armed standoff that left the lone gunman shot dead.

Hogan, who is rumored to be considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, argued that many of his colleagues in Washington had been "jumping to conclusions without any information, which I think was wrong".