Kamala Harris condemns GOP rhetoric and attempted attack on FBI field office

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday became the highest-ranking official inside President Joe Biden's administration to react to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's execution of a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida last Monday.

The "raid," which Trump labeled it, sparked immediate fury and threats toward law enforcement among elected Republicans, right-wing commentators, and Trump supporters across the United States, particularly toward individuals within the Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI.

On Thursday a man whom The New York Times noted "had been involved" with the January 6th Capitol insurrection was killed after he attempted to enter the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio while on a self-proclaimed "call to arms" to avenge a supposedly wronged Trump.

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The assailant "was wearing body armor" and "tried to breach the entrance to the visitor screening facility of the bureau’s Cincinnati office on Thursday morning, but fled after an alarm was set off and agents responded," wrote the Times. "He was later spotted by a state trooper on a nearby interstate and chased into a rural area, where officers fatally shot him that afternoon after a lengthy standoff."

According to Bloomberg, Harris blasted the incendiary rhetoric that inspired the foiled attack in a statement aboard Air Force Two:

I will say, as a former prosecutor, but as a citizen of our nation, any attacks on law enforcement are completely unacceptable. And any so-called leader who engages in rhetoric that in any way suggests that law enforcement should be exposed to that kind of danger is irresponsible and can result in dangerous activities.

It’s just highly irresponsible of anyone who calls themselves a leader and certainly anyone who represents the United States of America to engage in rhetoric for the sake of some political objective that can result in harm to law enforcement officers and agents.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed, also condemned the violent escalation.

“Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the F.B.I. erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others,” Wray said per Bloomberg. “Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the F.B.I., are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans.”

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