EDGEWATER, Fla. — A man went into a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in Florida and fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and her friend before turning the gun on himself, police said Tuesday.
Quinton Hunter brandished the gun shortly after entering the Monday night meeting, Edgewater police Chief Joseph Mahoney said during a news conference Tuesday. About 20 other participants safely fled and called police, he said.
Erica Hoffman and Ian Greenfield were already dead when officers arrived, the chief said. At some point after the shooting, Hunter began recording a Facebook Live which showed him wearing goggles and breathing heavily.
“It appears from the timeline we have that he had already shot Mr. Greenfield and had fired several other shots before he went live,” the chief said. “But he didn’t make any comments, he didn’t communicate with us. Just heavy breathing. It was very strange.”
Officers sought to make contact with the suspect to negotiate before a SWAT team breached the building and found the gunman and the two others dead inside, the post said.
Hunter had a violent criminal history, the chief said. He also said investigators are still trying to figure out the relationship between Greenfield and Hoffman, and that Hunter may have been motivated by jealousy.
The meeting was held in the offices of Be The Bridge, a nonprofit organization that helps the homeless and others get a fresh start in life.
Sometimes it seems like the Audi S3 is the forgotten child of Audi’s performance lineup. It’s a slightly strange offering: Hot-hatch performance in a premium-priced compact sport sedan. I’m here to tell you the 2022 Audi S3 is not to be ignored. While it’s not flawless, there’s some serious performance here.
Full Disclosure: Audi initially offered to loan me an A3 for a week. But I asked, “What do you have that’s faster?” So they delivered me an S3 with a full tank of gas, tossed me the keys, and told me to enjoy myself for a week.
What Is It?
1999 Audi S3picture: Audi
The Audi S3 is the smallest and cheapest way to get into Audi’s S performance line. It’s the littlest sibling in the S family. While the S3 has been around since 1999 in Europe and other countries, in sedan and hatchback forms, Audi only brought the A3 and S3 sedans to the US for the 2015 model year. (The A3 hatch has been on sale here since 2006.) The current model is the fourth generation of the S3 but the second available in the US This being a VW Group product, it shares its platform with what seems like dozens of other vehicles, most of which aren’t sold in the US
The competition in this segment is getting sparse. Luxury automakers are eliminating entry-level offerings, and sedans in general, to focus on more pricey and profitable utility vehicles. So the S3 runs in a small circle, competing against the recently updated BMW 2 Series and Mercedes CLA 35/45 AMG. You could even throw in the 2023 Acura Integrathough it’s way down on power compared to the rest of this crowd. The S3’s closest competitor might be its own variant, the rowdy five-cylinder RS3. Anything else that comes close to the S3’s performance is cheaper but far less premium.
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Specs That Matter
picture: Audi
The S3 utilizes a slightly detuned version of the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder powerplant from the VW Golf R. While the Golf R makes 315 horsepower, the S3 makes 306 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. With its Quattro all-wheel drive system and a seven-speed automatic transmission, that’s enough power to get this 3,538-pound sedan to 60 mph in a manufacturer estimated 4.5 seconds. While some power-hungry weirdos may complain that’s not enough oomph, you’re still quicker than most cars on the road in this thing. What’s even more impressive is that it’s pretty efficient despite the performance: EPA fuel economy numbers for the S3 sit at 23 mpg city / 32 mpg highway / 27 mpg combined. Not bad.
I meant it when I said the S3 is the cheapest way to get into a fast Audi: Pricing starts at $44,900. But it rises quickly if you want any premium or cool-looking features. The S3 I drove had options like a $2,800 Premium Plus package with adaptive cruise control, wireless phone charging, and a memory driver’s seat; a $2,250 Tech package that brought Audi’s excellent Virtual Cockpit, traffic sign recognition, and a Bang & Olufsen 3D sound system; a $1,950 Black Optics package with bigger 19-inch wheels, summer tires, and blacked out trim from the roof to the grille to the quad exhaust tips; a Fine Nappa Leather package that covered the seats in diamond-stitched hides and added carbon fiber inlays on the dash.
Finally, there’s a $1,100 S Sport package with red painted brake calipers and a sport suspension with damper control. Including the $1,045 destination charge, this S3 rang in at $55,890 — a lot of coin for a compact performance sedan.
What’s Good
Excuse my iced tea in the cupholder.photo: Lawrence Hodge
The interior looks fantastic. The angular design with beveled edges on various surfaces may not work for everyone, but I think it’s great here. It looks even better when you compare it to previous generations of the A3/S3, where the minimalist interior basically screamed “I’m the cheapest Audi you can buy!” As with everything in Audi’s current lineup, the materials and finishes are all high-quality.
photo: Lawrence Hodge
Audi’s Virtual cockpit is great. The layout of the digital speedo and tach change depending on drive mode; one configuration shows you a full Google Earth map on the 10.25-inch instrument panel display, making it easy to follow the nav without having to turn to the center screen. The display options are fantastic.
For a compact sedan, the interior space surprised me. Headroom and legroom were fantastic. Even at 6-foot tall, there was room for someone to sit behind my driver’s seat without issue.
photo: Lawrence Hodge
The styling works too. Previous S3s were pretty sedated, so much so that you wouldn’t clock it as a performance model until you saw the tiny red badge or the quad exhausts.
This one looks like it means performance. Granted, most of that has to do with the Black Optics package, which gives the S3 a dose of intensity. But even without that package, this is an aggressive looking car.
How It Drives
photo: Lawrence Hodge
I call this thing a pocket rocket for a reason. There’s something about a little sedan that can hit 60 mph in less than five seconds. The chassis tuning makes it tossable in the most pleasing way. Throw it into a corner and the Quattro system uses all 295 lb-ft of torque to pull it out. It understeers a bit, and it doesn’t have the torque-vectoring rear differential you get in the Golf R. But that’s not a big issue.
There is also a bit of turbo lag. Well, more than a bit — it’s noticeable every time you hit the gas. From a standstill, there’s a noticeable delay before the car starts moving. But once that turbo is spooling, it delivers a wave of torque. Need to make a pass? Slam that gas pedal down and the power delivery is damn near instant. The seven-speed dual-clutch fires off fast shifts, and with larger brakes over the standard A3 (14.1-inch front/ 12.2-inch rear rotors), that speed drops quickly when you need it to.
What’s Weak
For a car that has quad exhaust tips, it sure does have a muted exhaust note — there’s practically no exhaust sound in the cabin. You can hear engine sounds, but it seems like most of it is artificial.
photo: Lawrence Hodge
The gear selector toggle takes some getting used to. It’s strange to operate, and I often found myself driving with the transmission in Sport mode unintentionally.
While the design of the interior works from a styling perspective, those angles do create a couple of annoyances. For instance, the wireless charging pad is angled away from the driver, towards the front of the car. While this sounds like a snug place for the phone to rest, it mostly ends up sliding around, especially during hard driving.
photo: Lawrence Hodge
Another annoyance: The 10.1-inch center-dash touchscreen, the main interface of the MMI infotainment system, is canted forward. This means, if you have the sunroof open, sunlight directly hits the screen, making it pretty much useless.
Speaking of MMI… It still sucks. The visuals are nice, and it’s perfectly okay when it’s working normally. But the infotainment software is still too laggy and buggy for my taste. Switching between menus is an affair of waiting; entire seconds pass between when you select a function on the screen and when the system executes it. The system also seems to have trouble going from the native navigation app to any other screen. It’s like the extremely detailed resolution of the built-in Google Earth navigation is too much for the system to support.
MMI is so laggy, I try to avoid using it as much as possible in any new Audi I drive. Thank god for Apple CarPlay.
Also, one more flu: Don’t plan on being comfortable when you put the adaptive suspension in its Dynamic setting. It’s harsh and bouncy — so much so, I usually drove the S3 with every other aspect of the car in Dynamic mode except the suspension. It’s not brutal Ford Focus RS, but it’s enough to make you say “this isn’t fun anymore” after being in the car for 10 minutes.
verdict
The S3 is part of a rare group of vehicles today: compact performance sedans. Audi could have easily settled on making performance-oriented crossovers and called it a day.
But they didn’t. They gave buyers an impressive-driving, premium small sedan with performance that will shock some people. While it’s not without shortcomings, overall, the S3 is a great little sport sedan, the kind of vehicle we could use more of.
Mastriano’s attorney cut off the virtual appearance soon after it began, the source said. His lawyer, Tim Parlatore, took issue with several procedural matters related to the deposition, and raised questions about the legality of the subpoena that Mastriano received from the panel, the source added.
“We were there for 15 minutes. It was clear that the committee was unable to comply with the regulations regarding use of deposition authority and moreover has no interest in complying with the regulations,” Parlatore said. “We’re happy to provide the information if they can either do it fairly and legally or if we can reach a resolution on how to do a voluntary interview which minimizes the risk of election interference.”
Mastriano is the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, and was a central player supporting former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Mastriano was also among the mob of Trump supporters on Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021, during the insurrection, though he didn’t go into the Capitol itself and hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
CNN previously reported that Mastriano’s appearance was expected to be brief and unproductive because Mastriano’s camp and the committee were at an impasse over issues like whether Mastriano could independently videotape or record his appearance.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment on Mastriano’s appearance.
A New Jersey hospital marketing director was arrested this week after a bomb threat at the facility led police to discover a cache of weapons and ammunition stashed in an unlocked office closet.
Reuven Alonalayoff, who worked at Hudson Regional Hospital, was taken into custody Sunday at Newark Liberty International Airport with assistance from the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
Alonalayoff, 46, of Elmwood Park, was charged with possession of an assault firearm and two counts of possession of a high capacity magazine.
Lawyer information for him was not immediately available.
His arrest comes weeks after the hospital received a phone call on July 18 that a bomb was in the facility, the Secaucus Police Department said in a news release.
Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus, NJGoogle
Officers, along with bomb detection canines, swept the hospital. It was a dog that flagged the unlocked closet, according to officials.
“Upon entering the closet, police discovered a large cache of rifles, shotguns and handguns, along with assorted ammunition for the firearms,” police said.
In total, authorities found 11 handguns of various calibers, 27 rifles/shotguns and a high-capacity magazine with 14 rounds, according to authorities. They also located a Kriss Vector .45-caliber semiautomatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine and determined it was an assault rifle, police said.
Authorities learned the bomb threat was a hoax and investigated the arsenal of weapons.
It’s not clear how Alonalayoff got the weapons into the hospital, how long they were stored there or why they were in the office closet. NBC News has reached out to officials for comment on those details as well as Alonalayoff’s status with the hospital.
“The unsecured storage of a large cache of weaponry, especially in this location, certainly creates a risk to public safety,” Police Chief Dennis Miller said. “I commend the efforts and professionalism of all the police personnel involved in this investigation and am thankful this situation was resolved without anyone being harmed.”
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
With the new next-gen features finally arriving on PC this year, the FIFA 23 system requirements are understandably a lot different than what we are used to seeing from the popular football game. The new edition of FIFA on PC should offer not just a graphical improvement over its predecessor, but also various engine enhancements too, which is always going to demand a more competent system. So, for a full list of the FIFA 23 system requirements, make sure to carry on reading down below.
Check out all of the latest information and rumors surrounding which FIFA 23 Icons will be making their way to the game.
FIFA 23 System Requirements: Minimum Specs
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5 6600k or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
Memory: 8GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 570
DirectX:Version 12
Storage: 100GB available space
Network: Broadband internet connection
FIFA 23 System Requirements: Recommended Specs
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
While the FIFA 23 system requirements might seem broadly in line with mostly newly released games, it is important to compare them to even last year’s entry, where we can see a rather dramatic increase.
FIFA 22for example, recommended just a relatively measly Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 for graphics, whereas this year urges you towards a 1660. Not only is there a whopping seven-year difference between the cards – which for PC components is light years – the 1660 offers a relative ~135% increase in performance over the 660.
It’s been a long four years but the FIFA 23 World Cup mode is here – read all about what will be in store in our guide.
Furthermore, the storage recommendation has additionally doubled, from 50GB last year to an enormous 100GB required, indicating that there is far more in the game – likely from a texture standpoint.
Overall, these FIFA 23 system requirements, especially in comparison with its predecessor, indicate a vast graphical upgrade, which will be very welcome to players of the series on PC who rightfully have felt left behind.
So, that rounds off our full list of the FIFA 23 system requirements, giving you all the details of what you’ll need to be able to run the latest game in the long-running football series. If you’re dying to get your hands on the game though, why not check out our guide for how to get FIFA 23 early access.
In 2012, at 34 years old,I left my investment banking job and retired early with a net worth of $3 million. Currently, I live in San Francisco with my wife and two young children.
But since 1977, I’ve regularly traveled back and forth to Hawaii, where my parents have been retired for 15 years. They have a simple life with a modest budget, living off retirement savings and a government pension — thanks to the three decades they spent working in the US Foreign Service.
Seeing my parents live their dream, we want to follow suit. Our plan is to move to Hawaii by 2025. Between my parents’ experience and my own, I’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of retiring in Hawaii.
Our consensus it’s the perfect place to retire by the beach — although there are still a few downsides to keep in mind.
Many financial experts suggest maintaining a 4% withdrawal rate to ensure that your investments last throughout retirement.
The median household income in Honolulu County, for example, is $88,000. If someone wanted to withdraw that $88,000 from their assets each year, they’d need about $2,200,000 in investments to withdraw at a rate of 4%.
But that’s just one example. How much money you need depends on where you’d like to live, your standard of living and your expected income.
If you can comfortably live off $42,500 a year, have a pension or can file for Social Security, you can have a lower net worth and less income-generating investments at the beginning of your retirement journey.
The downsides of retiring in Hawaii
Before you start your beach retirement plan, beware of these three biggest downsides first:
If you want to retire in Hawaii, consider buying a small condo or rent, rather than purchasing a single-family home. The average rent for a 594 square foot apartment is roughly $2,042, according to RentCafe.
2. Expensive groceries and gas
According to a 2021 report by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, Hawaii’s grocery prices are the highest in the nation.
For example, I’ve paid $8.99 for a gallon of whole milk on Oahu, whereas in San Francisco, it’s about $6. And while Hawaiian-grown mangoes are delicious, they can cost about $6 each!
Further, if you like to drive, Hawaii has unusually high gas prices. The average price per gallon in the state today is $5.41 and is continuing to rise, according to AAA, while the national average is $4.03.
3. You may feel claustrophobic
It only takes about four hours to drive around the 597 square miles of Oahu. Although the island does hold about one million people, in my experience, it can still feel small.
And with the pandemic continuing to make air and ship travel unappealing, it is possible that you could feel a bit stuck at times, without those options at your disposal.
The benefits of retiring in Hawaii
Yes, it’s expensive. But if you’re curious what it could be like to retire in Hawaii, here are some surprising perks:
My parents worked in Washington DC, Paris, Guangzhou, Kobe, Taipei and other big cities before retiring in Honolulu. They’ve found their Hawaiian lifestyle to be incredibly relaxing compared to all the other cities they’ve lived in.
2. Top-rated healthcare
The United Health Foundation also ranks Hawaii as the third healthiest state in the country. And according to US News’ list of Best States for Health Care, Hawaii takes the top spot.
I’m not surprised. Hawaii has beautiful weather nearly year-round, public beaches and parks, a variety of locally grown and raised food, and great access to preventive medical and dental treatment.
If you’re looking for a more healthy and active lifestyle, you can certainly find it in Hawaii.
3. ‘Ohana’ means family
An important part of Hawaiian culture is the care and nurturing of family and friends, or “ohana.” I’ve observed that nearly everywhere you go, whether it’s to a restaurant or to the mall, things are set up to be a family-friendly experience.
Plus, it’s not uncommon to have multiple generations under one roof in Hawaii. While my wife, children and I probably won’t live in my parents’ house, we hope to rent or buy nearby.
4. Tremendous diversity
Hawaii topped the list of states that have the most diverse population in the country, coming ahead of California and Nevada, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
5. Decent tax advantages
Hawaii ranks as having one of the lowest property tax rates in the country, at an average of only 0.28%. If you have a Federal pension, it’s exempt from state income tax. And the sales tax rate is a reasonable 4% to 4.5%, versus 7.25% to 8.25% in California.
However, Hawaii also has one of the highest state income tax rates, topping out at 11% if you make over $200,000. If you make between $48,001 and $150,000, you pay a state income tax rate of 8.25%.
If we move, we’d sell our home here and pay cash for a property in Honolulu that’s around 40% cheaper. We’d then reinvest the house savings into real estate crowdfunding, dividend stocks and REITs to increase our passive income for retirement.
Instead of needing $300,000 a year in passive investment income to fund the lifestyle we desire, $150,000 to $200,000 is probably plenty in Honolulu.
But more than that, with my parents in their 70s, I’d like to spend as much time with them as possible. Hawaii just feels like home.
Sam Dogen worked in investing banking for 13 years before starting Financial Samurai, his personal finance website. His new book “Buy This, Not That: How to Spend Your Way to Wealth and Financial Freedom” is out now. Follow him on Twitter @financialsamura.
Professional runners and endurance athletes often rely on Garmin products for their training and competitions and the Garmin Enduro 2 is the latest high-end offering from the brand. The watch brings solar charging, a 150-hour rated battery life with GPS on and a $1,100 price tag.
Garmin Enduro 2 snapshot
Enduro 2 features a fiber-reinforced polymer casing with a titanium rear cover and titanium bezel. The 1.4-inch AMOLED color touch screen brings a 280 x 280 px resolution and is covered with sapphire crystal for added durability. Enduro 2 comes bundled with a nylon sport loop band though it is compatible with Garmin’s silicone bands as well. There’s onboard Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity.
The watch is 10ATM water resistant 32GB onboard storage which can store up to 2,000 songs. There’s even a LED flashlight for nighttime training.
Enduro 2 brings heart rate (Garmin Elevate v4 heart rate sensor), SpO2, sleep and stress monitoring alongside a plethora of fitness tracking features including a visual race predictor, topographical maps, grade-adjusted pace, running dynamics and more.
Garmin Enduro 2
Garmin claims battery life in smartwatch-only mode is rated at up to 46 days which factors in the Enduro 2’s solar charging panel. The battery saver mode extends those values up to 550 days. The watch comes with multiband GNSS with SatIQ – a useful feature that only selects the most power-efficient GPS signal in a bid to extend battery life. The watch also supports Garmin Pay.
Pricing is set at $1,100 and the watch is already available on Garmin’s website.
Americans who earn less than $75,000 per year are slated to receive 60% of the additional tax audits expected under Democrats’ spending package, according to an analysis released by House Republicans.
The analysis, which is a conservative estimate based upon recent audit rates and tax filing data, shows that individuals with an annual income of $75,000 or less would be subject to 710,863 additional Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits while those making more than $1 million would receive 52,295 more audits under the bill. The legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, would roughly double the IRS’ budget to increase enforcement and, therefore, federal tax revenue.
“Value shoppers at Walmart and other retailers, already struggling with higher prices and more expensive fuel to drive to the store, will get hit with 710,000 additional audits thanks to the Manchin-Biden Democrat bill,” House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady , R-Texas, said in a statement after releasing the study.
“Every retailer in the US who cares about their hard-hit customers should be fighting to block this unnecessary harassment of hard-working Americans,” he added.
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: WHAT TAX HIKES ARE IN THE BILL?
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig testifies before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee on March 17, 2022. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Overall, the IRS would conduct more than 1.2 million more annual audits of Americans’ tax returns, according to the analysis. Another 236,685 of the estimated additional audits would target individuals with an annual income between $75,000 and $200,000.
To boost tax enforcement, the Inflation Reduction Act would appropriate more than $79 billion in additional funds to the IRS over the next decade, nearly doubling the agency’s current budget. The IRS is expected to hire tens of thousands more agents to enhance enforcement efforts that are projected to increase revenue by $124 billion.
In response to criticism about the expected uptick in tax audits under the bill, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said Thursday that “audit rates” will not increase relative to recent years.
US ECONOMY ENTERS TECHNICAL RECESSION AFTER GROWTH TUMBLES 0.9% IN THE SECOND QUARTER
The legislation doesn’t explicitly guarantee that Americans making under $400,000 won’t see tax increases under the IRS provision. The bill states that it is not “intended” to increase rates for taxpayers who aren’t in the top 1% of earners.
“There is language in this bill that provides some guidelines, but it’s not at all a guarantee,” William McBride, the vice president of federal tax and economic policy at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, told FOX Business in an interview. “It indicates that the intent of the increased spending is not to target those earning less than $400,000. But intent is a somewhat squishy word.”
Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were the lead architects of the Inflation Reduction Act which passed the Senate on Sunday. (F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“The fact of the matter is most returns report income under $100,000,” he continued. “That’s where the money is, so to speak.”
McBride added that middle-class Americans aren’t able to afford the same resources as wealthy individuals to avoid scrutiny.
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“There are certainly more resources as you go up the income scale, or more expertise, and the IRS knows it,” he told FOX Business.
“They will need to increase the audit rates on middle-class and low-income folks to get the sort of revenues they’re claiming from this,” McBride said. “People who don’t have the resources get a letter in the mail from the IRS threatening them – what are they going to do? It might be an increase of a few bucks, a few hundred bucks that the IRS is requesting. Rather than go out and try to get a lawyer to fight it, they generally pay it.”
The White House referred FOX Business back to Rettig’s comments.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Attorney General Merrick Garland to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” warning of an oversight probe “when” Republicans take back the chamber in the midterm elections.
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” said McCarthy.
Trump is also set to meet Tuesday with about a dozen members of the House Republican Study Committee, led by Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a person familiar with their plans, providing a timely opportunity for the former president to rally members to his side after the FBI search.
A July CNN poll found that a majority of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters do not want Trump to be their party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential election. But the former president is still powerful within the party; Republican candidates across the country have sought his endorsement from him in their 2022 primaries, and on Saturday, Trump overwhelmingly won an unofficial straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas.
Rallying around Trump, many Republicans, including Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, attacked Democrats instead after news of the FBI search, with some saying that Biden himself must be investigated.
“There must be an immediate investigation and accountability into Joe Biden and his Administration’s weaponizing this department against their political opponents — the likely 2024 Republican candidate for President of the United States,” said New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of House GOP leadership.
Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, requested an “immediate briefing” from FBI Director Christopher Wray, saying the agency’s action was “unprecedented” and that he was “unaware of any actual or alleged national security threat” posed by materials in Trump’s possession.
Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, a potential 2024 contender, criticized Biden, saying that he “has taken our republic into dangerous waters” and called for Garland to either resign or be impeached.
“At a minimum, Garland must resign or be impeached. The search warrant must be published. Christoper Wray must be removed. And the FBI reformed top to bottom,” Hawley tweeted.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called on Garland to provide a “full accounting” of the FBI search.
“I share the deep concern of millions of Americans over the unprecedented search of the personal residence of President Trump,” Pence tweeted.
“Yesterday’s action undermines public confidence in our system of justice and Attorney General Garland must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken, and he must do so immediately,” he said.
Democrats responded that no one is above the law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on NBC’s Today show that she first learned of the FBI’s search when it “flashed” on her phone, and repeatedly said she only knows what is public.
“We believe in the rule of the law,” Pelosi added.
And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the chair of the House Oversight Committee investigating Trump’s handling of documents, called on the Justice Department to “fully investigate” the former president’s handling of information.
“Presidents have a solemn duty to protect America’s national security, and allegations that former President Trump put our security at risk by mishandling classified information warrant the utmost scrutiny,” said the New York Democrat. “Although details of today’s actions at Mar-a-Lago are still emerging, it is clear that the Department of Justice must fully investigate President Trump’s potentially serious mishandling of classified information.”
Some top Republicans did not attack the Justice Department immediately after the search. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office declined to comment.
But many others cried foul about the Justice Department taking action against Trump, a former and presumed future rival of President Joe Biden.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “President Trump is likely going to run again in 2024,” and noted the midterm elections are in less than 100 days away. “Launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic.”
The FBI search also quickly became a talking point in the Florida gubernatorial race. Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican rival to Trump, tweeted, “The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents,” referring to the Biden administration.
Florida Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, shot back, “Governor DeSantis’s knee-jerk partisan response to this law enforcement action proves yet again he is more interested in playing politics than seeking justice or the rule of law.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Rebekah Metzler, Zachary Cohen and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
Republican lawmakers and officials accused the Biden administration on Monday night of weaponizing the Justice Department for political ends after former President Donald Trump revealed that the FBI had searched his Florida home.
Allies were quick to back Trump’s claim that the unprecedented search for a former president’s home was politically motivated, with some vowing to take action on Capitol Hill.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said the Justice Department had reached “an intolerable state of weaponized politicization” and vowed that Republicans would conduct oversight of the department if they win back the chamber in the November midterm elections.
“Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” McCarthy said in a statement.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who leads the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, tweeted that the search was part of a history of the Biden administration’s “going after” its political opponents, without providing any supporting details. Scott also demanded answers about the FBI’s actions, insisting that the bureau “must explain what they were doing today & why.”
A source familiar with the matter said the search was tied to classified documents Trump is alleged to have taken with him from the White House to his Palm Beach resort in January 2021.
A separate source said it is the Trump team’s understanding that the investigation is related to the transfer of documents from the White House to Mar-a-Lago and that agents seized several boxes of documents.
The Republican National Committee’s chair, Ronna McDaniel, suggested the FBI activity was a partisan attack.
“Countless times we have examples of Democrats flouting the law and abusing power with no recourse,” McDaniel said in a statement, suggesting the only way to stop Democrats “is to elect Republicans in November.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump pressured to help carry out his plan to overturn the 2020 election, also slammed the Justice Department.
“No former president of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history,” he tweeted Tuesday. “After years where FBI agents were found to be acting on political motivation during our administration, the appearance of continued partisanship by the Justice Department must be addressed.”
“Yesterday’s action undermines public confidence in our system of justice and Attorney General Garland must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken and he must do so immediately,” he wrote.
Other Republicans raised concerns about the potential electoral implications, both in November and in 2024.
“We’re 100 days away from midterm elections. President Trump is likely going to run again in 2024. No one is above the law. The law must be above politics,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted. “However, launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic.”
Republicans who are considered potential White House contenders in 2024 also weighed in.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested the search was “another escalation” in an effort to wield political power against the administration’s adversaries, “while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem also referred to the search as an example of the “unprecedented political weaponization” of the Justice Department, adding that investigations into Trump by the agency over the years were “un-American.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment on the FBI search, and the White House said it was not given a heads up.
“We did not have notice of the reported action and would refer you to the Justice Department for any additional information,” a White House official said.
Zoë Richards is the evening politics reporter for NBC News.
