Fox News host says Trump should tell supporters to tamp down ‘violent rhetoric’ against FBI

Fox News host Steve Doocy has said that former President Donald Trump should tell his supporters to “tamp down the rhetoric” against the FBI as the agency and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint bulletin outlining the spike in threats to law enforcement following the search of Mar-a-Lago.

“We just know there are a lot of very specific threats against very specific agents at the FBI and what not,” Mr Doocy said on Monday. “It would be great if everybody would tamp down the rhetoric against the FBI, because the FBI was simply doing what the DOJ asked them to do.”

Both the FBI and the Department of Justice (DoJ) have shared their concerns regarding the likelihood of attacks being mounted against law enforcement officials and institutions.

A 42-year-old man was recently shot and killed by police after he attempted to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“With all of these threats going around it would ultimately be great if the former president, who has always been a great supporter of law enforcement, it would be great if he called for an end to the violent rhetoric against federal law enforcement,” Mr Doocy added on the Fox & Friends morning programme. Mr Trump has been reported to be a longtime viewer of the show.

The search at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s home and private club, was conducted in connection to the investigation into classified documents being improperly taken from the White House at the end of Mr Trump’s term in office.

Mr Trump and his allies, including some hosts at Fox News, have been blasting the FBI and DoJ, arguing that the agencies have been weaponised by the Democrats.

Attorney General Merrick Garland defended law enforcement officials on Thursday during a press conference when he also announced that the DoJ would move to unseal the search warrant, which was released on Friday.

“The men and women of the FBI and the Justice Department are dedicated, patriotic public servants,” Mr Garland said.

The attorney general said he wouldn’t “stand by” as law enforcement officials were unduly attacked.

Mr Doocy said the FBI agents who searched Mr Trump’s Palm Beach residence “were just doing their job”.

“But … for you to look at this situation and think that Democrats and Republicans have been treated the same over the last few years, you’d have to be looking at a different situation,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said.

“No one is for the violence of FBI agents or any of these individuals,” Ainsley Earnhardt added.

Mr Doocy said that “Garland is the one who has staked his entire reputation on it”.

“If there’s not something really big there, he is done,” Mr Doocy said of the attorney general.

Mr Trump warned that “terrible things are going to happen” as he faces the blame for the violence and threats directed at FBI agents.

“The country is in a very dangerous position. There is tremendous anger, like I’ve never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one, years of scams and witch hunts, and now this,” Mr Trump told Fox News Digital.

The former president told the outlet that he “will do whatever” he can “to help the country”, adding that the “temperature has to be brought down”.

Mr Trump said that Americans are “not going to stand for another scam” as the unsealed search warrant revealed that he’s being investigated for obstruction of justice and possible violations of the Espionage Act, as well as other offences.

The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Mr Trump’s Florida residence and private club.

Some of the documents were marked as top secret, with some of the documents only meant to be viewed in a secure government facility. Mr Trump has claimed that the documents had been declassified.

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Mr Trump said that his aides had contacted the Department of Justice to inquire if the former commander-in-chief could be of any help as supporters of the former president shared their fury at the search.

In a statement, the FBI said that it’s “always concerned about violence and threats of violence to law enforcement, including the men and women of the FBI. We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to such threats, which are reprehensible and dangerous. As always, we would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately”.

DHS and the FBI warned of increased threat levels in their bulletin to law enforcement agents issued after the raid on Mar-a-Lago.

“The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and, to a lesser extent, other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida,” the bulletin states. “These threats are occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms, including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms, and image boards. The FBI and DHS would like to ensure that law enforcement, court, and government personnel are aware of the range of threats and criminal and violent incidents.”

“The FBI and DHS have observed an increase in violent threats posted on social media against federal officials and facilities, including a threat to place a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters and issuing general calls for ‘civil war’ and ‘armed rebellion’,” the agencies said.

The memo states that the threats are “specific in identifying proposed targets, tactics, or weaponry”.

“Since 8 August 2022, the FBI and DHS have identified multiple articulated threats and calls for the targeted killing of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials associated with the Palm Beach search, including the federal judge who approved the Palm Beach search warrant,” the agencies said. “The FBI and DHS have also observed the personal identifying information of possible targets of violence, such as home addresses and identification of family members, disseminated online as additional targets.”