Acknowledging Republican concerns about the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump's lavish Mar-a-Lago resort last week, Pence warned the GOP to steer clear of calling to defund the FBI or taking their ire over the raid too far.
"Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal, state, and local levels. These attacks on the FBI must stop," Pence declared at a forum in New Hampshire Wednesday. "Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund the police."
Since the FBI executed a search and seizure operation at Mar-a-Lago last week in search of classified material believed to have been stashed at the lavish Palm Beach resort, a number of Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) have called to defund the FBI.
Pence insisted he was "deeply troubled" and shares the same concerns conservatives across the country have with the raid. Last week, he called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to be transparent in a series of tweets.
The former vice president acknowledged that Garland has since delivered public remarks on the raid but insisted that Garland still has more explaining to do. Pence declared that "unprecedented actions demand unprecedented transparency" and implored Garland to do a better job explaining why the raid was necessary.
"While he's begun to do so, not nearly enough information is being provided," Pence said. "Never before in American history has the personal residence of a former president been subject to a search warrant."
The FBI raid gives the appearance of politics playing a role in key Department of Justice decisions, which creates the need for greater transparency so the public can understand what happened, Pence added.
"It is fairly well-known that President Trump and I had our differences," Pence added, alluding to the fissure between the pair amid the Capitol riot. "But after years during our administration that saw the politicization of the FBI, where, during the tenure of director Comey, it was revealed that FBI agents were promoting political agendas in their official capacities, I was deeply troubled that a search warrant had been executed at the residence of a former president."
Last Monday, plainclothes FBI agents retrieved roughly 20 boxes of material during their search of Mar-a-Lago, including a number of items marked "secret," "top secret," and "confidential," according to a search warrant in the case unsealed last week.
Trump has decried the raid as "dark times for our nation" and maintained that he declassified material stashed at the resort, denying allegations of wrongdoing.
Pence's remarks came during an appearance at a Politics & Eggs event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics located at Saint Anselm College. His appearance was the first in a string of campaign-like stops in the Granite State as speculation about his 2024 presidential aspirations mounts.
He is also slated to head to Iowa Friday to stump for incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is running for an eighth term in the Senate.
