President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday morning via Twitter over news that his attorney Michael Cohen’s office and home was raided by federal agents. Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker breaks down whether Trump’s complaints have merit. (April 10) AP
Each week, USA TODAY’s OnPolitics blog takes a look at how media from the left and the right reacted to a political news story, giving liberals and conservatives a peek into the other’s media bubble.
This week, commentators reacted to the stunning news that FBI agents raided the office of President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
Some conservatives reacted to the news as an attack on Trump and the rule of law, declaring it proof that special counsel Robert Mueller is out to get the president. Others were less concerned about the legality of the move than the risk that the investigation, like the Monica Lewinsky scandal, will shift from its primary focus to a crime related to a personal affair.
Many liberal commentators, on the other hand, saw the raid as an affirmation of Mueller’s commitment to focus on Russian meddling because he referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Others argued the FBI’s action spells imminent doom for Trump.
Conservative bubble: Mueller has ‘declared war against the president of the United States’
“It is clear, as I have been warning, Mueller is out to get the president and it appears at any cost,” said visibly agitated Fox News host Sean Hannity after the raid.
Mueller has effectively “declared war against the president of the United States,” Hannity said. “Clearly, his objective is to remove him from office. Now, I told you and I’ve told anyone who will listen: Mueller’s team is corrupt, starting with him, and it has been from the beginning.”
The raid was also evidence of a double standard within a “two-tiered” American justice system because Hillary Clinton’s lawyers never had their offices raided during the investigation into her use of a personal email server. “We don’t have equal justice under the law,” he said.
Liberal bubble: Trump the real target of the raid
Trump was “very worked up” after the news of the raid on Cohen’s office broke, wrote Heather Digby Parton in Salon. And while it “wasn’t the first time we’ve seen this president deliver a petulant and angry denunciation of the Russia probe,” she said, “to do it as he sat around a table with the military brass, for a meeting called to decide how to respond to a chemical warfare attack, was stunningly narcissistic even for him.”
His reaction makes sense because investigators…
