Republican House candidate Joe Kent told Newsmax that Attorney General Merrick Garland should be impeached as a result of the FBI raid on the estate of former President Donald Trump.
He made his comments Friday during an interview on "National Report."
"We need an intelligence community to protect American citizens, but right now our intelligence community and our national security state has been weaponized by the Democrats and that has to end, even if we have to go after people like Merrick Garland," the Washington candidate said. "We should go after him. We should impeach him and, if necessary, put criminal charges against him.
"We need to use the appropriations process and offensively use the tools of withholding the budget against the FBI, and the DOJ and the national security state in general."
He also called for reforms to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
"Let's put some of our people on it and let's lay out all the facts to the American people," Kent said. "What was the federal government's involvement in Jan. 6?"
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., one of two Republican members of Washington's congressional delegation who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, conceded her reelection bid after being overtaken in late vote tallies by Kent, who was endorsed by Trump, The Associated Press noted.
Under Washington's primary system, the top two candidates in each Aug. 2 race advance to the November election, regardless of party, according to the AP. Washington is a vote-by-mail state, and voters do not have to declare a party affiliation.
Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez advanced to the November ballot as she was the top vote-getter after the Aug. 2 primary.
Kent said: "I took out one of the impeachment voters who also voted for the Jan. 6 commission. A lot of these Jan. 6 narratives about these Trump supporters are dangerous insurrectionists and that we need to turn the national security state against them, really starts with this Jan. 6 commission.
"I'm really alarmed by the overreach of the national security state and this has to be something we'll take on in January 2023.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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