GOP backs Trump, escalates dark rhetoric after FBI search

By LISA MASCARO
AP Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress are not only defending Donald Trump against the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home. They’re also capitalizing on it politically with grave and potentially dangerous rhetoric against the nation’s justice system. The Republicans are stirring up opposition to the FBI and tapping into political grievances and far-right conspiracies that fed the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. For the party that once stood staunchly for law-and-order, it’s a dramatic reversal. It’s all part of an election year strategy to harness voter outrage over the unprecedented search and win Republican control of the House in the midterm elections.