Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner expressed bitterness on Thursday about President Donald Trump’s administration celebrating the capture of the man suspected of placing pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021.
Trump administration officials took credit for identifying the suspect, Brian Cole, at a Thursday press conference, asserting they simply used the same information former President Joe Biden’s administration had. Warner criticized the Trump administration on MS NOW’s “Katy Tur Reports” for not catching the suspect sooner, although the Biden administration did not nab him for four years.
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“I think it is good news if this perpetrator got arrested,” Warner said. “But I got to tell you, it kind of makes me — looking at this crowd, doing a victory lap when all the senior FBI officials across all key divisions have been fired for political purposes, when in some field offices up to 45% of the FBI officers who were doing things like counter-espionage and cyber have been assigned to do immigration cases — it’s a little rich that they’re saying that America’s safer.”
“How much earlier could we have caught this guy if resources hadn’t been diverted? And I hope it would also remind folks that on January 6th — I was here at the Capitol on January 6th — it was an ugly, awful day,” he continued. “And this administration and this president basically pardoned all the perpetrators. You know, it’s that kind of picking and choosing of facts from this crowd that makes me a little bit crazy.”
Cole was arrested on Thursday and charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said during a press conference. The arrest concluded a nearly five-year manhunt since the bombs were placed on Jan. 5, 2021, and were found the following day, preventing detonation.
“This cold case languished for four years until [Director Kash Patel] and [Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino] came to the FBI,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the press conference.
