'It's called reciprocity': GOP leaders, pundits urge party to fight back against Democrat lawfare

Following 2024 GOP presumptive candidate Donald Trump’s conviction in the New York City falsified business records case brought forth by Democrat DA Alvin Bragg, as well as the other cases brought by Biden's own DOJ, Republican leaders and pundits have urged that the party return fire on Democrats who have waged lawfare against Trump.

Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec said Monday, "To beat this system is to take action and take power. All of these types, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, these are the ones who can, should, and hopefully will be behind bars when we win, because the name of the game, folks, is reciprocity. It's called reciprocity. It's called that which is done to us will be done back to you 10 times. And you know what they say about payback."

Speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters the night following the verdict, America First legal founder and former Trump advisor Stephen Miller urged Republicans to "unshackle themselves from their self-imposed restraints and are as ruthless in fighting to save America as the Democrats are fighting to destroy America."

Miller asked whether Republican secretaries of state were "purging your voting rolls of noncitizens right now? Is every Republican state AG opening investigations into voter fraud right now? Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? Is every Republican DA starting every investigation they need to right now?"

"Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe to toe with Marxism and beat these communists."

In a message to the New York Times, former Trump chief strategist and War Room host Steve Bannon said "There are dozens of ambitious backbencher state attorneys general and district attorneys who need to ‘seize the day’ and own this moment in history."

"The Republican attorneys general in Georgia and Florida and the county attorney in Maricopa County, Ariz., need to open investigations" into the prosecutors and investigators in the cases against Trump and his allies, former top Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer Mike Davis said. "Then on Day 1, when he wins, President Trump needs to open a criminal civil rights investigation."

Noting a clip of Biden pausing and smiling when asked whether Trump was a political prisoner, Senator Marco Rubio, who is under consideration for Trump’s vice presidential pick, said it’s time to "fight fire with fire," using the fire emoji to denote the word fire.

University of California, Berkeley, law professor John C Yoo wrote in a piece for the National Review, "In order to prevent the case against Trump from assuming a permanent place in the American political system, Republicans will have to bring charges against Democratic officers, even presidents."

He later added, "Only retaliation in kind can produce the deterrence necessary to enforce a political version of mutual assured destruction; without the threat of prosecution of their own leaders, Democrats will continue to charge future Republican presidents without restraint."

In the wake of the verdict, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan summoned Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, a former top-ranking official in President Biden's DOJ and prosecutor in the Trump case, to testify before the committee. Jordan said the two engaged in "politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials, in particular the recent political prosecution of President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office."

A group of eight GOP Senators vowed in the wake of the verdict not to cooperate with Democrats in the chamber. 

"The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart. To that end, we will not 1) allow any increase to non-security related funding for this administration, or any appropriations bill which funds partisan lawfare; 2) vote to confirm this administration's political and judicial appointees; and 3) allow expedited consideration and passage of Democrat legislation or authorities that are not directly relevant to the safety of the American people," they wrote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson urged the Supreme Court to step in regarding the Trump ruling, and Trump himself has said that he will appeal the verdict.