Rep. Jim Jordan pushed out one of his “slippery slope” tweets this week using a longstanding (and justifiable) fear of government overreach to warn his constituents to be wary.
(Fear of government overreach has been a concern since the Republic was established: the Founders factored it into every element of the structure of the country, and its potential menace informs the most critical parts of The Constitution. It’s also a powerful political weapon.)
For many, however, Jordan’s most recent impugning of the FBI doesn’t merit the slippery slope danger signaling. The slippery slope argument essentially asserts that once a government takes away one right, it may then more easily proceed to take away the next one. Jordan employed the slippery slope model when he tweeted: “Remember, if the FBI can do it to a presidential candidate, they can do it to you too.”
The catch here is that the “it” which Jordan refers to is the alleged illegal possession, refusal to return, and insecure storage of top secret nuclear weapons documents and other sensitive materials by the former President of the United States Donald Trump. That is not something the FBI is going to come after “you” about, as the response below by former U.S. Attorney Renato Mariotti makes clear.
Remember, the FBI can seize the classified documents in your bathroom too. https://t.co/RAPMLZ4obT
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 21, 2023
To drive home the absurdity of Jordan’s comparison, Mariotti references the Mar-a-Lago “bathroom” where Mr. Trump allegedly stored some of the sensitive materials at issue.
The FBI “can seize the classified documents in your bathroom too,” Mariotti writes, the implication being that most Americans won’t lose much sleep over this threat.
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