When news broke on Wednesday that FBI Director Christopher Wray intends to resign before Donald Trump takes over in January, the cast of CNN News Central was distressed. Rather than claiming that everything that led up to Trump’s intention to fire Wray, the cast claimed the idea that Wray would need to resign before Trump takes office was what was a sign of the Bureau’s “politicization.”
Senior justice correspondent Evan Perez reported that not everyone inside the Bureau was thrilled with Wray’s decision, and judging by his reaction, Perez agreed with them, “There also was pushback from people inside this building, also from people at the FBI, which is not normalizing what Donald Trump is doing, which is to just habitually replace FBI directors that he doesn't like. These people are supposed to serve ten-year terms for a reason, to try to remove them from the influence of politics, and here, Donald Trump is now about to have his second FBI director, in this case with Christopher Wray pushing him out ahead of the time that he takes office.”
The 10-year term is clearly at odds with the idea of separation of powers. The only reason the courts haven’t nuked it yet is precisely because the president can fire the director any time he wants.
As it was, co-host Brianna Keilar agreed, “Yeah, it's a real politicization of the FBI, even as people argue, ‘Oh, it's been politicized. So there needs to be change.’ It's sort of this wheel in a way that keeps going on this issue, Evan. I wonder if you have a sense of how people working inside the FBI are feeling about this and the effect that this may have internally on those folks who are doing this work day in and day out."
After Perez recalled how Wray is popular inside the FBI, he added, “That has obviously not worked out that well for, especially among Republicans who have been very critical of a number of things, including, of course, investigations of Donald Trump. The Mar-a-Lago search is something that Donald Trump himself raised in his interview over the weekend with NBC.”
Moving on to Wray’s likely replacement, Perez continued:
So, there's a lot of concern because you have heard from Kash Patel, who is the incoming president's pick to run the FBI next. You've heard that they're planning to try to, they want to go after the former president—the president's political enemies. And so inside the FBI, there's a lot of concern that the bureau is going to be turned essentially to go after Trump's enemies and take its eye off the ball on things that are actually a threat to this country, including, of course, the threat from China, from Russia, from Iran, the national security threats, terrorism, all of those things that really are the bread and butter and the vast majority of what the FBI does.
Keilar casually dismissed the “it’s been politicized” claims, but that view doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. The entire argument, which has been backed by a special councel, for Patel is that the FBI, as currently constituted, seems more interested in going after Trump than all those real threats Perez listed. At the same time, incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has recently deplored Wray's tenure, not just about the Mar-a-Lago raid that Perez mentioned, but non-partisan matters like the FBI's "ongoing mishandling of sexual harassment claims made by the FBI’s female employees."
Here is a transcript for the December 11 show:
CNN News Central
12/11/2024
2:10 PM ET
EVAN PEREZ: But there also was pushback from people inside this building, also from people at the FBI, which is not normalizing what Donald Trump is doing, which is to just habitually replace FBI directors that he doesn't like. These people are supposed to serve ten-year terms for a reason, to try to remove them from the influence of politics, and here, Donald Trump is now about to have his second FBI director, in this case with Christopher Wray pushing him out ahead of the time that he takes office.
So at this hour, we know that the FBI director is talking to FBI employees. He wanted to make sure they heard the news from him, while he also tries to make it clear that he plans to get out of the way before the new president takes over. Boris?
BRIANNA KEILAR: Yeah, it's a real politicization of the FBI, even as people argue, “Oh, it's been politicized. So there needs to be change.” It's sort of this wheel in a way that keeps going on this issue, Evan. I wonder if you have a sense of how people working inside the FBI are feeling about this and the effect that this may have internally on those folks who are doing this work day in and day out.
PEREZ: There's a lot of concern inside the FBI. Look, Chris Wray is actually pretty popular inside the Bureau because, you know, one of the things he has done is he has tried to lower the temperature for the FBI. There's a lot of criticism from the previous leadership of the FBI, James Comey, and the way, how he handled the office, especially when Donald Trump first took office in the first term.
So, inside the FBI, Chris Wray has been seen actually as a very thoughtful, as a very quiet leader, someone who is trying to restore the reputation of the FBI. That has obviously not worked out that well for, especially among Republicans who have been very critical of a number of things, including, of course, investigations of Donald Trump. The Mar-a-Lago search is something that Donald Trump himself raised in his interview over the weekend with NBC.
So, there's a lot of concern because you have heard from Kash Patel, who is the incoming president's pick to run the FBI next. You've heard that they're planning to try to, they want to go after the former president— the president's political enemies. And so inside the FBI, there's a lot of concern that the bureau is going to be turned essentially to go after Trump's enemies and take its eye off the ball on things that are actually a threat to this country, including, of course, the threat from China, from Russia, from Iran, the national security threats, terrorism, all of those things that really are the bread and butter and the vast majority of what the FBI does.
