GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on Sunday expressed support for FBI Director Christopher Wray, just one day after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Kash Patel to lead the agency as Wray’s replacement.
After Watergate, FBI directors have typically served 10-year terms to deter the bureau from being seen as a political tool for the president. Wray was previously nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2017, so Trump would need to fire Wray or Wray would have to voluntarily step down before 2027 for Patel to take over.
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“Chris Wray, who the president nominated the first time around — I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds said during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”
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“When we meet with him behind closed doors, I’ve had no objections to the way that he’s handled himself, and so I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now,” Rounds added about Wray.
Still, Rounds said that he would evaluate Patel and Trump’s other Cabinet nominees fairly during the Senate’s “advise and consent” process. Patel will have to be confirmed by a majority vote of the full Senate after he is formally nominated, something that cannot happen until after Trump is inaugurated in January.
“The president has the right to make nominations, but normally, these are for a 10-year term,” Rounds said. “If he does [nominate Patel], just as with anybody who is nominated for one of these positions, once they’ve been nominated by the president, then the president gets, you know, the benefit of the doubt on the nomination, but we still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent.”
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Rounds' colleague Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, didn't share Rounds' concerns, saying Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation" that he expects Patel to be confirmed.
"Listen, I think Kash Patel is a very strong nominee. I think the entire slate of Cabinet nominees President Trump has put forward is very strong," Cruz said. "I believe every one of these Cabinet nominees is going to be confirmed by the Senate. I think Kash Patel is going to be confirmed by the Senate."
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is in line to chair the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, came out forcefully against Wray's tenure as FBI director Sunday morning but stopped short of endorsing Patel's nomination, writing on X that Wray "failed at [the] fundamental duties" of his position atop the FBI and that it's time to "chart a new course [for] transparency and accountability at FBI."
"Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform &restore public trust in FBI," Grassley added.
Representatives for the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Rounds’ remarks.
Earlier Sunday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to share his thoughts about Patel but told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that “we, the Biden administration, adhere to the long-standing norm that FBI directors serve out their full terms, because the FBI director is a unique player in the American government system. They’re appointed for 10-year terms, not terms just for the duration of a given president.”
Sullivan noted that Biden allowed Wray to serve throughout his administration, even though he was a Trump appointee.
“The current FBI director, Chris Wray, was actually appointed by Donald Trump. Joe Biden didn’t fire him. He relied upon him to execute his responsibilities as the director of the FBI and allowed him to serve out the fullness of his term,” Sullivan added.
In a statement Sunday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., echoed Sullivan's concerns, saying, "We already have a FBI Director, Christopher Wray, and his term does not expire until 2027."
Durbin went on to blast Trump, saying, "President-elect Trump knows this, because he nominated Director Wray in 2017 after he fired the previous Director, James Comey, another lifelong Republican who failed Trump’s loyalty test. President Biden kept Director Wray in office because the FBI is supposed to be insulated from partisanship."
He also called on the Senate to vote against confirming Patel, saying in the statement, "Now, the President-elect wants to replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist. The Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised.”
Fiona Glisson contributed.
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