Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., voiced his support for FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sunday, just a day after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate Kash Patel to lead the bureau as Wray’s replacement.
After Watergate, FBI directors typically served 10-year terms to avoid the bureau 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 have to fire Wray or Wray would have to voluntarily resign before 2027 for Patel to take over.
“Chris Wray, who the president nominated the first time — I think the president picked a very good man to be director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds said during an interview on ABC News. Week.”
“When we meet him behind closed doors, I have had no objections to the way he handles himself, and so I have no complaints about the way he is doing his job at the moment,” Rounds added of Wray.
Still, Rounds said he would give Patel and Trump’s other Cabinet nominees a fair review during the Senate’s “advise and consent” process. Patel will need to be confirmed by a majority 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 they are for a 10-year term,” Rounds said. “If he does [nominate Patel]as with anyone nominated for any of these positions, once nominated by the president, the president is given the benefit of the doubt on the nomination, but we still go through a process, and that process includes counseling and consent.”
Rounds’ colleague Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did not share Rounds’ concerns and said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he expects Patel to be confirmed.
“Listen, I think Kash Patel is a very strong candidate. I think the entire slate of Cabinet nominees that President Trump has put forward is very strong,” Cruz said. “I believe all of these Cabinet nominees will be confirmed by the Senate. I believe Kash Patel will be confirmed by the Senate.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is set to chair the Judiciary Committee in the next Congress, came out strongly against Wray’s tenure as FBI director on Sunday morning but did not endorse Patel’s nomination, writing on X that Wray ” failed [the] fundamental duties” of his position at the top of the FBI and that it is time to “chart a new course [for] transparency and accountability at the FBI.”
“Kash Patel must prove to Congress that he will reform and restore public trust in the FBI,” Grassley added.
Representatives of the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rounds’ comments.
Earlier Sunday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan declined to share his thoughts on Patel, but told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that “we, the Biden administration, are adhering to the long-standing standard that FBI directors serve their full terms of office. , because the FBI director is a unique player in the American government system. They are appointed for a term of ten years, and not just for the term of a particular president.”
Sullivan noted that Biden allowed Wray to serve during 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 on him to carry out his responsibilities as director of the FBI and allowed him to serve the full term of his term,” Sullivan added.
In a statement Sunday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., echoed Sullivan’s concerns, saying, “We already have an FBI director, Christopher Wray, and his term doesn’t end until 2027 .”
Durbin went on to blast Trump, saying, “President-elect Trump knows this because he nominated Director Wray in 2017 after firing 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 Patel’s nomination, saying in the statement: “Now the president-elect wants to replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist. The Senate must reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retaliation that Donald Trump has promised.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
