During a Friday, November 15 appearance on CNN’s “The Lead” with host Jake Tapper, woke US Senator from Minnesota Amy Klobuchar had a bit of an on-air freak-out about President-elect Donald Trump’s reported pick for FBI Director, calling on him to leave current FBI director Christopher Wray, whom he appointed in 2017, in place.
As background, Trump has indicated that he might appoint Kash Patel as Director of the FBI. Patel is largely considered a Trump loyalist, and has indicated that he would use his position to go after those who the right thinks deserve it due to corruption or lawbreaking, something that the left has characterized as the weaponization of the FBI against Trump’s political enemies.
Introducing the matter, Tapper clutched his pearls about Patel, saying, “So Trump is also reportedly considering Kash Patel as FBI director. Patel worked in the Defense Department during Trump’s first term. He’s promised in the past to essentially go after Trump’s enemies, and including people in the media.”
Continuing, Tapper as Klobuchar if she has a take on the potential next FBI Director, noting that though the president-elect is yet to appoint him, he has been considered. He asked, “He has not been formally nominated, but it is definitely true that Trump is considering making him FBI director. Do you have a take on him?”
Klobuchar first referenced the take Bill Barr, the former AG, had on Patel, saying, “I don’t know him, but I’m concerned when I read that Bill Barr at the time when he was being considered for another position in Justice that Trump’s own former attorney general said over his dead body would he put this person in.”
Continuing, she called on Trump to keep around Swamp Creature Christopher Wray, saying, “What I would like to see happen, I would like to see Christopher Wray serve out his tenure. Let’s not forget, Christopher Wray was a Donald Trump appointee, and we have FBI directors terms for ten years so they overlap presidents, in this case, a Republican president, then a Democratic president, now we’re back with a Republican president.”
She added that she thinks Wray “enhanced morale” at the Bureau, ignoring that Trump likely will refuse to keep around Wray given the Mar-a-Lago raid. She said, “You know, that is my hope. Maybe that won’t happen, but I think that would be best for an agency that I believe that Christopher Wray has greatly enhanced morale in the FBI.”
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Klobuchar isn’t the only one to freak out about the potential that Patel will be the FBI Director. CNN guest Sara Murray said, commenting on the matter and getting a bit hysteric about what could happen, “Well, I think it’s alarming to people because they look at Kash Patel is really a Trump loyalist, someone who if Donald Trump does select him to run, the FBI would be the kind of person who can carry out retribution against Trump’s political enemies, can purge career civil servants can try to declassify sensitive information.”
Featured image credit: By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Director Wray Installation Ceremony, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63667604