Objections Greet Trump's FBI Pick

Bipartisan opposition emerged Sunday to President-elect Trump's selection of Kash Patel, a fierce and persistent critic of the FBI who has promised to go after political opponents, to be its director. Democrats and Republicans also expressed concern about removing Christopher Wray from his position to make room for Patel, who lacks the relevant experience previous directors have brought to the job. Still, there are Trump supporters who said they expect the Senate to confirm Patel's nomination, CBS News reports. Reaction came from:

• Sen. Dick Durbin: "We already have a FBI director," the Democrat said, adding, "The Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised."
• John Bolton: Once Trump's national security adviser and Patel's boss, Bolton brought up Joseph Stalin's secret police chief. "Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrentiy Beria," he said, per the Hill, adding, "The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0."

• Sen. Mike Rounds: "I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term," the Republican said. That would be Wray. "I don't have any complaints about the way that he's done his job," Rounds added.
• Sen. Bill Hagerty: The Republican said Patel "represents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI," per the AP. "The entire agency needs to be cleaned out."
• Jake Sullivan: While not expressing a position on the nomination, the White House national security adviser said the job should be insulated from politics. "What makes the FBI director different from most other nominees is they're not just appointed for one term of a president, they're appointed for enough time to last past two terms of a president, because they're supposed to be insulated from politics," Sullivan told CNN.
• Sen. Chuck Grassley: The incoming Judiciary Committee chairman posted that Wray has failed in the job. Still, the Republican said, Patel "must prove to Congress" that he will do better.
• Sen. Ted Cruz: "All of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all of the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI," the Republican said, per the New York Times.
• Karl Schmae: The former FBI agent called it "a sad day for all the men and women working at the FBI and ultimately for all of us."
• The FBI: "Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats," the agency told CNN in a statement. "Director Wray's focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for."

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