chris wray is a popular director. so that was the calculus. guess because the argument on the other side is wray could have made donald trump fire him to underscore that this is a norm shattering moment. that this is the second fbi director that donald trump has pushed out before serving the ten-year term, undermining the whole idea of a ten-year term that's supposed to be independent of politics. but that was not the way chris wray decided to do it. it was a tough decision for him. he's got plenty of money. he doesn't need to go back into private practice. he was enjoying himself. at the same time, he spent years trying to keep the bureau out of partisan politics, but during the biden administration when the trump investigation surfaced, there was no way to do that. and chris wray approved the search of mar-a-lago and donald trump never forgot that and brought it up in the interview with kristen welker over th weekend. he just could not live with chris wray as his fbi director. >> ken, thank you so much. frank, back to you in a second, but i

of the current administration in january, and then step down that announcement by fbi director chris wray, before a room full of fbi employees this afternoon was really an acknowledgment of the reality that was facing him. >> trump had already announced the person he wanted to replace wray with kash patel, even though i should note he hand-picked wray to lead the agency just seven years ago after he fired the last fbi director, james comey. you'll remember that seven years ago, not far from where i'm sitting tonight, wray was confirmed with a total of 92 votes in the senate, the only five votes that you see there against him. the no votes for his nomination. those were all democrats. that means every single republican who was present voted for him. but that was 2017. and of course, this is now and this was trump when he selected wray initially in 2017. compared to trump's view of him just a few days ago. >> i believe that we will have a great fbi director. i think he's doing really well and we're very proud of that choice. i think i've done a great service to the country by choosing him.

what chris wray is saying today is we don't need that to happen. i'll get out before he fires me. >> are you hearing anything from your former colleagues, from the rank and file? >> i am, look, with regards to headquarters which kash patel claims that he was going to shut down on day one, people are starting to leave. this week alone, two assistant directors decided to retire. they were eligible for retirement but they weren't mandatory. they didn't have the age yet. i think more of that is coming. with regard to the field, the concern i'm hearing is that look, we get there's going to be massive change at headquarters but the mormon it affects our decisions in the field in terms of what we can open and close and who we can investigate, i've heard questions being asked, are we going to be allowed to open up a corruption case against a republican mayor or governor, or russia, it appears that trump is friendly with putin. all of these are concerns. and combine that with the fact that all you s attorneys, the chief prosecutors in each district that wor

and he took aurora of donald trump as president to shield chris wray from the end of a firing squadl members tried to avoid. wray was agonizing the last several days about doing this, nicolle, because he decided not to tempt what he fully expects will happen on the part of donald trump, which is a very public and unpleasant firing. the odds of that not happening were increasingly small to the point of being decimal. >> to what end though, carol leonnig? why not stand there and defend the work as opposed to leaving like it looks like the workforce did something wrong? >> reporter: wray's comments today were he didn't want to drag the bureau into the fray, a political war, and there would be another numerous set of headlines about the firing of chris wray but i put this in the context of how hard chris wray try to avoid being fired the first time around with donald trump and that is a painful experience to go through. many secretaries at the time told me one of their great feelings of success was not to have been fired by tweet as secretary of state was, to not have to face that publi

i think they have respect for chris wray.y wish he was out there more pounding on the podium talking about the great work in the fbi but i think chris wray chose the route of keeping his head down to do the work of the bureau. the greatest uncertainty is whether or not this will impact the field. i believe it is. field offices say it's a different dichotomy between headquarters in the field response. if this starts impacting us we will get really loud. if someone tells us the cases we cannot cannot open, if we cannot open counter intel cases against russians anymore, then there will be a loud cry from the field. at headquarters people are generally looking to get out. two assistant directors this week announced their retirement. they were not mandatory but they are going. eligible, but not mandatory. more will follow. >> we will be following all of it. frank figliuzzi, thank you. andrew stays. >>> tonight, reports about lawmakers who thought assassinations and are brought back to the capitol as guests. >>> and we have a speci

chris wray knew it.the end of the day, he decided the best course was to resign, instead of forcing donald trump to fire him. many people believe that would have been a way to underscore what a norm shattering moment this was, the second fbi director donald trump is pushing out before having ved a full ten year term. he thought it would be dramatic for the bureau, and thought the best course was to leave quietly. >> wray had three years left in his term. fbi terms are ten years. they're not beholden to the president who happens to be in the oval office. decisions are supposed to transcend politics, span administrations. this is the second time in a row with donald trump. is this setting a bad precedent? >> i think the ten-year term is now over. that was a post watergate reform, meant to do what you said, take the fbi out of politics, not make it like a cabinet officer that changes every four years or eight years. that's now essentially done, a dead letter, if you essentially fire any fbi director if you

chris wray has never sold wine with his name on it. kash patel, he is a grifter, first and foremost and will be leading the fbi in trump's name. whether or not he really believes all the deep state garbage he is putting out there, it does not matter. he is doing it because trump believes it and he wants to stay on his good side. >> what does this say about other positions that have terms that go beyond a presidency, something like the fed chair. that seat is not up for another year. could he face a ton of public pressure like christopher wray did and get pushed to step down? he has already said, no, i will not. but things can be changing. >> it is fascinating to look at how jay powell has approached this. he is taking the position that he is going to fight this. and the president-elect does not have the right or ability to remove him. we have seen in recent days something of a cooling-off, like in that interview with kristen welker. something donald trump has said over and over is that it is well within his right to weigh in on matters

i mean, donald trump wants to get rid of chris wray, someone he appointed to the position because chris wray actually upheld the law. donald trump thinks that he's above the law. but if i took classified documents home to my house, i would expect the fbi to raid my home, too. that's the right thing for the fbi to do. trump thinks he's above the law, so he wants to get rid of his own nominee. >> do you have worries about the politicization of the department, brianna? >> that's exactly the word for it. trump wants to politicize the fbi, to turn it back to the days of j. edgar hoover, where the fbi has its own really lawless agenda, where the fbi is a tool of the state to persecute americans, not to actually uphold the law for everybody in our land. so it is very dangerous. and the calculation that chris wray made when he decided to to resign is a calculation that hundreds of thousands of federal employees are making right now, all across washington and all across the country. i've heard from a lot of friends who work for the federal government trying to decide, do they wait to get fired?

tonight trump has apparently announced his intention to fire chris wray, even though chris wray's term is not done until january 20th. what do you make of what is happening here? >> right, this is a saturday night announcement, i think that is an understatement. you are looking at chris wray, who was donald trump's own selection back in 2017, serves that 10 year term. we reported just earlier this month that chris wray was anticipating either being forced out through firing or resigning with the expectation that he would be fired by donald trump upon him taking office this january. and now, tonight, even before donald trump has publicly indicated whether he will fire chris wray or not, you can say preemptively made the announcement that he intends to install kash patel as the fbi director. let's be very clear. this is a staggering announcement, because of the political nature in which kash patel has aligned himself with donald trump over the years. he has pledged to go after the individuals who he says form up the deep state inside the fbi, the cia, the intelligence community, the depa

that is when chris wray was nominated and confirmed by the senate. he has been in that role now for several years typically, fbi directors serve out those ten year terms and are not at the whim of whichever president may be in power. joining us now, democratic congressman john garamendi of california. congressman, thanks so much for being here with us. i first just want to get your reaction to this breaking news. we're getting tonight it's very, very troublesome throughout the entire campaign, people said, oh, he's just talking that's just political rhetoric. >> as trump said, i am your retribution and the revenge agenda. >> and now we're seeing it play out, not just not only with this nominee for the fbi, but also for the military. >> you take a look at all of the appointments they are part of a strategy that the president has laid out to put in place his campaign promises, which is retribution to seek revenge on his political enemies. >> and in his own words. >> mr. patel has made it very, very clear what he thinks he will do to the press and he'll

chris wray rod rosenstein surveilled donald trump while he was president of the united states.us of our single greatest benefit in this country of freedom to vote. did you know where gina haspel in a broad roe sunstein work today quick gina haspel is a national street adviser to chris wray law firm and rod rosenstein is a main partner with sally yates. since they left the trump administration. do you think it's a coincidence that the architects of russia gave the greatest conspiracy ever perpetrated against the american people are making tens of millions of dollars together it goes beyond brennan and clapper. it goes beyond so many people occurred about from the trumpp administration. and the only way we are ever going to break that logjam as if we don't accept theirwe projection. they the radical left have told us we are the ones ones who hijack law enforcement agencies butt are we the ones who send lw enforcement into houses of worship wax are we the ones that told parents that you will be dictated the agenda for your children's education. that was them. but they did it in th

how far does he want to go on that topic to say he still likes chris wray?: there are a few senators. thom tillis of north carolina is another. the 2026 cycle could be the last calling we see of anyone not marching in maga lockstep . >> speaking of pardons because we were a few minutes ago -- >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> i want you to hear dr. jill biden at the christmas declaration event, the annual event she meets with the press and let's see what she had to say. >> of course i support the pardon of my son. >> i believe that is, of course, i support the pardon of my son. how emotional that was. we were discussing that moments ago with carol lee and several other colleagues. and pointing out with peter baker and carol lee just how emotionally fraught this decision was for the presidents. one thing that occurred to me was another possible future nominees, a man named to be the ambassador to france. and perhaps, you know, this takes one of the criticism democrats might hold against him. he was pardoned by trump, the father in law of ivanka trump. he has no interes

bureau and firing chris wray.mean, he's saying mean thin about chris wray as it is. less so. it's not as high profile. and so at the end of the day, chris wray decided that the better course was to agree to resign and clear the way for donald trump's achoice to be t next fbi director. >> yeah, i mean, when wray steps down on the 20th of january, who's going to be in charge of the fbi until a new director is confirmed? >> it's a great question. we are told that the current deputy, paul abbate, a counter terrorism expert will become the acting director on january 20th when christopher wray resigns. now, the thing about paul abate, he was instrumental in the decision to search donald trump's home in mar-a-lago. he's not going to like him any more than he likes christopher wray. to install a different acting director, he would have to comply with a federal law withat gives him very narrow choices.ow it would have to be somebody senate confirmed or a senior level in the fbi. he can't just put anybody he wants in to rep

he'll first have to fire the current director, chris wray, who was chosen by trump back in 2017, and whose term isn't up for more than two years. patel will face an especially contentious confirmation battle. patel is so controversial that when president trump talked about making him the deputy fbi director in 2020, then-attorney general bill barr, said it would happen, quote, over my dead body according to his memoir adding, quote, patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world's preeminent law enforcement agency. the very idea of moving patel into a role like this showed a shocking detachment from reality. again, that was bill barr objecting to patel becoming the deputy fbi director. now trump has announced his intention to make him the director. patel has served as both a public defender and a federal prosecutor. he also served on trump's national security council and in the office of the director of national intelligence. after the 2020 election, patel was dispatched to the pentagon. as i previously reported, he used his post a

donald trump, of course, fired james comey in 2017, and he appointed chris wray chris wray still had three more years left on that ten year term. but some of that consideration, i think, changed over the last few days. you started seeing republicans in congress. chuck grassley, for instance, sending a letter saying that he lacked confidence in chris wray and the fbi leadership. that is part of what you see, maybe changing the calculation here for the fbi director yeah. >> no doubt. evan, thank you so much. stand by for us, if you would. let's go to kristen holmes, who is live near mar-a-lago. what's the reaction like coming from inside of trump's circle? kristen? >> well, brianna and boris, we just got a statement from donald trump on truth social. moments ago, where he is essentially celebrating the resignation of christopher wray. unsurprisingly, he says the resignation of christopher wray is a great day for america as it will end the weaponization of what has become known as the united states department of injustice. obviously, we've heard him say this before. i just don't know wh

even donald trump who hired chris wray, chris wray is a republican, former justice department officialefore he got to the fbi, even donald trump has not had much bad to say about chris wray but he clearly has resented the fact that wray was overseeing the fbi at a time when the fbi was helping the special counsel pursue criminal charges against donald trump. wray, after all, had to sign off on that fbi search of trump's mar-a-lago home to retrieve those classified documents. trump hasn't explicitly called wray out for that. some other republicans have. they've accused the fbi, without evidence by the way, of being corrupt and being part of the deep state and acting politically. some republicans have, but, obviously, people like mike rounds, the senator, have not seen that and, in chris wray h been a typical fbi director, most of what the fbi does has nothing to do with politics. it's an law enforcement agency, intelligence agency. wray has gotten high marks from many employees for kind of, you know, sailing the ship through these choppy waters and one interesting question whether wray

who he wants to replace chris wray.ash patel is. >> reporter: kash patel is a former federal prosecutor and held mid level jobs in the first trump administration. he's the most vocal critic, maga articulator of the idea that the fbi has been politicized taken over by the deep steep and warped to go after donald trump. he's not saying anything about that right now. he had a terse response yesterday. take a listen. >> we look forward to a very smooth transition at the fbi. i'll be ready to go on day one. >> reporter: so it remains to be seen whether he can be confirmed. right now it doesn't look like there are many vocal opponents on the republican side to kash patel. >> ken dilanian, thank you for the latest. phillip, how do you see it? what does wray's resignation mean for the agency? >> i think it means a lot. it's an embarrassment for the congress this is happening. if we go back in history for just a moment, the idea of the fbi is that the fbi should be outside political turbulence. the fbi director position is so po

chris wray stepping down at the end of president biden's term as president elect. donald trump looks to replace him with a fierce loyalist. kash patel. and this hour, we'll share a cnn exclusive for the first time. one of the alleged victims of sean diddy combs is detailing his claims that the music mogul, drugged and sexually assaulted him. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room this is cnn breaking news. first up tonight, significant new developments in the murder investigation of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. police now say fingerprints and shell casings from the scene of the shooting all point toward the suspect. luigi mangione. let's bring in cnn's shimon prokupecz. he's in new york with details, shimon. we're also learning more about mangione. what losing contact with his family and his friends in the months leading up to the shooting? >> yeah. in the months and really, even the weeks just before the shooting and what we're learning from law enforcement sources, wolf, is tha

they were trying to make it clear to chris wray that it wasn't just donald trump who wanted him out, republicans had lost confidence in him. and so what you see in wray's remarks today at the at the fbi headquarters was a realization that they were going to start attacking the bureau, and he felt that this was the best way to get out of the way to make sure that that didn't happen. paula bart is the deputy director. he's a career agent. he takes over, but he's also planning to leave by april of next year. so trump will really have a chance to remake the bureau from the from the top when he takes office. >> tom dupree, you worked for the department of justice, which works closely with the fbi. i'm sure you know a lot of fbi agents and officials. how do you think fbi rank and file are feeling today? >> well, i think there's a lot of loyalty within the organization to their director. >> he served for about seven years, and you would expect he's forged a lot of personal relationships. so. and when you saw people crying at the announcement today. so clearly there are a lot of people who f

but it's no secret to anybody, including chris wray, that he is not going to continue to serve as the head of the fbi under donald trump. listen, if you look at james comey and chris wray, there has never been a period in our nation's history where the fbi has suffered a greater loss of respect where more americans doubt the fundamental integrity of the fbi. and it's because james comey and chris wray presided over allowing the fbi to become a partisan cudgel, to be used to target parents at school board meetings, to be used to target people who chose not to take the covid vaccine, to be used to target president trump and to target the political opponents of joe biden and the white house. it is tragic, that is not what the fbi is for. that is not what the doj is for. and i gotta say, pam bondi and kash patel together are a very strong slate of nominees to go and restore integrity to both institutions. >> how do you place that up against the prosecutions of bob menendez, a congressman, a democrat from texas, hunter biden? are those political prosecutions as well or not? >> well, first

trump wrote about chris wray, it will end the weaponization i just don't know what happened to him. -- my home caught cause. -- senator eric schmitt, you know i don't know what happened to christopher wray either, he was appointed by trump he is a republican yet he wreaked havoc and mar-a-lago invasion was the worst thing we have seen. okay? maybe back to bad old days when hoover was running fbi i don't know, my question -- let me ask you, so you are christopher wray and you are fbi director if the attorney general this is biden's man merrick garland, said to you, i want a dawn raid of mar-a-lago and go everywhere possible including into mrs. trump's p private belongings, does the fbi have to do it ifag says to do it? >> well they make their own determination of whether or not there is probable caw to move forward, fbi director worked with merrick garland, this is very coordinated and terrible abuse that began this lawfare that we saw play out over the course of two years. i think it also important to take a step back and remember what happened before that. on eve of 2020 election,

he stuck his comments to chris wray, talking what a good job he is doing.y still has three years left on his term. it's very clear he is not going to remain in that position because trump wants to bring somebody in who will dismantle, disrupt, perhaps destroy as kash patel vowed to do the fbi, the main investigative arm of the department of justice. of course, kash patel will not have a smooth path to confirmation. there will be a lot of questions, a lot of concerns. of course, right now, this building is empty. so senate republicans aren't faced with us, with reporters peppering them with questions. they will have questions for kash patel. his record, his background. he is somebody who served for trump during his first term. he served in the house as well, not as a member but as an aide to a house intelligence member, a top who is an ally of president-elect trump. there's a record to look at. for this moment, we have yet to hear any republican say that this is anything but a good pick from trump. listen to senator ted cruz and a democrat on the judiciary c

it took just two years for him to put scorn on to the work of chris wray after chris wray defended the work of the ig from the doj who said that the russia investigation into alleged collusions with donald trump and his campaign, that that investigation was warranted. immediately led in 2019 while still in white house, donald trump, to issue a statement questioning whether he had the capacity to serve at the top level of the fbi. several years later, you get to 2021. up on capitol hill after the january 6 attack, chris wray went up and called the domestic terrorism and the fbi began to work with the doj to investigate the attack. 2022. chris wray, the fbi, they went and got a court authorization to go and issue a search warrant and execute it on his mar-a-lago property because donald trump allegedly attempted to move classified documents and not turn them over to the fbi. so this was a long time coming here to this moment and chris wray, somebody who he nominated himself, now for donald trump, is the face of the so-called deep state and he's going to try to get kash patel in not just t

chris wray as fbi director back in 2017 and wray managed to stay out of donald trump's line of firethe trump presidency even though there were fbi investigations of mr. trump back then. during the biden administration, once the fbi searched donald trump's home, he began denouncing chris wray. mr. wray has decided to step down rather than be fired. >> keken dinian from washington, thank you. >>> firefighters in california are up against some tough weather conditions today as they try to contain a fast-moving wildfire. >> here's a look at some of the destruction in malibu. the franklin fire exploded in size overnight. nearly 12,000 people have been evacuated including celebrities like cher. >> locals are taking matters into their own hands. look at this video. a resident on roof spraying the flames with a hose. >> reporter: as you can see from the smoke behind me this caon has been burning all morning. there are still some areas with visible flames. for the most part crews primarily from the air have managed to bring this down to a smolder. they have with multiple aircraft flying down

fbi director chris wray out. he announces he's going to resign early next year. that will pave the way for donald trump's nominee, kash patel, to come in and clean up the bureau, restore that bureau to its former greatness. we get reaction. jim jordan straight ahead. >> you know what leaf filter. we're proud to say? we have millions of satisfied customers. hey, there's one right now. and another leaf filter stops, needles, acorns, leaves and more. no louvers, no openings, no where for debris to get in at all. i guess what crud like that. it's only natural to have fans. apparently a lot of fans. apparently a whole, whole whole lot of fans. call 833. leaf filter or visit leaf filter.com. >> the fbi calls it house stealing. the latest scam where a cyber thief transfers the title of your home out of your name and steals your hard earned equity. >> it's roughly 60 to 90 days for that person to even figure out that they're the victim of this crime. >> you start getting foreclosure notices and you realize you've got four mortgages on your house that you didn't even know

. >>> well, chris wray is on the way out and kash patel is on the way in and the story how we got here should be a big warning sign about what's to come at the fbi and beyond. senator sheldon whitehouse is a member of the senate judiciary committee and he's coming up first. >>> plus, tech billionaires line up to kiss is a member of the judiciary committee coming up first. plus, tech billionaires line up to kiss the ring as they play catch up to elon musk. congressman ro khanna represents silicon valley and has a unique insight into how these guys operate and joins me live in a few minutes. is making polio great again what we're doing now? brand new reporting about rfk jr.'s top confidant who petitioned the fda to revoke approval of the polio vaccine. "the new york times" reporter who broke that story is standing by in studio to talk about what she found. ♪♪ >>> okay. with the news this week that christopher wray plans to resign as fbi director it felt like it was kind of worth revisiting why wray was in that job in the first place because it's all a reminder of a lot of things. that st

justice system and law enforcement was out of control with chris wray with.ol with merrick garland, and that's why we're putting in pam bondi as attorney general who, by the way, is a star. pam bondi is tough, she's fierce, she's determined. she's going to get the politics out of it so we can respect the justice system again. and with kash patel who, by the way, might be one of my absolute favorite nominees, this guy's such a star, former deputy director of national intelligence, chief of staff at the doj, a prosecutor, a public defender, probably the most qualified director going into the fbi position -- howard: unlike matt 2008, he has a lot of experience -- matt gaetz. >> but kash patel is going to go in there and say, you know what? no her her of this pretty -- nor no more of this political nonsense. if you're not doing your job, you're going to be out of here. i'm glad chris wray said he's going to leave, but i have to disagree on the point of the illegal and unconstitutional raid on mar-a-lago. i think that was despicable. i think we saw the nonsense th

definitely the dynamic that this brings to this fbi nomination, and of course we should say that chris wray still has many years left on hiserm. and if we were under normal order, this wouldn't be something that would be under consideration because chris wray still has several years and he was appointed, you know, 7 years ago roughly by donald trump himself, so that term isn't at its end yet and we don't know whether or not he will be fired, whether he will resign, how exactly his term will come to an end. john: ryan, earlier this year, kash patel talked to a podcaster named sean ryan about what he thought about the fbi. let's take a listen. kash patel: i'd shut down the fbi hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. and i would take the 7000 employees that work in that building and send them across america to chase down criminals. go be cops. you're cops. go be cops. go chase down murderers and rapists and drug dealers and violent offenders. ryan: you know, since 2016, practically, the fbi has been sort of roiled with turmoil. what do you think the

should remind our viewers that chris wray was his pick. donald trump chose christopher wray to be in there, and it's because he fired the other fbi director also both of them republicans, both of them republicans and comey. and so you're going to be covering how this plays in the united states senate. i just want to play what mike rounds, republican of south dakota, said about this pick chris wray, you know, who the president nominated the first time around. >> and i think the president picked a very good man to be the the director of the fbi when he did that in his first term. when we meet with him behind closed doors, i've had no objections to the way that he's handled himself. 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, which for the senate means advice or consent sometimes i think we're going to hear a lot of that. >> i think there are a lot of republicans that wing of the party more establishment wing of the republican party,

he takes that personally and considers it disloyal. >> you think about the time chris wray became fbi director. i mean, it was, you know, after comey was fired, wray seemed to have kind of stabilized it and was not out in front in front of cameras trying to get attention. he was trying to kind of seemed to me to save the fbi and kind of get bring morale back. >> i mean, the fbi was very much in the sights of angry politicians at that point, including the president of the united states when he was appointed. what he did is he took the submarine below the surface. i have been in field offices, particularly here in new york, with chris wray, but i've been in other places where where he's addressed, you know, large groups of agents in an all hands meeting saying, listen, i know what you see. i know what you hear. your job is to block out the noise, what you read, what you hear on the news, what the politicians say. your job is to focus on the mission. focus on the case, and go wherever the facts lead you. as far as the flack will handle that. >> john mueller thank you. appreciate it. pers

republicans in a flurry and now talking about firing chris wray. most of the people in the golf go along it and this is donald trump's new washington, they believe. the man trump wants to put in for wray is kash patel. he has as you note no qualifications for this job. many of trump's former aides said as much four years ago. i'm talking to people in orbit the last couple of days. there is no ideology and no agenda other than retribution. patel's one defining character he is simply loyal to donald trump. even inner circle trump members the last few years have been startled by patel's willingness to do whatever trump wants. >> let me stop you right there, jonathan. we need to talk more about this. kash patel is not just controversial among media outlets or democrats. he is not just controversial among republican senators. he is controversial inside trump's own orbit. you go inside trump's own orbit and it is split down the middle with half the people thinking he is going to be a disaster for any donald trump administration and they never wanted this

. >> joe, you laid out the choice that was in front of chris wray. as soon as donald trump announced that patel was his pick, without commenting on the fate of the current fbi director, wray knew that he was essentially going to have to force trump to fire him or find some graceful way to bow out. at the end of the day, and they wrestled over the sum told, at the end of the day they came down on the side that it would be more traumatic and painful for the fbi, and worse for the country, if array did what you suggested and forced donald trump to fire him. for example, the chairman of the -- committee issued a letter a few days ago accusing wray of all manner of crimes and sin is, essentially saying that the fbi is a disaster under his tenure. and made charges like the fbi sat on bribery allegations against joe and hunter biden, which has been completely debunked. it's one thing for charles to say things like that. it would be another thing for donald trump to do it as president and say a letter made public at the world announcing why he was firing chri

. >>> today we got the gigantic news that fbi director chris wray plans to resign. to avoid the impact of partisan politics, they were appointed to 10-year terms. wray was appointed in 2017 after trump infamously fired the fbi director james comey. wry's decision today to step down rather than wait for donald trump to fire him is definitely worth chewing over. we're going to discuss that with a member of the senate judiciary in just a moment, but now that christopher wray has made the decision, now that he has announced that he will vacate his office on january 20th, the more pressing matter is who donald trump plans to nominate in wray's place. >> transition and i'll be ready to go on day one. >> are you going to be seeking retribution against donald trump's political opponents, sir? >> we look forward to a very smooth transition at the fbi and i'll be ready to go on day one. >> that was trump's pick for director of the fbi, kash patel, on the hill today speaking with senators and shoring up votes for his confirmation. if you weren't particularly familiar with mr.

reaction straight ahead. >> sean: finally some good news out of washington were the fbi director chris wray announced he is now rendering his resignation come january. he will be gone. kash patel is the pick to overtake the fbi. wray failed to restore integrity and fairness at the fbi. the past seven years as director were probably best described by a lengthy letter from chuck grassley. he writes promises made, promises broken has become a recurring theme under your leadership. according to the iowa senior senator, wray ignored the efforts to investigate possible sexual misconduct against female fbi agents for over a year. the fbi refused to -- congressional oversight of the vetting of afghan refugees allowed into our country after the fall of couple. they made no effort to investigate serious allegations of bribery against joe biden including from a confidential human source. they previously did trust. no efforts to investigate the bidens and joe leveraging a billion dollars to get some prosecutor in ukraine fired. they had no problem rating mar lago, searching maloney a trump's closet and

i started the show yesterday saying that i wish chris wray would stick around.t's why i think if he could be there as long as humanly possible to knock down the nonsense, it would certainly aid the men and women of the fbi. your thoughts on that news first? >> i agree with you. i understand why chris wray who is a dedicated nonpartisan law enforcement official and has led the fbi exactly that way would think that he -- his political future, his future as a director is a political football and is a distraction. i understand why from his vantage point, i spent ten years in the doj, he thinks that this is not good for the fbi. the problem is, we're in donald trump world. it's a different world. we saw that with bob mueller who did the same thing and then got completely politically, you know, secured by bill barr. and so what we need now, even for those who believe in our rule of law, believe in nonpartisanship, we need people to hold the guardrails of the rule of law, and that's why i'm disappointed that he resigned, is that he is somebody who would uphold the fine

i don't think it is universally condemnation of chris wray exiting. i think that there are people that like this idea and supportive of donald trump and want reforms. the guy will be number two at the fbi or the guy could step into that spot after chris wray steps down got an email very shortly after january 6th saying that there were many people within the bureau supportive of the people who stormed the capitol. there is a big contingent within the fbi people very supportive of donald trump. >> yeah, say more about that context because i think it matters quite a bit, something that came out in some of the reporting of january 6th committee. obviously, thousands of people in the fbi, i think folks at the hoover building are probably worried about the fact that kash patel says that he wants to evacuate the building and turn it into a museum of the deep state. as a whole, you have an fbi that is pretty conservative politically, i think it is fair to say. maybe one of the more conservative arms of the u.s. federal government, that email and to the deputy

that is chris wray.was appointed by then president trump during the first administration but there's been bad blood between trump and wray since the raiding of mar-a-lago for the classified documents in 2022 that president-elect trump claims is politically motivated. we're seeing reaction about this pick across the airwaves. one from jake sullivan, who said he wouldn't comment specifically on these trump picks but he talked about how important it was for the fbi to remain independent. listen to his comments here. >> the only thing i can point out is 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 ten-year terms, not terms just for the duration of a given president. the current fbi director, chris wray, was appointed by donald trump. joe biden fired him. he relied upon him to execute his responsibilities as the director of the fbi and allow

now appears, chris wray will be fired or forced into retirement as well.about what that alone, this idea of not letting fib directors finish out their term in independence does to the institution and to the justice system. >> well, i am so glad that you focused on that because so many of us are focused on the abnormality of the people trump announced he would like to nominate we forget that the process he is trying to implement here is itself abnormal, atypical and violative of rule of law. the statute that gives the fbi directors ten-year terms was passed in the 1970s for two reasons. one, reaction to watergate, two, to sort of the influence that j. edgar hoover exerted over the agency. that's an understatement for the three plus decades he held the fbi. there was a belief no fbi director should be above the law, but at the same time no fbi director should also be subject to the whims of any one president and his partisan objectives. that's why fbi directors got ten-year term as you mentioned. since then, only two have been dismissed. one by this very pre

xfinity. >>> the abrupt resignation of chris wray was the result of an immense pressure campaign of donald trump and his allies. and that push to force wray out is part of a larger effort to undo half a century of institutional reforms past of the week of watergate. donald trump wants his choice for fbi director to wield the authority of the bureau against his perceived enemies much like hoover did during his tenure. but as my next guest rights, patel is promising a crusade not just against trump's critics but against the bureau itself. he described it as the one bulwark against a hidden left- wing conspiracy that penetrated all corners of american life. pulitzer prize-winning historian and the author of hoover and the making of american history. it is great to have you. i am really enjoying your book. it is a masterful piece of work. as someone who wrote a biography and is watching all of this unfold, your reaction to the announcement today and what it means for the bureau? >> i am sorry that the book is so relevant at the moment but i think the resignation is a real sign that the bureau

to be able to operate in a safe way and we're not doing that. >> george: i want to ask you about chris wray who resigned this week. you recommended him to president trump. what do you make of his resignation? was it the right thing to do? >> i think it was for chris and for the bureau. look. chris was an anecdote to jim comey and that's why i recommended him. jim was a show horse. chris is a plow horse and he's worked for 7 1/2 years. he got rid of all the comey leadership that i think led to the really awful actions that comey took around the 2016 campaign, and that's why i advocated back in 2016 to president-elect trump that he should have gotten comey right away. think about this. in the bureau, george, over the last seven years that chris has been in charge, the applications to become a special agent in the fbi have tripled. they're the largest they have been in 50 years. it's because he restored a sense of integrity to that position, and i think what the president-elect is doing is turning this into just any other position that gets changed with administrations, and i don't think that'

and you heard kash patel mention chris wray. he already is the fbi director who was appointed by trump after he fired the last fbi director, james comey, and chris wray still has three years left in his ten year term. my source tonight is john pistole, who served as the deputy director of the fbi from 2004 to 2010, and it's great to have you back, because bill barr was once quoted as saying that kash patel when this was a rumor during trump round one that he would become deputy director of the fbi quote, over my dead body and i just wonder, you know, now that trump has moved to make him the actual director, what your reaction was to that news well, thanks, caitlin i think one of the key questions that anybody should have particularly the president and the senate, which has the advice and consent function and responsibility, is is he or any candidate qualified for the office for which he's been nominated? >> and i think we can approach it from several different aspects. one, from the president's perspective and, of course, presid

some of this will depend on what chris wray decides to do. but look, i believe the president elect, when he says that that he is picking patel because of this revenge tour of this, of this attempt to to get back at his political enemies. i don't think there's any reason to doubt the president elect at this stage. so it will weaponize the fbi. it's a large agency. it's it's distributed throughout the country. there's lots of things it can do without the fbi director. maybe meaningfully being able to direct. but what we also have to remember is that the fbi does not investigate in a vacuum. it brings investigations that are ultimately prosecuted by u.s. attorneys those u.s. attorneys also are going to be replaced by donald trump. so that's that's the that's the agenda right now. i say this flatly only because there's really no other explanation for the appointment than that, that as as donald trump says and writes to go after his enemies. >> so, so the the head of the fbi is appointed to a ten year term. christopher wray has a ten year term. it

and it's frankly, one of the reasons why they had a beef with chris wray and why chris wray is no longer going to be fbi director. they believed that there was something to this conspiracy that's been running around. and what we do find, though, is that the inspector general found that there were 26 members of these extremist groups that did attend the stop the steal rally, 26 of them who were being paid as informants for the fbi. now, these are members of the proud boys, the the three percenters, other groups that were here that day. and what what we we learned from this report is that 26 of them had been specifically told by the fbi, send us any information on possible violence and so on. and according to the inspector general, three of those 26 actually did enter the capitol. the others, you know, were were did not enter. there's also a number of of informants who were not specifically tasked by the fbi to provide that information, but they came anyway. they were supporters of donald trump. and so they came and some of them entered the capitol. so the important again, the important pa

chris wray serving out what is typically a ten year term. of course that in 2017 he was put into that place because trump fired james comey at the time. but typically fbi directors served these ten year terms. just what the appetite is for bucking that tradition or if that's a tradition that maybe we may see go away i mean, we've seen a lot of trump allies like ted cruz come out for kash patel and he seemed very supportive and, uh, for chuck grassley kind of criticized christopher wray's uh, job performance there. >> so i think a lot of kind of the more maga republicans are going to be on board with that, but i think you'll definitely see. i mean, we've heard from democrats that ultimately would like to see christopher wray to serve out his term. and i think there's a handful of republicans that are also kind of like to see that happen. but whether that's going to be enough to kind of pressure trump not to fire christopher wray, there kind of remains to be seen. but i think he's kind of very much been pushing for his loyalists. so i think th