GOP Senator Defends FBI Director Trump Wants To Replace

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) backed FBI Director Christopher Wray during a Sunday interview with ABC News’ “This Week.”

Rounds’ remarks come a day after President-elect Donald Trump announced his desired replacement for Wray’s position, Trump loyalist Kash Patel. Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, is seven years into a 10-year term.

“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 told journalist Jonathan Karl. “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 that he was unsurprised that Trump’s administration picks are “people that [Trump] believes are very loyal to himself, and that’s been a part of the process.”

“Every president wants people that are loyal to themselves,” Rounds continued.

Trump has bashed Wray and the FBI as a whole in recent years. At one point, the former president reportedly called Wray the “worst” member of his former administration, according to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s memoir.

(For context, the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022, uncovering classified documents from his presidency that were improperly stored.)

“The president has the right to make nominations, but normally, these are for a 10-year term,” Rounds said. “If he does [nominate Kash 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 the benefit of the doubt on the nomination, but we still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent.”

Months prior to Trump’s election win last month, Wray told NBC News’ Lester Holt in April that he intended to stay in office if the former president was reelected.

“I’m enjoying doing this job,” Wray said. “I love the people, the men and women of the FBI, who are some of the finest people I’ve ever had a chance to work with. And as long as I think I can continue doing that in a way that adheres to all those rules and norms, it’s what I’d like to keep doing.”