GOP senator defends FBI director Trump wants to replace

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

Rounds’ comments come a day after President-elect Donald Trump announced his preferred 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 — I think the president picked a very good man to be director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds told journalist Jonathan Karl. “When we meet him behind closed doors, I have had no objections to the way he handles himself, so I have no complaints about the way he is doing his job at the moment.”

Rounds added that he wasn’t surprised that the Trump administration’s picks are “people who do that.” [Trump] believes he is very loyal to himself, and that has been part of the process.”

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

Trump punched 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 the memoirs of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

(For context, the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022, uncovering classified documents from his presidency that had not been properly stored.)

“The president has the right to make nominations, but normally they are for a 10-year term,” Rounds said. “If he does [nominate Kash Patel]as with anyone nominated for any of these positions, once he or she is nominated by the president, he or she is given the benefit of the doubt about the nomination, but we still go through a process, and that process includes counseling and consent.”

Months prior to Trump’s election victory last month, Wray told NBC NewsLester Holt announced in April that he planned to remain in office if the former president were re-elected.

“I enjoy doing this work,” Wray said. “I love the people, the men and women of the FBI, who are some of the best people I have ever had the opportunity to work with. And as long as I think I can continue to do that in a way that meets all those rules and standards, I would like to continue doing that.”