Firing Trump-Appointed FBI Chief Becomes Rallying Cry for 2024 GOP Hopefuls

Christopher Wray's future as FBI director looks bleak if just about any current Republican presidential nominee becomes the next president.

Conservative antipathy toward Wray accelerated following last summer's FBI raid of current GOP front-runner and former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, that spiraled into a special counsel investigation by Jack Smith that recently led to Trump being indicted for the alleged mishandling of classified documents. Wray was appointed to his position by Trump in 2017.

Recently, House Republicans, led by Kentucky Representative James Comer, threatened to hold Wray in contempt for not providing FBI documents related to a joint investigation conducted by Republicans in the House and Senate on potential criminal behavior by President Joe Biden, his son, Hunter Biden, and possibly other members of the Biden family.

Months after the FBI seized the documents at Mar-a-Lago, House Republicans became more ardent about holding Wray and bureau—as well as the Department of Justice (DOJ)—responsible for what they called political weaponization against Trump and the right as a whole. That included calls for Wray's impeachment by House members including Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andy Biggs.

Trump is still firmly in control of the Republican field based on polling, with a sizable gap between him and arguably his biggest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Both candidates, joined by former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said they would remove Wray from his position if elected, according to the Daily Caller.

Ross Baker, a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University, analogized the Republicans' drastic change in perception toward the FBI to the hypothetical scenario of Democrats suddenly turning their backs on labor unions.

"This is one of these remarkable pivots in American political life, that the FBI—which it has really been the darling of the Republicans; they saw the FBI as a law and order institution worthy of support, or more worthy that support and actually a veneration," Baker told Newsweek on Thursday. "And they were uniformly supportive of the institution, but as soon as Trump came along and things that he was doing came under the purview of the FBI...it's all about Trump."

DeSantis has reportedly said he would "clean out the upper echelons of both the DOJ and the FBI" and potentially even move the bureau's headquarters outside of Washington, D.C., Ramaswamy has been forceful in his rhetoric, pledging to essentially dismantle the FBI.

"Root out the corruption & shut down the FBI," Ramaswamy tweeted in mid-May. "This is achievable. At the local level, we have police & prosecutors. At the federal level, we have U.S. marshals & the DOJ. An intermediary bureaucracy is rife with risk for politicized corruption & it's been happening since J. Edgar Hoover in the 60s."

Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to Newsweek that he would "eliminate the FBI altogether" and fire Wray, adding that a more detailed plan would be released in the coming days.

Other presidential hopefuls—North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson—have referred to having an openness for "reforms" within the bureau.

The one candidate who has not said he would fire Wray if elected president is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The former prosecutor has instead turned his ire toward the DOJ.

"You can be guaranteed that we'll put an attorney general in there who will lead without fear or favor and clear out anyone who does show partisanship," Christie said about the DOJ, headed by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Christie and Wray have a past dating to the former governor's Bridgegate scandal, when manufactured traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge led to one death and ultimately guilty pleas on behalf of Christie's former aides.

"If [Wray] wanted to stay, I would keep him," Christie has said.

Karl Rickett, spokesperson for the Christie campaign, referred Newsweek to the former governor's comments on CBS News' Face the Nation, where he said: "And what I'm concerned about is, look, we need change at the Department of Justice. And if I'm president, you can be guaranteed that we'll put an attorney general in there who will lead without fear or favor and clear out anyone who does show partisanship."

Wray served as a "personal attorney" for Christie during the Bridgegate scandal, which never led to charges for Christie.

"Christie's defense of the FBI is because of his former role as a federal prosecutor," Baker said. "But the thing is, Chris Christie is a man on a mission. He's a wrecking ball. He wants to do as much damage as he can to Trump, and I think the ultimate objective of getting the nomination—which realistically, I think, he understands is out of reach—but if he can use whatever influence he has, with whatever segment of the Republican Party there is to discredit Donald Trump, he will do it.

"Chris Christie had a reputation in New Jersey of someone who got even, he liked to even scores. If you crossed him, he was unforgiving. And I think that's what we're seeing now."

Update 6/23/23, 9:48 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from the Christie campaign.