JD Vance says Trump team is interviewing potential FBI directors, sparking questions about current leader
Vice President-elect JD Vance said on social media Tuesday that he and President-elect Donald Trump are interviewing FBI director candidates, an indication Trump plans to fire current FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Wray's 10-year term as FBI director began in August 2017, during Trump's first administration. Though the president has the authority to fire the FBI director, as Trump did by firing former director James Comey during his first term and weighing firing Wray, it is a rarely used power.
The FBI director's specific term was set intentionally after the Watergate investigation to keep the position from being filled or emptied for political reasons.
Will Wray be fired?
The president-elect and his campaign have not spoken publicly about whether Trump plans to fire Wray. A spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
In his post on X, which has since been deleted, Vance said that he missed a Senate vote Monday to confirm a judicial nominee selected by President Joe Biden because "I was meeting with President Trump to interview multiple positions for our government, including for FBI director. I tend to think it's more important to get an FBI Director who will dismantle the deep state than it is for Republicans to lose a vote 49-46 rather than 49-45. But that's just me."
The post appeared to be in response to Grace Chong, the producer of Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, who criticized Vance for missing the vote.
Trump appeared to agree that senators shouldn't miss judicial nomination votes in a Truth Social post Tuesday.
Despite picking Wray for the FBI director role, Trump has repeatedly criticized his work, especially toward the end of his first administration. During the 2020 election, Trump said that Wray should announce he was investigating Trump’s Democratic challenger, Biden. The Washington Post reported that Trump said Wray was not doing enough to help his reelection efforts.
Trump continued to publicly criticize Wray after leaving the White House, and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly pressed Wray in contentious public hearings since Trump lost the 2020 election.
Trump's claims that the FBI and Justice Department were plotting against him, which he made without evidence, were a cornerstone of his successful 2024 campaign.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JD Vance says Trump team is interviewing potential FBI directors