Republican applauds FBI director Chris Wray after Trump’s Kash Patel pick

Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, said on Sunday he has no “complaints” about how FBI Director Christopher Wray has performed in his role, amid several Republican lawmakers’ praise for President-elect Donald Trump‘s nomination of Kash Patel to replace Wray.

Rounds expressed his support for Wray during an interview on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday, the day after Trump formally announced Patel as the next FBI director.

Trump tapped Wray to lead the FBI in 2017 during his first administration, and his term is set to expire in 2027. FBI directors serve 10-year terms but are able to resign or be dismissed by incoming presidents.

In a Saturday evening post on Truth Social, the president-elect’s social media platform, Trump announced Patel as his FBI director pick and applauded his professional experience, writing that he will work alongside his U.S. attorney general pick, Pam Bondi, “to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.” Patel has been a vocal critic of the agency who has pledged to dismantle the “deep state” and punish Trump critics.

On This Week, Rounds told co-host Jonathan Karl that every president has the right to select their nominees and “it doesn’t surprise me that he will pick people that he believes are very loyal to himself, and that’s been a part of the process.”

However, he added, “I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” noting that when he’s met with Wray, “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 reiterated that “the president has the right to make nominations,” adding that “but normally these are for a 10-year term.”

Wray would be two years shy of his term if he is replaced following Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.

In a statement to Newsweek on Sunday, in reference to Wray, the FBI said: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats. Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”

Newsweek has reached out to Rounds’ press team for comment via email on Sunday.

The GOP senator also noted that Patel, like other nominees, still need to go through the U.S. Senate confirmation process, and while the president “gets the benefit of the doubt on the nomination,” there are still processes of “advice and consent” to undergo.

When asked by Karl if he believes if it’s a “mistake to fire” Wray, Rounds said, “We don’t speak for the president-elect. We simply respond when we’re asked questions about what we’re going to do. The message, and one that I feel very strongly about, is that there is a constitutional separation.”

Other Republican colleagues appeared on other morning talk shows, praising Trump’s pick of Patel as the next FBI director. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said on CBS News’ Face the Nation that “Kash Patel is a very strong nominee” who he believes is “going to be confirmed by the Senate.”

Cruz said: “All of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all of the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corruptive partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI.”

When asked what will become of Wray, Cruz said, “I think either he will resign or President Trump will fire him.”

Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee also backed Patel, telling NBC News’ Meet the Press host Kristen Welker that he “represents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI” and vowed to support his appointment.

Patel was a federal public defender and prosecutor before joining the Trump White House in various roles, including chief of staff of the Department of Defense, deputy director of national intelligence, and senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

Some Make America Great Again (MAGA) lawmakers took to X, formerly Twitter, to show their support for Patel, such as Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado who wrote: “The Deep State is officially on notice! Kash Patel is coming to clean house!”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote in a X post, “My friend Kash Patel is going to be the next FBI director under President Trump!!”

Trump-endorsed U.S. Arizona Senate nominee Kari Lake, who lost the election last month, reposted Trump’s announcement and posted: “Great move by President @realDonaldTrump nominating Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Kash will help drain the swamp.”