National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the FBI director was “supposed to be insulated from politics” when asked about President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Kash Patel to head the FBI.
Guest host Kasie Hunt said, “Since you are such a key national security official, I do want to ask you about President-elect Trump’s decision to nominate Kash Patel as FBI director. I mean, as you know, he’s a fierce Trump loyalist. He has vowed to go after the deep state. You have worked closely with the current FBI director. What do you think it would mean to have Kash Patel in that role? Well, look, I’m not going to speak to president-elect Trump’s nominees.
Sullivan said, “I’ll let him speak for his own rationale. What I will say is how the Biden administration has approached the position of FBI director. We inherited Director Chris Wray, who has done a very good job in the role from President-elect Trump, who appointed him to a ten year term. And what makes the FBI director different from most other nominees is they’re not just appointed for one term of a president.”
“They’re appointed for enough time to last past two terms of a president because they’re supposed to be insulated from politics,” he added. “President Biden scrupulously adhered to that long-standing bipartisan tradition and for good reason, because the FBI director should not be subject to the whims of the tos and fros of politics. But as for the announcement yesterday, or the decisions President-elect Trump has made, they’ll have to speak to that themselves.”
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