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(NewsNation) — FBI Director Christopher Wray was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, testifying before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security about the elevated risk the country is now at as a result of the unrest in the Middle East.
The brave men and women of the bureau and in local law enforcement across the country have their hands full, but even that didn’t stop a very prominent member of the Senate from trying to play politics. They just can’t stop themselves.
Wray described all the work they have been doing.
“The range of threats we battle each and every day is enormous. From cyberattacks, to economic espionage, to violent crime and narcotics trafficking — and everything in between, we’re aggressively working to protect America’s economic security from China’s relentless efforts to steal our innovation and intellectual property,” Wray told the committee. “We’ve seized enough fentanyl to kill 270 million people — that’s more than 80% of Americans.”
Fentanyl, cyberattacks, China — the FBI is identifying any and every threat to America. They even rushed to Maine to help in the manhunt for shooter Robert Card.
Now the biggest threat to our safety is terrorism. As the war in Gaza intensifies, Wray warned that it’s not just the Middle East seeing an elevated threat level but here at home, too.
“The terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level,” Wray said. “We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.”
It’s scary stuff, and we should be grateful the FBI and local law enforcement are out there trying to reduce the threats for all Americans. But you see, just appreciating law enforcement, as I do, doesn’t get you attention — attacking them does. Enter Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.
He was the chair of this Homeland Security Committee for six years until 2021. So you’d think he would be laser focused on the potential threats to the country and supporting law enforcement in any way possible.
But that’s not how things played out Tuesday.
Johnson wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to make the same point he and others have been making again and again – that confidence in the FBI is shattered due to alleged political bias against Republicans. So while Wray is talking Hamas, China and fentanyl, Sen. Johnson wanted to talk Hunter Biden.
“There appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity related to the Biden family,” Johnson said. “Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the attorney general and FBI director, but also line agents and prosecutors. Our republic cannot survive such a political infection and you have an obligation to this country to clear the air.”
Remember, Wray is a lifelong Republican. But before I get to his amazing response, let me just highlight how unsupported Johnson’s premise is.
Putting aside that the Hunter Biden investigation is also being overseen by lifelong Republican David Weiss, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and was kept on to try to avoid claims of bias, and putting aside that Weiss has now thrown the book at Hunter Biden, these FBI critics conveniently ignore all the high-profile Democrats the bureau has targeted just in the last few years.
That includes former Democratic Congressman TJ Cox from California, who was arrested in August 2022 on charges of fraud, money laundering, campaign violations. He could be facing up to 20 years in prison.
Then there’s Karen Carter Peterson, the former head of the Louisiana Democratic Party. She entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced to 22 months in prison after an FBI investigation found she defrauded donors out of more than $100,000 to feed a gambling addiction.
Or how about Andrew Gillum, the former Democratic mayor of Tallahassee, Florida? He was the party’s nominee for governor in 2018 against Ron DeSantis.
Gillum was hit with conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Jurors would later acquit him on one charge and couldn’t reach a verdict on 18 other counts against him. But they tried. The same way another holdover from the Trump administration, special counsel John Durham, tried in his prosecutions.
And, of course, there’s New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who was recently charged by the feds along with his wife in connection with a bribery scheme.
After an FBI investigation, prosecutors say the senator received gold bars, a Mercedes and hundreds of thousands of dollars while using his power and influence to help enrich three local businessmen and the Egyptian government.
And the list goes on and on. The FBI has targeted Democrats when they seemingly deserve it and Republicans when they’re the alleged offenders.
And even if Johnson wants to create a phony political crusade to attack the FBI to appeal to his base, this wasn’t the time to do it. We need the FBI focused on keeping us safe.
Luckily, Wray had the perfect response to Johnson’s challenge.
“I see an FBI every day that conducts themselves with integrity and professionalism and selflessness and rigor. And I do not accept the characterization of our performance in this particular case. With some specific partisan actors, I said the vast majority of the 38,000 are people of integrity. And the idea that I, as a Republican appointee and a lifelong Republican is biased in the way that you are describing makes absolutely no sense,” Wray said.
No sense at all. As someone who supports our local cops, sheriff’s departments, state troopers and the FBI — and who regularly criticizes the left when they unfairly target our cops — this silly push to turn the FBI into a politicized caricature puts our safety in jeopardy.
This was, after all, the Homeland Security Committee. Seriously, we will have potentially dangerous issues coming in the months ahead and we need our law enforcement feeling appreciated and hyper focused. This political gamesmanship does not help.