Trump 2024 campaign Senior Adviser Dan Scavino dropped a fact-check on CNN after a supposed scoop about President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for a new FBI chief.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins drummed up speculation about the future of FBI Director Christopher Wray in the new Trump administration and sparked a back-and-forth with Scavino.
Reporting from nearby Trump’s Florida home, Collins told viewers Thursday on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” about “new reporting” on the incoming president’s pick to head up the agency.
“I also have new reporting, tonight, about Trump’s potential plan to shake up the FBI. We know he has been planning, for months, to fire the FBI Director Chris Wray, if he were reelected, even though Wray’s 10-year term that Trump appointed him to is not up until 2027,” she said.
(Video Credit: CNN)
“But I’m told that Trump has been struggling with who to replace him with, someone that can strike the balance of carrying out the agenda that he wants at the FBI, also being able to be someone who can get confirmed by the Senate,” she continued.
“I’m hearing that one idea being floated now is Trump naming Mike Rogers, a former FBI special agent, and former Michigan congressman who recently ran for Senate, as the FBI director, while also putting in Kash Patel, who is a controversial MAGA loyalist, as the deputy FBI director. That would be an attempt to please both camps,” said Collins, who also posted the claims on X.
“Of course, nothing on that front is final, until it is posted on Truth Social,” she said, referring to Trump’s social media platform.
Mike Rogers this am on Fox: “People have lost faith in the FBI. And they don’t even know it. Somebody like me? I can restore that faith.”
We reported last night that Trump is considering putting Rogers + Kash Patel at the FBI together, in attempt to please both Senate Rs and… https://t.co/hXITwK7on3
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 22, 2024
On Thursday morning, Scavino shut down Collins’ reporting.
“Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It’s not happening — In his own words, ‘I have never even given it a thought.’ Not happening,” he wrote in a post on X.
Collins fired back with her update soon after the post by the incoming assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff.
“Mike Rogers was indeed seen at Mar-a-Lago in recent days, but amid pushback from the MAGA-wing, Scavino says he won’t become FBI director,” she wrote.
Mike Rogers was indeed seen at Mar-a-Lago in recent days, but amid pushback from the MAGA-wing, Scavino says he won’t become FBI director. https://t.co/lwuvoXxASF
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 22, 2024
Meanwhile, some have pointed to a seeming endorsement of Rogers by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe as the reason why he should not get the position.
BREAKING: Andrew McCabe went on CNN last night and endorsed Mike Rogers for FBI Director
Tells you everything you need to know pic.twitter.com/pIbhIm7O2V
— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) November 22, 2024
During a recent podcast interview with Shawn Ryan, Kash Patel, who served at the National Security Council and Defense Department in Trump’s first term, talked about his vision for the FBI.
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state, and I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals,” Patel said. “Go be cops. You’re cops. Go be cops.:
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