Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and FBI Director Christopher Wray got into a testy exchange about trust in the FBI on Wednesday.
Mr Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee as part of the committee’s oversight of the bureau. Republicans have repeatedly criticised Mr Wray, whom former president Donald Trump nominated in 2017 after he fired former director James Comey.
Mr Gaetz criticised Mr Wray for his tenure leading the FBI, a law enforcement agency that was once revered by members of the GOP.
“People trusted the FBI more when J Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are,” Mr Gaetz, a right-wing Republican on the committee, said in reference to the long-serving head of the FBI who also tracked figures like Martin Luther King Jr. “And the reason is because you don't give straight answers.”
Mr Wray responded by saying that more people from Mr Gaetz’s home state of Florida have applied to the bureau since his tenure.
“Respectfully congressman, in your home state of Florida, the number of people applying to come work for us and devote their lives working for us is over, up over 100 per cent,” he said.
“We're deeply proud of them and they deserve better than you,” Mr Gaetz said.
Specifically, many conservatives have called for defunding the FBI after it executed a search warrant at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for refusing to turn over classified documents from his presidency.
On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wants to relocate the FBI headquarters from Washington DC to Huntsville, Alabama.
Similarly, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives earlier this year, they set up the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which Mr Jordan also leads. The House Oversight Committee has zealously pursued President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, hoping to find misconduct on behalf of the president.
