Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton said Wednesday on CNN that he believes “thousands” of federal employees could submit their resignations by January due to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November.
Since his win with both the Electoral College and the popular vote, Trump has steadily been announcing his nominations, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services, Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, and Kash Patel as FBI director. On “CNN News Central,” host Brianna Keilar questioned the Massachusetts lawmaker about whether he has concerns about the FBI becoming politicized following reports that current FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned from his position Wednesday.
“Brianna, that’s exactly the word for it. Trump wants to politicize the FBI, to turn it back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, where the FBI has its own really lawless agenda, where the FBI is a tool of the state to persecute Americans, not to actually uphold the law for everybody in our land. So it is very dangerous. The calculation that Chris Wray made when he decided to resign is a calculation that hundreds, thousands of federal employees are making right now all across Washington and all across the country,” Moulton said.
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“I’ve heard from a lot of friends who work for the federal government trying to decide, do they wait to get fired? Do they resign on their own terms, as Chris Wray decided to do? Do they resign in the administration when they get to a point where they’re asked to do something that they fundamentally disagree with?” Moulton asked. “It’s a sad state of affairs, where so many public servants, people who joined the government, not because of a political affiliation, but just to do the right thing for the country, know that they’re going to be asked to do things that are lawless. They’re trying to figure out when the right time to resign is as Trump comes into office.”
Wray reportedly resigned from his position amid rumors that he was planning to step down to avoid being fired by Trump, who intends to replace him with Patel. Patel served as chief of staff to former and acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller during Trump’s first term. Democrats and other officials, including Republicans, have criticized Trump’s cabinet picks, with Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director, saying Patel’s nomination shows how Trump plans to “disrupt,” “dismantle,” and “distract” the agency under his second administration.
Since Wray’s resignation, Trump took to Truth Social, stating that the resignation was “a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice.” The former president had originally appointed Wray as FBI director in 2017, during his first administration.
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