With Gaetz out as attorney general pick, Trump’s right flank looks for a new ally at FBI

By Sara Murray, Kristen Holmes and Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump’s hunt for a new FBI director is being complicated by the need to find someone who has a clear path to confirmation — and who will appeal to the MAGA base.

After reports that former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, who once served as an FBI special agent, was a top contender for the job, Trump’s inner circle and transition team were inundated – publicly and privately – with pushback.

By Friday morning, Dan Scavino – Trump’s incoming deputy chief of staff – appeared to seal his fate: “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.”

The dustup surrounding a potential Rogers pick highlights the conundrum Trump faces as he searches for a suitable replacement for FBI Director Christopher Wray, who still has three years left in his term but whom Trump has previously vowed to fire. The president-elect needs someone palatable enough to Republicans in the Senate, who have signaled they won’t forfeit their duty to vet, advise and consent on Trump’s picks. But he also wants an FBI director who will both insulate him from investigation and appease calls from the base to revamp the bureau.

Trump’s right-wing allies were already smarting from former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz’s decision to drop out of the fight to become the next attorney general as it became clear he would not have the GOP support necessary for confirmation.

Trump’s replacement pick, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, wasn’t a non-starter for those on Trump’s right flank. But some Trump allies lamented that she doesn’t have the brash political instinct or zeal for overhauling the Justice Department that they saw in Gaetz.

Sources told CNN there are several names still under consideration for FBI director, including Kash Patel, a right-wing firebrand who served as an adviser on the National Security Council and chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense in the first Trump administration. Some of Trump’s most loyal and vocal allies — including Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk — have voiced support for Patel.

Also in the mix: former St. Louis US Attorney Jeff Jensen and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Trump’s team is also open to considering new candidates, a source familiar with the situation said.

One possible option remains picking someone easier to confirm for the top job, and then Trump can install his loyalist Patel as deputy director, a job that for years has been filled by a career FBI agent and not a political appointee.

The very talk of removing Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017 after firing the previous director, shows how much Trump is dispensing with norms. In the wake of Watergate and excesses under J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, Congress made the FBI director job a 10-year appointment as a way to insulate the post from politics.

Chaffetz declined to comment. Jensen didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Patel did not respond to request for comment.

As for Rogers, who lost a bid for US Senate in Michigan earlier this month, he was spotted at Mar-a-Lago last week, and some GOP senators were pushing for him to be the pick, arguing he would be easy to confirm and has the experience to do to the job.

But an anti-Rogers campaign had also been ramping up for the past week, and it boiled over after CNN and others reported on him as a contender for the job.

On Thursday evening, former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe – reviled by Trump and many of his allies – endorsed the potential pick on air.

“I think Mike Rogers is a totally reasonable, logical selection for FBI director,” McCabe said on CNN, where he is a contributor.

Trump’s right-wing supporters didn’t hold back.

“You’re going to sit there and endorse Mike Rogers and say, ‘Oh this guy is great’? That’s the kiss of death, dude. That’s the kiss of death,” Jack Posobiec, a far-right political activist, said on Steve Bannon’s podcast Friday, before lavishing praise on Patel.

Allies collected old clips of Rogers, a former House Intelligence chairman, on television and archived tweets from him disparaging Trump and sent them to the transition team and aides to Trump.

On Friday, Scavino brought the backlash to Trump’s attention. The president-elect gave him permission to fire off the damning tweet, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN. Rogers did not respond to request for comment.

“I know it’s Trumpworld and anything can change on a dime,” said one source who had expressed his frustration to transition members. “But if Dan put out that tweet, I feel good knowing that it came from the president.”

CNN’s Manu Raju, Kaitlan Collins and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.

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