Republican Sen. Mike Rounds expresses support for the FBI director a day after Trump chose his successor

Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., expressed support for FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sunday, just a day after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Kash Patel to replace Wray to lead the agency .

After Watergate, FBI directors typically served ten-year terms to prevent the office from being seen as a political tool of the president. Wray was previously nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2017. So Trump would have to fire Wray or Wray would have to voluntarily resign before 2027 for Patel to take power.

“Chris Wray, who the president nominated the first time around – I think the president picked a very good man to be director of the FBI when he did it in his first term,” Rounds said during an interview on “This Week.”

“When we meet with him behind closed doors, I have no objections to the way he conducted himself, and so I have no complaints at the moment about the way he did his job,” Rounds added of Wray .

Still, Rounds said he would fairly evaluate Patel and Trump’s other Cabinet nominees through the Senate’s “advice and consent” process. Once formally nominated, Patel must be confirmed by a majority vote of the full Senate, which cannot happen until after Trump’s inauguration in January.

“The president has the right to make nominations, but typically they are for a 10-year term,” Rounds said. “If he does (nominate Patel), as with anyone who is nominated for one of these positions, once nominated by the president, the president gets the benefit of the doubt of the nomination, but we still go through a process, and this process includes consultation and consent.”

Representatives of the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rounds’ comments.

Earlier Sunday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan declined to offer his thoughts on Patel, but said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press”: “We, the Biden administration, are adhering to the longstanding norm that FBI directors serve their full terms in office,” because the FBI director is a unique player in the American system of government. They are appointed for a ten-year term, not just for the term of a particular president.”

Sullivan noted that Biden allowed Wray to remain in office throughout his term despite being a Trump appointee.

“Current FBI Director Chris Wray was actually appointed by Donald Trump. Joe Biden didn’t fire him. “He relied on him to fulfill his duties as FBI director and allowed him to serve the entire term,” Sullivan added.