Iowa U.S. Sen. Grassley: Calls to eliminate FBI ‘stupid’

JOHNSTON — Anyone who says the FBI should be eliminated is “stupid for saying it,” Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday.

Grassley made the remarks when, while recording this weekend’s episode of Iowa PBS’ “Iowa Press,” the longtime U.S. senator was asked about calls from some of his fellow Republicans to defund or even eliminate the FBI.

“Anybody that takes that position is stupid for saying it,” Grassley said. “We’ve got to have an FBI.”

The FBI has become a target of some conservatives who believe the federal agency has allowed political bias to infect its work. Grassley is among those. However, he was not willing to go as far as some Republicans, including presidential candidate and Ohio biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has called for the FBI’s elimination.

“Obviously, things aren’t right with the FBI, from my point of view,” Grassley said Friday. “But you don’t defund the FBI to make that point. You reform the FBI.”

Ramaswamy recently told USA Today that the FBI should be eliminated and replaced by a similar institution. “I think the FBI as an institution should not exist,” Ramaswamy said. “I think that that is far more practical than it sounds. … I do not believe that an institution that entrenched in its culture and way of operating can be reformed.”

Grassley also said Republicans appear hypocritical when calling to defund or eliminate the FBI after the party has spent years bludgeoning Democrats for wanting to “defund” law enforcement. Most Democrats push back at that assertion.

At least four U.S. House Republicans — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan — have called for defunding the FBI.

“For the last three or four years, we’ve been making fun of the Democrats wanting to defund the police. It’s the same thing,” Grassley said. "We don’t want to defund the police. You can’t defund the FBI.”

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, has said he would as president fire FBI Director Christopher Wray on the first day if elected.

Grassley is a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which provides oversight of the FBI and vets candidates to lead the bureau. In 2017, Grassley supported Wray’s appointment as director, and said he was “proud” to have led Wray’s confirmation through unanimous approval by the committee.

However, Grassley at the time also expressed concern about politically motivated activity within the FBI’s ranks, and said that Wray’s commitment to political independence was paramount.

“(Wray) pledged that he ‘will never allow the FBI’s work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice,’” Grassley said in a 2017 statement. “The good work of the FBI has been overshadowed recently by controversies, but I hope this confirmation turns the page and begins a new, shining chapter for our nation’s leading law enforcement agency.”

Grassley still serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but is no longer in a leadership role.

Earlier this year, Grassley testified at a hearing held by House Republicans as part of their investigation into their claim that the federal government, including the FBI, has been used against conservatives.

“It’s clear to me that the Justice Department and the FBI are suffering from a political infection that, if it’s not defeated, will cause the American people to no longer trust these storied institutions,” Grassley said at that hearing.

“Iowa Press” airs on Iowa PBS at 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon on Sunday, and can be viewed online at iowapbs.org.

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