351 Keeping Chris Christie’s Bridgegate Lawyer as FBI Director Was President Joe’s First Mistake
🧨 Chapter Title: Keeping Chris Christie’s Bridgegate Lawyer as FBI Director Was President Joe’s First Mistake
🧠Setup Paragraph: The First Disappointment
Wow—that didn’t take long. Biden’s decision to keep Christopher Wray as FBI Director wasn’t surprising. I expected it. But it was still disappointing. It confirmed the Democrats’ historic timidity on all matters FBI.
Wray is technically an “independent.” But he was also Chris Christie’s personal attorney during the Bridgegate scandal. And in the FBI’s 115-year history, we’ve never had a Democratic Director.
By the end of Wray’s tenure—presumably 2029—we’ll be looking at 120 years of Republican control over the FBI.
đź“Ž FN: The Mensch Ban
As I documented in Chapter Mensch, Schindler banned me from his gated tweets—tweets I’d paid for—after I pointed out this banal fact. He dismissed it by saying some GOP Directors were picked by Democrats. Which is about as meaningful as saying we’ve never had a female President, but millions of women vote for male nominees every four years—so there’s no sexism.
🧱 Sidebar: The Rhee Bluff
I didn’t expect Joe to fire Wray. But I’d hoped to be surprised. EmptyWheel floated Jeanne Rhee as a possible FBI Director—not as a serious proposal, but as a bluff. The idea was to scare Trump into keeping Wray.
I took it more seriously than she did. I tweeted about it multiple times before the Inauguration. Most Democrats—Schiff included—saw Wray as the optimal choice.
🧨 Modular Insert: The Institutionalist Reflex
Barack Obama kept Comey. Biden kept Wray. Clinton and Carter kept Hoover’s legacy intact. The Democratic instinct is always the same: Defer to the Bureau.
Murshed Zaheed had it right: Biden should’ve fired Wray on Day One. Instead, he confirmed Wray’s retention almost immediately—his first official act post-Inauguration.
🧱 Sidebar: The Wray Endorsement Parade
Jen Psaki tweeted that Biden had “confidence in the job [Wray] is doing.” Adam Schiff celebrated the decision. This was particularly ironic.
Schiff had previously threatened to subpoena Wray for stonewalling Congress on the counterintelligence investigation. Wray didn’t take him seriously. And Schiff recovered his patience quickly.
See Chapter: Working the Refs
🧠Anchor Paragraph: The Why Matters
I would’ve been fine with Wray being fired. But not by Trump—and not for the reasons Trump would’ve had. The problem isn’t just who gets fired. It’s why. Process matters. And a major part of process is context.
Biden had the chance to make a clean break from Trump’s FBI. Instead, he chose continuity. And continuity with sabotage is complicity.
🧨 Section Title: The Norm That Deserved to Be Broken
🧠Setup Paragraph: The First Norm Biden Should’ve Shattered
Keeping the FBI Director for a full term is a norm. But some norms deserve to be broken. Trump already shattered plenty. After the GOP sabotage of 2016, it’s not “too partisan” to ask for the first Democratic FBI Director in 112 years. By the end of Wray’s term, it’ll be 120.
🧱 Sidebar: The FBI Is a Very Republican Place
In August 2021, Senator Ron Wyden called out Wray’s FBI for favoritism toward GOP-led committees—just as Comey had shown in 2016.
Wyden’s letter revealed that the FBI was providing documents to Republicans without informing Democrats. Sometimes Democrats weren’t even told those documents existed.
“Providing access to documents for review by Republican staffers without notice to, or inclusion of, Democratic staff is unacceptable.” — Sen. Ron Wyden, POLITICO, Aug. 2021
Unacceptable—but part of a long FBI tradition. See Chapter: The FBI Is a Very Republican Place
🧨 Modular Insert: Extraordinary and Unique Circumstances
The FBI claimed its favoritism was due to “extraordinary and unique circumstances.” That phrase should sound familiar.
Comey once called Trey Gowdy’s demands for anti-Clinton disclosures a “500-year flood.” But Russian interference in a U.S. election? That wasn’t “extraordinary” apparently in the view o
f Trumplandthe FBI.
🧠Anchor Paragraph: The Reassurance That Wasn’t
At the time, the FBI claimed this sort of thing wouldn’t happen again. Wyden said FBI staffers described it as an “oversight” that would be “remedied going forward.” But they refused to confirm whether the GOP investigations even served a valid legislative purpose.
“Providing highly sensitive information to committees without clear jurisdiction… would not be repeated.” That was the promise. But the pattern hasn’t changed. And I, for one, am not reassured. Don’t really understand how it would reassure anyone.
đź“Ž FN Cascade
- Wyden’s letter on FBI favoritism:
- Roger Stone on Comey Letter sent only to Republicans:
- Comey’s “500-year flood” framing:
🧨 Section Title: Oops, They Did It Again
🧠Setup Paragraph: The FBI’s Pattern of Obstruction
Why would FBI aides “decline to discuss” whether GOP-led investigations served a valid legislative purpose—unless they did not? If they had determined the investigations were valid, they’d have used that as a talking point it’s fair to presume. Their silence is the answer.
This was August 2020. If you found the FBI’s assurances that “this won’t happen again” reassuring, you might want to sit down for this one. As Britney Spears would say—if she were FBI Director—oops, they did it again.
🧱 Sidebar: Whitehouse Wasn’t Snowed
In March 2021, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse criticized the FBI for stonewalling Congress:
“It’s just not tolerable to have an agency of government… that won’t answer questions for years at a time.” — CBS News, March 2021
He grilled Wray about the Bureau’s responsiveness. Wray cited an “elaborate interagency process.” He said he was “frustrated” too. And that “we need to get better.”
Maybe pretend Schiff, Wyden, and Whitehouse are Republicans. Then the process would be much improved.
When asked if he had faith the FBI would change, Whitehouse replied:
“No. They’re going to have to prove it to me.”
That was almost two years ago. Have they proved it to him yet? I don’t think so.
🧨 Modular Insert: The Democratic Paradox
Whitehouse and Wyden are outliers. Most Congressional Democrats still treat the FBI as a “nonpartisan, independent” institution. But the history—going back to J. Edgar—shows otherwise.
See Chapter: The FBI Is a Very Republican Place
đź“Ž FN Cascade
- FBI favoritism toward GOP committees:
- Whitehouse on FBI stonewalling:
- FBI’s “elaborate interagency process”:
- FBI’s handling of Brett Kavanaugh investigation:
- Peter Strzok deposition ruling:
🧠Anchor Paragraph: The Norm That Failed
During the Trump years, keeping Wray made tactical sense. He was the best we could expect under Trump. But Biden’s election was supposed to be a reset. Instead, Democrats fell into two traps:
- Wanting someone just because Trump didn’t
- Mistaking “better than Trump’s worst” for “good enough”
Keeping Wray was Biden’s first mistake. It was also his first official act. And far from his last—Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is still here.
🧱 Sidebar: President Biden’s First Mistake Far From His Last
The title of this chapter is that Christopher Wray was President Biden’s first mistake. It was far from his last.
Louis DeJoy nearly sabotaged mail voting in 2020. He slashed overtime, gutted rural delivery, and dismantled sorting machines. He gave himself an “A” for a plan that slowed down prescriptions, paychecks, and ballots.
James Murray, Trump’s handpicked Secret Service Director, oversaw the agency during January 6. He delayed his retirement amid a criminal investigation into missing Secret Service texts from that day.
Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent turned Trump White House aide, was central to the SUV incident described by Cassidy Hutchinson. He allegedly briefed Trump on armed rally attendees and later denied key details under oath. Multiple former Trump officials accused him of lying to protect the boss.
If the Postmaster General is literally impossible to fire, maybe it’s too powerful a position. But I don’t buy it. If DeJoy isn’t gone, it’s because Biden lacks the political will—worried it’ll look “mean.”
I think it’s quite arguable at this point that certain leftist streamers a la Hasan and Vaush are so suffused by Biden Derangement Syndrome they can’t see the forest for the trees-believe it or not Vaush may have fallen more inextricably to this particular intellectual rabbit hole than even Hasan post election. At the end of the day we’re not going to finally crush the infamous thing a la Voltaire that is Trumpian fascism by running against Joe Biden or rehashing over and over again what happened in 2024. But let’s be clear I may be a shitlib, I may even be the shitlib’s shitlib but that doesn’t prevent me from having my own criticism of Joe-difference being mine is construcitve while Vaush’s becomes a self defeating mental coledsac.
🧨 Modular Insert: The Six Mistakes of President Joe
First Mistake: Keeping Christopher Wray Trump’s FBI Director. Christie’s Bridgegate lawyer. Biden’s first official act was to keep him. See Chapter: Keeping Wray
Second Mistake: Keeping Louis DeJoy The Postmaster General who slowed mail delivery before the 2020 election. Slashed overtime. Dismantled sorting machines. Still in office. Still sabotaging.
Third Mistake: Keeping Tony Ornato Secret Service agent turned Trump White House aide. Allegedly briefed Trump on armed rally attendees. Denied key January 6 details under oath. Accused by multiple officials of lying to protect Trump.
Fourth Mistake: Keeping James Murray Secret Service Director on January 6. Oversaw the agency during missing text scandal. Delayed retirement amid criminal investigation. Left quietly. Was never fired. Went on to collect nice, fat, pension.
Fifth Mistake: Failure to Advocate Filibuster Reform Biden expressed “profound disappointment” when the Senate blocked voting rights legislation. But he never made filibuster reform a non-negotiable priority. Manchin and Sinema held the line. Democracy paid the price.
Sixth Mistake: Failure to Call for Court Expansion Biden finally endorsed Supreme Court term limits. But term limits take decades to matter. Without court expansion, the Trump-packed majority remains untouched. Age limits mean nothing without structural change.
🧱 Sidebar: The Filibuster as Institutional Sabotage
With all the interminable debates over 2024-the Biden Derangement Syndrome, the obsession over Biden mental acuity trutherism a la Jake Tapper-the fact that his sales were absolutely roadkill is one small counterexample maybe there is a God-and the debate over Kamala Harris-why is she disqualified from running again just because she lost an election that narrative curiously never applied when Trump started planning to run in 2024 pretty much the day after January 6-what no one has talked about is the filibuster. But until and when and if the Democrats do something about it we will NEVER be a democratic country again.
On general principle I’m completely opposed to the litmus test-including the desire of some on the Left to make Gaza an absolute litmus test. To be sure I agree generally with them on Gaza but don’t agree with the litmus test thing-which only helps the Right wing as it did in 1968 over Vietnam. The one litmus test I would agree with is the filibuster. Every candidate SHOULD have a plan for ending it as otherwise there’s no way to finally rescue our democracy.
The filibuster isn’t a guardrail. It’s a choke point. A procedural weapon used to block civil rights, voting rights, and climate action—while preserving the illusion of bipartisan decorum.
It’s been used to stall anti-lynching laws, delay desegregation, and kill voting protections. It’s not a neutral tool. It’s a historically racist mechanism dressed up as Senate tradition.
Biden expressed “profound disappointment” when voting rights legislation was blocked. But he never made filibuster reform a non-negotiable priority. He never said: Drop it or democracy dies.
Manchin and Sinema held the line. And Biden let them.
The filibuster isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed. And that design is sabotage. Sabotage us EVER realizing the promise of multiracial democracy.