Patel and former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan are the frontrunners to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, who Trump appointed in 2017 after firing then-FBI Director James Comey. McCabe expressed nervousness about Trump potentially choosing Patel, a former Trump administration official, as Wray’s replacement, saying Patel would be more dangerous as the agency’s number two person.

“No part of the FBI’s mission is safe with Kash Patel in any position of leadership in the FBI and certainly not in the deputy director’s job. So just as a… as an example, the deputy director job in the FBI is unique because, of course, the director is a political appointee and the and the deputy director is typically a senior FBI agent, somebody who spent their entire career learning about the FBI, understanding its people and doing its work. So the deputy director actually runs the FBI on a day to day basis,” McCabe told CNN host Kaitlan Collins. “You’re essentially the chief operating officer.””

“I can tell you from my own experience, there is no way I could have successfully performed in that role without having spent the first ten years of my career doing criminal work in the FBI and the next 10 years doing national security work. The scope of authority is enormous. I think I had about 78 or 80 direct reports when I served as FBI director, deputy director, 56 of those people ran entire field offices,” McCabe continued. “So you are enmeshed in every aspect of the FBI’s work if you enter into that position with nothing more than a desire to disrupt and destroy the organization, um, there is a lot of damage someone like Kash Patel could do in a position like deputy director at the FBI you mentioned that director is a political job puts it in there.”

McCabe was fired as deputy director of the FBI in 2018 following an inspector general’s report that accused him of lying about leaks to the media, but the firing was reversed in 2021 following a legal settlement after President Joe Biden took office.

Patel served as a public defender before working with then- Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee. Patel also served in multiple national security positions, including chief of staff for acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

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