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Will Trump fire Chris Wray? POTUS 'didn't like' FBI director's take on Antifa and Russia at House committee hearing

Wray, who replaced James Comey in 2017, called Antifa a movement and not organization and claimed Russia is playing an 'active role' to derail Joe Biden

President Donald Trump on Friday, September 18, hinted that he might fire Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Chris Wray after the latter publicly disagreed with him on Antifa and Russia. Wray, 53, was appointed by the president in 2017 following the dismissal of James Comey. 

Wray drew Trump’s ire after testifying under oath to the Congress on Thursday, September 17, that Antifa was a “movement” and not an “organization” besides warning that Russia is playing a “very active” role to discredit Trump’s presidential rival Joe Biden. It was in contradiction to Trump’s assertion that Antifa should be designated as a terrorist organization in the wake of the recent protests across American cities and claimed that Russia was more keen to see him out of office because he has been the toughest president to have acted against the Kremlin. Wray was attending the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on national security threats.

'I did not like his answers,' Trump said

On Friday, September 18, when Trump was asked at the White House ahead of his departure for a campaign rally in Minnesota, he told the media: “We're looking at a lot of different things. I did not like his answer the other day. I disagreed with him on those very important points.”

“Antifa is a bad group, they are criminals and anarchists and they are looters and rioters and everything else. I wonder why he is not saying that.”

The president also wondered why Wray did not say anything about China being a potential threat. “China is the top of the list. The big problem is China and why he doesn't want to say that, that certainly bothers me,” the poll-bound president who has often accused Biden of going soft on China, said.

Trump came up with some tweets expressing his disagreement with Wray over what he said in the testimony. In response to a video of Wray’s remarks on Russia’s threat which was posted by C-SPAN, Trump said: “But Chris, you don’t see any activity from China, even though it is a FAR greater threat than Russia, Russia, Russia. They will both, plus others, be able to interfere in our 2020 Election with our totally vulnerable Unsolicited (Counterfeit?) Ballot Scam. Check it out!” The Twitter blue-flagged the tweet to contradict the president’s claim about the mail-in voting system. 

In another tweet which was in response to the ABC News’s coverage of Wray’s talks on ‘antifa’, the president said: “..And I look at them as a bunch of well funded ANARCHISTS & THUGS who are protected because the Comey/Mueller inspired FBI is simply unable, or unwilling, to find their funding source, and allows them to get away with “murder”.  LAW & ORDER!”

If Trump eventually sacks Wray, it will be the second time that he would remove an FBI chief. In 2017, his removal of Comey set off the Robert Mueller investigation. Only one other FBI director has been fired before and it was William Sessions in 1993 when Bill Clinton was the president. 

The firing of Wray, however, could land Trump in a fresh trouble especially with the election just a month and half away. While Wray would be free to speak his mind more, the president will be faced with the task of installing a new director and also a Senate confirmation hearing that might not be too smooth.

Recently, the US intelligence community said that besides Russia, China and Iran were also eyeing to meddle in the November election to see Trump defeated. Russia, on the other hand, allegedly favors the president to get a second term.