2024 Presidential Candidate Wants to ‘Shut Down the FBI,’ Replace It

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has made a bold proposal to shut down the FBI and replace it with a new entity if he is elected president. During an interview with “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Ramaswamy, a businessman, suggested that he does not want to “defund the FBI” after host Chuck Todd suggested it.

Ramaswamy’s Proposal

• Shut down the FBI and replace it with a new entity
• Build a new apparatus from scratch that respects the law
• Replace the existing FBI with a new institution built from scratch to carry out federal law enforcement
• Rebuild the FBI from scratch and have something new take its place

Ramaswamy believes that the existing FBI has become too ossified in its own norms and corruption, and that it needs to be rebuilt from scratch. He stated that the new institution should be built from scratch to carry out federal law enforcement, because the existing FBI, the people who work there, have worked there for so long they’ll be getting in their own way.

Ramaswamy also proposed putting eight-year term limits on “government bureaucrats,” removing civil service protections for federal employees, firing about 50 percent of federal employees, and moving the “remaining agencies out of” Washington, D.C. He believes that if the Department of Transportation was in Ohio, it would be a different story right now.

Republican Criticism of the FBI

Republicans in recent years have become increasingly critical of the FBI, accusing the agency of targeting the political opponents of Democrats while not investigating actual criminals. Former President Donald Trump has perhaps been the chief critic of both the FBI and the Department of Justice and said both agencies have engaged in a longstanding witch hunt to politically wound him.

Ramaswamy’s proposal to shut down the FBI and replace it with a new entity is a bold move that has garnered attention. Whether or not it will gain traction remains to be seen.