Dan Abrams Dismantles Ron Johnson’s ‘Phony Political Crusade’ Against the FBI: ‘We Need the FBI Focused On Keeping Us Safe’

On Wednesday’s edition of NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live, host (and Mediaite owner) Dan Abrams excoriated accusations of partisanship in the FBI by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), calling out his “phony political crusade” against the country’s top law enforcement agency.

For a little context, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday where he defended himself against accusations of partisanship in his agency, including from Johnson, who raged at Wray over his handling of the Hunter Biden case compared to cases involving Republicans. In response, Wray — a lifelong Republican as well as an appointee of former GOP President Donald Trump — said the “idea” that he’s biased against Republicans “makes no sense.”

But Abrams, while impressed with Wray’s “amazing” response, was more concerned with the constant undermining of the FBI and law enforcement by the party that claims to be the “law and order” party, especially when the United States is facing real threats at home and abroad:

Fentanyl. Cyber attacks. China. The FBI’s identifying any threat to America, even rushed up to Maine to help in the manhunt for that mass shooter. And now the biggest threat to our safety is possible terrorism. As the war in Gaza intensifies, Director Wray is warning that it’s not just the Middle East seeing an elevated threat level, but here at home, too.

All of this makes Johnson’s beef with the FBI even more baffling when you consider he was chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee for six years (up until 2021). But as Abrams noted, “just appreciating law enforcement, as I do, it doesn’t get you attention. Attacking them does.”

Abrams played Johnson’s attack, which was not about the real security issues facing Americans, but Hunter Biden, the legally-embattled son of President Joe Biden. Johnson’s claim is that he “simply cannot trust” the FBI to do its job when it won’t go after the son of a Democratic president but instead focuses on Republicans.

Abrams swiftly tore down Johnson’s argument, naming several FBI-led cases against high-profile Democrats and concluded:

The FBI has targeted Democrats when they seemingly deserve it, and Republicans when they’re the alleged offenders. And even if Senator Johnson wants to create a sort of phony political crusade to attack the FBI to appeal to his base, this isn’t the time to do it. We need the FBI focused on keeping us safe. …

[T]his silly push to turn the FBI into a politicized caricature puts our safety in jeopardy.

Watch the full segment above via NewsNation.