The legal troubles surrounding former President Trump and President Biden's son, Hunter, have made the FBI a common target for 2024 Republican presidential candidates and some members of the House GOP. After the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate for classified documents last year, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), called to defund the FBI on X, formerly known as Twitter, USA Today reports. This position has been reiterated by other members of the House, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as federal and state investigations focus on Trump and House Republicans investigate Junter Biden's business dealings abroad.
Some allege that the agency is “weaponized” against conservatives and have called for the Trump-appointed FBI director Christopher Wray to step down. On the campaign trail, 37-year-old biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy took the calls a step further and said he would shut down the FBI and replace it with a similar agency. “I think the FBI as an institution should not exist,” Ramaswamy said. “I think that that is far more practical than it sounds…I do not believe that an institution that entrenched in its culture and way of operating can be reformed." Defunding the FBI would mean many resources for law enforcement would likely be missed says David Super, a constitutional law expert at Georgetown University. The FBI has the resources to compete toe-to-toe with sophisticated adversaries, such as drug cartels, other organized crime and the intelligence services of foreign countries wanting to spy on the U.S., he said.