Lousiana Senator John Kennedy has lofty expectations for the next FBI director, namely that he wants nominee Chris Wray to be like both Socrates and Dirty Harry.
During Wray’s confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Kennedy asserted, “Here’s what I’m looking for: I want you to be apolitical.”
“I don’t want you to exhaust yourself trying to make political friends up here,” Kennedy continued. “I want you to be Socrates.”
“I want you to be Dirty Harry with the bad guys,” Kennedy said, referring to a famous fictional police officer played by Clint Eastwood. “I want you to tell me how you’re going to do that in this environment.”
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Wray didn’t address his capability of filling the shoes of Socrates or Dirty Harry, but he did speak to one of Kennedy’s earlier points about the power that the FBI can have in the lives of everyday Americans.
“The people [agents] deal with…those people will remember their interaction with law enforcement in a away that people in law enforcement who do this every day may not remember quite as vividly,” Wray answered. “They need to conduct themselves in a way that keeps that in mind.”