Cornyn declines top post at FBI
Calls growing for new director from outside of politics
WASHINGTON — Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn bowed out of contention Tuesday as a possible replacement for fired FBI Director James Comey, ending speculation about what might otherwise have been a wide-open scramble for his long-held Senate seat.
Cornyn’s decision came three days after he interviewed for the FBI job with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a week after President Donald Trump summarily fired Comey, the face of the agency’s controversial inquiries into Hillary Clinton’s emails and possible links between Trump campaign associates and the Russian government.
“Now more than ever the country needs a well-credentialed, independent FBI director,” Cornyn said in a statement. “I’ve informed the administration that I’m committed to helping them find such an individual and that the best way I can serve is continuing to fight for a conservative agenda in the U.S. Senate.”
Cornyn’s move came amid bipartisan calls for an FBI director from outside the political arena, with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell floating the name of federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s failed pick for the Supreme Court.
Cornyn’s decision also averted a fresh leadership struggle in the Senate, as well as a reshuffling of the Republican political deck in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott would have been required to appoint a temporary successor pending a special election.
Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, was arguably the most prominent prospect for the job to
lead and stabilize the FBI, which has been shaken by Trump’s dismissal of Comey amid an inquiry of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Cornyn, 65, was one of 14 people who had emerged as candidates, eight of whom met over the weekend with Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Had Cornyn been tapped for the position at the FBI, he would have left vacant a U.S. Senate seat he has occupied since 2002.
“Working for 28 million Texans in the U.S. Senate is an honor I never expected to have, and one I cherish each and every day,” Cornyn said. “I’m eager to continue working with the administration and the rest of my colleagues to make Texas and our country stronger.”
It was never clear how much Cornyn wanted the FBI job or whether he was considering it out of a sense of obligation to the administration. In a statement on Friday after his name was first floated in public, he downplayed interest in the job, saying his “focus” remained on representing Texas.
Those who know him say he is happy in the Senate, where he has cultivated comfortable relationships, mastered the chamber’s traditions and enjoyed respect on both sides of the aisle. By comparison, the FBI post is expected to remain at the center of lingering tensions between Senate Democrats and an embattled Trump administration, whose inner workings have often appeared chaotic.
“It’s probably the right move for him,” said Austin GOP strategist Brendan Steinhauser, who managed Cornyn’s third Senate campaign in 2014. “He’s in a great position right now and is making a big impact in Congress. He will continue to be a consequential senator and party leader for years to come.”
The fallout from the Comey firing has cast a shadow on the selection process to replace him. Trump has variously attributed his decision to “this Russia thing” and to Comey’s controversial handling of the Clinton email probe. The partisan furor has underscored the need for an impartial and independent director.
Cornyn, like other Republican leaders in the House and Senate, has defended Trump’s decision to fire Comey, arguing that he had lost the confidence of the president, ostensibly because of the Clinton email investigation.
Democrats have rejected that explanation, noting that Trump praised Comey’s actions during the 2016 election. Cornyn has called the charge that Comey was fired to squash the Russia investigation a “phony narrative.”
Cornyn declined to say whether the Russia investigation came up during his Saturday interview with Sessions. The attorney general has recused himself from the inquiry after he failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation hearings that he had met twice with a Russian ambassador during the campaign.
Asked Monday whether he saw any conflict in Sessions’ involvement in finding a new FBI director, Cornyn told reporters “he didn’t recuse from being attorney general.”
As McConnell’s top lieutenant, analysts say Cornyn would have been seen as a partisan selection too deeply enmeshed in the political skirmishes of Congress. Leading lawmakers in both parties have called on Trump to pick an FBI director from outside politics.
In line with that sentiment, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican who oversaw the House Benghazi committee, also withdrew his name Tuesday.
McConnell said he has recommended that Trump pick Garland, the same jurist Republicans blocked from Senate consideration as President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
“Yeah, it may surprise people,” McConnell told Bloomberg Politics, “but he has a deep background in criminal law … and I think it would make it clear that President Trump will continue the tradition at the FBI of having an apolitical professional.”
Though Republicans hold a 52-seat majority in the Senate, McConnell said it would be “good” to have Democratic support for a new FBI director.
Garland, the chief judge for the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, was first floated as an FBI choice by Utah Republican Mike Lee, one of the Senate’s leading conservatives. Garland’s selection also would afford Trump an opportunity to fill a new vacancy on one of the nation’s most important federal benches.
Democrats, still furious about McConnell’s refusal to allow Garland’s Supreme Court nomination to go forward, have remained largely silent about his possible selection for the FBI job.