A retired former FBI agent warned Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to “be careful” and get some “very competent people” ahead of his campaign trail.
The former police officer and 2-year veteran of the FBI, who identified himself as Mike Wyatt, said:
“When I went in, it was fidelity, bravery, integrity. It broke my heart,” Wyatt said, referring to the FBI’s current state.
“This can’t be. This can’t go on.”
Ramaswamy thanked the man, at which point he said, “Jesus, be careful.”
“You mean ‘be careful,’ be careful,” the GOP contender asked the former agent.
“Yes, very careful,” the man replied.
When Ramaswamy asked what he should do, he was advised to “get some very, very competent help” and “very competent people to do some intelligence work before you went places.”
“I met a former FBI agent and his wife on the campaign trail here in Iowa,” Ramaswamy wrote in an X post shortly after the conversation.
“They agree with me: we need to root out the corruption & shut down the FBI.”
“At the local level, we have police & prosecutors.”
“At the federal level, we have U.S. marshals & the DOJ. An intermediary bureaucracy is rife with risk for politicized corruption & it’s been happening since J. Edgar Hoover in the 60s.”
Watch
I met a former FBI agent and his wife on the campaign trail here in Iowa. They agree with me: we need to root out the corruption & shut down the FBI. At the local level, we have police & prosecutors. At the federal level, we have U.S. marshals & the DOJ. An intermediary… pic.twitter.com/gt9153XyaS
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 1, 2023
Ramaswamy’s “ten commandments” of his campaign include reforming and dismantling several federal agencies.
“In many cases, these agencies are redundant relative to functions that are already performed elsewhere in the federal government,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with NBC News this past July.
Ramaswamy plans to divert funds meant for the FBI and distribute them to the U.S. Secret Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
He says this would prevent corruption by reducing the agency’s size and ensuring law enforcement duties are performed elsewhere.
READ: Biden’s FBI Now Surveilling Trump Supporters ahead of the 2024 Election
