Up First from NPR
FBI Director Wray To Step Down, U.S. Life Expectancy, DNC Seeks New Leadership
12 Dec 2024
What does a change at the top mean for the FBI? Director Christopher Wray announced he will resign next month. Shooting an insurance executive in the back produced a disturbing response about America's healthcare industry. The Democratic National Committee is meeting in Washington over the next two days to reflect on the election results and hear pitches from candidates for leadership positions.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Diane Webber, Megan Pratz, HJ Mai and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Ben Abrams. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
What does a change at the top mean for the FBI?
Director Christopher Wray is resigning. President-elect Trump appointed him in 2017, but now he wants a nominee who promised retribution for Trump's critics.
I'm Steve Inskeep with A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. shooting an insurance executive in the back produced a disturbing response, and that includes real-life conversations about health care. So our correspondent pursues a question. Why do we spend so much on health care for a life expectancy that is comparatively low?
And what do Democrats want from their next party chair? The Democratic National Committee is meeting in Washington over the next two days to reflect on the election results and hear pitches from candidates. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
We now know how the FBI director will respond to the president-elect who wants to replace him.
President-elect Trump appointed Christopher Wray during his first term back in 2017, but now Trump wants to nominate a loyalist, Kash Patel, and made it clear he wants Wray to go. The director says he will step down at the end of the Biden administration next month and three years before the end of his term.
NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this story, and he's come by our studios very early this morning. Ryan, good to see you.
Good morning. So how did Ray explain his decision? Well, Ray made this announcement in a town hall that he had yesterday with FBI employees. And what he said is that he's given this a lot of thought, and he came to the conclusion that stepping down in January with the change in administration is the right thing to do for the FBI.
He said this is the best way to avoid, as he put it, dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray. He also said this. This is not easy for me. I love this place. I love our mission, and I love our people. But my focus is and always has been on us saying, and on doing what's right for the FBI.
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