Hey, y'all, I had already had a little debate pod plan for today, which I'm super excited about,

but wanted to talk a bit about the Chris Ray resignation first, as I think it's probably the most

significant news of the transition so far.

Bill Crystal called it a pre-surrender in the newsletter this morning. I think that is extremely apt.

To me, eventually Chris Ray was probably going to be pushed out by Donald Trump, but he was

appointed by Donald Trump. He was appointed to a 10-year term. If we weren't we weren't also numb, this would be a five-alarm fire and shocking to think that the incoming president would push out an FBI director over personal grievance with them rather than over any performance issue or scandal or anything such as that. I think from the Ray perspective,

you've got Cash Patel. Cash Patel could crack. Cash Patel might not get confirmed. And I think

he's probably going to get confirmed. But to me, that's why this is a pre-surrender. It should be

Chris Ray's obligation and other people in the government's obligation to stay for as long as they can until an action, until something precipitates their departure.

So they're forced down, forced Donald Trump's hand, forced the Senate's hand, because, you know, Cash Patel is clownish and unqualified for this job.

And who knows what might come out during a confirmation

hearing. And so to quit now and see he's going to quit January 20th, if Cash Patel isn't

confirmed, that lets Donald Trump put in some acting FBI director via the Vacancies Act and who

the hell knows who that could be. I just, I think it's a big mistake. So briefly, I want to read

Ben Wittis, a friend of the pod, wrote about this for Lawfare. You can read his whole column,

if you want. The headline is, the situation, Colin Ray rolls out the carpet for Cash Patel.

He says Ray faced no good option here, but he chose the worst. Wittes flashed back to a conversation he had in 2016 about

Jim Comey, or Jim Comey, for all his flaws, said this, if he wants to get rid of me, he's going to have

to fire me, which is exactly the right mindset in this sort of situation. Wittes then points

to Ray's longer statement. I won't bore you with the entire thing. But as Wittes describes it, it basically is a muddled, long mess, and it boils down to I didn't want to drag the FBI into a messy political fight.

As Wittes writes, one thing the Ray's statement does not address is why the right thing for the Bureau is for me to step down and avoid this fight.

How exactly will this avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into

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