Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke Wild Card To Replace Comey As FBI Chief

MILWAUKEE, WI — Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a rising star among law-and-order conservatives and a brash TV pundit, is reportedly a wild card pick to replace fired FBI director James Comey for a 10-year term. President Trump unexpectedly sacked the FBI chief Tuesday, saying he had mishandled the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal.

Clarke, whose name appears on several lists of possible Comey replacements that surfaced Wednesday, would be an unusual and risky choice. A Trump loyalist who acted as a surrogate during the campaign and spoke at the Republican National Convention, his appointment would likely be seen as highly political in an agency designed to function independently of politics.

Clarke, who has been mentioned for an undersecretary position with the Department of Homeland Security, has big deficits, too, including an inquest that ended with a recommendation for felony charges against seven jail officials in the death of an inmate who went seven days without water in Clarke’s jail.

Some others said to be under consideration to replace Comey include:

• Ray Kelly, the New York City police commissioner in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks;
• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has strong law enforcement credentials as a former U.S. attorney in New Jersey but a big deficit in the Bridgegate scandal;
• South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy, who led the House committee investigation of Clinton’s handling of the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi;
• Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente of the Justice Department's national security division, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department who was tapped to lead the agency’s investigation of possible collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself;
• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, like Clarke, a fierce Trump ally whose appointment would likely be seen as highly partisan;
• Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, currently the vice chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council and former Boston Police Department commissioner and Los Angeles police chief;
• John Pistole, president of Anderson University in Indiana. former administrator of the Transportation Security Administration under President Barack Obama and former deputy director of the FBI under President George W. Bush;
• Andrew McCabe, Comey’s deputy director since February 2016 and currently the acting FBI director, but he’s an agency insider with direct involvement in both the FBI’s Tump-Russia probe and the inquiry into Clinton’s emails.

Among them, Clarke is considered one of the least likely, according to Heavy.com, which wrote:

“It seems unlikely that the search would end up with Clarke, the Milwaukee County Sheriff because he doesn’t have much experience as a prosecutor or an investigator. But crazier things have happened so far during Trump’s presidency, and his name has been thrown around as an early replacement for director.”

Trump’s surprise firing of Comey sparked backlash on both sides of the aisle due to its timing amidst the Trump-Russia probe, and whoever he picks is sure to come under fierce scrutiny in Senate confirmation hearings. A former FBI official told Reuters the “White House has to avoid all politicos if they are going to get through the Senate.”

Clarke, who offered searing criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement at Trump’s nominating convention last fall, is nothing if not political, sharing with the president a propensity for bombastic and sometimes incendiary remarks.

He has called Trump protesters “anarchists” who “must be quelled.” He boasted “you heard it here first” in an October 2015 tweet speculating the “Black Lives Matter will join forces with ISIS to bring down our constituted republic.” He's also a member of an anti-government extremist group, Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, monitored by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization that keeps track of hate groups.

Clarke was widely criticized in January after he ordered a man held at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee for shaking his head at him during a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Milwaukee. The four-term sheriff interpreted the head shaking as menacing and ordered his deputies to detain the man when the flight landed. The passenger filed a formal complaint, and Clarke fired back on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, calling the complainant a “snowflake” in a meme that stated: “Cheer up, Snowflake. If Sheriff Clarke were to really harass you, you wouldn’t be around to whine about it.”

Clarke has not only survived the criticism but seems to invite and relish it, if only to bolster his status as an authentic American hero among conservatives. He is a regular on Fox News and has the backing of the powerful National Rifle Association, whose members cheered Clarke’s suggestion in a keynote address to add an assault rifle to the national seal.

Clarke had been mentioned for a Cabinet-level position as Homeland Security secretary but was passed over. He still could be appointed as assistant secretary at DHS’s Office of Partnership and Engagement.

Clarke hasn’t been approached by the White House, he told Fox Business, dismissing chatter about his possible appointment as “the kind of political theater this opens up — the short list, the long list.”

“My name has been mentioned. I try not to get into that. I'm focused on what I’m doing right now. It’s an honor to be talked about in that sort of thing, but the only person whose opinion matters in this, in terms of who the next director will be, is President Donald Trump,” Clarke said.

Trump hasn’t tipped his hand, but said in a tweet that Comey’s replacement will bring back “the spirit and prestige of the FBI.” He previously had tweeted that Comey had “lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike.”