Former Trump National Security Council Member Michael Anton Calls for the Abolition of the FBI
Jose Nino
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During a speech he gave on September 13, 2022 at the National Conservatism conference, Michael Anton, a former US National Security Council member under former President Donald Trump, declared that national security agencies pose an existential threat to the American Right and countless other Americans.
At this speech in Miami, Florida, Anton also declared that national security agencies were ineffective in international affairs.
Anton called attention to how conservatives tend to be more critical of federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, which largely concentrates on domestic matters, but usually have warmer views of defense and national security agencies.
The Lecturer in Politics and Research Fellow at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center believes that conservatives must change their attitudes towards the defense and intelligence communities. He took it to another level by calling for wholesale reforms of agencies and even the break-up of the CIA and the potential abolition of the FBI.
“I think we need to have a serious national debate: Do we need a federal law enforcement agency? It’s not clear to me that we do,” he stated. “State law enforcement agencies can do most of the legitimate functions of the FBI. If we conclude that we do need an FBI, then it has to be purged … the people who are responsible for so much of the nastiness of the last five or six years have got to be punished, and then the FBI needs to be refocused on law enforcement only, specifically those things that states can’t handle very well.”
Ultimately, Anton believes that conservatives should exercise more skepticism towards the so-called “security state.” In this case, Anton is referring to federal agencies tasked with handling national security affairs. In his estimation, national security agencies fail to keep Americans safe, are major boosters of perpetual interventions abroad, and are now being used against the American people.
Anton is the author of the famous “The Flight 93 Election” essay where he made the case for voting in favor of Donald Trump against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. He’s one of the leading voices of the New Right who is challenging the conventional wisdom that has permeated the traditionally neoconservative-dominated Right.
Federal agencies like the FBI are not only unconstitutional but they also pose existential threats to Middle Americans. They ultimately must be destroyed, not reformed. More conservatives should embrace Anton’s mindset and start standing up to the national security state.
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