Republican Candidate Gets Booed for Refusing to Weaken the FBI
Jose Nino
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Kevin Smith, a Republican who is running for New Hampshire’s United States Senate, was booed on August 14, 2022 while he fielded questions about whether he’s in favor of a proposal to defang the FBI or classify it as a terrorist organization.
Smith was participating in a political debate that the Government Integrity Project hosted on August 14. Smith is a former member of New Hampshire’s House of Representatives. He was one of three Republicans during this debate.
According to Meghan Roos of Newsweek, Smith, Don Bolduc and Bruce Fenton are three of the 11 candidates running in New Hampshire’s Republican primary election set to be held on September 13. They are vying to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, who is running for a second term in office.
Well into the debate, debate moderator and investigative journalist Heather Mullins brought up an article featured at the The Epoch Times authored by conservative writer Victor Davis Hanson, in which he called for dismantling the FBI and having other US security agencies assume its roles.
This article came out several days after FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.
Mullins asked Smith, Bolduc and Fenton if they were in agreement with Hanson’s sentiments.
Bolduc declared that he agreed “100%,” while Fenton said the FBI should be completely abolished and replaced “with nothing.” On the other hand, Smith put forward a milquetoast position where he said the FBI’s leadership needs to be reviewed.
“It’s the senior levels of the FBI that need to be investigated here. We do have fine, very good men and women agents at much lower levels that just want to do their jobs and don’t want to work in a politicized agency,” Smith stated. “You have to have a total top-to-bottom changeover in leadership.”
Then, Mullins asked Smith if he supports the concept of designating the FBI as a terrorist organization. Smith does not agree with the idea.
“I believe, at its core, it’s a good institution,” he declared while audience members began booing. Smith believes that there are “fine men and women in that institution who want to do their jobs who do want to protect us.”
Smith stressed that he “always” has been “a big supporter of law enforcement” at all levels of government — local, state, and federal.
“We have some bad actors right now in these agencies. And those bad actors need to be weeded out, they need to be investigated and they need to be thrown out,” he remarked. “But I don’t think we have to get rid of the whole thing, kit and caboodle.”
These boos directed at Smith were justified. In these trying times, being a warmed over centrist is unacceptable on issues of the Deep State.
These institutions cannot be reformed nor re-shuffled. They must get the ax. Or at least face great pressure from state governments that are willing to mobilize national and state guard units to expel these federal functionaries.
One thing is certain, Mr. Nice Guy politics are over.
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