Rick Scott: The FBI Director Must Resign (for a Mistake He Didn’t Make)

Not-so-great Scott. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Earlier this week, Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people at a South Florida high school with a legally purchased AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Last month, someone who knew Cruz warned an FBI tip line that the 19-year-old owned guns, had a “desire to kill people,” and could potentially target a local school. Under FBI protocols, this information should have been forwarded to the Bureau’s Miami field office — but it was not, the FBI revealed in a statement Friday.

Christopher Wray has been the director of the FBI since last September. He has had no involvement in managing the Bureau’s tip line or Miami field office, and thus, had no means of knowing that the latter had failed to follow up on a tip about Cruz.

Rick Scott has been governor of Florida for seven years. Throughout that time, he has done everything in his power to ensure that people like Nikolas Cruz would be able to legally purchase AR-15 assault rifles. Scott is literate and has access into the internet, so he had a means of knowing that such weapons have been repeatedly used to perpetrate mass shootings in the United States, and that banning assault weapons has effectively reduced the incidence of mass shootings in other nations.

In your estimation, which of these two individuals bears more responsibility for failing to prevent Cruz’s crime?

Rick Scott has his answer:

Surely, this call is motivated by Scott’s careful, disinterested analysis of all relevant facts — and not by a desire to deflect attention away from the governor’s A+ NRA rating, or to abet the president’s efforts to “purge” the FBI of “disloyal” elements.

Rick Scott: The FBI Director Needs to Resign