Ron DeSantis plans to fire Chris Wray and ‘clean house’ at DOJ & health agencies

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has laid out his vision to shake up the federal government, vowing to “clean house” in the Justice Department and executive branch health agencies.

“We’re going to have a reckoning for CDC, NIH, and the FDA,” the Republican presidential candidate told the “Just the News, No Noise” program in an interview set to air Thursday night on Real America’s Voice.

“They’re approving, on an emergency basis, MRNA COVID jabs for six-month-old babies,” added DeSantis, 44. “There was no data to support that. There was no benefit shown to that.”

DeSantis vaulted to political stardom among conservatives for his resistance to strict COVID-19 lockdown, mask and vaccine mandates that public health officials repeatedly advocated.

“They were pursuing a political agenda, and the politics and the narrative were more important to them than the evidence and the science,” he told Just The News.

DeSantis also called out major pharmaceutical companies, saying that “the power … that they exert over the healthcare system and over physicians is huge.”

“It’s totally unhealthy for our society how they basically control the FDA,” he said. “Because there’s a revolving door, how some of these people in the bureaucracy get royalties for different things. It is a swamp.”

DeSantis also confirmed that one of his first acts if elected president will be to dismiss FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has been in the job since 2017.

“I’m going to go in, new FBI director on day one, clean out the Department of Justice,” he vowed.

Wray’s term is set to run until 2027, but Republicans have railed against his leadership following a spate of allegations that the bureau has been weaponized against conservatives.

DeSantis also said he wanted to appoint an attorney general with a strong “backbone.”

“That is the most important thing because when you go in there, the Department of Justice has become the left’s little playpen. They think they own it, you know, 99% donations to Democrats, and they obviously weaponize that,” he said.

“So if you’re going in there, and you’re cleaning house, you are going to be pilloried by CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post. So you have to be somebody who relishes that,” he continued.

The Florida governor’s campaign is trying to regain its mojo after shedding roughly one-third of its staffers and reorganizing its hierarchy following reports of donor concern about overspending.

“It’s really about just focusing on what matters, which is these early states at the end of the day,” DeSantis explained. “We’re going to be lighter at the headquarters, but we’re going to start adding more people in the early stage fields.”