Wasserman Schultz's Republican Opponents Leib and Eddy Address 'Deep State' Within FBI

TALLAHASSEE, FL—Republican congressional opponents vying to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz promise to take on the “deep state” they say lies within Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) headquarters, hoping to root out the “career bureaucrats” they argue are preying on former President Donald Trump, who has railed against the FBI and the federal government.

“Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state," said President Trump, who fired former FBI Director James Comey and coupled the FBI with the Department of Justice as being part of the "Deep State."

One of the Republicans vying to replace Rep. Wasserman Schultz is Brigadier General Chris Eddy, a long-time, and now-retired intelligence analyst and coordinator in the FBI.

“Whether you call it deep state or bureaucracy, it's the same thing. If you want to call it the deep state—these bureaucrats that have been there 20 to 30 years run these organizations and keep the machine going, as President Trump found out,” Eddy told The Floridian, condemning special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year-long failed investigation into an alleged Trump and Russia collusion. 

The deep state, he says, “does exist,” and is “specifically against Trump,” due to the “vitriol that many in the federal government have for him that makes them not want to follow their oath of office.”

This is a stronger stance than he took during an interview with the Sun Sentinel, where he was asked twice if the deep state resides within the FBI, as Trump has long propagated.

When first asked if there was a "Deep State" within the FBI, Eddy said, "No," adding that it was the Attorney General's office.

Sun-Sentinel: Is there a Deep State within the FBI that was out to get Donald Trump?

Eddy: No. It's not the FBI. It's the Attorney General's office. The FBI works for the Attorney General. We need new leadership a the Attorney General side, and at the FBI.

Not satisfied with Eddy's explanation, the interviewer asked Eddy a second time whether he thought a  "Deep State" within the FBI existed.

Sun-Sentinel: But is there or was there a 'Deep State' within the FBI?

Eddy: “No. We have certainly had people at headquarters that were out to get Donald Trump…at the headquarters level, but the FBI is 35,000 people"

“It’s a leadership issue all from headquarters,” he added.

Eddy acknowledged that while he and his primary opponent Bryan Leib, a Public Relations CEO, “don’t agree on much”—the deep state is one area where they stand united.

A Super PAC in support of Eddy's candidacy recently sent out a campaign mailer promoting Eddy's decades-long leadership employment at the FBI.

“There is a deep state in every single branch, agency, and department of our federal government. There is most certainly a huge deep state in my opponent's former employer, the FBI. The very same FBI that raided President Trump's home,” Leib told The Floridian in a statement. “In Congress next year, I will work with my America First colleagues in the house to drain the swamp of career bureaucrats." 

The idea of the “deep state” originated soon after Trump took office, and is often branded as a far-right conspiracy theory referring to a sinister, long-standing bureaucracy operating against Trump and for “globalists, bankers, Islamists, and establishment Republicans,” one National Security Council member wrote.

The Republican primary will see Leib and Eddy face off on August 20th. Incumbent Wasserman Schultz, meanwhile, will take on her same-party opponent attorney Jen Perelman (who tried and failed to unseat Wasserman Schultz in 2020) on the same day. The winners will have to contend with write-in candidate Eddie Goldfarb, a veteran, on November 5th.