FBI Director Christopher Wray was boasting to senators three days ago that his agency is stuffed with competent, professional people.
“I would say that my experience, now six months in with the FBI, has validated all my prior experiences with the FBI, which is that it is the finest group of professionals and public servants I could hope to work for,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday.
That statement didn’t age well.
A day later, a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at his former school in Florida, killing 17. And by Friday, the FBI revealed it had a clear warning that the shooter was a threat, and dropped the ball.
Protocol said the warning should have been transmitted to the FBI Miami Field Office, but that never happened.
“We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the [Public Access Line] on January 5,” the FBI said. “The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.”
Wray didn’t apologize, but said FBI officials “deeply regret the additional pain this causes to all those affected by this horrific tragedy.”
He also said he is “committed to getting to the bottom of what happened.”
But we can already guess what happened. Most likely it’s the usual thing. People in government jobs failed to perform them, and lives were lost as a result.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he would investigate. Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott was already recommending that Wray be fired for the failure.
“Seventeen innocent people are dead and acknowledging a mistake isn’t going to cut it,” Scott said. “An apology will never bring these 17 Floridians back to life or comfort the families who are in pain.”
What can we do? Not much, except perhaps explore how much lower this chart can go:
