Former Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, who lost his Senate bid this month, isn't being considered to head the FBI, said Dan Scavino, an adviser and social media director for President-elect Donald Trump.
"Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI," Scavino wrote on X on Friday. "It's not happening — In his own words, 'I have never even given it a thought.' Not happening."
Trump hasn't spoken directly on social media about Rogers, but Scavino's comments came after an outcry from Trump supporters who thought Rogers would be considered to replace FBI Director Christopher Wray, The Daily Mail reported.
Rogers is a former FBI agent who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, and rumors started spreading that he was being considered to head the agency after he met with Trump transition team members.
But key MAGA supporters protested that idea after old social media posts Rogers resurfaced.
He concluded in 2017 that the Russians had interfered in the 2016 election and warned that it was a "clear and present danger to our democracy," and was a co-founder of The Alliance for Security Democracy, which critics have slammed as a "deep-state Never Trump" organization.
The project was brought together by former establishment national security advisers who created the Hamilton 68 project to target social media accounts as sources of Russian disinformation.
Rogers also has previously praised former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, one of Trump's fiercest critics.
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe also endorsed Rogers as the new FBI director while warning about Trump choosing Kash Patel, a MAGA loyalist.
"It's inconceivable to me that an outsider with no experience in the organization, no knowledge of the work and the scope of authority that's involved there could perform adequately," McCabe said.
Patel, who served during Trump's first term in office at the National Security Council and Defense Department, often speaks out about the national security and intelligence establishment being filled with "deep state" operatives and has vowed to reform the agencies.
"I'd shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state, and I'd take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals," Patel said in a recent podcast interview with Shawn Ryan. "Go be cops. You're cops. Go be cops."
Patel has also drawn support for fighting accusations that the 2016 Trump campaign had colluded with Russia.
He has served as a senior counterterrorism director on the National Security Council, as acting director in the Office of National Intelligence, and as the principal deputy to the acting director of the Department of Defense.