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Missouri’s attorney general has been named co-deputy director of the FBI. He’s a veteran and has been in office for two years. He’s opposed abortion and backed Donald Trump. St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum reports.
JASON ROSENBAUM, BYLINE: Republican Andrew Bailey surprised many when he accepted the FBI position. He said last year, while running for a new term, that he was focused on being state attorney general.
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ANDREW BAILEY: I got to grow up in a Missouri that enjoyed freedom, safety, prosperity. I want to – I want my kids and your listeners’ kids and grandkids to get to enjoy those things as well. And if we don’t have people who are willing to put their names on the line and stand up in the ring and fight back, we’re going to lose those things.
ROSENBAUM: But Bailey will soon take on the co-deputy director job at a time of heavy turnover. Democrats say the bureau is using its vast powers to punish Trump opponents, and even some Trump supporters criticize its handling of information about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bailey, normally genial with the media, declined an interview through his office but has said he welcomes pressure.
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BAILEY: Politicians do a lot of talking. I like to get to work, and I like to produce results. And certainly, that was what was required of me on the battlefield in Iraq. And if I didn’t do my job, people were going to get hurt.
ROSENBAUM: Bailey’s brief tenure as attorney general included high-profile efforts to oust local elected officials. And he took on issues more national in scope, such as when he sued Starbucks and IBM for initiatives aimed at more diverse hiring.
Caleb Rowden is a former Missouri legislator who first met Bailey in the early 2010s.
CALEB ROWDEN: You know, I think he did a really good job, to the extent it’s possible in this era of just, you know, loud everything, to really pick the fights that he could win. And I think he had a pretty good record of success.
ROSENBAUM: Some of those battles played to Trump supporters. For instance, when a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records, Bailey filed a lawsuit against the state of New York alleging interference in Missouri’s elections. He also tried to block gender-affirming care for adults, which drew criticism even from Republicans contending the focus should be on minors. And after voters approved legalized abortion last year, Bailey still tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to block it by asking courts to uphold some remaining restrictions on the books.
MARGOT RIPHAGEN: He spent his time here seeking to overturn the will of Missouri voters, causing whiplash for patients trying to seek abortions.
ROSENBAUM: That’s Margot Riphagen, president and CEO of St. Louis-based Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action.
RIPHAGEN: So we have seen that pattern over and over again here in Missouri, and we know that’s also what we can anticipate on a national level.
ROSENBAUM: Bailey had tried to put language on the abortion ballot item, saying the state would lose revenue in uncollected taxes from people who wouldn’t be born.
STEPHEN WEBBER: And that fiscal note wasn’t grounded in anything. It was purely performative. And it was like, I’m going to fight on this issue because it’s politically advantageous.
ROSENBAUM: That’s Democratic state Senator Stephen Webber, who has known Bailey since they debated together in high school. He remembers him as a person who had firm conservative principles, and also that he liked taking the opposing side of propositions.
WEBBER: And a lot of kids like affirmative ’cause it’s – you have your case written out and it’s easier. And Andrew Bailey said, I like negative. And then he paused. He said, ’cause I like to break things.
ROSENBAUM: That could appeal to Trump supporters who want to overhaul the FBI, but Webber and others worry he could use his new powers against people who disagree with him or the president.
For NPR News, I’m Jason Rosenbaum in St. Louis.
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