Former President Donald Trump has maintained there will be no revenge, despite his claim of years, going on a decade, of political persecution and prosecutions, vowing any vengeance will be exacted at the ballot box.
And now Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray added his own vow to stick to the rule of law if Trump retakes the White House after November's election.
"I am going to make sure as long as I am FBI director, we do the right thing in the right way," Wray told NBC News' Lester Holt on Tuesday night. "And that means following the law, following our rules, staying faithful to our core values, enforcing the law without fear or favor."
While Wray was appointed by Trump and held on by President Joe Biden, Trump would have the presidential authority to replace the FBI director at his discretion, but Wray said he would like to remain in the role.
"I'm enjoying doing this job," Wray said. "I love the people, the men and women of the FBI, who are some of the finest people I've ever had a chance to work with.
"I'm enjoying doing this job and, as long as I think I can continue doing that in a way that adheres to all those rules and norms, it's what I'd like to keep doing."
Conservatives and Trump have been critical of the FBI investigations into Jan. 6 under Wray and Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland, including calling the unindicted prisoners from the protest political "hostages."
"I see the defendants in the Jan. 6 cases as criminal defendants who are being charged with federal crimes, and are in front of independent courts as part of our legal system," Wray said.
Wray did denounce violent rioters, such as Black Lives Matter and antifa who attacked cities under the guise of social justice after the death of George Floyd, which many conservatives view as an operation to wage a political campaign against then-President Trump during the hotly contested 2020 presidential election.
"In our country, there are all sorts of people who are upset and angry about all sorts of things, about all sorts of people, but there is a right way under the First Amendment to express how upset you are," Wray told Holt. "And violence — violence against law enforcement, destruction of federal property — is not it."
Wray denied allegations the FBI is monitoring protests, especially those by conservatives and pro-life groups, but he added warnings the political climate is charged and there is the highest level of threat for an act of terrorism in America right now.
"We are increasingly concerned [about] the potential for some kind of coordinated attack here in the homeland, which may be not that different from what you saw against the concert hall in Russia a few weeks ago from ISIS-K," he told Holt.
Also, Wray said, TikTok's connections to the Chinese Communist Party should concern its users in America, including "the ability to collect the data, the ability to control the recommendation algorithm, which means the ability to push CCP narratives, pro-CCP narratives, downplay criticism of the Chinese government, in effect, enlist millions of users as unwitting advocates of CCP propaganda."
China, he concluded, has "the ability to control the software, which gives the opportunity to technically compromise the devices, the phones, millions and millions of phones."
"My message is, you need to take into account who the Chinese government is, who the Chinese Communist Party is."