The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
At the FBI Headquarters, President Obama praises Comey’s dedication, judgment,, and his commitment to the ideals of the FBI.
President Barack Obama and FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce, center, applaud FBI Director James Comey, left, during his installation ceremony at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Today, President Obama welcomed James Comey to his new post as the seventh Director of the FBI. Comey previously worked as an attorney and later served as deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice. At the FBI Headquarters, the President praised Comey’s dedication, judgment, and commitment to the ideals of the FBI.
“Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity: That’s your motto,” the President told the men and women of the FBI. “And today, we’re here to welcome a remarkable new leader for this remarkable institution, one who lives those principles out every single day: Mr. Jim Comey.”
President Obama reiterated Comey’s qualifications for the job. “It’s just about impossible to find a matter of justice he has not tackled, and it’s hard to imagine somebody who is not more uniquely qualified to lead a bureau that covers all of it -- traditional threats like violent and organized crime to the constantly changing threats like terrorism and cyber-security,” he said.
The President also said he’d keep fighting to restore FBI funding that was cut by the sequester.
The FBI joins forces with our intelligence, our military, and homeland security professionals to break up all manner of threats -- from taking down drug rings to stopping those who prey on children, to breaking up al Qaeda cells to disrupting their activities, thwarting their plots. And your mission keeps expanding because the nature of the threats are always changing.
Unfortunately, the resources allotted to that mission has been reduced by sequestration. I’ll keep fighting for those resources because our country asks and expects a lot from you, and we should make sure you’ve got the resources you need to do the job. Especially when many of your colleagues put their lives on the line on a daily basis, all to serve and protect our fellow citizens -- the least we can do is make sure you’ve got the resources for it and that your operations are not disrupted because of politics in this town.
