A Voice that Will Lead?

Despite being the second newest member of  Congress, Rep. Mike Rulli (R-OH)  has the potential to be a leading voice in the Republican Party. He seems to bring a much-needed level of aggressiveness which most of his Republican colleagues lack. 

I first noticed Rulli during a House Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director Wray. I was unfamiliar with him, but I liked his questioning of Wray.

A Jordan protege, Rulli was not intimidated by Wray’s usual combination of obfuscation and bullying. Rulli asked Wray some pointed questions. 

During a July 25 phone interview I conducted with Congressman Rulli, I asked him – as the second newest member of Congress – and someone who had been the director of operations for a small business, what his perception of this incompetence, corruption, hubris, and the political bias exhibited by not only Director Wray and his Democratic colleagues on Judiciary but also with the former Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle.

Rulli replied emphatically, “We need accountability about the raid on Mar A Lago based on false information. I am so tired of the bureaucratic shuffling that goes on in the DC Swamp. I don’t want to pussy foot with them.”  

When asked what he intends to do about it, Rulli replied, “I am going to write bills restoring our rights and methodically dismantle this bureaucracy. But we need to hold people accountable, which is not happening yet. It will take time to turn things around.” 

I mentioned that there are already some outspoken Congressional Republicans, but not many. Republicans like Anna Paulina Luna, Wesley Hunt, Byron Donalds, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Clay Higgins, and Nancy Mace,  are among the more assertive Republican Representatives. John Kennedy, Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Tom Cotton are on the Senate side. The other Republicans, I pointed out, are more at home at the local country club bar, a Kiwanis Club meeting, or at a chamber of commerce convention than in the halls of Congress or slugging it out on a debate stage.

Rulli acknowledged the efforts of his aforementioned colleagues. “Yes, they are doing a great job,” he said.  He continued by saying that some of the resistance and deception from Democrats is maddening. But Republicans are moving forward.

Rulli zeroed in on the FBI’s hiring practices and the inclusion of DEI tenets. He led off by asking if Wray maintained that DEI practices are essential for the FBI’s future hiring practices. He followed up by asking if Wray believes that using DEI as a primary hiring metric hinders the quality of recruits. 

Wray indignantly replied that the FBI has not lowered its standards. Indeed Wray said emphatically, “and the facts back that up.”  

But Wray was disingenuous by maintaining that DEI does not affect hiring practices. The facts are that the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) standards for FBI agents are different for men and women. For example, the timed 300-meter sprint standards range from 67.5 to 49.9 seconds for females. But the range for males is much higher. Male standards are 55.1 seconds to 40.9 seconds. The range for push-ups is even more disparate. Females are required to do anywhere from 4 push-ups to 45 push-ups. Males are required to do 19 push-ups to 71 push-ups.

This is not to say there are no great female FBI agents. But those agents would be there even if the standards were the same for both men and women. So why not either lower the standards for men or raise the standards for women? Rulli seemed to concur with this idea. Perhaps he will raise this issue with Wray during the next hearing.

Rulli also noted, during his questioning of Wray, that the public has not been provided more information about the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. This is especially important given the stonewalling by former Secret Service Director Cheatle during her congressional testimony. Wray sarcastically replied that he had been testifying all day. What more should he do? 

Rulli suggested a press conference. “Only a small fraction of the public watches the hearings. Wray needs to communicate with the American public at large.”

Also, during testimony, Wray revealed that despite claims in the liberal media to the contrary, the assassin of Donald Trump did not research President Biden as a target. The Democratic Party media has tried to blunt the targeting of President Trump and the effects of their hate speech and invective directed against Trump.

Democrats said earlier during the hearing that Republicans engaged in inflammatory and insightful rhetoric that led to assassination attempts, etc. Democrats – during this hearing – claimed white supremacy was the leading cause of political violence in the country. They also claimed Project 2025 somehow motivated political violence. These Democrats wanted these “right-wing terrorists” investigated.

But these are the same Democrats whose Senate Leader, Chuck Schumer (D-NY), stood in front of a rabid mob on the steps of the Supreme Court building and threatened Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. This led to a man traveling across the country to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh.

These are the same Democrats whose House Speaker Rep Pelosi (D-CA) contemptuously tore up on live TV Trump’s State of the Union speech. This is the same FBI whose two employees said they were going to “stop” Trump from being president. 

But neither Schumer nor Pelosi nor the two FBI employees were investigated. Rulli noted that if they had been Republicans, they would have been investigated if they had not been jailed.

Representative Michael Rulli ( R-OH) has hit the ground running in his first few weeks in Congress. With any luck, he will not be eaten by the DC Swamp Creatures. America needs more politicians like him to be a leading voice.