Two members of Congress offered very different views Sunday morning of whether the Justice Department and FBI have been biased against Republicans in recent years.

In consecutive appearances on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) discussed President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Kash Patel to lead the FBI. The agency is now led by Chris Wray, a previous Trump appointee whose term has yet to expire, but who will presumably be fired if he doesn’t resign.

“Obviously, in recent years, we have seen the FBI and the Department of Justice weaponize in a way that it has become completely political,” Lawler said in his interview, also discussing Trump’s pick of Pam Bondi to be attorney general. “That’s not good for the American people. It’s not good for our system of justice. The lack of confidence that Americans have in the Department of Justice and the FBI is terrible.”

Though Trump talked about “retribution” during the 2024 campaign, Lawler said he believed “revenge” was not the order of the day.

“I don’t think the American people are interested in a revenge tour,” he told host Kasie Hunt. “But, obviously, if people did wrong in their official capacities, then that’s something they should be concerned about. But if they didn’t do anything wrong, if they upheld the law, then there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Hunt pointed out to Lawler that the FBI director he was so critical of had been appointed by Trump himself. She also asked him if Patel, who was highly critical of what he repeatedly blasted as “deep state” corruption, was not himself very “partisan.”

“Look, I’m not concerned about partisanship here. I think we have seen a DOJ and an FBI that have been weaponized,” Lawler responded.

Appearing afterward, Raskin was very skeptical of Lawler’s assertion that the Justice Department and FBI during the Biden administration had targeted Trump, given the recent prosecutions of some prominent Democrats.

“I haven’t seen what the proof is that the FBI has been weaponized against a political party or the Department of Justice. Of course, this Department of Justice has brought charges against a Democratic U.S. senator in New Jersey, a Democratic congressman in Texas,” Raskin said, referencing former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

“And so some people just seem to think that it should go only in one direction, and, if it doesn’t, then somehow it’s politicized.”

Referencing a recent award-winning biography of longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by Beverly Gage, Raskin said that undoubtedly at some point the FBI was weaponized against the likes of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. But he seemed dubious of that still being true now.

“I mean, the deep state, nobody’s ever defined it. Apparently, it just means anybody who doesn’t do the will of Donald Trump,” Raskin told Hunt.

Raskin declined to say whether President Joe Biden should pardon his son Hunter Biden, who was prosecuted during his father’s presidency.

“I mean, I haven’t even remotely looked at it. I mean, I know, basically, what the alleged crimes were,” Raskin said.