Rep. Francis Rooney Laurence (Francis) Francis RooneyThe Hill's Convention Report: Democrats gear up for Day Two of convention The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Facebook - Gohmert tests positive; safety fears escalate on Capitol Hill Pelosi to require masks on House floor MORE (R-Fla.) on Tuesday called for a "purge" of the FBI, warning of "deep state" figures at work in the agency.

Rooney said during an interview on MSNBC that the American people have "very high standards" for the country's government agencies, and suggested they aren't being met.

He was pressed during the interview on whether he is trying to discredit the Department of Justice, and by extension the investigation into Russia's election interference.

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"I don't want to discredit them. I would like to see the directors of those agencies purge it," he replied.

"And say, look, we've got a lot of great agents, a lot of great lawyers here, those are the people that I want the American people to see and know the good works being done, not these people who are kind of the deep state."

When pressed further he specifically mentioned Peter Strzok, a top FBI agent who worked on the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of State.

Stzok had been a member of special counsel Robert Mueller's team, but was removed this summer over text messages he sent that were critical of President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE.

Mueller's team is investigating Russia's efforts to interfere in the election, including whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

This past weekend, Trump lashed out at FBI leadership, going after FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over donations that Democrats made to his wife’s political campaign.

Trump's attack Saturday came after a report that McCabe is retiring from the FBI amid mounting criticism from Republicans in Congress.