Michael Anton, who served in the U.S. National Security Council under former President Donald Trump, said national security agencies were ineffective on the world stage and posed a threat domestically during a Tuesday speech at the National Conservatism conference in Miami, Florida.

Conservatives are critical of federal agencies, particularly those focused on domestic affairs such as the Environmental Protection Agency, but tend to have a more positive view of agencies involved in national security and defense, according to Anton. He said this needed to change and advocated for an overhaul of agencies including breaking up the CIA and possibly abolishing the FBI.

“I think we need to have a serious national debate: Do we need a federal law enforcement agency? It’s not clear to me that we do,” he said. “State law enforcement agencies can do most of the legitimate functions of the FBI. If we conclude that we do need an FBI, then it has to be purged … the people who are responsible for so much of the nastiness of the last five or six years have got to be punished, and then the FBI needs to be refocused on law enforcement only, specifically those things that states can’t handle very well.”