President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to serve as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, offered a stark contrast with Senate Democrats over the future of the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency at a Thursday hearing. Patel—a former public defender, Obama Justice Department prosecutor, House Republican intelligence staffer, and national security and Department of Defense (DoD) official in President Donald J. Trump’s first administration—emphasized during his Senate confirmation hearing the need for a “constitutionally-bound” FBI to focus on bringing murderers, sex traffickers, drug kingpins, rapists, and kidnappers to justice.
Meanwhile, Democrat lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee wallowed in the past, engaging in hysterics over targeted political persecutions, the January 6 riots, and the 2020 presidential election. Instead of focusing on needed reforms at the FBI—as Patel did—Senate Democrats spun conspiracies regarding hypothetical partisan investigations and prodded, hoping to expose policy disagreements with President Trump in the hopes the American First leader could be swayed to derail his own nominee.
POLICING NOT POLITICS.
Throughout the hearing, Patel repeatedly and directly answered the highly politicized inquiries leveled at him by Democrats. In a stunning moment, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)—who engaged in stolen valor while serving as Connecticut’s Attorney General—pressed Patel on whether he would pledge not to dismiss FBI agents alleged to be involved in partisan investigations.
Patel clearly and unequivocably responded that no agents would be punished for investigations that they were assigned to and tasked with completing. Yet, Blumenthal insisted that Patel did not respond in the affirmative—suggesting the Connecticut Democrat was less interested in the FBI nominee’s actual response than in trying, desperately, to orchestrate a partisan media soundbite.
Repeatedly, Patel emphasized the FBI, under his leadership, would be governed by the letter of the law and the U.S. Consitution. “Vice President [Kamala] Harris or General [Mark] Milley or whoever will not be subjected to an FBI investigation that does not meet the rigorous standards of the Constitution,” Patel stated when Democrats insinuated he would attempt to abuse the agency’s powers. He later added his intent as FBI director is “…to let good cops be cops and put handcuffs on the bad guys.”
President Trump’s FBI director nominee emphasized: “There should be no politics at the FBI.”
THE FBI’S TARNISHED LEGACY.
In one of the more clarifying moments, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) rhetorically asked Patel, “Why are Democrats so afraid of you?” The question was illustrative of the confirmation hearing overall, where the Senate Democrats either spun highly partisan conspiracies or accused Patel of intending to commit the very sort of actions the FBI engaged in under former President Joe Biden—including spying on Patel. Both Republican committee members and Patel himself noted that recent Gallup polling shows the American people’s trust in the FBI sits at a low of 40 percent—a concerning benchmark President Trump’s nominee committed to reversing.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked whether Patel would continue to dedicate FBI resources to spying on Americans who attend a list of predominantly Catholic churches affiliated with the Latin mass and traditionalist movement in the over 2,000-year-old faith. Patel—again citing the need for the bureau to abide by the Constitution and the legal rights of Americans—replied that such operations would cease.
Most consequently, Patel laid out his intention to disperse FBI personnel and resources away from Washington, D.C.—where he notes nearly one-third of the bureau’s employees are currently located—to the interior of the United States. Patel pledged that these agents would be tasked with building relationships, assisting, and coordinating with state and local law enforcement to ensure all law enforcement agencies are supported in aggressively targeting violent crime.
