Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, sharply criticized “false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations” from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Patel, a former public defender and DOJ official, was grilled by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who accused him of having called for FBI headquarters to be shut down. Patel responded by saying, “If the best attacks on me are going to be false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations, the only thing this body is doing is defeating the credibility of the men and women at the FBI.”
He went on to defend himself against the accusations, stating, “I stood with them here in this country, in every theater of war we have. I was on the ground in service of this nation. And any accusations leveled against me that I would somehow put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair.”
Patel also pointed out that over 300,000 law enforcement officers have endorsed him to be the next head of the bureau.
Democrats had accused Patel of calling for the FBI to be reformed in his book, “Government Gangsters,” which criticized the agency’s politicization. Patel wrote in the book that “things are bad” and that the FBI has “gravely abused its power,” but also stated that change is possible and desperately needed.
Republicans on the Committee, including Chairman Chuck Grassley, praised Patel’s nomination, saying he could help restore trust in the FBI, which has low public approval ratings.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., countered that several prominent Republicans have opposed Patel’s nomination, including former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Attorney General Bill Barr, who questioned Patel’s qualifications and experience. Patel responded by accusing Whitehouse of using “partial quotations” to make his point.
