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Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30. (J. Scott Applewhite – File / AP)
By Andi Shae Napier February 20, 2025 at 12:41pm
The Senate confirmed Kash Patel to be FBI director Thursday in a 51-49 vote after Democrats attempted to draw out the confirmation process. Two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against the confirmation.
Patel is the 19th of President Donald Trump’s nominees to be confirmed, continuing a record-breaking pace of Senate confirmations that outpaces the past three administrations.
Patel served as the senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council and deputy director of national intelligence during the previous Trump administration.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed his support for Patel on the Senate floor Tuesday, pointing out that while Patel’s resume doesn’t look like that of a typical FBI director, “We aren’t living in normal times.” Patel is the “right man at the right time,” Grassley said.
“Mr. Patel served as a public defender, a counterterrorism prosecutor under President Obama and a House staffer. … He’s fought for transparency and accountability in the government.” Grassley said. “He [poses] a threat to the existing system — a system that has retaliated against whistleblowers, engaged in unprecedented lawfare against the President and the American people and obstructed congressional oversight. Mr. Patel will end these abuses. He will restore the FBI to its essential mission of keeping Americans safe.”
Patel had previously called to shut down the FBI’s headquarters, saying, “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on Day 1 and reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state,’” on a podcast episode of the “Shawn Ryan Show” in September.
In an op-ed he wrote for the Wall Street Journal in January, Patel revised his vision for a new FBI, starting off with rebuilding the public’s trust in the agency, increasing congressional oversight, apprehending more criminals by letting “good cops be cops,” and streamlining operations within the agency.
Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt posted a video in support of Patel on Thursday morning, saying, “He’s coming to town to reform an agency that desperately needs it,” referencing the FBI’s handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop among other issues.
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