Hearing group for Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI

Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, is expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Patel held several national security roles during the first Trump administration but will be a new face at the FBI.

Patel regularly attacks the “deep state”, blaming “its weaponization of the government for its own political and personal agenda.”

He said he would remove FBI headquarters on his first day in office.

“I closed the FBI Hoover Building the first day and reopened it the next day as a deep state museum. I will take the 7,000 employees who work in this building and send them across America to hunt down criminals. Go to the cops.”

He has caused concern among Democrats for his past comments about “government gangsters,” and is publishing a book of the same name that includes an appendix with a list of people who later said he should be “in charge.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the top Democrat on the team, announced earlier this week that he opposes Patel’s confirmation.

“Kash Patel does not have the experience, temperament, or judgment to lead the FBI,” Durbin said in a statement after a 30-minute meeting with Patel.

“Mr. Patel’s political grievances make him a favorite of the MAGA world, but they have not prepared him to work day and night to keep us safe from violent crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other threats. Mr. Patel is the wrong choice to lead the FBI.”

Durbin previously asked three of the national security agencies that used Patel during the first Trump administration to divert information from their personnel files.

The messages laid out a series of allegations, including that Patel pushed to halt transition coordination with the incoming Biden administration, sought to raise information that would be favorable to Trump and was identified as an instrumental figure for a man leading Trump’s efforts to thwart the transition of power after losing the 2020 election.