PRESCOTT VALLEY, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 13: Former Chief of Staff to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Kash Patel speaks during a campaign rally for U.S. Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump at Findlay Toyota Center on October 13, 2024 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. With 22 days to go until election day, former President Donald Trump is campaigning in the battleground state Arizona. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, is a staunch critic of the bureau and has threatened to fire top agents and shut down its headquarters, is facing blowback from Congress ahead of his confirmation hearings.
FBI chief Christopher Wray, who was chosen by Trump in 2017 after he fired Jim Comey, is currently serving a 10-year term and would have to be fired from his position.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) said Patel will face a tough confirmation. Rounds praised Wray, who still has three years left of his term, saying he has been doing a good job.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has supported Patel, saying, “he is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption of the FBI.”
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Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, saying he will vote to confirm Patel. “Kash is the best at uncovering what’s happened to the FBI, and I look forward to seeing him taking it apart,” he said.
Patel is a Trump loyalist who has published children’s books featuring Trump and has long criticized the FBI for “corruption.”
In a September interview, Patel pledged to shut down the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. and make it “a museum of the deep state.”
He has also said he will use the power of federal law enforcement to go after those he deems responsible for investigating Trump.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has personally received threats from Patel.
Sullivan highlighted that Biden kept Wray as FBI chief, inheriting from Trump, showcasing a longstanding bipartisan tradition.
According to an Axios report last week, Trump initially wanted to appoint the state general of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, as the head of the FBI and Patel as deputy FBI director, but Bailey failed to impress him.
Trump has also picked his head of the Drug Enforcement Administration as a county sheriff from Florida, Chad Chronister, whose father-in-law was pardoned by Trump three years ago from a 1998 gambling fraud case. But Chronister withdrew one day after the announcement.
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