Durbin: Kash Patel's Record Shows He Is A Dangerous, Inexperienced, & Dishonest Trump Loyalist Who Is Not Qualified To Serve As Next FBI Director
In a speech on the Senate floor shortly before the vote on his nomination, Durbin summarizes Kash Patel’s disqualifying behavior
WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered his closing argument against the nomination of Kash Patel to serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In his remarks delivered shortly before the vote on Patel’s nomination, Durbin underscored Patel’s extremism, his blind loyalty to President Trump, his dangerous support of January 6 insurrectionists, and his history of peddling lies about the federal government.
“If Senate Republicans confirm Mr. Patel, I believe they will come to regret this vote, probably sooner rather than later. I, for one, am convinced that Mr. Patel has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead this… criminal investigative agency [FBI],” Durbin began. “Let me be clear. This is not a partisan issue. During my time in the Senate, I have voted for four FBI Director nominations before this one. Each one was a Republican, and I voted for them, nevertheless.”
“I oppose Mr. Patel because he is dangerously, politically extreme. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies,” Durbin said.
Durbin then began to lay out his justification for opposing Patel’s nomination and warned his Republican colleagues about the potential consequences of allowing an unqualified extremist to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Durbin first pointed to the credible whistleblower allegations that detailed Patel’s direct involvement in the ongoing purge of senior law enforcement officials at the FBI.
“The Director is the only political appointment at the FBI. Congress took steps to ensure that this position remains as apolitical as possible by providing for a single term of 10 years for a director and subjecting the appointment to the advice and consent of the Senate… But as we have seen for weeks now, the Trump Administration’s purge of the FBI is a political exercise that has spread to career officials,” Durbin said. “This purge has dramatically weakened the FBI’s ability to combat national security threats and has made Americans less safe. Senior leaders with collectively hundreds of years of experience have been forced out, creating a leadership vacuum.”
Thousands of FBI agents now fear for their jobs because they were assigned to work on cases related to the January 6 insurrection or President Trump’s long list of legal infractions. Whistleblowers have come forward with evidence that Patel, as a private citizen, called for these agents to be fired—which Patel denied vehemently despite being under oath during his nomination hearing. Further, these career agents now fear for their own and their families’ safety as January 6 insurrections continue to make credible, serious, and public threats against them.
“I have heard directly from FBI agents who now fear for their safety and the safety of their families. To understand why, let me tell you about a January 6 rioter named Edward Kelley. Mr. Kelley was convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the attack on the U.S. Capitol… and he was given a full and unconditional pardon by Donald Trump. But Mr. Kelley has also been convicted in his home state of Tennessee of conspiracy to murder the FBI agents who investigated his role in the January 6 attack. Now he is arguing that President Trump’s blanket pardon should cover his attempt to kill FBI agents,” Durbin said.
“When asked about the possible firings of career FBI officials at his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel, under oath, said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on right now’ at the FBI. That’s not true. Thanks to multiple brave whistleblowers, we now know that Mr. Patel likely committed perjury in making that statement,” Durbin said. “Even before being confirmed as the FBI Director, Mr. Patel is already directing the ongoing purge of honorable career public servants despite his status as a private citizen.”
Durbin offered several more examples of Patel’s consistent dishonesty, including the string of lies his told during his own confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“At his hearing, Mr. Patel implausibly told me that he could not recall Stew Peters, a man who has been identified as an antisemitic Holocaust denier… This is simply not true, considering that Mr. Patel appeared on Mr. Peters’s podcast eight times. Eight times, and he couldn’t recall the man’s name. And, Mr. Peters has since revealed that he and Mr. Patel directly communicate via their personal cell phones ‘constantly,’” Durbin said.
As Durbin noted in his remarks, Patel continually offered unequivocal support to insurrectionists, producing a recording of January 6 rioters singing in order to raise money. Under oath at his nomination hearing, Patel testified that he was not involved in the project despite being quoted saying, “We got this idea to record the January 6 prisoners who recite the national anthem every night from the D.C. prison… Then we took that to studio… So we mastered and digitized that.”
“Mr. Patel also claimed he ‘didn’t have anything to do with’ the recording of the so-called January 6 Prison Choir, which includes at least six rioters who violently assaulted police officers,” Durbin said. “Mr. Patel has called these violent January 6 rioters ‘political prisoners.’ That includes Guy Reffitt, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in the January 6 assault.”
“Mr. Reffitt brought a gun to the Capitol on January 6… Mr. Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, turned him in to law enforcement after the attack, despite Reffitt’s threats to shoot Jackson and his sister,” Durbin said. “Mr. Reffitt received a full and unconditional pardon from President Trump. Guess where he was on January 30 of this year? Back at the Capitol complex, at Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing.”
Durbin then pointed to those who have warned against the nomination of Patel to serve as FBI director, including many of President Trump’s former appointees.
“Consider who is warning us about Mr. Patel: former Trump officials who know him, like Attorney General Barr, CIA Director Haspel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and National Security Advisor John Bolton… All Republican appointees. Mr. Patel has left a long trail of grievances, lashing out at anyone who is not completely aligned with him. He calls Democrats ‘vindictive, evil, [and] vicious,’ and repeatedly attacks Republican Senators who don’t toe the MAGA line,” Durbin said.
“I have read Mr. Patel’s book, Government Gangsters. It includes an enemies list of 60 names, ‘members of the deep state’ in the words of Kash Patel, which includes distinguished public servants from both political parties. What do they all have in common? From Attorneys General Bill Barr and Merrick Garland to former FBI Directors Bob Mueller and Chris Wray, they all have had the misfortune of crossing paths with the vindictive Patel,” Durbin said.
Durbin underscored his final point, reiterating that Patel aims to dismantle the FBI from the inside out.
“Mr. Patel claims he respects law enforcement, but his words and actions demonstrate his disdain for the FBI. He has said that on day one, he plans to ‘shut down’ the FBI headquarters. And he has falsely claimed that the FBI ‘was planning January 6 for a year,’ beforehand. There is no truth to that statement,” Durbin said.
Durbin concluded by emphasizing that Patel will serve as a dangerous, influenceable lackey for President Trump and tarnish the reputation of an independent FBI.
“Mr. Patel’s record demonstrates that he is dangerous, inexperienced, and dishonest. He should not and cannot serve as an effective FBI Director. Mr. Patel has been crystal clear that he plans on using the FBI’s vast surveillance and investigative authority to ‘come after’ the President’s enemies,” Durbin said.
“It is shocking that my Republican colleagues are willing to support Mr. Patel, despite the serious threat he poses to our national security. I’m sorry to say that I believe they will quickly come to regret this vote,” Durbin concluded.
To view Durbin’s questions to Patel in his confirmation hearing click here and here.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the floor is available here for TV Stations.
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