Donald Trump’s admin picks are being put through the ringer. Congress isn’t letting them get confirmed with ease.
But Trump’s FBI pick left Congress speechless when he revealed this groundbreaking plan.
Kash Patel Takes On Critics, Pledges to Cut Crime in Half at FBI Confirmation Hearing
FBI director nominee Kash Patel made bold promises during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, vowing to slash the number of drug deaths, h*micides, and r*pes in the U.S. by half. Brushing off Democratic critics, Patel argued that “ticking off some people” was simply proof of a job done properly.
Patel laid out his priorities, pledging to “make sure we don’t have 100,000 r*pes in this country next year, make sure we don’t have 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and make sure we don’t have 17,000 h*micides.”
He insisted that cutting these numbers in half was critical to restoring public trust in the FBI and law enforcement.
A Testy Exchange with Senate Democrats
Throughout the hearing, Patel avoided being drawn into heated exchanges with political opponents on the Senate Judiciary Committee. However, he openly acknowledged the controversy surrounding his nomination when questioned by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).
“You’ve made a lot of people mad, haven’t you?” Kennedy asked Patel, referring to his past work as a congressional, defense, and intelligence official who pushed the idea of “deep state” bias against President Donald Trump. “It seems so, senator,” Patel responded.
Kennedy pressed further. “You think maybe you made the right people mad?” he asked, prompting laughter from the audience.
Patel agreed. “As my FBI agents, the brick agents told me, when I was running cases with them across this country and around the world, if you’re not ticking off some people, you’re not doing your job right.”
Kennedy also took aim at Democrats who had labeled Patel a “conspiracy theorist.” “Sounds to me like we need to get some new conspiracy theories because all the old ones turned out to be true,” Kennedy quipped. “Conspiracy theorists are up something like 37-0.”
Calls for Reform Without Retaliation
Patel assured Kennedy that, under his leadership, the FBI would not be weaponized against Democrats—an implicit contrast to the FBI’s 2022 raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and revelations of anti-Trump sentiment among some bureau officials during the Russia investigation.
“When reforming the FBI and Justice Department, ‘two wrongs don’t make a right, but they do make it even’ is the wrong approach, isn’t it?” Kennedy said. “That’s correct,” Patel answered.
While some of Trump’s allies, including White House budget director nominee Russ Vought, have advocated for abolishing the FBI, Patel rejected that idea. Instead, he praised the bureau’s rank-and-file agents, saying, “98% of the FBI is courageous, apolitical warriors of justice. They just need better leadership.”
Deflecting Democratic Attacks
Patel largely sidestepped Democratic criticism, declining to engage deeply with questions about his past support for jailed Capitol riot participants or his financial disclosures. Despite this, he found an ally in Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who praised his stance on Fourth Amendment protections.
However, the hearing took a darker turn when Patel revealed some of the vitriol he has faced from opponents. He condemned congressional Democrats for the personal attacks against him, including a slur-filled message that called him “a detestable sand n—– who had no right being in this country.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) attempted to challenge Patel over his past remark that the FBI headquarters “should be shut down and reopened as a Museum of the Deep State.” Patel pushed back forcefully. “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 said.
“I stood with them, here in this country, in every theater of war we have. I was on the ground in service to this nation. And any accusations leveled against me that I would somehow put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair.”
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