The Senate confirmed Kashyap “Kash” Patel as the brand new FBI director on Thursday in a Senate vote that largely fell alongside occasion traces.
51 Senators voted in favor of Patel’s affirmation, in opposition to 49 no votes, cementing him because the director of the nation’s main federal regulation enforcement company.
Two high-profile Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, notably voted in opposition to his affirmation.
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate occasion chief, who introduced Thursday he won’t be looking for re-election in 2026, voted in favor of Patel’s nomination. This transfer got here as a shock to many, particularly as McConnell had beforehand opposed three of Trump’s key picks. McConnell was in opposition to having Pete Hegseth because the Protection Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard because the director of Nationwide Intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the top of the Division of Well being and Human Providers.
Patel’s affirmation means he can be taking up the position from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who introduced he can be stepping down earlier than Trump, who first appointed him to the position in 2017, took workplace. Wray nonetheless had three years left in his 10-year time period, however resigned after the President signaled his intent to fireplace him, possible attributable to his dislike of the FBI’s investigation into whether or not there was a plan to overturn the 2020 election.
Throughout Thursday’s listening to, Patel mentioned that the largest menace to the U.S. can be to thwart terrorism and Chinese language Communist Celebration espionage.
Learn Extra: Meet Kashyap ‘Kash’ Patel, Trump’s Nomination for FBI Director
Patel is a recognized Trump loyalist, and has been a staunch critic of the company he’ll now be overlooking. In his 2023 guide, Authorities Gangsters: The Deep State, the Fact, and the Battle for Our Democracy, Patel publicized an inventory of what he referred to as members of the “deep state” that included former Trump Legal professional Normal Invoice Barr, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and John Bolton, the previous Nationwide Safety Advisor underneath Trump, to call a couple of.
Patel tried to stroll again from this opinion in a Senate Judiciary Committee listening to in January, calling 98% of FBI brokers “brave apolitical warriors for justice,” and claiming he disagreed with the President’s resolution to grant clemency to Jan. 6 defendants.
Nonetheless, throughout Thursday’s listening to, Patel initially declined to say that President Joe Biden received the 2020 presidential election when questioned by Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. He has additionally been criticized after he mentioned he would shut down the FBI Hoover Constructing on his first day and switch it right into a “museum of the deep state.”
The affirmation of Patel received’t be a shock for a lot of. Republicans have largely rallied help behind Patel—and most of Trump’s nominations—calling for a reform of the company that they imagine has a “two-tier” justice system, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn mentioned throughout Thursday’s listening to.
In the meantime, many Democrats have touted Patel as an unqualified decide, with some fearing that he’ll unleash political partisan focusing on of those that disagree with Trump. “Kash Patel is an excessive MAGA loyalist who would make our nation much less protected,” mentioned Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, rating member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a January assertion. “He’s blindly loyal to Donald Trump and Donald Trump solely. He has a path of grievances and historical past of lashing out at those that don’t agree with him. That’s not the sort of nonpartisan, regulation enforcement skilled who ought to lead the FBI.”
In his position, Patel will oversee 55 discipline places of work with greater than 37,000 workers.
