The Senate confirmed on Thursday to Kash Patel, the election of President Donald Trump to be director of the FBI.
The final vote was 51-49.
Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted against Patel. The Democrats were unanimous in their opposition.
Despite their controversial nomination, the Republicans recovered around Patel, arguing that he is the right person to bring the reform to the main agency of application of the law of the Nation that claim that it has been corrupted.
“Mr. Patel should be our next director of the FBI because the FBI has been infected by political prejudices and armed against the American people. Mr. Patel knows, Mr. Patel exposed it to him and Mr. Patel has been attacked,” , Senate The Judicial President, Chuck Grassley, a Iowa Republican, said last week when the committee met to consider and advance in Your nomination.
Although not all members of the Republican party supported him. Collins, explaining his decision to vote against his confirmation, said that there is a need for an FBI director who is “decidedly apolitical” and that Patel’s time in the last four years has been characterized by a high political activity Profile and aggressive. “
Murkowski expressed similar concerns.
“My reservations with Mr. Patel derive from their own previous political activities and how they can influence their leadership,” said the senator in a position on X. “The FBI must be reliable as the federal agency that travels the crime and the corruption, not focused on solving political scores. “
Kash Patel, the election of President Donald Trump to be director of the FBI, appears before the Judicial Committee of the Senate for his confirmation hearing, in the Capitol in Washington, on January 30, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP, file
The Democrats, meanwhile, opposed Patel until the last minute. Senator Dick Durbin, a member of the Judicial Committee classification, held a press conference outside the FBI headquarters on Thursday morning with the “strange political statements” of Patel on January 6 to the remuneration.
He accused the Republicans of “deliberately ignoring the red flags in Mr. Patel,” who argued that he does not have “experience, judgment or temperament” to be head of the FBI over the next 10 years.
“Mr. Patel will be a political and national security disaster,” Durbin said.
Senator Dick Durbin speaks at a press conference on February 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Katopodis/getty images
Patel, 44, is loyal to the president and worked in several roles during the first Trump administration, including the interim national intelligence deputy director.
Shortly after the November elections, Trump indicated that he would shoot the then director of FBI Christopher Wray and Tap Patel to take his place. Wray, first appointed by Trump in 2017, resigned at the end of the Biden administration.
Patel has been a FBI vocal critic for years, and previously said he wanted to clean the headquarters of the office in Washington as part of a mission to dismantle the so -called “deep state.”
He faced specific questions of the Democrats in those comments and more, including support for January protesters and quotes who seemed favorable for the “Qanon” conspiracy movement, during their confirmation audiences last month.
Patel sought to distance himself from some of his past rhetoric, and told legislators that he would not take “non -remuneration actions” despite his comment history about the journalists and employees of the government.
Patel will take care of an agency that faces uncertainty and agitation in the midst of shots and other key changes.
The Department of Justice requested a list of thousands of FBI employees who worked in the cases of January 6, ABC News reported, which led agents to file a lawsuit to block the effort.
