Sen. Eric Schmidt (R-Missouri) told ABC's “This Week” on Sunday that he is confident that President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of FBI Director Kash Patel will be confirmed.
“I think Kash Patel is the right person for this job,” Schmidt said. “He served as chief of staff at the Pentagon. He was a prosecutor and public defender. Here's a review of the tapes. Yes, the FBI was involved in spying on President Trump in 2016. They fabricated that story in advance with Hunter Biden. The FBI is investigating Catholics for attending traditional Latin Mass, and the FBI is investigating parents attending school board meetings because they are sponsored by the USA Patriot Act. That agency is in dire need of reform, and I think Kash Patel is highly qualified and will have support in the Senate.”
Host George Stephanopoulos said, “I want to ask you about President-elect Trump's decision to pardon participants in the January 6th riot. You spoke out about January 6th and said the violence was unacceptable. Are we confident that the president will not pardon people who have committed acts of violence?
“What President Trump has said is that he will look at these cases individually, and as a former prosecutor or attorney general, I think that's exactly the right approach. You differentiate between violent and nonviolent acts,” Schmidt said. But I think he's made it clear that he's going to look at these separately.”
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