The Senate confirmed Kash Patel as FBI director on Thursday with a 51-49 vote after Democrats tried to pull out the confirmation process.
Patel is the 19th candidate for President Donald Trump and continues to be a record-breaking pace of Senate confirmations, surpassing the past three administrations.
Patel served as Senior Director of Terrorism and Deputy Director of National Intelligence for the National Security Council during the previous Trump administration.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed his support for Patel on the Senate floor on Tuesday, and Patel's resume looks like a typical FBI director's resume. Not that, “We don't live in. In normal times,” Grassley said Patel is “the right guy at the right time.”
“Mr. Patel served as a public defense lawyer, a counter-terrorism prosecutor under President Obama and a House official. He fought for government transparency and accountability,” Grassley said. I said. “he [poses] Threats to existing systems – The system that retaliated against whistleblowers engaged in unprecedented laws against the president and the American people, obstructing Congressional oversight. Patel ends these abuses. He will restore the FBI to its important mission to keep Americans safe. ”
Patel previously called for the FBI headquarters to be closed, saying, “We will close the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen as a 'deep state' museum.” Shawn Ryan Show in September.
in He wrote for Wall Street Journal In January, Patel revised his vision for the new FBI, rebuilding public confidence in government agencies, increasing council surveillance, allowing “cops to become good cops” and streamlining operations within the agency. We started by arresting more criminals.
Republican Missouri Sen. Eric Schmidt posted a video Thursday morning supporting Patel. “He's desperately coming to town to reform the institutions that need it,” he says, referring to other issues with the FBI's Hunter Biden laptop handling.
update: Confirm final vote @kash_patel It's 1:45pm today.
For the past four years, the FBI has chased Catholics, parents and political enemies.
Kash reformed the institution, not a moment right away. pic.twitter.com/xno28ct5kh
– Eric Schmitt (@eric_schmitt) February 20, 2025
Patel faced solid opposition from a democratic senator. Delaware Sen. Chris Koons, a Democrat, felt scathed by Patel remarks We will begin an interview with a brief statement on February 15th about the MSNBC report, “We should vote for Kash Patel.”
“He was unable to answer any important questions about political independence. […] I correctly answered that it is important that FBI directors are independent and resign and reject rather than carrying out illegal orders, so I voted to confirm. I asked these same questions about Republican Chrisley, who was nominated from. If that was a partisan political objective, we will begin an investigation,” Coons said. “Kas Patel didn't pass that test, so I'll vote against him.”
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