It was a busy day on Capitol Hill. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was back for day two of his confirmation hearings, while director of national intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard and FBI director nominee Kash Patel both got their turn in the hot seat.
As expected, Patel brought some spicy fireworks to his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He was giving as good as he was getting, and it was clear the Democrats don’t like him.
The Bingo Card
Unlike RFKJ yesterday, it didn’t go badly for Patel with any Republicans, which is really what he cares about. In fact, there was a funny moment with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) that went viral.
TILLIS: Colleagues, I created a ‘Kash Bingo Card’ that I have available to any of my colleagues that would like it on the other side of the aisle. Some may view this as an unserious caricature and not appropriate for this committee. Sadly, I consider it a serious caricature of what I expect to be witnessed today. I think we’ll have words like ‘enemies list’ and ‘Deep State.’ I’ve already x-ed out four boxes in the opening statements alone. The fact of the matter is, some people will be here to simply substantiate a false narrative…
I love the Kash Patel Bingo Card, and, true to form, that is how it sounded today from these Democrat senators.
Mic Drop Moments
I don’t think they laid a glove on him, but it wasn’t a lack of trying. Exhibit A was Patel’s exchange with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota who ran for president not long ago.
She was trying – like several of her colleagues – to blow up a statement he made on a podcast about turning the FBI headquarters into a museum. The problem for Amy Klobuchar was that Patel wasn’t having it.
PATEL: 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. 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. And I will have you reminded that I have been endorsed by over 300,000 law enforcement officers to become the next director of the FBI. Let’s ask them.
Klobuchar sounded like those Democrat women at the Pete Hegseth hearing with her whining and scolding. Meanwhile, every comeback he had in the entire hearing should have been punctuated with a “Boom.” It was fun to watch.
That brings me to Exhibit B: Sen. Dick Blumenthal of Connecticut, who came out there trying to suggest that there would be political retribution against FBI agents under a Trump administration.
BLUMENTHAL: …Will you commit that you will not tolerate the firing of the FBI agents who worked with the Special Counsel’s office on these investigations?
PATEL: Senator, I’d appreciate the time to visit with you in your office–
BLUMENTHAL: It is a yes or no answer, and it is your first test.
PATEL: Senator, every FBI employee will be held to the absolute same standard, and no one will be terminated for case assignments.
BLUMENTHAL: And I’m not going to accept that answer because if you can’t commit that those FBI agents will be protected from political retribution, we can’t accept you as FBI director.
PATEL: All FBI employees will be protected against political retribution.
BLUMENTHAL: They deserve– those individuals deserve to be protected from Trump retribution. That was your first test. You failed it.
PATEL: By saying all FBI employees should be protected?
What more does Blumenthal want from him? Also, if they misused their power, if they abused their power, finally, there will be some accountability. It is not a political payback, it is,’You are trying to destroy this nation. Goodbye. Go find another job.’
As for Exhibit C, I really enjoyed the exchange about what is going to happen with the FBI HQ because politicians like Ron DeSantis – and Trump to a less explicit degree –made this a big issue. They believe we need to get the FBI out of Washington, that this is not the place for this building.
Amy Klobuchar brought it up, and it also got raised in response to a question by Sen. Chris Coons, who is a Democrat from Delaware.
COONS: How would shutting down the FBI headquarters impact its ability to prosecute violent crime and drug traffickers? How is that possibly a serious proposal, Mr. Patel?
PATEL: Thank you for bringing that up and allowing an answer. It was to highlight the significantly greater point that I was actually making in that interview, which is well documented over and over again: 38,000 FBI employees, 7,500 FBI employees work in the Washington Field Office and Hoover Building alone. If you increase that aperture just slightly to encompass the National Capital region, that is 11,000 FBI employees work in the National Capital region. A third of the workforce for the FBI works in Washington, D.C. I am fully committed to having that workforce go out into the interior of their country, where I live west of the Mississippi, and work with sheriff’s departments and local officers, and having one agent prevent one homicide, and having one agent in Washington prevent one rape. And I will do that over and over and over again, because the American people deserve the resources – not in Washington D.C. – but in the rest of the country.
COONS: And Mr. Patel, frankly, if that had been your statement, that would be something that would be defensible. It’s the rest of it saying you are going to ‘turn it into a museum of the deep state’ that causes repeated questions and concerns for people like myself.
Again, Kash could have finished with “Boom.” He is telling him what he means, and this pushing back on relocating the FBI headquarters is ridiculous. They love to go through and find this silly podcast rhetoric and the bellicose language.
This is another J.D. Vance “childless cat lady” comment. You said something provocative, they call you out on it, you tell them everything they want to know, and then they don’t know how to handle it. I really think he got Coons to stand down there.
What Comes Next
With Patel, Tulsi, and RFKJ all with their necks on the line, I hope President Trump picks up the phone and puts some pressure on these Republican senators to give him the Cabinet he has asked for.
I understand they are not a rubber stamp, but the president has a clear agenda and that agenda does speak to exactly this strain. He definitely ran on this. If this is your objection to his nominee, you are not going to like the next one either. I don’t think Trump is going to abandon these kinds of promises to remake the FBI or to bring radical change to HHS with his next nominee.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 996 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.