Republican Opposition Grows To Trump’s “Manifestly Unqualified” FBI Director Nominee Kash Patel
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing for FBI Director on Thursday, January 30, many prominent Republicans continue to call out President Trump’s decision to nominate Patel. The growing, bipartisan opposition against Patel stems from his complete lack of experience, threats to use the FBI to attack Trump’s political enemies, and his deeply troubling record.
Republican leaders—from former national security experts, and law enforcement officials from the Trump-Pence administration, to former Republicans in Congress—agree that Kash Patel is a significant risk to the FBI’s integrity, national security, and the rule of law.
Here’s a quick reminder of what prominent Republicans had to say about Kash Patel’s lack of qualifications:
National Security and Intelligence Experts:
- Paul Rosenzweig, former Department of Homeland Security and national security expert, strongly condemned his nomination, saying:
- “‘Kash Patel is manifestly unqualified.”‘
- “Given his intemperate support for retribution against the deep state and Trump’s political ‘foes’, he is temperamentally unqualified for the job.”
- John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor: Raised concerns about Patel enabling partisan surveillance of political rivals
- WSJ: “[Kash Patel’s] conduct in Mr. Trump’s first term and thereafter indicates that as FBI director he would operate according to [Secret Police Chief] Lavrenty Beria’s reported comment to Joseph Stalin: ‘Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.’”
- WSJ: “[Kash Patel’s] puffery was characteristic of the résumé inflation we had detected when Mr. Trump pressed him on us. We found he had exaggerated his role in cases he worked on as a Justice Department lawyer before joining Mr. Nunes’s committee staff. Given the sensitivity of the NSC’s responsibilities, problems of credibility or reliability would ordinarily disqualify any job applicant.”
- Mark Esper, Trump’s former Defense Secretary, raised serious concerns about his integrity:
- CNN: “Patel nearly compromised efforts to rescue an American who was captured in West Africa according to Trump’s former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.”
- Politico: “Former Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Patel once nearly bungled an overseas hostage rescue by apparently lying to colleagues about whether the foreign country’s government had approved the operation — and that, as a result, Patel put American lives at serious risk.”
- Charles Kupperman, Trump’s former Deputy National Security Advisor, said “[Patel’s] absolutely unqualified for this job. He’s untrustworthy,…It’s an absolute disgrace to American citizens to even consider an individual of this nature.”
- Gina Haspel, Trump’s former C.I.A. Director, who went to great lengths to prevent Mr. Patel from being installed in senior intelligence and law enforcement roles and threatened to resign over the prospect of Patel becoming her deputy
DOJ and Law Enforcement Officials:
- Bill Barr, Trump’s former Attorney General:
- Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI: Raised concerns regarding Patel’s qualifications and the potential overreach that could threaten civil liberties
- Jack Landman Goldsmith, former Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel: Raised concerns about Patel’s lack of qualifications and ability to protect national security
- Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney, raised concerns that Patel’s approach to terrorism designations could overreach government surveillance and designation
- Jeff Lanza, former FBI agent, who said he was concerned that Patel has proclaimed his plan “to decimate the agency” and that approach would would “decimate” the FBI and lower morale for agents
- Sarah Isgur, a former Trump Department of Justice official, who said Patel “was either too sloppy or too lazy to put together a coherent [enemies] list, neither of which is a great trait for an F.B.I. director.”
Other Republican Officials:
- Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, reportedly believes that Patel is Trump’s most dangerous selection to lead a major agency, on account of his blind loyalty to the former president and his public displays of interest in conspiracy theories. “I think it’s his worst pick, even worse than Matt Gaetz.”