Patel \u00ab\u00a0must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,\u201d said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.<\/b>
\nDonald Trump\u2019s drive to upend the FBI was welcomed by Republican senators although it was not clear on Sunday how strongly members of the incoming majority party would embrace his move to install ally Kash Patel as the next director of the Justice Department\u2019s top investigative arm.
Patel, a onetime national security prosecutor who is aligned with the president-elect\u2019s rhetoric about a \u201cdeep state,\u201d \u201cmust prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,\u201d said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in line to be the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman when Republicans take control in January, in a post on X.
Patel lacks the high-level legal and management experience that FBI directors, including Robert Mueller, James Comey and Christopher Wray, who now holds that job, had before their nominations. It\u2019s a 10-year term, and Trump named Wray in 2017 after firing Comey. So Trump\u2019s announcement late Saturday means Wray must either resign or be fired after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
\u201cEvery president wants people that are loyal to themselves,\u201d said Sen. Mike Round, R-S.D., on ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d But he called Wray \u201ca very good man\u201d picked by Trump himself, and \u201cI don\u2019t have any complaints about the way that he\u2019s done his job right now.\u201d
A president has \u201cthe right to make nominations,\u201d Rounds said, before noting the job is normally for 10 years, a length meant to insulate the FBI from the political influence of changing administrations.
\u201cWe\u2019ll see what his process is, and whether he actually makes that nomination. And then, if he does, just as with anybody who is nominated for one of these positions, once they\u2019ve been nominated by the president, then the president gets, you know, the benefit of the doubt on the nomination, but we still go through a process\u201d of providing advice and consent under the Constitution, Rounds said.
He added: \u201cThat can be sometimes advice, sometimes it is consent.\u201d
Other Republicans who appeared on the Sunday news shows at the end of the Thanksgiving holiday and before returning to work this week were in Patel\u2019s corner.
Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said Patel \u201crepresents the type of change that we need to see in the FBI. \u2026 The entire agency needs to be cleaned out.\u201d He told NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that \u201cthere are serious problems at the FBI. The American public knows it. They expect to see sweeping change, and Kash Patel\u2019s just the type of person to do it.\u201d
He said Patel has \u201crelevant experience\u201d to head the FBI and \u201che\u2019s the one that can see through the fix here.\u201d
During Trump\u2019s first term, Patel was an aide to the then-Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee before taking roles at the White House National Security Council and later at the Defense Department.
Patel \u201cplayed a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,\u201d Trump wrote Saturday night in a social media post.
Patel has called for a \u201ccomprehensive housecleaning\u201d of government workers who are disloyal to Trump and has referred to journalists as traitors, promising to try to prosecute some reporters.
The selection is in keeping with Trump\u2019s view that the government\u2019s law enforcement and intelligence agencies require a radical transformation and his stated desire for retribution against supposed adversaries. It also shows how Trump, still fuming over years of federal investigations that shadowed his first administration and later led to his indictment, is moving to place atop the FBI and Justice Department close allies he believes will protect rather than scrutinize him.
Grassley said in his post that Wray \u201chas failed at fundamental duties\u201d and that it was time to \u201cchart a new course 4 TRANSPARENCY +ACCOUNTABILITY at FBI.\u201d
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Patel was a \u201cvery strong nominee\u201d and he thought Patel would be confirmed.
\u201cAll of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI,\u201d Cruz told CBS\u2019 \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d
To Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Judiciary Committee member like Cruz, Patel \u201chas more experience than just about anybody coming into this position,\u201d she said on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSunday Morning Futures.\u201d
Democrats said they would oppose him.
Trump \u201cwants to replace his own appointee with an unqualified loyalist,\u201d said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who is expected to the the ranking Democrat next year on the Judiciary Committee, in a statement. \u201cThe Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised.\u201d
That sentiment was shared by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said on NBC: \u201cPatel\u2019s only qualification is that he agrees with Donald Trump that the Department of Justice should punish, lockup and intimidate Donald Trump\u2019s political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n