Kash Patel, former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense and a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation, is cruising toward an easy confirmation as the next FBI Director. Although initial predictions proposed that there would be strong resistance put up by Senate Democrats, who claimed he’d create an “enemies list,” Patel has been doing the hard work to win over lawmakers.
The Daily Caller reports that Patel has done the old-fashioned work of talking to people and making his case.
A source close to Patel said his commitment to advancing the MAGA agenda drove him to continue cultivating relationships with Senate Republicans even while Trump was out of office. That singular focus paid off, and the work he put in now has him on the cusp of serving in a critical position in the second Trump administration he hoped would eventually arrive.
“I was aware of Kash Patel by reputation during the Trump administration, but really got to know him over the last couple of years. We’d often chat when he would swing through town. I found he had keen political instincts and was also just a delightful person to talk and strategize with,” Utah Sen. Mike Lee told the Caller.
“Long before his name was on the shortlist to lead the FBI, I knew he was a dedicated patriot who has experienced firsthand the corrupt bureaucracy we’re going to hold accountable in Trump’s second term,” the senator added.
Patel has met with more than a dozen senators since getting the FBI nod, and many have publicly come out in support of him. The Trump transition, Politico reported, expected more pushback to the FBI pick. But it hasn’t materialized, in part because senators already know Patel and what to expect from him in office.
Patel rose to prominence for his role in uncovering missteps in the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation. He is widely recognized as a loyal proponent of Trump’s America First policy framework, with a track record of challenging what he views as a politicized and unaccountable federal bureaucracy. His outspoken stance has garnered significant praise from conservative allies while simultaneously drawing sharp criticism from opponents, but it’s also winning some Democrats.
Newsweek recently noted that Democratic Senator John Fetter “said in his interview with Patel that Trump’s pick to run the FBI was “forceful” in his denial that he would seek to prosecute the president-elect’s perceived enemies.
‘All of these interviews were off the record, so I’m not going to go into detail, but he [Patel] absolutely said, ‘That’s never going to happen,’ and he was very forceful with that. I found out his family’s origin story and immigration…I learned things about him. I never knew he was a public defender.'”
As Patel’s nomination continues to gain momentum, his confirmation seems less a matter of if and more a matter of when. If confirmed, Patel will play a central role in Trump’s broader strategy to reshape federal institutions and hopefully end the weaponization of government.
