Senate Republicans signaled an openness to Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director, even as some centrist voices withheld their approval.
Trump faced intense resistance the first time he nominated a firebrand like Patel to a senior post in the Justice Department. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his nomination for attorney general in just eight days in the face of bipartisan opposition.
However, GOP senators were careful not to criticize Patel as they arrived at the Capitol on Monday, their first day back following the Thanksgiving recess. Some centrist Republicans even seemed inclined to support his nomination, which Trump announced over the weekend.
“I’m going in with a presumptively positive opinion about him,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Patel, who served as a Justice Department lawyer but never an FBI agent, is one of a handful of nominees who have caused heartburn in Washington over their relative lack of experience.
He also shares the same slash-and-burn mentality that turned Senate Republicans off to Gaetz, a House rabble-rouser who resigned last month. Patel has raised eyebrows with his proposal to empty the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., and convert it into a “museum of the deep state.”
Gaetz’s reputation prompted open skepticism that he could be confirmed in the Senate, with Republicans like Tillis and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) delicately registering their concern. But the reaction has been far more muted for Patel, suggesting less institutional resistance to his nomination.
“We’re still learning more about him,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), an incoming member of the Senate GOP leadership team. “I know what is being written about him in the press could be very different from when I actually sit down with him and go through it.”
Patel also received an early endorsement outside of the Senate’s bloc of Trump allies from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), a current member of Republican leadership.
“We really do need people that will go in and shake up some of these organizations, and certainly the FBI is one that has demonstrated they need somebody that will go in and clean it up,” said Ernst.
Patel is just the latest nominee to test the Senate’s deference to Trump, whose return to the Oval Office helped buoy Republicans to a 53-seat majority next year.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, returned to Capitol Hill on Monday to meet with senators as sexual misconduct allegations swirl around him.
He denies any wrongdoing but was forced to field accusations, reported over the weekend, that he was forced out of a past leadership position over financial mismanagement and alleged sexual impropriety. In a separate report, Hegseth’s mother called him an “abuser of women” in a newly surfaced email from 2018.
Other, less controversial nominees have received little press as they build support for their confirmation.
Pam Bondi, who replaced Gaetz as Trump’s choice for attorney general, received praise from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, following a meeting on Monday.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the House GOP conference chairwoman nominated for ambassador to the United Nations, is thought to be on a glide path to confirmation as she meets with senators this week.
Patel will face similar scrutiny as his nomination advances through the Senate, culminating in a confirmation hearing in January.
Democrats are ready to accuse Patel of wanting to use the FBI to investigate Trump’s political enemies. Patel, for his part, has promised to end what he calls the “politicization of law enforcement” under President Joe Biden.
Trump was charged in two federal cases dealing with his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“The question is whether he is unbiased,” said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “He has said things about weaponization of law enforcement and reform in the FBI, which leads some to believe — I hope it’s not true — that he will take the same type of revenge politically that he’s accusing this administration of.”
Patel’s path to confirmation will depend on whether he can limit the number of “no” votes among Senate Republicans. He can afford to lose three with all Democrats voting against him.
“He’s like all the other nominees,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the incoming Senate majority leader, told the Washington Examiner. “He’ll get a process and a confirmation hearing and vetting and everything else.”
“My job is to make sure that the nominees have a thorough and fair process,” he added, “And, ultimately, our members are going to decide.”
Collins and other centrist Republicans are so far publicly noncommittal on Patel’s fitness for the job.
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“He is a nominee who I will have to do a lot of work on,” said Collins.
Others question why Trump would not allow the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, to serve out the remainder of his 10-year term. Trump appointed him in 2017.
