Former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and GOP lawmaker from California Devin Nunes hailed President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of national security expert Kash Patel to head up the FBI during an interview with Fox News host Mark Levin.
Nunes, the current CEO of Truth Social, Trump’s social media start-up, said that Patel is well aware of how the upper echelons of the FBI and broader Department of Justice, under which the bureau falls, have been politicized and corrupted over the last decade.
“Kash Patel is a reformer who will do things at the FBI that the entrenched ruling class does not want him to do,” Levin said before swinging it over to Nunes.
“Yes, and I think most importantly with that, he knows how they do it. He knows how the DOJ and how the FBI corrupted the whole damn place. That’s the advantage he has, and that’s why they don’t want him in there,” Nunes said.
“And I will just go furthermore, I think this brings an important component that I don’t think we’ve in an FBI director before,” he added. “Kash served at the beginning of his career on the other side. He served as a public defender, defending criminals against the FBI, against, you know, the law enforcement agencies.
“So he transferred from a public defender, then into the DOJ as a prosecutor. And at a time [when] we need people that understand both sides of the issues if we’re going to restore the FBI and the Department of Justice, where we truly get a situation in this country, again, where justice should be blind, that’s how it was set up by the founders of this country,” the former California lawmaker continued.
“And if you don’t have a solid, reliable justice system, your whole damn country falls apart,” he said. “And look, and if it wasn’t for President Trump winning, the country just about fell apart. So what started with the Russia hoax back in the day, campaign gimmick to try to falsely accuse Trump of dealing with Russia and Republicans dealing with Russia ended up.”
Nunes added: “You talk about it all the time, but we need to talk about how they targeted Supreme Court justices, targeted Catholics, targeted President Trump, went through Mar-a-Lago, did multiple going — targeting Republicans across the board, and still never leaving the Russia hoax alone, including getting involved in the last election in 2020 with the whole hoax on the 51 spies who lie that Hunter Biden’s laptop was just Russian disinformation. That’s what has to be cleaned up permanently.”
William Webster, a Republican who is the only person to have led the FBI and CIA, has penned a letter warning against confirming Kash Patel to head the FBI and Tulsi Gabbard as the head of national intelligence.
Some have seen this as a sign of the “swamp” fighting against new blood heading these important agencies, The Washington Examiner reported.
“While Mr. Patel’s intelligence and patriotism are commendable, his close political alignment with President Trump raises serious concerns about impartiality and integrity,“ Webster, 100, who worked in the Carter and Reagan administrations, said in the letter.
“Statements such as ‘He’s my intel guy’ and his record of executing the president’s directives suggest a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law — a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice,” the letter continued.
But his issues with Gabbard, a former Democrat representative from Hawaii, were more about her lack of experience.
“Effective management of our intelligence community requires unparalleled expertise to navigate the complexities of global threats and to maintain the trust of allied nations,” he said. “Without that trust, our ability to safeguard sensitive secrets and collaborate internationally is severely diminished. … This is no time in world history for a novice in the field to learn this role.”
The Trump team responded to the concerns by dismissing them in a letter of their own.
“Lt. Col. Gabbard is an active member of the Army and has served in the military for over two decades and in Congress, as someone who has consumed intelligence at the highest levels, including during wartime, she recognizes the importance of partnerships with allies to ensure close coordination to keep the American people safe,” Trump transition spokeswoman Alexa Henning said.
Another spokesperson, Alex Pfeiffer, mentioned that Patel has previously worked for a Democrat administration.
“Kash Patel is loyal to the Constitution. He’s worked under Presidents Obama and Trump in key national security roles,” he said.
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