Kash Patel: In His Own Words
In a Truth Social post on November 30, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI.
Last week, current FBI Director Christopher Wray, appointed by Trump in 2017 to a 10-year term, announced he would step down before Trump is sworn into office.
Historian and journalist Garrett Graff recently wrote on Politico:
“The FBI’s highest guiding principle is supposed to be the rule of law – and federal law is clear: The FBI director serves a 10-year-term, a length meant to isolate the role from political winds. Similarly, in federal law, there is a mechanism for removing an FBI director who errs – they can be fired, but only for cause.
[…]
“Those safeguards and traditions exist because the FBI, in the wrong hands, is incredibly dangerous to American democracy.”
As Democracy 21 points out in a new review of his public comments and quotes, Patel has disqualified himself through his own words from being FBI director.
Patel, in his 2023 book Government Gangsters, provides a list of 60 current and former Executive Branch officials that he refers to as members of the “Executive Branch Deep State.” This list has echoes of President Nixon’s infamous enemies list.
In his book, Patel calls this so-called Deep State “a cabal of unelected tyrants” and “the most dangerous threat to our democracy,” and notes that his list is “not exhaustive” and omits “other corrupt actors of the first order,” including Members of Congress and “the entire fake news mafia press corps.”
Patel’s book illustrates why there are grave concerns that he would undermine the rule of law and the mission of the Justice Department – including its investigative arm, the FBI – to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans.
Here are just a few more examples, in his own words, that show why Kash Patel is unqualified to be FBI director.
Patel explaining who he calls “Government Gangsters”
Government gangsters “spread disinformation, spurn fairness, or even violate their oaths of office for political and personal gain, all at the expense of equal justice and American national security. Within the government, they operate at the highest levels of almost every agency, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the intelligence community to the Department of Defense (DoD). In many ways, this bureaucratic wing of the Deep State is the most dangerous.”
From his book Government Gangsters
Patel on the FBI
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day One and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.”
Patel on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, September 2024
Patel spreading a false rumor that Democrats could be trying to “rig” the 2024 election by allowing illegal immigrants to vote
“It’s probably already happening. You know, I mean, whatever you think the number is, it’s at least 10 million, if not 15 million [illegal immigrants]. Right? And you’ve seen liberal states go out and say, we’re going to house illegal immigrants, we’re going to give them IDs, and we’re going to help finance whatever needs they might have for their families and themselves. And so you got to ask yourself, what’s the point of all that? What do you bring in all these people here for? […] And so I think the Democrats are smart enough to say, well, we got to figure out a new way to rig the election.”
Patel threatening the media
“The one thing we learned in the Trump Administration, the first go round, is we got to put in all American patriots top to bottom. […] We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you.”
“We [must] collectively join forces to take on the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen, and no it’s not Washington, DC, it’s the mainstream media and these people out there in the fake news. That is our mission!”
Patel, speaking at CPAC, February 2024
Patel lauding the conspiracist QAnon
“Kash Patel is unqualified to serve as FBI director,” Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said.
“The only thing now standing in the way of Kash Patel becoming FBI director,” Wertheimer continued, “is whether enough Republican Senators are courageous enough to vote ‘no’ on Patel and stand up for the rule of law and for fair and impartial administration of justice when Patel’s nomination is brought before the Senate for confirmation as FBI director.”
