Sen. Hirono: “Mr. Patel’s is a dangerous nomination that will make our country less safe, less secure, and erode America’s trust in the FBI.”
~ Video of Sen. Hirono’s floor speech is available here ~
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, voted against Kash Patel’s nomination to serve as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Prior to the vote, Senator Hirono took to the Senate floor to raise her concerns with Mr. Patel’s confirmation, citing his willingness to disregard the Constitution and our country’s rule of law in order to prove his loyalty to President Trump.
“Ours is a nation of laws, but Mr. Patel’s nomination is one more indication that Donald Trump fancies himself above the law—even referring to himself as ‘king’ in a recent tweet—and will weaponize the law however he wants to advance his political agenda,” said Senator Hirono during her remarks. “Mr. Patel’s is a dangerous nomination that will make our country less safe, less secure, and erode America’s trust in the FBI.”
Last month, during his confirmation hearing, Senator Hirono pressed Mr. Patel on several of her concerns regarding his fitness to serve as FBI Director, including his history of spreading misinformation relating to the 2020 presidential election, COVID-19 vaccine “detox” supplements, the January 6, 2021 insurrection, and a list of people he believes comprise the “Executive Branch Deep State.”
In her remarks, Senator Hirono spoke out against Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recently announced “Weaponization Working Group,” intended to “investigate the investigators” and “prosecute the prosecutors” who had previously investigated Trump. Senator Hirono also condemned the Trump Administration’s recent purging of dozens of senior, career FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) employees. The Administration also demanded the names of over 5,000 FBI agents and analysts who were assigned to work on matters related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
“Our administrative agencies, and certainly the Department of Justice and the, FBI do not exist to be used as tools for retribution by Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, or Kash Patel,” continued Senator Hirono. “But that is exactly what is happening with our agencies and the firing and the purging of thousands of people who are doing the job of the people.”
The full transcript of Senator Hirono’s floor speech is below. Video of her speech is available here.
M. President, as the leading law enforcement agency in our country, the FBI does critical work every single day to keep our nation, to keep us, safe—from counterterrorism and countertrafficking, to fighting cyber-attacks and so much more.
At a time of global instability, FBI agents are working day in and day out to protect us from threats both foreign and domestic. But today, the FBI and the Department of Justice face a crisis, caused not by any outside threat, but rather by the men and women tasked with leading these agencies. Instead of focusing on potential attacks, hacks, or violent criminal enterprises, we have a DOJ and FBI that have been turned inward on themselves.
In just the last month, dozens of senior career FBI and DOJ employees have been purged—purged—en masse by President Trump and his administration. Hundreds [or] thousands of the prosecutors and FBI special agents and analysts may be next. In fact, I shouldn’t use the word “may”—will be next.
Purging hardworking and dedicated civil servants does nothing to make us safe. In fact, it does just the opposite. Attorney General Bondi recently announced the creation of a “weaponization working group” only continues this trend. Through this working group, she is doing what she told us she would not do in her confirmation hearings: she is “investigating the investigators” with this working group. And I expect next will be “prosecuting the prosecutors.”
I fear what a DOJ and FBI focused inward on themselves mean for the safety and security of our nation—which brings me to Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI. For many reasons, Mr. Patel is not the man to answer the many challenges of the moment. Mr. Patel spent his nomination hearing avoiding every hard question—not even the hard questions.
I asked him, for example, if he would investigate people on his 60-person—60 people—on his “Deep State” list. He would not say no. It’s pretty clear this list—and I suspect it’s a growing one—that this 60-person list are all the people who are not sufficiently loyal to President Trump. So, it has many, many Republicans on the list. And what the heck is he planning to do with that list? Believe me, it’s not because they’re going to be commended for the work that they did.
I asked him in his hearings whether he profited from selling supplements to “detox” the COVID-19 vaccine—supplements he promoted on his social media channels. He did not answer.
I asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He would not answer.
He claimed not to know an antisemitic extremist named Stew Peters, despite the fact that he appeared in this person’s program 8 times.
He tried to claim no involvement with the January 6th choir made up of inmates—made up of inmates—serving in prison for their part in the violent insurrection on January 6th at the Capitol. And of course, we all know all of these inmates have been pardoned en masse by the President. He claimed no involvement with this choir, despite promoting them and hawking their merchandise for years.
He was unwilling to provide any details about his grand jury testimony related to the January 6th insurrection—testimony he had to be compelled to give after taking the Fifth Amendment. Of course, Mr. Patel has the same rights as any American to plead the Fifth, but we have an equal right to ask him—as the nominee for the FBI Director no less—why he did so, and to learn what his ultimate testimony was.
The one thing Mr. Patel did testify to, in response to a question from Senator Booker, about whether he was “aware of any plans or discussions to punish . . . FBI agents or personnel associated with Trump investigations.” And his response was that he was “not aware of that.” We have since learned of credible evidence that Mr. Patel perjured himself with that statement.
M. President, Mr. Patel is totally unfit to lead the FBI. It’s clear he won’t discern fact from fiction and that he will be loyal to Donald Trump and Donald Trump only, which means total disregard for the constitution and the rule of law. Ours is a nation of laws, but Mr. Patel’s nomination is one more indication that Donald Trump fancies himself above the law—even referring to himself as “king” in a recent tweet—and will weaponize the law however he wants to advance his political agenda. Mr. Patel’s is a dangerous nomination that will make our country less safe, less secure, and erode America’s trust in the FBI.
M. President, our administrative agencies, and certainly the Department of Justice and the FBI do not exist to be used as tools for retribution by Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, or Kash Patel. But that is exactly what is happening with our agencies and the firing and the purging of thousands of people who are doing the job of the people.
What can be thinking in supporting Mr. Patel to lead an agency that has the tools to spy and go after all the people that he doesn’t like. I urge my colleagues to vote no on his nomination and I yield back.
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