This Unqualified MAGA Addict Might Become Trump's FBI Director
By: Hafiz Rashid (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Kash Patel is an intellectual lightweight who spends all his time trying to please Dear Leader.
Peter Zay/Anadolu via Getty ImagesKash Patel in Charlotte in October
Donald Trump has his eye on yet another unqualified lightweight to lead a key agency, as the president-elect reportedly is consideringloyalist Kash Patel to lead the FBI.
CNN reported Friday that Trump's right-wing allies are trying to convince him to fire Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017 after firing James Comey for allegedly mishandling the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server.
During his presidential campaign, the president-elect expressed his displeasure at Wray, who drew his ire after Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate was searched in 2022 due to alleged mishandling of classified documents. FBI directors are supposed to serve a single 10-year term, but Patel's appointment would make him the third FBI director in seven years.
Patel is a vehement defender of Trump, showing up regularly on Fox News, at conservative events, and even at Trump's hush-money trial in New York. In the waning days of his first term, Trump pushed to appoint Patel as deputy director of the CIA or FBI but backed down only after receiving pushback from CIA Director Gina Haspel and Attorney General Bill Barr.
"Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world's preeminent law enforcement agency," Barr would later write in his memoir. Or, as CNN put it, "Even among Trump loyalists, Patel is widely viewed as a controversial figure and relentless self-promoter whose value largely derives from a shared disdain for the so-called deep state."
Patel has said he wants to go after government employees who leak information to the press, as well as journalists themselves. On Steve Bannon's podcast in December, he said that he and other Trump loyalists "will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media."
"We're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections," Patel said to Bannon. "We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. We'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice."
If Trump installs Patel at the FBI, it would certainly further Trump and his MAGA allies' goal of purging the federal workforce of disloyal employees. It also would raise eyebrows for the next FBI director to have three years working in the Department of Justice as his only law enforcement experience. But Patel has demonstrated loyalty to Trump, which might be enough to win over Republicans in Congress.
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There is a lot of buzz on twitter that this lunatic is the favorite to be FBI Director.
This could be the worst nominee of all of them.
Probably be better than Wray or Comey
Be pretty much impossible to be worse.
Great point as always
Why do you want to inflict all these conspiracy nuts on the American people ?
You mean like ‘girls can be boys and boys can be girls’?
Yea…….that is straight up truth s/
Fact is nobody is acceptable to the hard core liberal left unless they have a D behind their name. Any Republican/conservative is just totally unacceptable to them.
That is true.
I honestly believe that if he nominated someone like AOC for a cabinet position…..it doesn’t matter which one, he would be attacked by the rabid left for that too.
It is all about hating Trump because he beat 2 leftist queens back to back. Nothing more.
to simplify it
So you are Ok with voter interference?
Why doesn't the left media just report the news instead of blatantly being democrat activists openly trying to get a democrat president elected?
do go on
Why doesn't the right media just report the news instead of blatantly being republican
activists openly trying to get a republican president elected?
You seriously can’t think of one other reason why someone might not support Trump?
Oh, the irony...
Because they don't want to live in a fascist nation?
System of a Down - BYOB
Does he have a criminal background? If not, that's probably disqualifying in this repeat criminal enterprise of an 'administration'
Kash Patel is pushing conspiracies and his brand. He's poised to help lead a Trump administration | The Associated Press
In addition to his 2023 memoir, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel has published two children’s books that lionize Trump. “The Plot Against the King” features a thinly veiled Hillary Clinton as the villain going after “King Donald,” while Kash, a wizard called the Distinguished Discoverer, exposes a nefarious plot.
The line between his charitable work and money-making activities isn’t clear. Patel promotes “K$H” branded clothing lines for his nonprofit as well as for a company run by a close associate.
He’s also a pitchman for a variety of goods marketed to Trump supporters. One dietary supplement he’s promoting claims to be a COVID vaccine “detoxification system” made by a company whose co-founder was a defendant in a class-action lawsuit filed by people who say they were overcharged for Keto diet pills.
“Order this homerun kit to rid your body of the harms of the vax,” Patel said in a recent Truth Social post promoting the supplements.
Records show that Patel has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from his own business dealings with Trump-related entities.
He’s on the board of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, and had a consulting contract with the company that paid him $120,000 a year .
The income from his books, clothing and endorsements is unknown, but his social media feeds show a well-traveled Patel attending high-end sporting events like the Super Bowl, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup and a UFC fight, in addition to stumping for Trump around the country.
Patel said in a 2022 podcast appearance that Truth Social was trying to incorporate QAnon, a set of conspiracy theories borne out of the idea that the government is run by a cabal of child predators, “into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences.”
“He should get credit for all the things he has accomplished,” Patel said of the anonymous figurehead of the QAnon movement.
Patel has been a featured guest at rallies organized by Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who has been building a political movement mixing conspiracy theory with Christian nationalist ideas.
He’s also joined Trump in defending those who were charged with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, and is listed as a producer of “And Justice For All,” a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner sung by a group of defendants. In a social media post, Patel likened the song, which was briefly #1 on iTunes, to “We Are the World,” a single written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie in 1985 to benefit Africa.
to a Trumper, these are excellent credentials
Until he's "denaturalized" and deported. First time he disagrees on anything he is in for a huge surprise.
There needs to be some congressional pushback on the firing of FBI directors.