President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, laid waste to the Democrat narrative regarding events ahead of the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building during a contentious hearing in the Senate earlier this week.
The nominee battled with several Democrat senators during the hearing, but his most telling revelation came when he spoke to a much friendlier Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
Patel blamed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York for the trespassing that occurred on that day.
“Days in advance we were in the Oval Office on an unrelated national security matter with the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and myself, and the President authorized up to 20,000-plus National Guard men and women to secure any security measures necessarily related to the capital. We were moving to the fullest extent of the law before the requisite request came from a local governing authority days ahead of time,” Patel said during testimony.
“What were you doing on that day?” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz asked.
“On that day, specifically, responding to, preparing to mobilize and employ the National Guard once we got the lawful request from the local governing authority, which was the mayor of DC and the Speaker of the House,” Patel responded.
“While you were Chief of Staff at DOD, how many times did DOD approach Capitol Police and ask if they needed National Guard assistance?” Cruz asked.
“I believe those letters are well-documented. Numerous instances, and numerous of those instances, those requests were shut down,” the nominee responded.
“Now, am I correct that the Capital Sergeant at Arms said assistance was unnecessary?” Cruz asked.
“That’s correct, Senator,” Patel answered.
“Who did the Sergeant at Arms report to?” the senator inquired.
“The speaker of the House,” Patel responded.
“That would have been Nancy Pelosi at the time. Is that correct?” Cruz pressed.
“Yes, Senator,” Patel said.
“Would that also be Chuck Schumer, then the Senate Majority Leader?” the senator said.
“The Sergeant at Arms, yes, Senator, reports up there,” the nominee replied.
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Patel, meanwhile, was in high spirits after he was grilled by lawmakers this week.
The nominee walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing late on Thursday night and told reporters that “it was a fantastic day” when asked how he thought the process was going.
The hearing got particularly heated when he got into a tense back-and-forth with Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar when she tried to smear him as being unqualified.
“Simply this: if the best attacks on me are going to be false accusations and grotesque mischaracterizations, the only thing this body is doing is defeating the credibility of the men and women at the FBI. I STOOD with them, here in this country, in every theater of war we have – I was on the ground in service,” Patel said.
“And any accusations that I would put political bias before the Constitution are grotesquely unfair and I will have you reminded I have been endorsed by over 300,000 law enforcement officers to become the next director of the FBI. Let’s ask them,” he added.
Patel rejected Democrats taking his old comments out of context to “score cheap political points.”
“In the collective, all of those statements are taken out of grotesque context,” he said.
Patel accused his critics of “intentionally putting false information into the public ether and creating more public discourse. “The only thing that will matter if I am confirmed as director of the FBI is a de-weaponized, depoliticized system of law enforcement completely devoted to rigorous obedience of the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” he told the Senate panel.
