Kash Patel fired back at Democratic attacks during a tense Senate hearing this week. The FBI director accused the Biden administration’s Justice Department of targeting political opponents while vowing to root out corruption. “You’re looking at him,” Patel declared when Senator Patty Murray suggested the FBI had become weaponized. “I was one of their targets.”
The conservative firebrand detailed how federal investigators allegedly surveilled him without cause during the 2020 election. Patel claimed the same “rotten actors” who tried to frame President Trump now fear his cleanup efforts. His testimony electrified Republican lawmakers while infuriating Democrats who called his nomination a “dangerous power grab.”
This clash comes as Patel overhauls FBI leadership, replacing dozens of senior officials accused of partisan bias. The director recently disbanded the controversial Counterterrorism Division that pursued parents at school board meetings. “Badge number one is mine now,” Patel told lawmakers. “Every corrupt agent will answer to me.”
Liberal senators protested that Patel’s reforms threaten national security. Murray demanded to know why he fired an agent involved in the Trump-Russia probe. “Because he lied under oath,” Patel shot back, slamming a binder of declassified documents on the podium. The room erupted as he listed 14 terminated officials tied to “Crossfire Hurricane abuses.”
Patel’s team has reopened investigations into Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals and the Biden family’s alleged influence-peddling schemes. The director confirmed his agents recently raided a Delaware evidence storage facility linked to the president’s brother. “No one’s above the law,” Patel stated, drawing cheers from GOP staffers.
Democrats accused Patel of turning the FBI into Trump’s “personal police force.” They cited his dismissal of agents investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents. Patel countered that he’s protecting whistleblowers who exposed political targeting. “Real patriots don’t fear transparency,” he told Senator Murray.
The director’s supporters praise his push to prioritize violent crime over political witch hunts. Murder rates have dropped 18% since Patel reassigned 200 agents from counterintelligence to gang task forces. His “Back to Basics” initiative cleared 45,000 untested rape kits in three months while deporting 9,000 criminal aliens.
As the hearing concluded, Patel vowed to purge all remnants of what he called “the deep state infection.” The director promised criminal referrals for Obama-era officials involved in spying operations against Trump. “This isn’t partisan,” Patel declared. “It’s about restoring faith in America’s top law enforcement institution.”
