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Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in about 2 hours, the Senate will vote on whether to confirm Kash Patel to serve as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the next 10 years--10 years. If Senate Republicans confirm Mr. Patel, I believe they will come to regret this vote--probably sooner rather than later.
I, for one, am convinced that Mr. Patel has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead this amazing criminal investigative Agency. It appears my Senate Republican colleagues are ignoring the many redflags in Mr. Patel's record, probably because they fear retribution from the President and Mr. Musk.
Let me be clear: This is not a partisan issue. During my time in the Senate, I have voted for four FBI Director nominations before this one. Each one was clearly a Republican, and I voted for them nevertheless. Historically, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been apolitical.
I oppose Mr. Patel because he is dangerously politically extreme. He has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our Nation's most important law enforcement Agency to retaliate against his political enemies. Even before President Trump took office, Mr. Patel announced that he would force out FBI Director Chris Wray, whom he nominated in his first term before firing former FBI Director Jim Comey.
The Director is the only political appointment at the FBI.
Congress took steps to ensure that this Agency remains as apolitical as possible by providing for a single term of 10 years for Director and subjecting the appointment to the advice and consent of the Senate. Fifty years ago, we made this reform. We may see it all fall to ashes today.
As we have seen for weeks now, the Trump administration's purge of the FBI is a political exercise that has spread to service career officials. There is the FBI Agents Association, and the two leaders of that association came to see me recently in my office to talk about the situation.
Both of them are women. One is serving 17 years in the career job at the FBI and the other, 22. They were quick to add that their fathers had been FBI agents before that. It was clearly in their blood. They came to tell me about the situation at the FBI today because of this transition and because of the prospect of Kash Patel heading their Agency.
They said morale has never been lower. They have gone through many Presidential transitions and have never seen anything like this. The declaration that is required now of FBI agents is to whether they will participate in the investigation of the January 6 rioters who assaulted this United States Capitol Building.
Let's be honest about what is going on here. There is an effort to have Soviet-style historical revision. The Trump administration and the people they are pushing into leadership have to, basically, pass a loyalty of--in terms of the outcome of the previous Presidential election and what happened on January 6.
They are somehow asked to ignore the obvious that we see on the videotape over and over again. The rioters that assaulted this Capitol are so dangerous that the Vice President of the United States sitting in your chair was physically removed by the Secret Service for fear that he was going to be hurt if he stayed in his position.
Those of us who were on the floor of the Senate on January 6 were asked to evacuate this Chamber as quickly as possible. This was not simply a question of tourists getting out of line. These people who assaulted this U.S. Capitol Building were hell-bent on stopping the constitutional process of counting the electoral votes in the 2020 election.
And now the FBI and others are being asked to say the opposite, that this wasn't somehow a breach of law, a horrendous, terrible chapter in the history of this country, and that there was danger afoot.
Because the President has given a sweeping pardon for the 1,600 that were prosecuted for trespass, seditious conspiracy, and use of firearms in the Capitol and the like, we are supposed to somehow discount this as a significant moment in American history. It was.
For the FBI agents who participated in the investigation of that day, I say they were doing their job, they did it well, and now to remove them from the FBI because of that has obviously hurt the morale of the FBI Agency. When you stop and wonder what the future holds for them if another President comes in with another political agenda, will they be victims again?
As we have seen for weeks now, the Trump administration's purge of the FBI is a political exercise that has spread to senior current officials. In the FBI's long, long history, this has never happened before. This purge has dramatically weakened the FBI's ability to combat national security threats and make America less safe.
Senior leaders with collectively hundreds of years of experience have been forced out, creating a leadership vacuum. Thousands of line agents fear losing their jobs simply because they were assigned to work on cases involving the January 6 attack by President Trump.
I have heard directly from FBI agents who now fear for their safety and the safety of their families. To understand why, let me tell you about a January 6 rioter named Edward Kelley. Mr. Kelley was convicted of assaulting law enforcement during the attack on the U.S. Capitol. We saw it, didn't we, in terms of the videotapes that showed our law enforcement agents trying to stand their ground of this Capitol Building being beaten back and assaulted by these mobs?
Mr. Kelley was convicted of assault on law enforcement, and he was given a full and unconditional pardon by Donald Trump. But Mr. Kelley has also been convicted in his home State of Tennessee of conspiracy to murder the FBI agents who investigated his role in the January 6 attack.
Understand this: Now he is arguing that President Trump's blanket pardon--Mr. Kelley--should cover his attempt to kill FBI agents.
When asked about the possible firings of career FBI officials at his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel under oath--under oath--said ``I don't know what's going on right now,'' at the FBI.
Mr. President, that is not true. Thanks to multiple brave whistleblowers, we now know that Mr. Patel likely committed perjury in making that statement. Even before being confirmed as an FBI Director, Mr. Patel is already directing the ongoing purge of honorable, career public servants, despite his status as a private citizen. He has no right to be part of this awful process.
I urge my Republican colleagues to seriously consider these credible whistleblower allegations before you vote on Mr. Patel's nomination.
Mr. Patel's claim about an FBI purge were not his only misleading statements under oath. At his hearing, Mr. Patel implausibly told me he could not recall Stew Peters, a man who has been identified as an anti- Semitic Holocaust denier.
I asked him repeatedly: What about Stew Peters?
Don't know the man, don't recognize the name.
This is simply not true, considering that Mr. Patel appeared on Mr. Peters' podcast eight times, Mr. President--eight times and he couldn't recall the man's name.
Mr. Peters has since revealed that he and Mr. Patel directly communicate via their personal cell phones ``constantly''-- ``constantly'' was the word he used. As far as Patel is concerned under oath: Never heard of the man.
Why in the world would he do that? Why wouldn't Mr. Patel admit the obvious--eight podcasts and constant communication with this man. And an even larger question: What is he doing as the man who wants to direct the FBI in concert with anti-Semitic Holocaust denier Stew Peters? What is going on here? Is he showing good judgment? Is this the kind of person you want to put in charge of 38,000 criminal investigators?
Mr. Patel also claimed he ``didn't have anything to do with'' the recording of the so-called January 6 prison choir, which included at least six rioters who violently assaulted police officers. Mr. Patel thinks there is something interesting, maybe even amusing, about the fact that he created a choir of these individuals who had been prosecuted for what they did on January 6.
Here is what Mr. Patel said to Steve Bannon after he denied knowing anything about this recording before the Judiciary Committee's recently. He said to Steve Bannon:
We got this idea to record the January 6 prisoners who recite the national anthem every night from the D.C. prison. Then we took that to the studio. So we mastered and digitized that.
So as Steve Bannon showed, he is the mastermind behind this recording of these prisoners saying something about the national anthem every night. That particular tape that he created of the January 6 choir was taken to Trump rallies to be played as some kind of interesting display of what Patel insists are just political prisoners.
One of Mr. Patel's choir boys, Julian Khater, K-H-A-T-E-R, was convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers with pepper spray. One of those officers was Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Brian Sicknick suffered multiple strokes and died a day after the attack. Mr. Khater was one of the people who assaulted him.
Mr. Patel has called these violent January 6 rioters political prisoners. That includes Guy Reffitt. Guy Reffitt was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in the January 6 assault--87 months.
Mr. Reffitt brought a gun to the Capitol on January 6 and recorded himself saying the following, which I will paraphrase because I don't want to use profanity on the floor of the Senate: We are all going to drag them out kicking and screaming. I just want to see Pelosi's head hit every effing stair on the way out and Mitch McConnell, too. Eff them all.
Mr. Reffitt's 19-year-old son Jackson turned him into law enforcement after the attack, despite Reffitt's threats to shoot Jackson and his sister.
Here is what Reffitt said to his own children:
If you turn me in, you're a traitor, and you know what happens to traitors? Traitors get shot.
Mr. Reffitt received a full and unconditional pardon from President Trump. Guess where he was on January 30 this year? Back at the Capitol complex at Mr. Patel's confirmation hearing. Here is what Mr. Reffitt posted on social media from the hearing room:
Present and in support of @Kash
Stew Peters: constant communication, holocaust denier; this gentleman he has become a hero to for his appearance before the committee; and we are all commies for questioning Kash Patel's politics and what it has led to. These are Mr. Patel's allies: Stew Peters; Julian Khater; and Guy Reffitt.
On the other hand, consider who is warning us about Mr. Patel: former Trump officials who know him, like Attorney General Bill Barr, CIA Director Haspel, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and National Security Adviser John Bolton. All of these were Republican appointees who worked with Patel, who know him well, and warn us not to do this, don't give this responsibility to this man--all Republican appointees.
Mr. Patel has left a long trail of grievances, lashing out at anyone who is not completely aligned with him. He calls Democrats ``vindictive, evil, and vicious'' and repeatedly attacks Republican Senators who don't toe the MAGA line.
I read Mr. Patel's book ``Government Gangsters.'' It includes an enemies list at the end of the book, 60 names, ``members of the deep state'' in the word of Kash Patel, which includes distinguished public servants for both political parties.
What do they all have in common, the 60 people on this hit list? From Attorney General Bill Barr and Merrick Garland to former FBI Directors Bob Mueller and Chris Wray, they all had the misfortune of crossing paths with the vindictive Kash Patel.
Mr. Patel claims he respects law enforcement, but his words and actions demonstrate his disdain for the FBI. He said on day one he plans to ``shut down'' the FBI headquarters, and he has falsely claimed that the FBI ``was planning January 6 for a year'' beforehand.
There is no truth to that statement, Mr. President. He is casting aspersions on the FBI that are undeserved. Mr. Patel's record demonstrates that he is dangerous, inexperienced, and dishonest. He should not and cannot serve as an effective FBI Director.
Mr. Patel has been crystal clear that he plans on using the FBI's vast surveillance and investigative authority to ``come after'' the President's enemies.
It is shocking that my Republican colleagues are willing to support him, despite the serious threat he poses to our national security. And I am sorry to say I believe that we will quickly come to regret this vote. When I think of giving this man a 10-year--10 years as the Director of the leading criminal investigative Agency in the world, I cannot imagine a worse choice.
You want the person who has that job and that power to destroy people simply by investigation to show some temperament and some judgment. Kash Patel shows just the opposite. He is neither qualified nor prepared to assume this responsibility.
I will be voting no and plead with my Republican colleagues: Please think twice before creating this situation and making it even worse.
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