President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, was recently grilled by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during his Senate confirmation hearing regarding his alleged support for a song released by the January 6 prisoners. Schiff argued that this disqualified Patel from serving as the FBI director; however, the nominee confidently shut down the assertion.
Schiff started by asking Patel if he was involved in the recording of the song. “[That] is interesting, because here’s what you told Steve Bannon on his podcast: ‘So, what we thought would be cool is if we captured that audio and then, of course, had the greatest president, President Donald J. Trump, recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we went to a studio and recorded it, mastered it, digitized it, and put it out as a song,'” Schiff said.
The California Democrat seemingly implied that Patel was associating himself with individuals “convicted” of perpetrating violence against police officers. “Being considered for Director of the FBI and and here you did no diligence to find out whether people you were associating with now the president united states in song, were convicted of attacking police officers,” Schiff said, grilling Patel.
“Is that who we want running the FBI?” he asked, before telling Patel to confront the police officers present in the hearing. “I want you to turn around. There are Capitol police officers behind you. They’re guarding us. Take a look at them right now,” Schiff said. Patel fired back at the Democratic senator, “I’m looking at you, you’re talking to me.”
As the exchange grew progressively heated, Schiff doubled down, “I want you to look at them if you can, if you have the courage to look them in the eye, Mr. Patel, and tell them you’re proud of what you did. Tell them you’re proud that you raised money off of people that assaulted their colleagues, that pepper sprayed them, that beat them with poles.”
Patel confidently defended himself, “That’s an abject lie. You know it. I’ve never, never, ever accepted violence against law enforcement. I’ve worked with these men and women, as you know.” Referring to the January 6 song recorded by the inmates, he added, “I did not make a single dime out of it.” Patel then turned the question around on Schiff, stating, “How about you ask them if I have their backs and let’s see about that answer.”
Schiff point-blank asked Patel, “If an FBI Director promoted a song of people who sprayed pepper spray in the face of an FBI agent. Would you say they were fit to be director?” Patel firmly responded, “I am fit to be the Director of the FBI.” Schiff, dissatisfied with that answer, asked again, “If you were the FBI director and you promoted a song to someone who beat an FBI agent with a pole, would you say you were fit to be FBI director?” Watch part of that exchange below.
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Patel said once again, “Mr. Schiff, I am fit to be FBI director based on my 16 years of government service.” Not buying Patel’s answers, the senator responded, ” Mr. Patel, you can say, ‘Oh, I support law enforcement. I decry violence against law enforcement.’ You could say all that, it’s what you did, Mr. Patel, that matters. It’s what you did that matters.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.