Back during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, January 30, then-nominee, now-FBI Director Kash Patel spoke to Sen. Ted Cruz about the responsibility former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has for what happened on January 6, 2021. During that same hearing, one of the top Senate Democrats, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, freaked out and attacked Kash Patel, including over some of his J6 claims.
As background, Sen. Cruz, starting the discussion about Pelosi, asked Patel about the Sergeant of Arms, who is largely responsible for the security of the Capitol and is allegedly the one who denied attempts to provision National Guard troopers for Capitol protection. Sen. Cruz asked, “Who did the Sergeant at Arms report to?” Patel told him, “The Speaker of the House.” Following up on that, Cruz asked Patel, “That would have been Nancy Pelosi at the time, is that correct?” “Yes, Senator,” Patel told him.
Cruz asked, “And would that also be Chuck Schumer (D-NY), then the Senate Majority Leader?” Patel, explaining what happened, told Cruz, “The Sergeant at Arms, yes, Senator, reports up there. She put in writing on the days leading up to January 6th a declination for National Guard additional support and that letter is available publicly to the world.”
During that hearing, Sen. Durbin freaked out over Mr. Patel’s claims about J6 and his involvement with the prisoners, such as helping found the “J6 Choir.” Particularly, Sen. Durbin freaked out over Mr. Patel’s insinuation that those imprisoned for J6 weren’t responsible for what happened and his insistence that they were “political prisoners.”
Having that freakout, the woke senator started ranting about supposed “violence” in American politics, snapping, “When it comes to violence and politics, I personally believe [violence] has no place in politics. Whether it’s violence against Donald Trump or violence against Nancy Pelosi’s husband in her home, period.”
Continuing, he insisted that various pro-Trump groups “have no place in this country,” because they supposedly “espouse violence.” He snapped, “Those people, [the] Proud Boys, whatever they call themselves, have no place in this country as far as I’m concerned if they espouse violence in any form, do you agree?”
Durbin then started snapping at Patel over his assistance with the founding of the J6 Choir, berating him for trying to help those who were imprisoned over the matter. He snapped, “Why are we so concerned about this choir singing a song? The question is who are you going to care about, who are you going to help?”
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He continued, insinuating that all those arrested for J6 were arrested for violence against police officers, “Are you going to help the victims of January 6—the police and their families, or are you going to help the people arrested for assaulting [the Capitol Police officers]? I think the J6 choir looks like a tribute to them—characterizing them as ‘political prisoners’ and unlucky and just patriotic people who may have gotten out of hand. Do you see the difference?”
Durbin also attacked Patel for arguing that the FBI was involved with January 6, practically shouting at him and asking, “Let me ask you about one of the major conspiracy theories that I’ve heard, and you’re associated with—that the FBI planned January 6. Why did you say that?” Patel insisted that was a mischaracterization of his remarks.
Watch Durbin’s freakout here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video