Senate Democrats Delay Crucial Vote on Kash Patel’s Confirmation as FBI Director – One America News Network
OAN Staff James Meyers
9:23 AM – Thursday, February 6, 2025
Senate Democrats have postponed a critical vote on Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI, delaying President Donald Trump’s selection until next week.
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On Thursday, Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee opted to place a hold on Patel’s nomination, while Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) noted, “the minority exercised their right, as did I under the committee rules, to hold over the nomination of Kash Patel to lead the FBI.”
Members have the prerogative to request such a motion once.
“This is an unconventional nomination with a term spanning ten years,” remarked Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the committee’s ranking member, emphasizing that the extended term was intended “to ensure that politics were removed from the equation.”
He added, “A decade is significant and warrants thorough scrutiny,” arguing that Patel had made a “direct contradiction under oath” regarding his role in producing a song recording of individuals arrested during the January 6, 2021, Capitol protests.
Durbin reiterated that Patel participated in the “celebrating of these individuals who stormed the Capitol.”
During his confirmation hearing the previous week, Patel asserted his commitment to restoring public trust in law enforcement by halving the rates of U.S. drug-related deaths, rapes, and homicides, stating he would ensure “that next year there will not be 100,000 rapes in this country, nor 100,000 drug overdoses from Chinese fentanyl and Mexican heroin, and definitely not 17,000 homicides.”
In January, a similar hold was placed on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s nomination.
Patel is now anticipated to be voted out of the committee by Republicans next Thursday.
However, the prospective FBI leader remains in a solid position to garner approval from Republican senators in the end.
The 44-year-old candidate also reassured senators last week that he would refrain from utilizing the bureau’s resources to investigate Democratic figures, while acknowledging instances of FBI overreach during the Trump-Russia investigation post-2016 election.
Patel further stated that he does not support the idea of “abolishing” the FBI and emphasized that “98% of the FBI personnel are courageous, non-partisan figures of justice.”
“What they require is improved leadership,” he conveyed to the Judiciary panel members.
In parallel, Senate Republicans are set to turn their focus to Tulsi Gabbard, the president’s nominee for national intelligence director, alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary as part of the upcoming nominations awaiting confirmation in the coming weeks.
This delay follows a swift initiative by Republicans aimed at expediting the confirmation of Trump’s nominees, with the Senate having confirmed 12 nominees in just under three weeks.
The Senate is also expected to confirm Russel Vought as the head of the Office of Management and Budget by Thursday night.
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