New FBI director: Senate approves Kash Patel for 10-year term
President Donald Trump scored another Cabinet win Thursday, with the Senate confirming his controversial FBI director pick Kash Patel by a vote of 51-49.
Patel's is one in a recent streak of contentious confirmations breaking Trump's way, coming on the heels of Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation as director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s as Health and Human Services secretary.
A former Justice Department attorney and congressional staffer, Patel has come under fire for pushing conspiracy theories about federal employees and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. He was vetted by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a roughly five-hour hearing late last month.
Democrats had requested Patel return for another round of interrogation, but Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a second hearing was "unnecessary."
Despite the minority party pulling out all the stops from their albeit slim toolbox in attempts to hold up Patel's confirmation, he was approved by the committee last week and set up for a full Senate sign-off.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was one of the two Republicans to vote no on Patel. She announced her intention hours before, citing recent shake-ups at the FBI.
"In this context, there is a compelling need for an FBI director who is decidedly apolitical," she said in a statement, adding, "While I strongly support efforts to ensure all federal employees perform their responsibilities ethically and in accordance with the law, Mr. Patel’s recent political profile undermines his ability to serve in the apolitical role of Director of the FBI."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Collins in voting against Patel.
Collins broke from her party on another Trump nominee last month, being one of three Republicans then to oppose Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's confirmation.