Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) dismissed concerns about Kash Patel’s lack of experience to lead the FBI, saying he looks forward to Patel “taking it apart.”
During an interview on Meet the Press, Sunday host Kristen Welker asked Hagerty about bipartisan criticism Patel faces over his level of experience, including from former attorney general in Donald Trump’s first term, Bill Barr.
“Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency,” Barr wrote in his memoir in 2022.
“How seriously do you take Barr’s warnings?” Welker asked.
“President Trump is entitled to name his appointees,” Hagerty responded in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “That is exactly what he’s doing. And I’m going to support this appointment.”
“Kash has worked in national security. He’s worked at the Department of Justice,” he added. “And he’s somebody that has been willing to uncover the wrongs of the FBI.”
“So, Senator, you are disregarding what Bill Barr, the former attorney general under Donald Trump, is saying, his warnings that he just doesn’t have the experience?” Welker pressed.
“I think Kash does have relevant experience — particularly when it comes to the mandate the American public have assigned of turning these agencies around that have [been] completely corrupted Kash has pointed it out,” Hagerty responded.
“He’s probably the best at uncovering what’s happened to the FBI. And I look forward to seeing him taking it apart,” the senator added.
Trump announced Saturday that he is nominating Patel to lead the FBI, claiming that he will “bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”
Patel is a staunch Trump loyalist who has called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role, purging its ranks of any employee who refuses to support Trump’s agenda, railed against the so-called ‘deep state’ and vowed to punish Trump enemies including journalists.
“The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even like a matter for debate,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told CNN.
He continued: “I think what we should really be thinking about right now is what does this signal in terms of Donald Trump’s intent for the FBI. The installation or the nomination….. of Kash Patel, the FBI director, can only possibly be a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI, and to possibly use it as a tool for the president’s political agenda.”
