Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel is on fire. After his swearing-in, he gave a not-so-subtle speech, showing that he’s ready to handle the media’s smears.
“I know the media's in here, and if you have a target, that target’s right here,” he said, pointing to himself. “It's not the men and women at the FBI.”
“You've written everything you possibly can about me that's fake, malicious, slanderous, and defamatory," he continued. "Keep it coming — bring it on. But leave the men and women, the FBI out of it. They deserve better.”
He also promised that a new day at the FBI has started. “I promise you the following, there will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight — starting this weekend.”
Kash continued, “I am living the American dream, and anyone that thinks the American dream is dead, just look right here. You're talking to a first-generation Indian kid who's about to lead the law enforcement community, the greatest nation on God's green earth.”
He wasted no time turning his bold rhetoric into action. Following his blistering speech on Friday, he ordered the transfer of 1,500 agents and staff from the bureau’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to field offices across the country.
Roughly 1,000 will be sent to high-crime cities that the Trump administration designated, where they can focus on fighting crime instead of political games. Another 500 will be reassigned to Huntsville, Ala., which is widely seen as D.C.’s version of exile.
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This is just Patel’s first move, and if any Democrats want to shed a bunch of tears over the move, they can, but they can’t claim they shouldn’t have expected it. As the Washington Post reported, Patel made this plan known during his confirmation hearings.
Patel, in his 2023 book, vowed to shutter the Hoover headquarters building and turn it into a “museum to the Deep State.” He’s made similar recommendations at his confirmation hearing and in appearances on conservative TV news shows.
“One of my biggest personal recommendations is … you send those 7,000 agents in the headquarters building down range to chase down rapists, to chase down murderers, to chase down drug traffickers and let the cops be cops on the streets across America,” Patel said during an August appearance on “Stinchfiled Tonight.”
During his confirmation hearing last month, Patel was asked about his previous comments suggesting he wanted the FBI’s headquarters emptied out and shuttered. His responses did not directly address whether he would actually shut the building down or seek to transform it into a museum, but suggested that he believes the FBI’s workforce in Washington should go out into the country.
“A third of the workforce for the FBI works in Washington, D.C.,” Patel said. “I am fully committed to having that workforce go out into the interior of the country, where I live west of the Mississippi, and work with sheriff’s departments and local officers.”
It's day one and he’s already making changes. It’s glorious to see.