The Washington Examiner’s Byron York suggested President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has a better chance at getting confirmed than other nominees, citing how Patel has been an ally to Trump and the Republican Party.
Patel’s hearing in the Senate, which is set for Thursday, is one of several this week, with hearings for former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, also being held. York, the Washington Examiner’s chief political correspondent, cited how all three nominees face various challenges to their confirmation, but he said Patel is the most likely to get confirmed “because he’s a Republican,” and there is “a lot of support” for him from Republican lawmakers.
SENATE GEARS UP FOR WHAT COULD BE ‘EXPLOSIVE’ CONFIRMATION HEARING FOR KASH PATEL
“They support what Patel did when he was working for Devin Nunes, when Nunes was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, because they were investigating this internal probe against Donald Trump, against the Trump campaign, that’s now become known as ‘the Russia hoax,’” York said on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom. “Patel was really a leading edge of trying to uncover what the FBI and the Obama administration and the intelligence agencies were doing targeting Donald Trump and his campaign.”
York argued that Patel’s advocacy and work for Trump have earned him key support within the Republican Party, paving the way to have “an easier go” at his confirmation hearing.
In comparison, Kennedy would likely have “a more difficult situation” in his hearing, as the former independent presidential candidate has “irritated” members of both parties. York pointed to how Kennedy’s criticism of vaccines has made some Democratic lawmakers skeptical of the HHS nominee, while some Republicans have been critical of Kennedy over his support for abortion.
Kennedy’s confirmation hearing will start on Wednesday, while Gabbard’s hearing will be held the following day.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of the most controversial nominations by Trump, was confirmed last week after a tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance. The most recent nominee to be confirmed in Trump’s Cabinet is Sean Duffy, who is the new head of the Department of Transportation.
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) argued the Senate is “ahead of schedule” in confirming Trump’s nominees, citing how much faster the confirmation process is going compared to Trump’s first term in 2017. He acknowledged that Democrats, the minority in the Senate, have ways they can “slow things down” in the confirmation process but that Senate Republicans are working “aggressively” in getting Trump’s Cabinet confirmed, including “forcing people to stay and to take votes on weekends.”