Congress
Adam Schiff and Kash Patel get into a shouting match
The yearslong feud between longtime political rivals Adam Schiff and Kash Patel reached a fever pitch Tuesday afternoon, complete with a shouting match that briefly derailed an ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The confrontation occurred when Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, questioned Patel, the FBI director, about the Justice Department’s decision to move Ghislaine Maxwell — an associate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — to a lower security prison facility.
Schiff asked Patel whether he believed the American people were “stupid” enough to believe his answer that the Bureau of Prisons independently made the decision to move Maxwell, rather than it being a politically-motivated move by the White House.
“What I am doing is protecting this country … and combating the weaponization of intelligence by the likes of you,” Patel said, interrupting Schiff. “We have countlessly proven you to be a liar in Russiangate, in January 6. You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate.”
Patel went on to call him “a political buffoon at best.”
The animosity between the two men dates back, at least, to Schiff’s time as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, where he led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Patel, then a House Intelligence staffer, was tasked with working to discredit the probe.
Five years later, Schiff served on a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; Patel, meanwhile, was an advocate for many of the incarcerated rioters.
Years later, in the lead-up to Patel’s confirmation to lead the FBI, Senate Judiciary Democrats pointed to the fact that Patel reposted a meme on social media that featured the likeness of Patel taking a chainsaw to Schiff’s head. Another photo shared by Democrats showed an image of Patel appearing to hold an object with Schiff’s face beside a catapult.
More recently, Patel has accused Schiff of moving to leak incriminating information about President Donald Trump while Intelligence Committee chair. Schiff, through a spokesperson, has denied the claims.
As the shouting on Tuesday continued, Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, pleaded with chair Chuck Grassley to take control of the situation. Grassley pounded his gavel repeatedly, saying, “Both of you be quiet.”
It was perhaps the most heated moment of the questioning on Tuesday, during which Patel was pressed on his handling of the Epstein matter and the investigation into the assassination of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk, among other topics.
But it was not the first explosive exchange of the day. Patel also tangled with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who told the FBI director, “I think you’re not gonna be around long” — a suggestion Trump would eventually turn on him.
That comment set off a similar shouting match in which Patel called Booker “an embarrassment to your country” and Booker shouted back, “I’m not afraid of you.”
In a social media post after the conclusion of the hearing, Schiff contended that Patel went before lawmakers to “save his job” and argued he was “performing for an audience of one.” The White House, meanwhile, congratulated Patel for going after “Pencil Neck” — the president’s nickname for Schiff.
Patel will go before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders will hit the road for Troy Jackson in Maine starting Oct. 10, the first time the progressive leader will stump for the candidate this cycle.
The Vermont independent plans to hold three rallies with Jackson, according to an itinerary shared first with Blue Light News: first in Bangor on Oct. 10th followed by Lewiston and Biddeford on Oct. 11.
The Maine swing will kick off Sanders’ travel for the final stretch of the midterms, covering ground throughout October for House and Senate candidates, POLITICO reported.
“Bernie and Troy know that working people built this country and deserve a government that fights for them,” Jackson spokesperson Dan Gottlieb told Blue Light News. “Susan Collins has had nearly 30 years to deliver, and working Mainers are still getting squeezed while she serves the billionaires and corporate interests who bankroll her campaigns. Mainers don’t need another six years of excuses.”
Sanders campaigned ahead of major wins for progressives in the primary season, speaking at more than 60 rallies since last year’s Fight the Oligarchy tour and endorsing more than 90 candidates up and down the ballot.
He’s also opening his substantial $23 million campaign war chest, POLITICO reported, and contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars toMinnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and others including Angie Nixon in Florida and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison,
Sanders will return to Maine after initially backing Graham Platner’s campaign for Senate. Allegations reported by POLITICO ultimately led him to call on the Democratic nominee to drop out of the race.
Sanders had not formally endorsed Jackson since he clinched the nomination from Platner, though he previously backed Jackson’s initial run for governor.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he has “no concerns” about winning back his Arkansas seat in the upcoming midterm elections, but the six-term House member acknowledged the political headwinds for his party.
“I consider the atmosphere a very tough political environment right now because of President [Donald] Trump’s lack of favorability at the top, and you know people are concerned about, as I say, what it’s like to live under an inflated economy the last four years,” Hill said in an interview.
Hill is in a solidly red district, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and said he is up against a “weaker candidate this time than I’ve had in past races.” Polling in the district, however, has shown a tighter race. The two polls done this year placed Democratic challenger Chris Jones ahead of Hill by a few percentage points. Any perceived polling victory for Jones is still well within the margin of error, and one of the polls had a Democratic sponsor.
Stephannie Lane Baker, a spokesperson for Jones, said that “of all the Republicans in Congress, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee doesn’t get to dodge responsibility for this economy. He’s in trouble, and he knows it.”
Additionally, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s PAC, Ready for the Fight, committed more than $1 million in television ads through the next five weeks for Jones’ race in Arkansas’s 2nd District, Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for the PAC confirmed. Overall Democratic spending on advertising for the race was just over $1 million, primarily made up by contributions from the Ready for the Fight PAC, with Republicans spending almost $2.7 million on ad buys, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking service.
Hill said he has addressed affordability concerns “head on” this Congress.
“My work on housing, my work on the Price Stability Act, my work to try to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse, and drop the federal budget deficit as a percentage of GDP,” Hill said. “All these things can contribute to a more affordable environment for people. So I’ve tried to make that a forefront of my campaign this year.”
Hill was a key architect of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a bipartisan housing affordability bill that became law in July. The Price Stability Act, which is unlikely to become law this year, would narrow the Federal Reserve’s current dual mandate of pursuing maximum employment and price stability to focus exclusively on containing inflation.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on Friday released text of legislation intended to ban the use of Flock surveillance cameras and other license plate readers.
Flock has faced severe public backlash against the surveillance technology following reports that police officers misused the technology to track women, and it has the largest network of license plate readers across the U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) hosted a hearing last month probing its potential misuses, although the company’s CEO Garrett Langley did not appear.
The latest bill, unveiled Friday and named the Ban Flock Act, would bar federal agencies from using automated license plate readers or accessing data from the technology and prevent federal grants from funding states and local governments that use automated license plate readers.
“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders, who has positioned himself as a leading progressive voice on AI technology, said in a statement. “We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”
Ocasio-Cortez similarly condemned the surveillance capabilities of the technology and said the bill would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”
“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.
Republicans have introduced similar efforts to regulate license plate readers, such as Hawley’s Stop Flock Abuse Act, which would require audits and limits on unauthorized searches.
Flock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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- October
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