Connect with us

Congress

FBI chief, under fire, tells senators to ‘bring it on’

Published

on

Embattled FBI director Kash Patel defended his leadership of the nation’s top law enforcement agency in opening remarks Tuesday morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I’m honored to be the ninth director of the FBI — I’m not going anywhere,” he told lawmakers. “If you want to criticize my 16 years of service, please bring it on.”

It could set the tone for the Judiciary panel’s annual oversight hearing of the FBI, which comes amid increased scrutiny of Patel in the aftermath of last week’s assassination of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk.

In the wake of the killing, Patel posted on social media that the government had a suspect in custody — only to post shortly thereafter that the suspect, who was not the killer, had been released. Patel defended the bureau’s handling of the investigation in his opening statement, while Sen. Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley opened the proceedings by noting the FBI director would have to answer for the department’s handling of the situation.

Patel, in his remarks, also criticized the Justice Department’s handling of the sex crimes case against Jeffrey Epstein in the George W. Bush administration, including calling out former U.S. attorney Alex Acosta, who oversaw Epstein’s controversial plea deal. Acosta later served as Labor Secretary in the first Trump administration but resigned in the midst of criticism of his handling of the Epstein deal. He is scheduled to be interviewed by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday as part of its Epstein probe.

In his own opening statement, Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee’s top Democrat, previewed what questions could look like from his side of the aisle: He took aim at the recent firings at the FBI, Patel’s background as a Trump loyalist and the current administration’s approach to the Epstein case.

Anticipating that the recent surge in political violence will be a theme at the Tuesday hearing, Durbin also argued that both sides bore a responsibility for turning down the temperature in partisan rhetoric: Democrats were not to blame for Kirk’s assassination, he said, nor were Republicans responsible for the murder of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman back in June.

Senators will each be allotted ten minutes to question Patel, who is appearing before lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the first time since his confirmation. He’ll testify Wednesday in front of the House Judiciary Committee for its own FBI oversight hearing.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Congress

House again votes to surrender tariff powers to Trump

Published

on

House Republicans voted in near lockstep Tuesday to again cede congressional power over tariffs to President Donald Trump.

A measure that effectively blocks challenges to Trump’s sweeping global tariff declarations through March 2026 was adopted on a 213-211 vote. The vote was gaveled down only after GOP whips had a drawn-out struggle on the floor with a band of Republicans who initially opposed the legislation before flipping to yes. The vote was held open for more than a half-hour as they worked to bring the members back on board.

Three Republicans — Reps. Kevin Kiley of California, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — ended up joining Democrats to oppose the measure, a “rule” which also teed up several D.C.-related criminal justice bills for debate.

“I think this is a misuse of what rules are for, and I think it’s bad for the representative process,” Kiley said of the tariff provisions.

Continue Reading

Congress

Adam Schiff and Kash Patel get into a shouting match

Published

on

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.

Continue Reading

Congress

Top Democrats blast House stopgap proposal

Published

on

Democratic leaders signaled Tuesday they will oppose the GOP-led stopgap funding bill just hours after it was unveiled — and just two weeks before a possible government shutdown.

“The House Republican-only spending bill fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement. “At a time when families are already being squeezed by higher costs, Republicans refuse to stop Americans from facing double-digit hikes in their health insurance premiums.”

House GOP leaders are teeing up the legislation to extend government funding by seven weeks for a vote later this week. Democrats are under immense pressure from their base to mount a resistance to Blue Light News GOP’s funding moves, and while party leaders have decided to rally around health care, they have not laid out specific demands except to demand Republicans negotiate.

In a separate statement, the two top Democratic appropriators, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), said Tuesday that Republican leaders abandoned bipartisan talks on a spending stopgap that would include three full-year funding bills.

“We stand ready to continue down this path that would give us time to complete full-year bills, if Speaker [Mike] Johnson backs away from this partisan move,” Murray and DeLauro said Tuesday. “House Republican leadership has walked away from negotiations and are now threatening a shutdown by trying to jam through a funding bill on their terms alone.”

Johnson said on a brief interview Tuesday there was “no reason” for Democrats to block the stopgap “because it’s clean and short-term — it’s not a partisan exercise.”

Asked if Republicans would allow a shutdown if Senate Democrats block the measure, or if Republicans would then work on a backup plan to keep the government open, Johnson replied: “We’re gonna see what happens.”

Meredith Lee Hill and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending