Congress
GOP senators signal they’re open to Patel leading FBI
Few GOP senators are raising early opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel.
Even Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) — who was outspoken against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) potentially becoming attorney general — didn’t immediately dismiss Patel on Monday, saying she’d need time to review his profile.
“I don’t know Kash Patel,” Collins said. “I had heard his name, but I don’t know his background, and I’m going to have to do a lot of work before reaching a decision on him. In general, I’ve found it’s important to review the background check, the committee work and the public hearing.”
Trump announced his selection of Patel to lead the FBI over the weekend. Christopher Wray, the current leader of the bureau who was originally appointed by Trump in 2017, has been confirmed to a term through 2027. That means Patel, if confirmed, would usurp Wray from the seat years ahead of schedule.
Trump can only afford to lose three Republican votes on any nominee if Democrats are unified in opposition.
Patel is a fierce and vocal supporter of Trump’s and served in the president-elect’s first administration as a staffer for the National Security Council. He was also a senior staffer for former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who repeatedly attempted to discredit the Russia investigation from his perch atop the House Intelligence Committee.
Patel has promised to purge the FBI of people he sees as unloyal to Trump and has indicated he would seek a near-total revamp of the agency. In Trump’s statement announcing his intent to nominate Patel, he commended the soon-to-be nominee for playing “a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”
Trump has personally railed against the FBI, particularly after agents conducted a search for classified documents at his residence at Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
A number of GOP senators on Monday evening said they thought Patel could be confirmed. Soon-to-be Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said “the president ought to have who he wants serving in his administration.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he plans on meeting with Patel this week and is “in a presumptive positive position” over the nomination “right now.”
“I do think he will be able to get confirmed, absolutely,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who has expressed reservations about Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to be Defense secretary.
Though there aren’t immediate signs of mass opposition to Patel’s nomination, there are some concerns about cutting Wray’s term short. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) noted Trump picked Wray himself for a 10-year term in 2017 and that the senator had no “complaints” or “objections” with the current leadership team.
“We provide advice and consent,” Rounds said on ABC’s “This Week.” “That can be sometimes advice, sometimes it is consent.”
Collins also noted she thinks Wray has done “a good job” as FBI director. Still, many Republicans disagree with that assessment, and some like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) insist “Kash Patel would be perfect to clean house over there.”
It is clear, however, that Trump cannot count on Democratic support to get Patel’s nomination across the finish line.
“He has said things about weaponization of law enforcement and reform in the FBI, which leads some to believe — I hope it’s not true — that he will take the same type of revenge politically that he’s accusing this administration of,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Monday.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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