Senate Confirms Election Denier Kash Patel to be FBI Director

The Senate voted 51-49 Thursday to confirm election denier Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI. During a confirmation hearing, Patel repeatedly refused to say that President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

He also published a series of children’s books that included false conspiracies about the deep state and the 2020 election being stolen.

The FBI plays a crucial, yet not widely known, role in keeping elections safe. 

Project 2025 calls for the FBI to be completely reformed, including a mandate to prohibit the agency from “engaging, in general, in activities related to combating the spread of so-called misinformation and disinformation by Americans who are not tied to any plausible criminal activity.”

The Thursday afternoon vote was along party lines, except for two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who voted against Patel.

“While Mr. Patel has had 16 years of dedicated public service, his time over the past four years has been characterized by high profile and aggressive political activity,” Collins said in a statement. “Mr. Patel has made numerous politically charged statements in his book and elsewhere discrediting the work of the FBI, the very institution he has been nominated to lead.”

Also, numerous Democrats publicly stated their staunch opposition Thursday to Patel’s confirmation before and after the vote. Many expressed concern over his enemies list, along with comments he’s made about exacting revenge on political opponents.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the highest-ranking Democrats, said on the Senate floor before the vote that Patel is “dangerously, politically extreme” and “has repeatedly expressed his intention to use our nation’s most important law enforcement agency to retaliate against his political enemies.”

Joined by many other colleagues, including Durbin, California Sen. Adam Schiff spoke outside the FBI headquarters this morning on Patel’s confirmation.

“The only qualification Kash Patel has to be FBI director is that when everyone else in the first Trump administration said, ‘No, I won’t do that. That crosses moral, ethical and legal lines.’ Kash Patel said, ‘Sign me up,’” Schiff said.

Also, in a post on X after the vote, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch said Patel is unfit to be FBI director for multiple reasons, including that he “keeps a list of political enemies” and “won’t acknowledge Joe Biden won the 2020 election.”

This story was updated Feb. 20 to add quotes from multiple senators about Patel’s confirmation.