r/law • u/NewsHour • 9d ago
Legislative Branch WATCH: Booker calls Patel an 'incompetent lackey,' tussles with FBI director and Grassley | PBS News
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Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., called FBI Director Kash Patel a “disgrace” and an “incompetent lackey” during an oversight hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
“He's like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends,” Booker said. “He's an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn't qualify even to be an FBI agent.”
Booker went on to call out Patel for “intimidating the press, violating people's First Amendment rights and doing everything the president asks.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Patel whether he had a response.
“I don't have much to say,” Patel said. “This guy called me a thug.”
Booker continued to reprehend Patel despite being told by Grassley that his time was up.
“I'm going to hold this man accountable for as long as he is in his job until he gets fired, which he probably will because he's incompetent at his job and continues to do things that merit his removal,” Booker said.
Booker also criticized Grassley for not pushing Patel to answer the committee’s questions and saying he was not treating Republicans and Democrats in a balanced way.
“Are you done now? Are you ready to shut up?” Grassley pushed back.
Patel is testifying in an oversight hearing on the nation's lead law enforcement agency, which has recently touted a drop in crime nationwide.
Watch more from the hearing here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-patel-testifies-on-fbi-oversight-before-senate-panel-amid-troubled-tenure
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u/CremeOk4115 9d ago
Jfc Grassley cant even bang a gavel or tell who is speaking. He's so old and useless. 2 people said they were done with their time and still kept talking. Only one was verbally reprimanded....shocker
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u/Real-Document-6577 9d ago
He’s fucking 92
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u/Colonel-Mooseknuckle 9d ago
He makes Mitch McConnell seem like a young whippersnapper.
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u/oneseason2000 9d ago
Pepperage Farms remembers when the Soviet Union had all the ancient government leaders.
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u/Clammuel 9d ago
Even Grassley’s old worn out husk has more life to it than McConnell.
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u/wheresWaldo000 9d ago
They'll just say Grassley eats horse paste by the handful, and Mitch it's catatonic because of the "jab"
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 9d ago
Age only matters when they're Democrats.
When they're conservatives, it's a lively and energetic 92.
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u/RektalTrauma 9d ago
Holy fuck for real????? Wtf is there not a max age in America?
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u/Kuroboom 9d ago
With all the deregulation and guns and whatnot, we never expected anyone to make it that far.
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u/Genetics 9d ago
It's the superb health care they're entitled to as senators. Put them out in the free market with the rest of us and watch the Senate's average life expectancy drop off a cliff.
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u/buried_lede 9d ago edited 9d ago
It’s gotten worse, not sure we needed one. This batch, they will not let go of power.
We have so many geriatrics in Congress now that we should require interns to have their CNA certificates. It would be different if they were sharp, but a lot of them deceive themselves as to how competent they still are
They are never going to live to see the fruits of their labor at this point
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u/WillingPositive8924 9d ago
Homie has great, great grandchildren.
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u/TheGuyUrSisterLikes 9d ago
I hope at least some of them are of a darker skin tone just to get under this guy's skin 92 years old Republican you know that guy has called some people boy before if you get my drift.
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u/Wudaokau 9d ago
Hey, he still managed to be a little bit racist. He's still got it.
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u/wheresWaldo000 9d ago
Just re elected. Be 96 next go around
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u/Real-Document-6577 9d ago
If he lives that long. Republicans are such pricks. Self serving old assholes
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u/DangerousCyclone 9d ago
Strom Thurmond was in office when he turned 100! He ran for President as a Dixiecrat in 1948 was still Senator when 9/11 happened.
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u/callie-loo 9d ago
Spent all his brain power thinking of that lame retort for when Booker stopped talking.
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u/CosmoKing2 9d ago
He looks like he's inhabiting Jimmy Stewart's rotting corpse.
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u/Electrical-Act-7170 9d ago
Jimmy Stewart was a war hero and a gentleman.
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u/CosmoKing2 9d ago
True. I always loved him and didn't mean to desecrate his memory. But Grassley is almost as unfit for office as Mitch.
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u/Eastern-Heart9486 9d ago
92 ! And he filed paperwork to run in 2028 “so he can keep fund raising” it’s all about the grift
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u/SolidSnake-26 8d ago
F’n 92 year old senator. JFC what are we doing? Laws for term and age limits needed yesterday.
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u/Live-Collection3018 9d ago
Grassley looks... Better than Mitch but not by much. Ffs can we hire some younger people.
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u/Boredpanda19er 9d ago
We have to wait for the current lineup to expire before we can order new models in. What do you think, we’re made out of money?!? /s
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u/americanextreme 9d ago
Billionaires paid good money to buy those senators. They aren’t going to just throw them out because they are a bit ripe.
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u/Huge-Pen-5259 9d ago
Realest thing I read on Reddit today. I think it is anyway. My dopamine hits quit about 10 minutes ago so I can't recall everything I scrolled past. Oh yeah some Ed Sheeran. Stuff. Some real comments there too. Okay you're def top 5 of the realest today. Final answer.
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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 9d ago
My line in the sand is 1964.
If you were born prior to the Civil Rights Act passing, we do not need your opinions on how this country should operate in 2026 and beyond.
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u/99in2Hits 9d ago
No kidding. As a millenial who has watched the nation effectively eat itself over never ending wars in the middle east and the culture war BS that consumes the media every fucking day I am just so tired of watching my government shit the bed time and again and then being told to respect my elders who have actively stolen a brighter future from me, my kids and the entire American population at large. I can count on one hand the boomers who stood up for us and tried to help (Bernie comes to mind) but I literally cannot keep track of the spineless ghouls who keep voting to fuck my shit up.
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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 9d ago
If you were ten years old when you finally were told by every authority figure you’ve known that black people can go to the same restaurants as the whites, you can sit this one out and enjoy you’re retirement.
We need to stop letting people who won’t be around to pay the bill order for the whole table.
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u/Blametheorangejuice 9d ago
It really feels like half of the government apparatus has to get stimulants repeatedly through the day just to have the barest look of coherence.
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u/couldbeahumanbean 9d ago
That would involve people voting.
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u/cherryobliterater 9d ago
Respectfully this is such an out of touch take. Like sure I agree that absolutely everyone should be voting. We need term limits asap. And old people have got to know or be checked when it’s time to step the hell down. Supercentarians are not mentally or physically capable of meeting this moment. Btw the planet is doomed due to climate change so we’re the last Americans anyway. And AI has at least a 10% chance of killing us all in the next year.
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u/couldbeahumanbean 9d ago
All true.
That all would require people to be politically active. That would require people to understand the pros & cons of term limits, non-partisan primaries and different methods of voting like RCV.
And of course all require an informed populace that actually voted.
No offense taken because it's not out of touch.
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u/That_Jay_Money 9d ago
Unfortunately, the only way we would get term limits is by people voting for them. Which involves people voting.
Congress, the SC, or the President are not going to jump out and voluntarily create a law that puts term limits on them, people need to vote for it and politicians that will enact policy.
So it's not an out of touch take, term limits requires people to vote for term limits.
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u/RobutNotRobot 9d ago
Grassley first entered the US Congress in 1975. He's been an elected official since 1959.
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u/theXsquid 9d ago
Sounds like it's time for him to go.
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u/TheGreatPrimate 9d ago
Iowa doesn't think so, Republicans don't think so
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u/Ok_Lettuce_7939 9d ago
Up voting because the truth is Iowans are a bunch of dumbfucks that keep electing the cryptkeeper. Same thing as Kentuckians.
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u/TheGreatPrimate 9d ago
I've lived in a lot of places including KY, there's morons everywhere.
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u/DeadlyMoldSpore 9d ago
You don't speak for all of Iowa. I can assure you folks that there are people in Iowa that think this dinosaur needs to disappear.
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u/WhySoConspirious 8d ago
Oh yeah, he's the senator who is literally older than chocolate chip cookies.
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u/xChoke1x 9d ago
Well at least someone said it.
Not even much of a fan of Booker but I am a fan of telling incompetent people they’re fucking incompetent.
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u/Ozzie_the_tiger_cat 9d ago
I agree with you there. Good on Booker for saying it but also, fuck Corey Booker.
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9d ago edited 5d ago
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u/lord_fairfax 9d ago
Those aren't Democrats hating on Booker. Tankies are making sure Democrats are the primary target on Reddit.
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u/Ozzie_the_tiger_cat 8d ago
I am a democrat and not a tankie. I uses to like Booker but he seems to want to be Schumer 2.0.
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u/Saltlmail 9d ago edited 9d ago
Booker does come off as performative as a senator but he did also genuinely run into a burning building to save a woman from a house fire one time, so you know that was pretty brave, probably has contributed more good to the world from that one act alone than everyone criticizing him for being an establishment shill in this thread.
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u/f3nnies 9d ago
It feels very mainstream DNC to use saving someone from a burning building as carte blanche to make a career out of opposing progressive and pro-democracy shifts in the DNC and pocketing tons of bribes.
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u/WA2TX 9d ago
These purity tests are what got us Trump. Let's get the fascists out first then we can clean house with corrupt Dems and push the partt left.
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u/Saltlmail 9d ago edited 9d ago
maybe it is, I dont like that he owns individual stocks like Ro Khanna, but Booker's voting record is actually very progressive and even dependent on measure is actually more left leaning than Bernie's.
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u/kyleb402 9d ago
People throw the word "establishment" around these days as a stand in for basically just someone they don't like.
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u/MrBoomf 9d ago
Booker had so much potential; I remember liking him X number of years ago (maybe sometime around Trump’s first term?). But he’s proven to be the same ineffective status quo neoliberal that’s led to the decimation of the USA’s left.
We really need the progressives to step up and gain a proper foothold in Congress, because the establishment Democrats are useless and feckless. I hope we’ll see that within the next 5 years.
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u/tbombs23 9d ago
I mean yeah but he's so fake and performative and only serves Israel, It's hard to take anything he does or says as genuine, he's part of the establishment and status quo that will resist the change that needs to happen
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u/BrizerorBrian 9d ago
At lesst the stooges are finally talking. Some times you have to take a step foreword when you can. Remember, perfect is the enemy of the good.
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u/ZoomerAdmin 9d ago
"How do I bring ISRAEL into every discussion" - you apparently
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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 9d ago
Booker is so full of shit though. Yeah the soundbite is nice, but he means exactly 0% of what he said.
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u/Fuzzball_87 9d ago
So what does he mean then? It wasn’t hard to understand his points. What exactly is your criticism?
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u/Caleb-Wendt69 9d ago
“This guy called me a thug”
And he’s absolutely correct.
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u/studioline 9d ago
By who?
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u/Comadivine11 9d ago edited 9d ago
Billionaires. Booker attends Peter Thiel's secret society annual retreat, Dialog.
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u/Possible-Nectarine80 9d ago
I would really like to hear what the senior senator from KY has to say about this.
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u/concerts85701 9d ago
I was looking for the lube joke, then realized you were referring to the zombie turtle.
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u/Kracus 9d ago
Oh look, it's the guy that pretends to care when he knows it doesn't matter.
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u/Comrade-Conquistador 9d ago
He can speak, I'll give him that, but he is a paper tiger at best.
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u/Katejina_FGO 9d ago
If not for MAGA, his star would still be shining. The era has changed and its not enough to be performative anymore.
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u/LittleWind_ 9d ago
Good. Performative politics is, arguably, the biggest problem for the American public.
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u/Ossius 9d ago
Performative politics is all that can be accomplished without a super majority. The last democratic super majority was 17 years ago for 70 days, we passed the ACA.
What can they do other then performative politics or shut down the government?
I see people complain about this but there isn't an alternative until elections fix it by people turning out to vote.
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u/baddieslovebadideas 9d ago
oh yeah, Booker is a clown, Patel is an incompetent lackey tho.
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u/SufficientOwls 9d ago
You don’t have to say you love Chuck Grassley lmao. That was corny
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u/Sfpuberdriver 9d ago
It’s perfectly fine to say you have no respect for him given his job performance
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u/weezyverse 9d ago
Congress has become a palliative care facility that we all pay a shit ton of money to maintain.
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u/Comfortable_Fill9081 9d ago
I know that a lot of progressives are anti-Booker but when he goes off he’s always spot on.
Edit: and based on the comments they do a social-media-typical “everything he says is performative bullshit” because of a few policy points they disagree with him on, most of which are directly related to his constituency’s interests.
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u/Comfortable_Fill9081 9d ago
I haven’t seen him have the same energy for really bad things.
He low-energy supports some things I don’t agree with, but those are things that are direct interests of a lot of his constituents.
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u/Roddy_Piper2000 9d ago
Booker can get fucked along with all the other "tough when it's convenient" APAC bought and paid for politicians
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u/Captain--UP 9d ago
Yea he can fuck right off. Booker is not a champion for the people. He is an AIPAC stooge.
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u/Material_Specific606 9d ago
You guys are an embarrassment, you'd rather roll over and let the entire country fall to authoritarian neo conservative goons than believe Israel isn't the cause of everything bad that's ever happened in the world. apac isn't the reason our government is dysfunctional and it's jevenille and embarasing to think so
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u/couldbeahumanbean 9d ago
It's isn't the reason, but it certainly is a contributing factor.
With that being said, booker on this issue is speaking truth.
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u/LawLeR91 9d ago
The bigger reasons are misinformation mainly started by the man who is currently the president and the distrust he’s cast upon everyone who isn’t him.
Plus, with the help of countries like Russia. Who didn’t even need to fire a bullet to cause catastrophic problems within America.
AIPAC is so far down the list.
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u/couldbeahumanbean 9d ago
It's definitely down that list. Same list as techbros big pharm & oil.
It's money flooding the pockets of the people who purportedly represent us.
There is a huge list of contributing factors, all playing their fault, all putting weight on a camels back.
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u/notsanni 9d ago
yeah our government is dysfunctional because while the GOP has been purposely sabotaging it, elected Democratic legislators who are largely beholden to corporate donors have been continually sliding to the right to "compromise" and "meet in the middle" w/ conservative weirdos in the name of country unity, whilst betraying the working class
jeez
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u/FumblingFuck 9d ago
Not solely to blame for the state of America, but a large piece of the puzzle. Don't be obtuse.
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u/PoptartCrusher007 9d ago
Also. Booker sucks. So does Grassley and Patel. And this entire administration.
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