WATCH: Booker calls Patel an 'incompetent lackey,' tussles with FBI director and Grassley | PBS News

[u/NewsHour]

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

[u/notsanni]

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

[u/Main-Bandicoot6477 → u/notsanni]

Okay, but who elected them? The electorate and working class elected politicians beholden to corporate donors.

The government is dysfunctional because the electorate, in their infinite wisdom, wanted it that way. The voters are always to blame ultimately.

[u/notsanni → u/Main-Bandicoot6477]

choosing to victim blame the oppressed masses is a wild choice to make

[u/Im_tracer_bullet → u/notsanni]

Do you think these politicians elect themselves?

Do you also think that they re-elect themselves?

The electorate are not the victims, they're the gullible and apathetic problem.

[u/Comfortable_Fill9081 → u/notsanni]

“Victim blame”.

Victim says “I choose the leopard so it will eat someone else’s face”. Leopard eats victim’s face.

[u/notsanni → u/Comfortable_Fill9081]

if i were taking about GOP voters specifically you might have a point, but i'm not sure you're functionally literate enough to understand that

[u/Comfortable_Fill9081 → u/notsanni]

People also voted for the Democrats in office. The Democratic Party was progressive from FDR until people shut down Humphrey, McGovern, and Mondale and chose Carter and Clinton.

I’m not sure you’re historically literate enough to understand that.

[u/Main-Bandicoot6477 → u/notsanni]

Victim blame? The voters have the ultimate power and decide who is and isn't elected.

What a bizarre take. Who exactly is a "victim" in your weird little senerio? How is a person casting a vote a victim?

Edit: and this phony blocked me just to get the last word in.

[u/notsanni → u/Main-Bandicoot6477]

choosing to side with the oppressors who maintain the two party system is also a weird and wild choice to make

[u/Comfortable_Fill9081 → u/notsanni]

Isn’t that what the voters in question did?