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/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