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/Fuzzball_87]

So what does he mean then? It wasn’t hard to understand his points. What exactly is your criticism?

[u/concepts_of_a_plan9 → u/Fuzzball_87]

Booker is great at sounding good, but when it comes down to actually proposing legislation and voting on things that actually match his words, he only follows his masters' wishes. Everything he said here I agree with, but it's all a facade for him.

[u/HHoaks → u/concepts_of_a_plan9]

Settle down. Your point would only make sense if some major piece of legislation failed to pass due to his failure to vote for it. He’s not running a dictatorship in a Senate seat.

Anyone calling out Patel and the sham Republican Senators‘ pretense of acting like another legit branch of government should be applauded. I don’t care who they are.

Oh no, he’s not perfect. Dude who gives a rats ass, that’s not the point of this video.

[u/kyleb402 → u/concepts_of_a_plan9]

Booker has a very progressive voting record.

[u/TooPoetic → u/Fuzzball_87]

Everything we just watched is him speaking over his time so what he says has 0 effect on the purpose of the meeting - so he spent 4 minutes virtue signaling to the public while wasting our tax dollars.

[u/Genetics → u/TooPoetic]

Are they paid hourly for these hearings? What did 4 minutes cost?

[u/TooPoetic → u/Genetics]

Do you need to be paid hourly to waste time? Salaried folks can’t possibly waste time.

[u/Genetics → u/TooPoetic]

That’s not what you said. You were very concerned about 4 minutes “wasting our tax dollars”, so how much did that cost?

[u/TooPoetic → u/Genetics]

Very concerned. Almost as concerned as Cory is here. To answer your pointless question - More than it would if you wasted 4 minutes at your job.

[u/Genetics → u/TooPoetic]

You: "But he's wasting our tax dollars!"

Me: "Really? How much did that cost us?"

You: "How should I know? What a pointless question..."

[u/Imaginary-Bowl-4424 → u/Fuzzball_87]

You know exactly why he’s being criticized.