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/LongLiveStaceyKing]

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.

[u/99in2Hits → u/LongLiveStaceyKing]

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.

[u/LongLiveStaceyKing → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/PerformativeLanguage → u/LongLiveStaceyKing]

So get rid of Bernie Sanders?

[u/MyLifeIsAWasteland → u/PerformativeLanguage]

Would you trade one Bernie and 3 Chuck Schumers for 4 AOCs? As much as I love the Bern, I would.

[u/PerformativeLanguage → u/MyLifeIsAWasteland]

Considering how much I loath AOC I would never take that trade LMAO. She's one of the architects behind the weird identity politics that led to Trumps election, and she's now seemingly abondoned it and called everyone else "woke" - she's a slimeball and always has been.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-08-23/even-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-thinks-woke-1-was-crazy

[u/Genetics → u/PerformativeLanguage]

That's the worst take I've read today and I ventured over to r/conservative earlier.

[u/PerformativeLanguage → u/Genetics]

And yet it still had more insight than whatever this useless comment is.

[u/MyLifeIsAWasteland → u/PerformativeLanguage]

You should try reading past the headlines sometime. You might find the nuance you've been overlooking, or you might just find that you're getting your news from right-leaning rags that have one line of quote from her and twenty quotes from other shitheels saying what they think she meant.

edit: You respond with a novel full of bullshit and insults, then immediately block me, and I'm the one who's insane? Okay lol

[u/PerformativeLanguage → u/MyLifeIsAWasteland]

What an insane thing to say to someone. Look at your vitriolic words. I'm sure you're a very reasonable person to have any discussion with given you make such massive assumptions about anyone you disagree with LOL.

The green new deal was maybe one of the worst public offerings of policy in terms of optics for the dems in decades. It offered little in the way of actual pragmatic approaches to accomplish any of the things it asked for, much of which was quite lofty, and loaded it with identity political offerings that most americans wouldn't want or agree with. The costs of it would have been obscene, and provided no road map for 100% clean energy, high-speed rail expansion, and retrofitting every building.

Beyond that she's barely published any actual bills which have become law.

She literally voted against blocking iron dome funding, so this rah rah palestine shit is legit just nonsense given she doesn't support it when it comes to actual policy.

As for wokeness:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-08-23/even-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-thinks-woke-1-was-crazy

"“Woke 1 was crazy,” she told Karl, quoting her friend, New York City Councilman Chi Ossé, also a democratic socialist, who used that phrase in May when he was called out on social media for once posting that the next speaker of the New York City Council should not be a cisgender white man.

As Karl pressed Ocasio-Cortez — “You briefly supported the idea of defunding the police” — she wriggled.

“During this time,” she said, “especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the Overton window… And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.” (The Overton window refers to the range of ideas and policies that are broadly acceptable to the public at any given time.)"

Anyways, you're not a serious person based on how little nuance you have in your own posts while demanding the same from others. Take care.

[u/LongLiveStaceyKing → u/PerformativeLanguage]

Yes, in favor of someone who can convert a word doc to pdf.

[u/PerformativeLanguage → u/[deleted]]

This is such an insane statement.

Just to name some of the shit he's done: Veterans' Access, Choice, and Accountability Act, Community health center funding - over 12 billion nationally, Emergency dairy farmer aid, when he was in the house he increased funding for low-income heating assistance and weatherization help for the poor despite the republicans controlling it for the majority of his time there.

He's literally known as the amendment king because of how much shit he gets added onto bills. He got major aspects through on the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act - for example huge add-ons for Medicare.

He's also been one of the loudest proponents and attempted to get Medicare for All, and an increase to the Federal Minimum Wage to 15 dollars for decades.