I have noticed a shocking trend in my conversations with families in my state and across the nation. For the past year, at almost every event I attended and when running into folks at restaurants, outside my offices and around the state, I asked a simple question, “Do you trust that the FBI and the federal government are doing the right thing, acting in your best interests, and giving you useful information?”
Nearly every person said “NO!” I would bet I asked this question to more than 1,000 people over the past year—Republicans, Democrats, independents—and overwhelmingly they said they don’t trust the FBI and our federal government.
It’s clear that the American people expect major change in Washington. That’s why they elected President Donald Trump in November and why we must quickly confirm Kash Patel to be FBI director to restore trust in such a critical arm of our government.
After four years of President Joe Biden’s failed administration and weaponization of government, Americans’ perception of the FBI is at its worst in a century. Accountability within the FBI has given way to a bureaucratic black hole of information. Even as a United States senator, I can’t seem to get simple answers from them.
It’s obvious the FBI’s focus on law enforcement has been clouded by political influence and partisanship, prioritizing Biden’s personal agenda over the agency’s true mission. Americans have seen the FBI conduct unlawful surveillance of a U.S. citizen affiliated with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, open domestic terrorism probes against concerned parents appearing at school board meetings, and target devout Catholics as violent extremists based upon the mere exercise of their faith.
Then last summer, within a period of weeks, a dangerous individual attempted to take the life of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another would-be assassin attempted to take his life on his own golf course in my home state of Florida.
Neither of those should have happened—and the American people had a lot of questions on exactly how there was such a massive failure from the agencies tasked with keeping him safe. They were looking to the FBI for answers and honesty, and the FBI didn’t deliver.
Now, the FBI is facing a public trust crisis. Let me be clear: This has absolutely nothing to do with the actual agents in the FBI. There are incredible, hardworking agents in the FBI who want to make our nation a better place. This is a leadership problem. Trust will rebuild with the right leader, and Patel is that person.
Patel has the track record and experience to enact much-needed reform, transparency, and accountability the FBI needs to refocus the agency’s mission and to restore the public’s trust. He is a highly respected leader and fully qualified nominee, and a recipient of a Department of Justice award for his work investigating and prosecuting terrorists responsible for the 2010 World Cup bombings. He is a co-author of the Nunes Memo that exposed the FBI’s unlawful surveillance against a U.S. citizen and a career of public service and law that’s earned him endorsements from the National Police Association and the National Sheriffs’ Association.
Patel brings a mix of traditional criminal justice experience and outside perspective that enables him to see very clearly where and how the FBI has strayed from its mission—and to get the agency back on track.
While his qualifications alone show he will be a great FBI director, I also took the time to sit down with Patel following his nomination to discuss how he’ll bring transparency, integrity, and accountability to the FBI, always working on behalf of American citizens, instead of attacking them.
My takeaway was this: Patel is an agent for change and justice—he has my trust to lead the FBI, and will earn the trust of the American people.
Together with Trump and future Attorney General Pam Bondi at the Justice Department, Patel will take the right steps to refocus the FBI as the nation’s top law enforcement agency and keep our country safe.
Patel has my full support to lead the FBI, and I’m doing everything I can to fight against Democrats’ obstruction and make sure he is quickly confirmed.
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Republished with permission from The Daily Signal by Senator Rick Scott.
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Unbelieveable, listening to the Democrats on the Senate committees talk about protecting the Constitution, protecting civil liberties, and defending the rule of law, is at best a lie.
Listen to Durbin, Schiff, and Weasel Wyden is a joke and not a funny one, everything they accuse Trump and the Republicans of they have been doing from the first day trump announcing he was running for President in 2016, and in some cases long before that,
The demonrats are not your friends, they don’t care about Constitutional rights and Civil Liberties or the rule of law, Destroying America and the Constitution is their number one goal, only mindless MORONS, believe their BS.
God Save American from the LIARS!
I have been watching the confirmation hearings and what I am having trouble with is who elected these foolish Democrats who are showing complete stupidity by their own questions. They reminded me of the story the Emperor has no clothes are their voters intimidated to keep quiet or are they just as foolish?
There has been a problem at DOJ and the FBI before this, I remember no outcry when the then Attorney General Eric Holder declared himself to be President Obama’s wing man. I am sure that the hiring process at the FBI has had to reflect the leadership, so it is going to be difficult. I pray that Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are both confirmed.
I think Kash Patel is an excellent choice……I also think several, of the democrats I watched, that were questioning Mr. Patel, were RUDE and Grand Standing. The Democrats have destroyed the United States in their last 4 years. I am so disappointed with these Democrats that I watched today! I’m guessing these Democrats, think they have done such a good job the last 4 years when, in fact, they did so much damage and they just think they are soooo right. Well, Democrats, We The People, spoke and told you, you did a crappy job……so suck it up, admit it and help make it right!
We want Kash Patel for the next FBI Director.
We hope for Patel’s confirmation, but Democrats & some RINOs will probably defeat it. We just have to watch how they vote and get rid of them who betrays our will, in every election. We can clean up the SWAMP that way too, because they all belong to the same party.
I don’t think anyones blindly trusted the FBI since it was exposed how they spied on MLK, Malcolm X, and any other Americans deemed “anti-establishment” in the ’60’s. When Bush pushed for the Patriot Act expanding federal law enforcement powers after 9-11, many Democrats warned of abuse… funny how 20 years later, its them abusing it! Being safe does NOT mean giving up your liberty!
Remember the Rosebud Reservation from the 70’s. A film was made about that horrific intrusion and did capture the “essence” of the FBI then. One Native American described them so well…FBI…Federal Bureau of Intimidation. But lets not forget the ATF…as Wayne LaPierre described them so well (before he was busted for stealing membership millions) ATF, Jack booted thugs. I have a good friend who’s owned and run a sporting goods store for about 30 years. Great store, well run might even say a pillar of the community. She was literally over run when a few FBI “agents” blew in, unannounced, and spent the day going through every box of papers, sales slips, forms for buying firearms, firearms themselves,…surprised they didn’t count the individual sheets of tissue on a toilet paper roll! Unfriendly, jack boots. Jane is serious about running a clean business and has been all those years. She’s also in her early 70’s. I visited the day after the jack boots left…oh shucks they didn’t find anything amiss…she was still shaking. To put a long time, decent honest business through that kind of draconian insult is disgusting. I can think of a lot of names to associate with ATF and FBI…but I would no doubt be censored.
I don’t think the FBI cares about how Americans view its credibility and trustworthiness. Hopefully Patel can get confirmed and start disinfecting the cesspool bureau.
The Senator is absolutely right on this appointment !!! Cash Patel is 100% the Right Choice to lead the FBI Out of this Deep Canyon of Weaponization, Discrimination,and Corruption that OBAMA,BIDEN and THE BLOB have Shoved the Once Respected and Admired FBI Into !!!! He Should Be CONFIRMED IMMEDIATELY !!!! Much Housecleaning is in Order for this Agency !!!!
If Hegseth was confirmed without prior “government” experience, then so should all the other nominees. If Vance has to break more ties, he will. I look forward to what Trump’s crew can get done in four years, even with obstruction.
The Democrats have learned nothing after experiencing an embarrassing defeat in November. All they do is hate Trump that is why they lost but they are too blind to see that most people do NOT hate Trump and want their Constitutional, law-abiding country back. The Democrats want to oppress us by controlling us from birth to death. People want to live their lives being free, not being told what to do and how to do it. I am praying daily that more people see how good living free from regulations and taxes is and want to keep America-loving people in our government. As for the RINO’s in Congress, people in those states….stop voting these losers who are stopping our progress!!!
The FBI’s behavior is not new. They’ve been like they are now since at least the mid 1960s. They’ve routinely targeted anyone who happens to actually believe in the values expressed in the U. S. Declaration of Independence or insist upon the government following the U. S. Constitution. The only difference now is that they’re now targeting anyone who’s not a Democrat. The FBI is the absolute enemy of the people of the U. S.
If Patel is declined, who is going to fix the FBI??? I have absolutely no faith, no trust, at all, in any Democrat administration!! I have absolutely no faith, no trust in most politicians, period!!! There are 438 agencies in the federal government – are all of them REALLY needed??? Can all of them be trusted to not be politicized???? I don’t have much hope for the future with Democrats in charge! And the way that they think they need to fight every single action Republicans make is ridiculous!!! Why do they feel like they have to fight all the time???
Democrats are rightly frightened that they will lose the use of weaponizing the justice department in their persecution of conservatives.
The FBI and DOJ leadership, who sanctioned the false FBI representations about Trump to the FISA Court, along with those in the FBI who actually delivered those false representations, belong in Gitmo Prison with the murderous, illegal immigrants, and with Joe Biden, for the rest of all of their lives.
Likewise with Obama and his crooked DOJ enablers, who sanctioned the “Fast and Furious” Mexico gun-running scheme, to artificially cultivate an invalid argument about the rights of private citizens to keep and bear arms. The guns illegally exported to Mexico in this deadly and deceptive scheme killed one U.S. Border Agent and dozens of Mexican police. Obama and his cohorts of that day, likewise, belong in Gitmo Prison for the rest of their lives, for so dishonestly, illegally, and irresponsibly attempting to mislead the American public, at the cost of many lives and devastated families.
Patel sounds like the right man for the job!! Put him in and let’s see what he can do!!
It is both horrendous and entertaining to watch the DIMM senators [Hirono being the worst] rant and rave at Kash during his testimony! Klobuchar, whom I call “hatchet-face,” is also pretty bad. Kash will clean out the bad guys of the FBI and restore its integrity!
The democ RATS are blaming AMERICAN citizens for not trusting the FBI,the truth is many,many people don’t trust the leftist army that is biden/obamas army.It’s not only the FBI,it’s every one of the democ RAT controlled departments.Not one of them has done anything in joey’s term to make AMERICA better,but they sure do love to waste taxpayer dollars.
C’mon Senators, get off your duffs and confirm this superb nominee.
Trump and his America-First Dream Team have the FBI, DOJ, DHS, CIA, and EVERY OTHER DESPICABLE DEPARTMENT OR AGENCY IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, which makes up the EVIL DEEP STATE, AND the VILE, MEGA CORRUPT CESS POOL KNOWN AS THE DC SWAMP (aka the Damnocraps in CONgress and the Damnocraps in the SINate), are in the CROSS HAIRS.
ALL OF THIS EVIL IS LIVING ON BORROWED TIME. AND THAT TIME, IS RUNNING OUT.
all the so called intel agencies are working against the american people even truman said he made a mistake starting the cia i believe majority of gov have their own agenda as well as the politicians they want money and power and trump is in the way with most americans as well
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