Kash Patel might have finally received a nomination for the position he desired the most—director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, it’s not as if Donald Trump had him in mind initially.
On Saturday, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Patel to lead the FBI, praising him as a “brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ advocate,” indicating a desire to oust the current FBI Director Christopher Wray from his decade-long tenure. Nonetheless, Patel wasn’t Trump’s top selection for the role, as reported by Axios—he simply performed better than the alternate candidate.
Initially, Trump saw Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey as the leading candidate for the position, with Patel possibly taking on the role of deputy FBI director. This setup could have spared Patel from a challenging Senate confirmation process, where he would likely confront inquiries regarding his remarks about leveraging federal law enforcement to target political adversaries and media figures critical of Trump.
However, Bailey reportedly did not excel during his interview at Mar-a-Lago with the president-elect, according to Axios, which resulted in Trump selecting Patel as his nominee instead. While sources indicated Bailey “looked the part,” they also noted he “lacked presence in the room.”
Now, Patel faces the responsibility of taking apart an agency Trump has consistently criticized. The selection of Patel conveyed a “personal message to the left that was applauding Jack Smith,” a source told Axios, alluding to the special counsel who has charged Trump with multiple federal offenses regarding the alleged mishandling of classified materials and attempts to overturn the election of 2020.
Patel, who formerly served as chief of staff at the Defense Department and as an advisor to the Director of National Intelligence, assured a podcaster last month that he would “shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum celebrating the Deep State.” Additionally, he informed Trump ally Steve Bannon last year that he intended to “hold accountable the media figures who deceived about American citizens assisting Joe Biden in rigging presidential elections.”
“We’re coming for you, whether through criminal or civil action,” he proclaimed.
