Hours after Trump chose Patel, lawmakers from both parties expressed support for Wray, the current FBI director.
“I think the president picked a very good person to be FBI director in his first term,” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told ABC News on Sunday.
“When I met him in the secret room, I had no complaints about the way he treated himself and therefore no complaints about the way he did things,” he said.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Wray was originally appointed by Trump and that President Joe Biden “did not fire him.”
“This is how we approach things and we want to ensure that the FBI remains an independent agency insulated from politics,” he said.
Also on Sunday’s Meet the Press, Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy went further: “Kash Patel only cares about protecting Republicans and not protecting every member of the American population.” “I was concerned.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson steadfastly supported him. “Kash Patel has extensive experience in national security and intelligence. She is an America First patriot who will bring much-needed change and transparency to the FBI,” Johnson said.
Patel, the son of Indian immigrants, is a former defense lawyer and federal prosecutor who caught Trump’s eye after becoming chief counsel to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017.
He was hired by President Trump in 2019 as national security adviser and was appointed head of the U.S. Department of Defense and chief of staff a year later.
In addition to his 2023 memoir, he has published two pro-Trump children’s books.
One of the titles, The Plot Against the King, features the villain Hillary Quinton attempting to dethrone King Donald with the help of a wizard named Kash, a renowned discoverer.
Another villain is Keeper Komey, a subtle reference to former FBI Director James Comey and his “spy slug,” according to the book’s blurb.
Patel has often railed against the so-called “deep state,” which some Americans believe is an unelected bureaucratic machine that secretly runs the country for nefarious purposes.
Patel also criticized the media, calling it “the most powerful enemy America has ever seen.”
He is also a director of Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the president-elect’s social media platform, Truth Social.
Patel reportedly had a consulting contract with the company that paid him at least $120,000 per year.
