President-elect Donald Trump’s latest pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, would enter office with no experience at the agency he’s been tapped to run and vowed to remake. But if the reaction from Republican senators Monday night was any indication, GOP lawmakers aren’t just open to confirming Patel; they’re eager to install him.
“I want the best for the president, and he deserves a nominee that will work for him and do the absolute best that our country needs,” Sen. Joni Ernst told reporters Monday night.
Trump announced Patel as his nominee on Saturday, indicating that he plans to push out the current FBI director, Christopher Wray, more than two years before Wray’s term is up. (Wray replaced James Comey in 2017, after Trump fired Comey — in part — over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal. At the time, Trump dismissing the FBI director was a minor scandal, even among Republican senators.)