Kash Patel. Nominated for the position of head of the FBI. Kash Patel. He has a hit list of over 60 people he wants to “get” for real or imagined slights. Kash Patel. He’s about as unqualified as someone could be. He has been a fierce Trump ally for years, and even more so since the inquiry regarding the Trump campaign and their ties to Russia. He has been stating the FBI needs to be overhauled for years probably because he thinks his Hero was “falsely” attacked through that and other investigations.
Now he’s been given the golden ticket, and it’s not a bar of chocolate, He’s to be the head of the FBI. The little we have been told thus far is that he’s going to gut this important agency and rebuild it in his name and his ideals (such that they are, heh). He’s going to shred it and re-shape it. I’m cringing thinking of all the talent and knowledge that’s going to be lost. I’m cringing thinking of the really important work that won’t get done anymore, like, say, child abductions.
This column could just go on as a list with everything it feels like we’re going to lose. I’ll tell you, if he does this, I’m going to feel a LOT less safe than I feel now. I’m just a little bitty white woman. And the mere idea of what will come into the US and flourish because the FBI is going to be a shadow of itself, well, that doesn’t just make me cringe, it makes me fear even more. When you look at what Trump wants, and who his heads of departments are going to be, we’re heading for some serious hurting.
AP News has an article that’s worth your time to look at. Among other things it says:
“Patel has signaled through interviews and public statements a determination to upend the FBI and radically reshape its mission.
He’s called for dramatically reducing its footprint and limiting its authority, as well as going after government officials who disclose information to reporters.
In an interview earlier this year on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel vowed to sever the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission and said he would “shut down” the bureau’s headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’”
For one thing, I’m pretty sure that’s not legal. For another thing, it can’t be done in a day. And yet another, they are part of Homeland Security (which we REALLY need to keep) and the Justice Department. But considering the people in line for the heads of THESE organizations, there might not BE any defense against these changes. All the demigods (ha) will reduce everything to a city-state controlled by a dictator.
Patel is talking like he wants to be the first and worst of the demons Trump wants to inflict on us. How the hell can we block this? Is there anyone who CAN block this? Kash Patel. Director of the FBI. I’m scared about this (and many other nominations). Meanwhile current FBI Director Chris Wray has been silent. He hasn’t resigned so maybe he’s going to make Trump fire him. Wray (remember, it was Trump who appointed him) has three years left in the supposed ten years an FBI Director gets unless they are fired.
In theory it takes malfeasance, some sort of wrongdoing to justify a firing. Trump didn’t care about that with Comey, which is how Wray got the job. By the time he was fired Comey had enemies on both sides of the aisle so not much fuss was made. Wray is hardly beloved on Capitol Hill but he’s respected. Will there be people Trump will listen to, people who want Wray to serve out his term? We can only hope there are and they can get through to Trump how big a disaster this would be. But right now? I’m so, so scared. You should be too.
Maybe if Wray leaves we’d get another Made for TV Movie about an almost former FBI Director having a dinner with the Orange Dotard. Gee, who’d play Wray? Fay?