Morning Briefing: Confirmation Hearing for Donald Trump's FBI Director Nominee
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's nominee for director of the FBI, is on Capitol Hill to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Morning Briefing: Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is on Capitol Hill for his “confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” and questions are “expected over his experience level, brash rhetoric and concerns he would deploy the bureau to target the president’s foes.”
During the first hour of questioning, Patel repeated claimed that any of his controversy statements were taken out of context, denied that he is adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory, responded that he should not be “guilty by association” for his association with far right extremist figures such as Laura Loomer and Stew Peters, and refused to provide direct answers to multiple questions regarding Trump’s pardons of Capitol Riot defendants.
During the opening arguments of the trial of Brandon Russell, the founder of the neo-Nazi accelerationist Atomwaffen Division, prosecutors alleged Russell encouraged his girlfriend to “carry out the power grid attack, hoping to cause chaos in furtherance of their shared white supremacist views,” and said that Russell was “at war for his race, the white race.”
In recent weeks several communities have reportedly “been shaken by a surge of hate and division as alarming images and recruitment flyers from groups like the Ku Klux Klan have resurfaced,” and “with posters appearing in Indiana, Kentucky, and now Memphis, civil rights leaders' calls to action against these threats have become urgent.”
In Chicago, Illinois, with the Trump Administration’s target immigration underway, “migrants said they were fearful of what might happen next,” and the “fear is heightened that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will target schools, hospitals, and churches.”
Must Reads
Tess Owen writes that “if confirmed, Patel, who has never worked for the F.B.I. nor has any significant experience running a major government department (or even a company) would oversee the operations of one of America’s largest federal law-enforcement agencies. He would have a free hand in hiring and firing personnel, and the ability to restructure the Bureau as he sees necessary. Patel suggested that, as F.B.I. director, he’d move Bureau operations out of D.C., shutter the F.B.I.’s J. Edgar Hoover Building, and reopen it as a ‘museum of the deep state.’ In ‘Government Gangsters,’ he calls for the next President to clear house at the F.B.I. and fire everyone in the Bureau’s top ranks—anyone who, in Patel’s view, ’abused their authority for political ends must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’ So far, Patel has offered no assurances that he’d continue in the tradition of the F.B.I. chief operating independently from the President. Just as Patel has voiced, in veiled terms, few qualms about jailing his own political enemies, he’s made it clear that he sees himself and Trump as being united on their righteous campaign to destroy the very government they are meant to lead. ‘The Colosseum is built and Donald J. Trump is our champion,’ Patel said, at a Trump rally in September. ‘He is our juggernaut of justice.’” [The New Yorker]
Ben Makuch writes that “one week into Donald Trump’s second administration and the verdict among far-right activists and neo-Nazis is that the next four years will be a time to relax, organize and take advantage of the popular awakening of American fascism. ‘Be ready to cash out the next four years,’ wrote one delighted neo-Nazi account on Telegram, in a post viewed more than 1,000 times. ‘Get the bag, infiltrate existing institutions with power, build new institutions while we have breathing room, and tear down anything leftist.’ During the Biden administration, which presided over an FBI that aggressively dismantled rightwing extremist groups of every ilk, along with the gargantuan January 6 investigations netting thousands of suspects, anxiety on the far right ran high. Even in chatrooms online, major tech companies booted and reported them to authorities, while mainstream culture vilified their racist antics. But now, things are different. Elon Musk’s salute has been described in the media as merely an ill-timed gesture and Trump pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attack on day one of his presidency.” [The Guardian]
Sarah Jones writes that “the conflation of Trump and God was apparent last week, when conservatives erupted with outrage over a sermon by Bishop Mariann Budde, the clerical leader of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Budde, who is the first woman to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, urged Trump to show mercy and compassion to immigrants and anyone else who might fear his power. ‘I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,’ she preached, a message that repulsed Trump and his supporters. ‘This is not a church and she is not a pastor,’ tweeted Sean Feucht, a popular preacher and worship leader. ‘Do not commit the sin of empathy,’ urged a far-right Christian podcaster on X. ‘This snake is God’s enemy and yours too. She hates God and His people. You need to properly hate in response. She is not merely deceived but is a deceiver. Your eye shall not pity.’ On Truth Social, Trump attacked Budde for bringing ‘her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way’ and added, ‘She and her church owe the public an apology!’ Christian nationalism is but one tendency under the broad MAGA umbrella, but even the movement’s more secular adherents betray near-religious convictions — in their own superiority and the certainty of their triumph, in the rightness and might of Trump above all.” [Intelligencer]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.