Ted Cruz Dismisses Concerns Over Trump’s Pick For FBI Director

On Dec 1, 2024

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) isn’t entertaining anyone’s worries about Donald Trump’s choice for FBI director, Kash Patel.

The high-profile Republican gave Patel, a former Trump adviser, a ringing endorsement while appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he called the loyalist to the president-elect the perfect person to tackle “partisan corruption” in the bureau.

“I got to say, all of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all of the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI,” Cruz told CBS anchor Major Garrett.

“The FBI and the Department of Justice are two institutions incredibly important to the rule of law in the United States. I revere both,” he continued.

As Cruz went on, he accused Democratic leaders of corrupting the country’s top law enforcement agencies.

“One of the most tragic consequences of four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is both DOJ and the FBI have been politicized and weaponized,” he said. “And I think Kash Patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption in the FBI.”

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While Cruz didn’t hesitate to throw his weight behind Patel, top FBI alumni have already come out to sound alarms about the appointment.

On Saturday, Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director for the FBI, described Patel’s nomination as part of Trump’s “plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI.”

“The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even like a matter for debate,” McCabe told CNN.

In addition to endorsing widely disproven conspiracies about a stolen 2020 election, Patel has also repeatedly claimed the government is made of a “deep state” network of anti-Trump bureaucrats.

Patel’s 2023 book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” even included an appendix listing “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State” to target.

Watch Cruz’s appearance on “Face the Nation” above.