Kash Patel plays defense

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, weathered a six-hour confirmation hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. His hockey buddy Ritchie McGinniss was in the room and said he thought Patel “held the blue line”—a hockey term for playing good defense.

“I’ve been playing hockey in the same league as Kash Patel since 2018,” McGinniss, a videographer and Washington resident., told WORLD moments after stepping out of the Senate hearing. “He’s pretty good. He’s an older guy. This league is double A, so it’s a tough league. There's an NHL guy that plays on it.”

Patel is a 44-year-old attorney with a decade of experience advising Congress and the White House on intelligence and national security. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning, he clashed repeatedly with senators about whether his loyalty to Trump—and promises of retribution against political adversaries—would interfere with his ability to lead the FBI impartially.

“The only thing that will matter if I’m confirmed as director of the FBI is a deweaponized, depoliticized system of law enforcement, completely devoted to rigorous obedience to the Constitution and a singular standard of justice,” Patel told the committee.

Patel started his national security career in 2014 as a Justice Department prosecutor before becoming an adviser for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. During the first Trump administration, he worked for the National Security Council, contributing to efforts to identify and destroy groups like Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. He then served as principal deputy to the acting director of national intelligence, helping to oversee the 17 other U.S. intelligence agencies and deliver briefings to the president.

“The thing that bothers me the most is a whole series of statements you’ve made that suggest you would struggle to be independent from White House direction or control as has long been the history of the FBI,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said to Patel at the hearing.

Patel has said he wants to combat what Trump calls “the deep state”—a bureaucratic buildup in the political establishment that he believes has targeted Trump and his supporters. In a 2023 appearance of Steve Bannon’s podcast, War Room, Patel promised to root out conspirators in the government and the media.

“Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you. Whether that’s criminally or civilly, we’re going to figure that out,” Patel said. In 2022, he published a children’s book titled The Plot Against the King. In it, Patel depicts himself as a wizard defending “King Donald” from conspirators.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., voiced concern that Patel’s passion borders on vindictiveness.

“[He] reposted a video depicting him taking a chainsaw to his political enemies,” Whitehouse said, referring to one of Patel’s social media posts. “This is a dangerous time, and I ask all my colleagues to ask if these plain comments should be given a blind eye or whether they’re warnings to be heeded.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked Patel whether he previously said the FBI headquarters “should be shut down and reopened as a museum of the deep state.” When Patel suggested the senator was over her allotted time, Klobuchar doubled down.

“I deserve an answer to that question,” she said. “He is asking to be head of the FBI. And he said that their headquarters should be shut down. I am quoting his own words from September of 2024.”

Patel repeatedly responded that Democrats were taking his statements out of context. To his supporters, those statements are evidence that Patel’s anti-establishment mindset qualifies him to shake up an area of government in need of reform.

McGinniss, Patel’s hockey teammate, believes the comments about shuttering the FBI’s headquarters on Day One are emblematic of bigger ideals.

“I see them more of a metaphor with what he wants to do at the FBI, which is get back to the core values of the FBI. So all of those statements have to do with the dire state that our federal law enforcement is in right now,” McGinniss said. “Trust of the FBI is at an all-time low.”

Lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee who came to Patel’s defense also pointed out the relative unpopularity of the bureau, stressing that it would take a drastic change to point the agency in the right direction.

“Only 41% of the American people think the FBI is doing a good job,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., said in his opening remarks. “This is the lowest rating in a century. It is not surprising that public trust [is low] in an institution that has been plagued by abuse, lack of transparency, and weaponization of law enforcement.”

After the hearing, I asked Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., whether she believed Patel could operate independently enough from the White House to serve in the role.

“Look, he was very clear that his priority is the American people and upholding the Constitution,” Britt said. “He said time and time again he would always do what was right in the face of anyone at any time. So I feel confident in his ability to do that, and I’m excited for his leadership and look forward to confirming him.”

When asked by Sen. Coons, the Delaware Democrat, if he would resign if asked to target—or not target—a suspect at the request of the White House, Patel declined to answer the hypothetical.

“I will follow the law,” he promised.

Patel can only afford to lose four Republican votes in the Senate if he hopes to secure the position. The Senate has not announced when it plans to vote on his confirmation.