Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s controversial Indian American pick to lead the FBI appeared to consolidate Republican support Thursday as Democrats struggled to make a case against a nominee who has vowed to root out the “deep state.”
Patel’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, “expected to produce fireworks, was mostly a dud,” with Democrats failing to create a viral moment, as Politico put it.
READ: Kash Patel blasts FBI for ‘endangering his life’ (August 29, 2022)
A longtime Trump loyalist, Patel has a lengthy record of comments suggesting he would use his office to go after Trump’s political adversaries, but Democrats’ efforts to cast Patel as an extremist fell flat, the political news outlet said.
Patel, 44, portrayed himself as a loyal ally to law enforcement, touting his years of experience as an assistant public defender, federal prosecutor and congressional staffer. Pledging not to abuse his power, he told the committee that the FBI must return to tackling violent crime and committing to transparency for the law enforcement organization.
“If confirmed as the next FBI director, I will remain focused on the FBI core mission that is to investigate fully wherever there is a constitutional factual basis to do so and to never make a prosecutorial decision,” he said.
But the hearing didn’t begin without a Hindu moment. Patel acknowledged his parents — Pramod and Anjana Patel — who traveled to D.C., from India — and his sister Nisha — “who also travelled across the oceans just to be with me.” He then welcomed them with a “Jai Sri Krishna” greeting. In a viral video titled “Sanskaar!” , Patel, born to parents of Gujarati heritage, is seen touching his parents’ feet to take their blessings.
“I would like to welcome my father, Pramod, and my mother, Anjana, who are sitting here today. They travelled here from India. My sister, Nisha, is also here. She also travelled across the oceans just to be with me. It means the world that you guys are here. Jai Shri Krishna,” Patel said in his opening remarks.
He said he not only carried the dreams of his parents but also the hopes of millions of Americans who stand for justice, fairness and the rule of law.
“I wouldn’t be here today without their guidance, their unwavering support, and their relentless love. When President Trump informed me of his intention to nominate me as the director of the FBI, I was deeply honoured,” he said.
Patel, who would be the first Hindu and Indian-American to be FBI Director, said his father fled Idi Amin’s genocidal dictatorship in Uganda, where 300,000 men, women and children were killed based on their ethnicity “just because they happened to look like me.”
“My mother is originally from Tanzania. She studied in India, as did my dad and they were married there. They would later emigrate to New York, where I was born, and we were raised in a household of my father’s seven siblings, their spouses, and at least half a dozen children,” he said.
“That’s the only way we knew how to do things at the time, in the ’70s and ’80s, the Indian way, but we would soon learn the American way,” he added.
Patel told lawmakers that he had been subjected to racism while growing up. “Unfortunately, Senator, yes. I don’t want to get into those details with my family here,” he said while responding to a question from Senator Lindsey Graham if he had ever been subject to racism as an individual.
Democrats spent a significant portion of the hearing grilling Patel over his help in producing a song by the “J6 Prison Choir” — a group of the most violent members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
They pressed him repeatedly to articulate his involvement in producing the song, which included a Trump voiceover, and pressed him about whether its proceeds went to the felons’ legal aid fund and whether he viewed the participants as “political prisoners,” as one of his Truth Social posts suggested.
Patel claimed to have no knowledge of which defendants participated in the choir and said the money raised was steered to the families of “nonviolent” Jan. 6 offenders.
In one significant break from Trump, Patel acknowledged — albeit somewhat indirectly — that he disagreed with the president’s decision to pardon violent Jan. 6 offenders, saying he believed all of those who attacked police officers should face imprisonment.
READ: Lawsuit targets Kash Patel’s FBI nomination records (January 6, 2025)
This response actually seemed to win over one Republican who is being closely watched for defections on contentious Trump nominees across-the-board: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is up for reelection in 2026, according to Politico.
Tillis, who called the Capitol rioters “thugs,” said he believed Patel would have helped Trump reach a different conclusion in his decision to pardon the participants in the Capitol riot. Democratic efforts to paint Patel as an out-of-touch extremist might also have prompted Republicans to double down in their support for the nominee, it said.
“It is ludicrous, but sadly predictable that Democrats are endeavoring to tarnish you, to paint a false caricature based on innuendo and smoke,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.