BREAKING: Senate Judiciary Committee advances Kash Patel as FBI director, vote heads to Senate floor

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance Kash Patel on Thursday, with a vote of 12 to 10. The issue of his confirmation now goes to the Senate for a vote. 

Prior to the vote, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), as well as others made comments leading up to the vote, with Democrats pushing to oppose Patel. 

Grassley spoke about how Patel would be able to take on the “weaponization” of the FBI and recounted how Patel was vital to “expose Crossfire Hurricane” and false allegations against Trump.

Durbin claimed that Patel would “seek retribution on behalf of President Trump” among other accusations. He also encouraged other committee members not to vote in favor of Patel and claimed he would be a “disaster" as the FBI Director. 

Whitehouse said that Patel was not qualified to be in the position of FBI Director and said the investigations into Trump were not weaponization of the FBI because Trump was a “convicted criminal.” He also claimed that “Trump-Russia 2.0” was imminent claiming that the “Trump-Russia hoax” was “not a hoax.”

Multiple Democrats said that Patel's appointment would "come back to haunt" Republicans if they confirm him to the role. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) commented on this on X, saying, "Senate Democrats to Senate Republicans: 'This 'Patel guy" will come back to haunt you' Not clear who the “you” in that sentence is Why are they so worried?"

Patel’s committee vote was supposed to take place last week, however, Democrats, led by Durbin, held a press conference after delaying the vote. They cited a meme video shared by Patel as well as his work on the January 6 choir as reasons not to confirm him. 

Klobuchar claimed that Patel had “no experience” in order to be appointed to the leadership role.

During Patel’s confirmation hearings, he vowed to end the weaponization of the FBI as well as censorship coming from the agency and said, “If confirmed I will work with congress to expose any corrupt activities the FBI has participated in, especially involved in the censorship of free speech.”

He also vowed to help expose the Epstein client list during the hearing, promising to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) “I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in” the Epstein case, and “how we are going to countermand missing children and exploited children going forward."

After Trump was elected, many in the GOP pushed him to nominate Patel for FBI Director, and when he announced the nomination, touted Patel's experience, saying, "Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and 'America First' fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution."