Fetterman says Patel won't engage in witch hunt as FBI head

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) says Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, will not be going on a political witch hunt after Trump’s political enemies. Fetterman told Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” that he has met with Patel and is convinced that Patel has no intention of persecuting or arresting people who have opposed Trump in the past.

“So I’m not going to go into detail, but he absolutely, — that’s never going to happen,” “That’s not it … that’s what he claims,” Fetterman said. “I found out, you know, his family's origin story and immigration, and we talked about that, and my wife, my family, immigration and things. And so I learned things about him. I never knew that he was a public defender,” Fetterman told ABC, noting that he “has no regrets for having these [meetings].” The senator has been telling his fellow Democrats to calm down and “chill” about the incoming Trump administration.

In response to Patel's 2023 book "Government Gangsters," MSNBC political analyst and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg claimed that it included an "enemies list" and called for Biden to issue blanket pardons to those listed in his book.

Fetterman said he will keep an open mind about all of Trump’s nominees and doesn’t intend to prejudge the process. “There is going to be some [nominees] that I will vote yes, and there’s some, maybe that I’ll vote no,” Fetterman said. “But nobody can accuse me of just saying I had a closed mind, or I just said no because Trump picked this person, or whatever.”

Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), who also appeared on This Week, said he has also met with Patel and he told him to be objective if he is confirmed in his new role. “For me, one of the most important things that I needed to hear from Kash is that he would be blind to political affiliation, because I know some of the things that he said and that have been attributed to him,” Curtis said.

“And I don’t care if they’re Republicans or Democrats and we had some very specific conversations about that. And I wanted to make sure that he would be blind to that.”