Senator Sheldon Whitehouse questions FBI Director Kash Patel at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, saying about 20 of the roughly 60 people on Patel's list have faced adverse actions in his seven months in office. Patel calls it "an entirely inaccurate presupposition," denies having an enemies list and says FBI personnel actions are based on merit. Whitehouse answers: "Well, there was a list."
The receipt
- Who
- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
- Where
- hearing - Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Pa
- Original footage
- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse · watch the full video from this moment
- Length
- 51 seconds, unedited within the cut
Read the transcript
It appears to me that there have been adverse actions of various kinds taken against about 20 of the 60 people on your enemies list. You've been in office for seven months. At that rate, you've got 14 months until you've hit all 60. Can you explain that? Again, that is an entirely inaccurate presupposition. I do not have an enemies list. You can continue to characterize it as you wish. The only actions we take, generally speaking, for personality FBI are ones based on merit and qualification and your ability to uphold your constitutional duty. You fall short, you don't work there anymore. Well, there was a list. You don't like it to be called an enemy's list, and it had about 60 names, and about 20 have had adverse actions.
Machine transcript of the clip's audio; names are checked, small words may differ.