Crime & justice

Patel Spars With Senators in FBI Oversight Hearing

Is the FBI director hollowing out the bureau or delivering the most prolific crime reduction in American history?

Published 2 days ago

Patel Spars With Senators in FBI Oversight Hearing

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Above: Kash Patel testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 15. Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Spin

Democratic narrative

The FBI now has a director who cares more about pleasing Trump than running the bureau, dodging basic questions about who won in 2020 and siccing agents on reporters who cover his girlfriend's taxpayer-funded security detail. Purging more than 1,100 experienced agents while scrapping automatic disqualifications for employee theft and bestiality is how a law enforcement agency gets hollowed out. Senate Republicans shielding this from oversight own the wreckage.

The Washington Post The New Republic

Corey Booker on X

Republican narrative

Murder down roughly 20%, 54,000 violent felons arrested, 11,000 child victims located and all 10 of the Most Wanted captured — results no prior FBI has matched. Instead of engaging with the most prolific crime reduction in American history, senators chose to smear the director as a drunk and a thug and shriek over the chairman's gavel. Name-calling from a hearing room does not save a single life; arrests and fentanyl seizures do.