When Donald Trump's FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, his own words were thrown back at him. But while he admitted to saying a few of them, he also claimed Democrats were "making up lies."
Thursday afternoon, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace came with the receipts. When a lawmaker read the quote aloud, Wallace showed the video clip it corresponded to. She wondered why there's a "disconnect" with Republicans "being all-in" as Trump's nominees threaten law enforcement functions.
Former federal prosecutor Kristy Greenberg replied: "That is not a political party. It's a cult. And it's a cult of personality."
Former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, revealed that as they were speaking, some of the most experienced intelligence experts were being forced out.
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"There are very senior people in senior positions in the FBI headquarters building who are being told to either resign or retire or accept a demotion," said Figliuzzi. "There are also field commanders that are affiliated with the Mar-a-Lago case or other Trump-related cases, who are being encouraged to do the same. So, we're already seeing this play out."
He went on to say that Republicans should watch themselves because they could end up on the wrong side of Patel's leadership.
"I have to wonder if these Republican senators, who seem to all be on board for Patel, are going to regret their decision when they one day get sideways with the president and the president sics Kash Patel and the FBI on them. They are going to regret their decision because that's the kind of man that Kash Patel is," said Figliuzzi.
He also confessed a concern about mission creep.
"There are FBI agents on the streets with ICE and border patrol, and they're doing things that aren't anywhere near the FBI mission," Figliuzzi said. "And the problem with that is there are certain authorities that border patrol and ICE have that the FBI simply does not have. There are certain warrantless authorities that govern their work."
Wallace continued to be shocked that Republicans would be so willing to turn the post over to someone who has such little regard for basic things like classified documents.
"You couldn't get between Bill Barr and a camera when he was talking about how screwed Donald Trump was in Mar-a-Lago. What has happened, I guess? Is it Trump winning? I mean, what has happened is that these people don't think the FBI should function as a law enforcement agency?" Wallace asked.
See the conversation below or at the link here.