WASHINGTON — If you’ve ever wondered whether ignorance is truly bliss, just ask Senate Republicans.
While the nation’s founders envisioned a Senate where great minds deliberate weighty ideas, in today’s GOP-controlled Senate the majority seems to be doing all they can to avoid debating, at least when it comes to President Donald Trump’s controversial FBI nominee, Kash Patel.
In exclusive interviews with 10 of the 12 Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee — each of whom voted to advance Patel’s nomination last week — Raw Story has found exactly zero who’ve read his book, "Government Gangsters."
Requests from the offices of the other two committee members, Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO), weren’t returned.
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“Have I read his book? No, I have not,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA), now 91, told Raw Story. “All I do is keep up with the papers I have to read from my staff.”
That’s despite Democrats spending the last few weeks arguing Patel’s book is a disturbingly disqualifying diatribe — one they fear comes with a ready-made "enemies list" included as an appendix — against the very rule of law the FBI is tasked with upholding.
“I carry around a copy of it. I mean, I literally have a copy of it in my office,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story. “They're gonna rue the day they supported Kash Patel. He is destructive. He is un-American. He will ruin law enforcement in this country. He is a true radical.”
In his book, Patel calls on leakers to be “hunted down,” declares that the “FBI remains utterly corrupt" and states unequivocally that “the greatest political scandal in American history” is the "Deep State" effort to connect Trump's 2016 win to his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- ties over which the House of Representatives attempted to impeach Trump in 2019..
Despite such unsettling passages, Republicans aren’t flipping through its pages.
“Nope,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Raw Story.
“No plans to?” Raw Story asked.
Cruz shook his head "no," as if it were an odd follow-up question.
While "Government Gangsters" ends with an appendix listing 50-plus “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State” — what Democrats decry as an "enemies list" — at his confirmation hearing, Patel told Democratic senators, if nominated, he isn’t planning retribution.
“I have no interest, no desire and will not, if confirmed, go backwards,” Patel testified. “There will be no politicization at the FBI. There will be no retributive actions taken.”
That’s not what Patel laid out in his roughly 200-page book, which makes the case for destroying the "deep state."
“Did you ever look at the appendix?” Raw Story asked.
“No,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Raw Story, laughing. “I hope I’m not on it.”
“Right?” Raw Story pressed. “But you haven’t looked?”
“It might change my view,” Hawley laughed as he walked away.
Some Republicans on the Judiciary Committee report being familiar with Patel’s book, even if they say they haven’t read it.
“No,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) replied, adding, “Not all of it.”
Tillis isn’t alone.
“Curious, have you read Kash Patel's book?” Raw Story asked.
“I have not,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) replied. “I’ve read excerpts.”
“Have you gone through the list at the end that Democrats say is the 'enemies list'?” Raw Story pressed as Cornyn hopped on a tram underneath the Capitol.
“I have not read it,” Cornyn replied as the doors slammed closed.
Other Republicans seem to have slammed the doors shut on Patel’s book.
“Nope,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Raw Story when asked if he’d read it.
“No plan to?” Raw Story asked.
“I’ve got a lot of reading to do,” Kennedy replied in a tone that made it seem Patel’s book didn’t make his stack.
Democrats were aghast.
“We know that it’s inappropriate," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Raw Story. “They know that it’s inappropriate, but no one will cross Trump on these defective nominees.”
When it comes to Republicans who aren’t on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Raw Story found many of Trump’s closest Senate allies were fine with taking the president’s word at face value.
“Did you ever look at the appendix with the names of his list or whatever?” Raw Story asked.
“They got some good ones?” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) quipped.
“Well, Democrats say it's his ‘enemies list.’”
“Oh, my God,” Tuberville said, all but rolling his eyes before he walked off.
Even as Democrats have warned of ready-made retribution to come, many Republicans seem ready for whatever Patel unleashes.
“Have you even looked at the appendix that Democrats say is his ‘enemies list’ with all the names?” Raw Story asked.
“No,” Sen. Ron Jonson (R-WI) replied.
“You guys just, like, tune them out — Democrats — right?” Raw Story pressed.
“Yeah,” Johnson replied through a smile. “You should too.”
It’s the same with one of the Senate’s loudest voices when it comes to preserving the Constitution.
“I haven’t read his book,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Raw Story.
“Are you supportive of him?” Raw Story asked.
“Yes.”
“What do you make of claims that he's gonna upend the Constitution?" Raw Story pressed.
“That’s all I got for you right now,” Paul said as he hopped an elevator in the basement of the Capitol.
All told, of the 17 Republican senators Raw Story asked about Patel’s book, only one — who doesn’t serve on the Judiciary Committee — dedicated serious time to studying it.
“I’ve looked at parts of that,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told Raw Story. “My staff has gone through it thoroughly.”
“What do you make of it?” Raw Story pressed.
“Well, parts of it are troubling,” Collins said before hopping a tram back to her office across the street.
Collins’ office didn’t reply to Raw Story’s follow-up email asking why she voted to advance Patel’s nomination Tuesday despite finding parts of his book so “troubling.”
While other Republicans haven’t read Patel’s book, they’re supportive of his "deep state" narrative.
“Look, I think it's great to have somebody in there that's been persecuted by the FBI,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) told Raw Story. “It's good to have somebody that's been attacked.”
Another Democrat who read Patel's book expressed a different sentiment.
“I’ve read that book,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) — the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee — told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Wednesday evening.
“He picked on Democrats and Republicans who are truly good citizens of this country,” Durbin continued. “He does not have the temperament to head the number one criminal investigative agency in the world.”