FBI Director Kash Patel and a Republican senator went around in circles during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday morning about the agency’s stance on agents and acts of bestiality.
After a grilling from the ranking Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), on the topic, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) couldn’t seem to get his head around why the sexual act should come up during applicant screenings.
Referring to a report that bestiality is no longer a non-starter for an agency job, Patel told the senator, “It automatically disqualified any individual who participated in either side of it. Obviously we are never going to hire the criminals --.”
‘The bestiality? So you disqualified the animal?” the puzzled Kennedy interrupted.
“I’m trying to understand why would you do this,” Kennedy continued. “This is not directed at you, Mr. Director. And I understand the game; people try to make you look bad. We do the same thing when the other party in office. [But] all this stuff has really hurt the FBI. It has really hurt the FBI. So I'm kind of getting to the bottom of this.”
“Why would you, in light of the context and what we are going through, having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust, because so many people, fairly or unfairly, think that in order to be an FBI agent now, your political point of view matters, why would you even get into bestiality?” he asked.
‘We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals --,” Patel attempted.
“I know you're not --,” the Republican senator interjected.
"But I'm trying to explain it, hang on -- ,” the FBI head tried again.
"You changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality. If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human, don't you think he ought to be disqualified?” Kennedy pressed.
“In some of these cases the human traffickers, some of the worst individuals on earth, they don't just traffic you for prostitution; they traffic you for degrading acts,” Patel replied.