During Thursday's contentious confirmation hearing for FBI Director, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) produced an animated meme depicting nominee Kash Patel using a chainsaw to chop the heads off of his political enemies.
"That you?" Whitehouse asked.
Whitehouse referenced the meme and read from Patel's social media posts when questioning the nominee about his vow of vengeance against MAGA enemies should he get the post.
"'We will go and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally. or civilly,'" Whitehouse read. "Is that a correct quotation, Mr. Patel?"
"Senator, that's a partial quotation," Patel answered.
"But it's correct," Whitehouse said, with Patel answering, "In part."
ALSO READ:Top GOPer's ‘most immediate’ priority for new committee includes probing a MAGA conspiracy
Whitehouse continued, "Regarding his publication of his enemies list, Mr. Patel proclaimed, 'The manhunt starts tomorrow,' and reposted a video depicting him taking a chainsaw to his political enemies. Is that you, Kash Patel, 'Retruthed,' reposting that at the top of that page," Whitehouse asked, pointing to the meme.
Patel claimed he had "nothing to do with the creation" of the meme, but admitted, "That's me, at the top."
CNN's Evan Perez said Patel was trying to cleverly distance himself "from all of the wild things" that he has said on social media and in interviews.
"You know, Kash Patel though has done thousands of appearances on podcasts and part of his persona has been to be as provocative as possible," Perez said. "So what they're doing is, they're just playing all of the things that he has said. And he is basically, as you can see there, he is trying to say that that is not him, does not represent him, and that, you know, he's trying to pivot back to his own experiences."
Perez continued, "And, so, at this point, it does appear that Republicans are pretty much firmly in line to to confirm him, despite all of those things that you heard him say. And also, by the way, I mean, the boss is someone himself who has said, really, you know, outrageous things, and he got elected president of the United States."
Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link.