Most Senate Democrats would likely prefer to derail Pam Bondi’s prospective attorney general nomination, but given the size of the Republican majority and the GOP’s eagerness to satisfy Donald Trump’s demands, Democrats are well aware of the Florida Republican’s confirmation chances.
It was against that backdrop that Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised an unexpected subject during Bondi’s hearing: The Illinois senator asked whether she was aware of the fact that Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, had expressed support for the delusional QAnon conspiracy theory.
Bondi replied that members would have to “ask Mr. Patel about those statements.”
From a distance, Durbin appeared to be trying to pull off a political bank shot of sorts: He probably won’t be able to stand in Bondi’s way, but perhaps he could get her to say something that could be used against an even more outlandish future nominee.
As NBC News noted, one of the ranking member’s GOP colleagues was not pleased.
Shortly after Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked Bondi about Kash Patel’s links to QAnon, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., defended Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, saying, “You know, it’s just absurd to kind of throw that stuff out there.” [Tillis added,] “Does anybody honestly believe someone with a distinguished career like Kash Patel thinks that a cannibalistic cabal controlling the internals of government really exists?”
The North Carolina Republican’s willingness to describe Patel’s career as “distinguished” led me to wonder whether Tillis was confusing Patel with someone else. We are, after all, talking about a highly controversial political operative, snake oil salesman, conspiracy theorist, election denier and a sycophantic Trump lackey who wrote a children’s book which told the story of a wizard named Kash who tries to save King Donald from Hillary Queenton.
A variety of adjectives come to mind. “Distinguished” isn’t one of them.
But even putting these relevant details aside, Tillis’ reaction to Durbin’s line of inquiry suggests he found the very idea of Patel endorsing QAnon to be preposterous.
I wish Tillis were right. Ideally, the president-elect’s choice to lead the FBI would have nothing to do with the utterly bonkers conspiracy theory. In reality, however, Patel’s record is not easily ignored. NBC News’ report, for example, highlighted a 2022 media appearance in which Patel said he was “blown away” by the “acumen” of some QAnon believers. Unfortunately, that’s just the start. Mother Jones’ David Corn had a related report last month that noted, “In early 2022, when he sat on the board of Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, Patel amplified an account called @Q that pushed out QAnon messaging. As Media Matters reported: ‘Patel’s catering to the QAnon community has also gone beyond the @Q account. In July, he posted an image featuring a flaming Q on Truth Social and starting in at least April, he went on numerous QAnon-supporting shows to promote Truth Social—urging viewers to join the platform, praising hosts for being on the platform, and promising to promote the hosts there.’” The same report noted Patel’s previous praise for QAnon, including an instance in which he said, “There’s a lot of good to a lot of it.” He also agreed with a podcast host who said Q had “been so right on so many things.” Tillis might not like this part of Patel’s record, but to pretend it doesn’t exist is to overlook one of the many reasons he shouldn’t be the director of the FBI.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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