This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 16 episode of “The Briefing with Jen Psaki.”
There was no shortage of explosive moments during FBI Director Kash Patel’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. But one of the most telling moments came when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked Patel about his so-called enemies list.
In the appendix of his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel listed 60 people he said were “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.”
The only thing that has changed about the administration’s enemies list is that it’s gotten longer.
During his questioning, Whitehouse noted that the administration had already taken “adverse actions of various kinds” against about 20 of the 60 people on that list. In response, Patel said that was “an entirely inaccurate presupposition” and claimed he did “not have an enemies list.”
It wasn’t the loudest or most viral moment of Tuesday’s hearing, but it was one of Patel’s most brazen. Because, nine months into this administration, it is definitely not an “inaccurate presupposition” that the Justice Department is targeting Donald Trump’s enemies.
The list in question includes people such as former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, both of whom are now being investigated by Trump’s Justice Department. It includes former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor, whom Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate. It also includes Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, whose home was searched by the FBI last month.
The only thing that has changed about the administration’s enemies list is that it has gotten longer — far longer than the 60 people Patel named publicly in a book.
It has grown to include everyone from career civil servants who publish data Trump doesn’t like, to members of the Federal Reserve Board who won’t act like the president’s puppets, to late-night TV hosts who have made fun of Trump. Every day, Trump seems to be adding more and more names to the list of enemies he wants to single out for retaliation.
And now, the Trump administration is taking new steps to make that list even broader and to include basically anyone to the left of Trump and his administration.
On Monday, in response to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Vice President JD Vance said political violence is “not a both-sides problem” and claimed that “people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.”
But that’s simply not true. In fact, until recently, you could go to the Justice Department’s own website and read a study that found that “far-right attacks continue to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.” But Tuesday, 404media was the first to report that the Justice Department has now quietly removed that study from its website.
It doesn’t take a lot of speculation to figure out why. It appears the Trump administration wants to use Kirk’s death as a pretext to target even broader swaths of those it deems “the political left.” It is already telling us how it will choose its new targets. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration will “absolutely target” anyone for alleged “hate speech.”
Now, trying to stop the spread of actual hate speech in this country is not necessarily a bad goal in and of itself. But for years, conservatives have actually been the ones arguing that the government should not police hate speech. Even Kirk himself was on record expressing that very opinion.
So the question is: How does the administration define the kind of “hate speech” that it suddenly wants to outlaw? Well, according to Trump, it seems anyone whom he deems as treating him “unfairly” could earn a spot on the enemies list.
After ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked the president about the line between “hate speech” and “free speech,” Trump told the reporter that Bondi would “probably go after people like you because you treat me so unfairly.” But here’s the thing: While the Trump administration has been successful at adding more and more names to its enemies list, it has done a pretty bad job silencing those already on it. Every day, we get more and more evidence that when people stand up and push back against this administration, more often than not they win. Since taking office, Trump has gone out of his way to target any law firm that works with Democrats or anyone else he considers an enemy. And while a number of those law firms caved to Trump’s demands, every firm that has stood up and pushed back against the president in court has won. It’s almost like firms full of experienced lawyers know more about how to win in court than Trump and his merry band of minions do. The result of all of this has been that more and more people are choosing to stand up and fight back. It’s the same story with individuals targeted by Trump. Trump tried to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook after complaining about how she and other Fed officials would not obey his demands to lower interest rates. But Cook fought that firing, and this week an appeals court denied Trump’s bid to remove her from that job, keeping her at the Fed just in time for her to cast her vote this week on where to set interest rates. Trump repeatedly threatened to send federal troops into the streets of Chicago, just like he has done in Washington, D.C. But Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker pushed back forcefully against that takeover. And, so far, Trump has wavered on whether he will follow through with his threat. Trump did send federal troops into the streets of Washington, and his Justice Department promptly began arresting protesters. But when DOJ officials went to charge those protesters, the D.C. residents selected to be on grand juries declined over and over again to sign off on those prosecutions. The result of all of this has been that more and more people are choosing to stand up and fight back. Last week, a group of fired former Justice Department employees sued Patel over their dismissals. This week, Maurene Comey, the fired former Epstein prosecutor and daughter of James Comey, sued the DOJ, challenging her dismissal. So, yes, the Trump administration’s enemies list might be growing and that can feel scary, but so is the list of people pushing back.
Jen Psaki is the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki" airing Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. She is the former White House press secretary for President Joe Biden.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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