Senate Votes 48-45 To Advance Kash Patel’s Nomination
India-West News Desk
WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate voted on February 18 along party lines to advance the nomination of Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, clearing a procedural hurdle to set up a final vote on the controversial Trump ally to lead the federal law enforcement agency, Fox News reported.
Lawmakers in the Upper Chamber voted 48-45 to advance Patel’s nomination, as Democrats hold concerns that he would operate as a loyalist for the president and target the administration’s political enemies, the media outlet said.
This sets up a final confirmation vote later in the week.
Patel has supported reshaping the FBI, including by expanding its role to carry out Trump’s mission targeting immigration. He has been a vocal critic of past FBI investigations into Trump, including on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and debunked allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Fox News noted.
The Trump loyalist has been panned for his lack of management experience compared to past FBI directors and for his many incendiary past statements, including calling investigators who probed Trump “government gangsters.”
Democrats have also criticized Patel for supporting false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and his refusal to affirm that former President Joe Biden defeated Trump in that year’s election.
Sunjay
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Nice! Representation
February 19, 2025Jon Hochschartner, CT
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Replace Schumer and Jeffries
I began President Donald Trump’s second term deeply skeptical of the willingness and ability of Democratic minority leaders in the Senate and House to stand up to the fascist Republican. Since that time, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have shown I wasn’t worried nearly enough. Democrats must replace them with leaders willing to fight.
As Trump rapidly destroys what’s left of American democracy, Schumer and Jeffries are telling the press they’re picking their battles and waiting for the president to make a mistake. While the Republican provokes one constitutional crisis after another, without consequence, the Democratic leaders are sending out generic press releases about inflation.
Trump and his gang of fascist criminals are playing for all the marbles right now. It’s clear from their actions, which are constantly and brazenly in violation of the law, this group doesn’t believe they will ever face any kind of accountability. Their confidence suggests to me Republicans don’t plan on allowing completely free-and-fair elections going forward.
I hope I’m wrong, but recent history has shown the most alarmist view of Trump and his cohort to be the most predictive. Schumer and Jeffries need to be acting with a fierce urgency, like the window of electoral resistance to fascism is closing. The pair’s defenders frequently blame the media for not giving proper weight to Trump’s threat.
This is a justifiable criticism. On the other hand, it’s hard to condemn the press too harshly when leaders of the nominal opposition party are acting, in many ways, as if we are in the midst of politics as usual. Schumer and Jeffries need to be screaming from the rooftops. They should be throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
Confronted about their quietism, the Democratic leaders throw up their hands and ask what voters expect of them, given Republican control of all three branches of the federal government. Notably, when former Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faced these circumstances in 2009, he didn’t whine and give up.
Instead, McConnell launched a wildly successful strategy of obstruction. Schumer and Jeffries should be doing the same on a far greater scale. They wouldn’t be able to stop all of Trump’s power grabs. But if they showed up, and behaved like they were in the midst of a five-alarm fire, the pair might at least stop some of them.
Schumer and Jeffries need to gum up the works of government in every manner possible. Stalling the fascist agenda is a kind of victory. The more Democrats can run out the clock until the midterms — when they have a chance to regain the Senate and House, and exercise more control over this renegade White House — the better.
The anti-fascist coalition has a wide variety of goals. For instance, I want to see a massive infusion of public funding into cultivated-meat research, which I view as the most promising means of advancing animal welfare. However, none of our aims can be achieved under a right-wing authoritarian state. We must defeat Trump.
The Democratic Party needs leaders who are willing to fight. Schumer and Jeffries have made very clear they are not up to the task. We don’t have time to wait and see if they can turn things around. Too much is at stake. The pair should stand aside or be removed by their colleagues in favor of leadership better suited for this perilous moment.
Jon Hochschartner, CT
February 20, 2025