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CV NEWS FEED // Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday delayed the committee’s vote to advance the confirmation bid of Kash Patel – which was supposed to take place that day – until next week.
Patel is President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). At his Senate hearing last month, Patel vowed he would withdraw and investigate the Bureau’s infamous 2023 anti-Catholic “Richmond memo.”
FOX News reported that Senate Democrats “demanded a second hearing” for Patel, “citing concerns about his previous remarks and candor.” A leader of the effort to delay the confirmation vote was Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin, D-IL, a self-professed Catholic who supports abortion and the LGBTQ movement.
The Hill specified that “A similar move was made on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s nomination last month.” Bondi was ultimately confirmed by the Senate in a 54-46 vote Tuesday night.
“Patel is now expected to be voted out of committee by Republicans next Thursday,” The Hill added.
Two days earlier, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-IA, had called the attempts by Durbin and other Senate Democrats to force a second Patel hearing “baseless efforts to mischaracterize and malign” Trump’s FBI nominee.
>> LAST MONTH: PATEL VOWS TO GET TO BOTTOM OF FBI ANTI-CATHOLIC MEMO IF CONFIRMED <<
“It’s additionally outrageous to assert that a nominee should come before the Senate to answer for government actions that occurred prior to their time at an agency,” Grassley added in a statement. He noted that Patel already “testified before the Committee for more than five hours, disclosed thousands of pages of records and media appearances, and provided 147 pages of responses to written questions.”
Per The Hill, the Democrats’ delay “does little to affect Patel’s confirmation chances, however, as he is still in a strong position to win the green light from Republican senators when all is said and done.”
As of Thursday evening, leading prediction and betting website Polymarket showed that Patel had a 95% chance of being confirmed by the Senate.
