Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Trump’s Unqualified, Unprepared, And Untrustworthy Nominees For Intelligence Positions Who Will Undermine America’s National Security

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor warning of the dangers posed by the nominations of Kash Patel for FBI Director and Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, highlighting their lack of qualifications and troubling records. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today, the Judiciary Committee, is hearing testimony from Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee for FBI Director.

The hearing is still ongoing, but it is already very clear that Mr. Patel is not remotely prepared to serve as FBI Director.

Mr. Patel has failed to answer how his confirmation as one of the nation’s chief law enforcement officers will make Americans safer.

He has failed to convince Americans that he will serve their interests, and not Donald Trump’s.

It’s no wonder that so many of Mr. Patel’s colleagues from the first Trump Administration have spoken out against him, saying he has “ludicrous ideas” and “…virtually no experience to serve as the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency.”

No one who has a long history of spreading lies about the FBI and smearing the public servants who work there, like Mr. Patel has, should be FBI Director.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is also hearing testimony from President Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

If confirmed, Ms. Gabbard would be a walking liability to our intelligence community and our national security. She has a long, troubled history of spreading falsities and sympathizing with the likes of Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad.

And given her history, it’s not unreasonable to ask if Ms. Gabbard would use the DNI job to push misinformation for political ends. Our intelligence agencies are a place where truth and facts must prevail, or we become much less prepared in terms of protecting American security. And yet, someone who is so immune to a fact-based analysis of things, who makes up conspiracy theories left and right, is the last person who should be the Director of National Intelligence.

It would be antithetical to elevate someone who is known to make things up out of thin air like Ms. Gabbard to the highest levels of our intelligence community, which is, as I said, fact-based.

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