WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today grilled Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to be the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), about his refusal to acknowledge that President Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election. Senator Welch highlighted that Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ that President Biden did not win the election led to the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. Senator Welch also stressed the importance of combatting any attempt to weaponize the Justice Department and the FBI under the Trump Administration.
Sen. Welch: “What’s so hard about just saying that Biden won the 2020 election? What’s hard about that?”
Mr. Patel: “Senator, as I’ve said before, that President Biden was certified and sworn in, and he was the president. I don’t know how else to say it.”
Sen. Welch:“Well, the other way to say it is he won.”
Watch the exchange between Senator Welch and Kash Patel during Mr. Patel’s confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the next Director of the FBI:
Read key excerpts of the exchange:
Senator Peter Welch: Let me tell you the source of my ongoing concern, which I regret it sometimes does not seem to be a common concern. We had a catastrophe for our democracy on January 6th…It troubles me that so many people have difficulty saying that Biden won the election…What’s so hard about just saying that Biden won the 2020 election? What’s hard about that?
Kash Patel, Nominee for FBI Director: Senator, as I’ve said before, that President Biden was certified and sworn in, and he was the president. I don’t know how else to say it.
Welch:Well, the other way to say it is he won.
Patel:He was the president.
Welch: The other way to say it is he won. I can say Trump won. I didn’t vote for him—but he won. Al Gore said Bush won when they were having that recount in Florida. And we have had a peaceful transfer of power here in very contested elections. I’ll just be very direct with you about why I think this is of consequence. Donald Trump has never acknowledged that he lost in 2020, and he invited people to come to the Capitol on January 6th to ‘stop the steal’. After that happened, police officers died. People were injured. It created enormous, ongoing bitterness within the country. That’s your boss. Do you believe that the 2020 election was stolen as President Trump says it is?
Patel: My opinions on the 2020 election have been expressed in this hearing and he’s entitled to whatever opinions he wants.
Welch: Do you agree with him that the election was stolen in 2020?
Patel: Millions of Americans have expressed concern going back to multiple elections over election integrity.
Welch: You know, you’re so skillful. You understand what I’m asking you. Can you say the words: Joe Biden won the 2020 election?
Patel: Joe Biden was the president of the United States.
Welch: I’m just saying this: there’s a difference. I can say the words ‘Donald Trump won.’ I don’t like to say it, but I must say it. And you cannot say that Joe Biden won the election.
Patel: What I can say is the same for both of them, Senator. Both of their elections were certified, and one was, and one now is president.
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Welch: Bottom line here: you’re going to have tough job. And you’re going to have a tough boss, because he gets it in his mind he wants to do something, nothing gets in the way. And there’s going to come a time when an FBI Director, or an Attorney General, has to make a decision about the Constitution and what is being requested, and can that person at that time—when the important values of the Constitution are at stake—say no to a person who is insisting you take an action?
Patel: Senator, that’s why I think it’s time, for the first time in this country’s history, that a public defender be the next Director of the FBI because no one knows more about the Constitution and due process than PD’s.
Welch: Well, you know you’re appealing to mutual pride here, with a public defender. But you know what? I still understand you didn’t answer the question. That’s the public defender in me, ok?
And I say this to my colleagues: We cannot have a weaponized Justice Department or FBI. What’s weaponized is in the eye of the beholder, like the prosecutions of President Trump, and I get that. We cannot, cannot have it. But what I think we all have to acknowledge, when we’ve got a president who’s basically saying a political enemy—whether it’s [Kamala] Harris, whether it’s Liz Cheney, whether it’s Adam Schiff—should be prosecuted, that’s doing damage to the mutual goal we have of not weaponizing a department.
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