MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace was stunned by Kash Patel’s “unbelievable” testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“If there is any sign of just how far the FBI has fallen under the direction and leadership of Kash Patel personally, it took place on Capitol Hill today,” she said on Tuesday’s “Deadline: White House.”
Patel repeatedly clashed with lawmakers during the oversight hearing, which lasted over four hours. Both Republican and Democratic senators questioned the director over his decision to loosen hiring standards at the agency, specifically the bureau’s lifting of a ban on applicants who have had sexual encounters with prostitutes or those engaged in bestiality.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., questioned why Patel would “even get into bestiality” when it comes to the hiring practices of the FBI, asking why the behavior wouldn’t be immediately disqualifying. Patel said the standard was changed to allow those who did not “voluntarily” engage in bestiality to apply. Under the previous policy, Patel said, the agency “automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it.”
“I have questions,” Wallace said after playing a clip of Patel and the senator’s exchange. “People on both sides of it — bestiality? By definition, there’s just a person on one side of it.”
The “Deadline: White House” host said she and her panel were “all in disbelief that it is the sworn testimony of the director of the FBI.”
She asked, “Why would Americans want an FBI that has anyone in it that engaged in bestiality, prostitution, or sex trafficking?”
MS NOW national security and intelligence analyst Michael Feinberg, a former FBI assistant special agent, told Wallace that Patel’s performance on Tuesday “may take the cake for having made the biggest fool of himself in his tenure thus far.”
“FBI agents are supposed to be held to a higher standard than your average citizen, as should anybody who enforces the law and has the power to take people into custody and deprive them of their liberty,” he said.
You can watch Wallace’s full comments in the clip at the top of the page.
The post Nicolle Wallace left stunned after Kash Patel’s ‘unbelievable’ Senate testimony appeared first on MS NOW.
