Kash Patel Confirmed as FBI Director by 51-49

Only Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, among Republican Senators, voted against Kash Patel, along with every Democrat and the two Independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine. Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell voted for him, so there was no need for the Vice President to break a tie. The NBC News coverage whined that even before Patel’s confirmation, Trump has overseen a cleaning out of the FBI: “The head of the Washington Field Office—which oversaw the sprawling Jan. 6 [2021] probe—was forced out, as were six of the FBI’s most senior executives and multiple heads of FBI field offices around the country.” There will surely be more to come. Whether the FBI can constitute a legitimate investigative agency at all, is now capable of being determined.