Very Briefly: Kash Patel, Director, FBI
The Senate confirmed Kash Patel as the next FBI Director in a 51-49 vote. There’s no possible way that this could have happened during Trump 1.0. Same with Tulsi and some others. Partly, the GOPer Senate understands Trump’s influence across the nation, but I still believe that the other part of this is that they now fear him—more with each passing day. He owes them nothing at all and he is in the process of gathering the goods on everyone in DC. The key going forward will be cooperation among Tulsi, Kash, and Ratcliffe—DNI, FBI, CIA. Oh, and Pam Bondi. Trump will certainly want them to get busy ASAP declassifying the past but also opening new investigations. We ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.
BTW, recall that I’ve maintained that Elon Musk is a “frontman” for Trump 2.0?
White House says Elon Musk is not in charge at DOGE, but is advising the president
This is all being run out of Russ Vought’s OMB. Vought’s the guy with the road map in his head for getting Trump the information he needs. No doubt Musk and others can help, but OMB is where it’s really at. Thus the unitary executive EO requires all agencies to report to OMB.
Bishops get smacked:
Margot Cleveland @ProfMJCleveland
BREAKING: Court denies Bishops TRO to force Trump Administration to keep funding refugee grants. Frankly I'm surprised but only given how other courts have been handling APA claims--acting like it was final agency action when it wasn't.
A couple side notes on Kash:
Murkowski and Collins voted with the Dems. I hope they are punished.
Apparently Turtle came along. But its too late for him to redeem himself.
Senators Blumenthal and Schiff utterly disgraced themselves with their statements. Schiff's, given his indelible record for untrustworthiness, and lack of character and integrity, is truly astounding.
“I am absolutely sure of this one thing: this vote will haunt anyone who votes for him. They will rue the day they did it,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.
He added: “To my Republican colleagues, think about what you will tell your constituents” and family “about why you voted for this person who will so completely and utterly disgrace this office and do such grave damage to our nation’s justice system.”
“This is someone we cannot trust,” said Sen. Adam Schiff of California. “This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job. We know that, our Republican colleagues know that.”
Schiff should be expelled from the Senate.