Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) offered tacit praise for Kash Patel‘s nomination as FBI director, though he stopped short of saying he would support him.
In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Thune was pressed on some senators’ concerns about certain Cabinet nominations, particularly Patel. Thune said he had met Patel and had productive discussions, but he wouldn’t commit to endorsing him.
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“Well, that’s a process … what I’ve promised them is a fair process,” he responded when asked if he would commit to approving all of Trump’s nominees. “And so these nominees are gonna go through a committee where they get a lot … they’re gonna have to answer questions. There will be some hard questions posed. We’re gonna do everything we can to ensure that he has the people he wants in place.”
“I think you give great deference and latitude to a president when it comes to people he wants to put into key positions, and national security ones are especially important,” Thune continued. “But the Senate has a role, advice and consent, and … a lot of our senators … take that role very seriously.”
When pressed on Patel specifically, Thune offered a limited defense and some praise.
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“I think that he understands what his mission would be if he is successful in getting confirmed to that position at the FBI,” he said. “The FBI is an agency that I think is in need of reform and needs a good makeover, so to speak, and probably a good amount of house cleaning when it comes to the perception the American people have with it.”
The Senate majority leader also suggested the nomination process must be swift due to national security concerns, especially in the wake of the New Orleans terrorist attack.
“These institutions that the American people need to have confidence and trust in, I think that confidence and trust is largely eroded, and there’s an opportunity to fix that,” Thune continued.
Despite his praise, the South Dakota Republican stopped short of an endorsement for any nominee.
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“I haven’t been advertising or disclosing my positions on individual nominees at this point just yet. But my job is to make sure they get a fair process. And so I intend to do that. And I think that’s underway,” he responded when pressed on whether he would vote in favor of Patel.
Patel is one of Trump’s most controversial nominees. A fierce Trump loyalist, he has pledged to use his position to root out perceived corruption and retaliate against perceived enemies. Democrats and some Republicans have voiced alarm about some of his rhetoric, especially that which was outlined in his recent book.