Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee put FBI Director nominee Kash Patel’s vote on hold Thursday. The vote is now postponed until next week.
Ranking Democrat Dick Durbin (D-IL) called Patel’s nomination “unusual.”
“This is an unusual nomination, and it’s a 10-year nomination,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member on the panel, noting that the lengthier term was adopted “to make sure that we took politics out of the equation.”
“Ten years is a long time and merits review,” added Durbin, claiming that Patel had made a “direct contradiction under oath” about his involvement in producing a song recording of jailed Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters.
Durbin also claimed that Patel “was part of this lionization of these thugs who took over the Capitol.”
Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) acknowledged that “the minority has exercised their right and my right under the committee rules to hold over the nomination of Kash Patel to lead the FBI.”