It’s official: Garden City’s Kash Patel will be the next director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed Patel as the FBI director on Thursday, by a 51-49 vote. Two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, voted against Patel’s nomination.
From Garden City to Washington
Patel becomes the second Garden City High School graduate to serve in the cabinet. He follows Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, who served as energy secretary in the first Obama administration.
Born in 1980, Patel describes himself as a New York Islanders fan and says that he caddied during high school at the Garden City Country Club.
A Trump Loyalist
Patel was a controversial pick by President Donald Trump for the role of FBI director. The Pace University Law School graduate has positioned himself as a Trump loyalist willing to take on the federal bureaucracy, which the president and his supporters call “the Deep State.”
Patel has not shied away from his disdain for federal law enforcement, having articulated his views in speeches, podcasts, and his book, “Government Gangsters.” The book’s appendix contains a list of the so-called “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State,” described by Patel’s critics as an “enemies list” — a characterization he rejects.
During the Senate confirmation hearings, Patel said, “It’s not an enemies list – that is a total mischaracterization.”
The confirmation of Patel signals that the Trump administration will move forward with its agenda of dismantling the federal bureaucracy through mass firings and induced retirements.