We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminal or civil. We'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice. [00:00:16] And Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we're tyrannical. This is why we're dictators. Because we're actually going to use the Constitution to prosecute them for crimes they said we have always been guilty of, but never have. Well, the gentleman you just heard from is Kash Patel, who Donald Trump announced [00:00:32] he will be nominating as the FBI director to replace Christopher Wray, the current FBI director whose term isn't up until 2027. But Trump, of course, has soured on Christopher Wray and wants him out. Now, if confirmed, Patel will replace Christopher Wray and has made all sorts [00:00:52] of threats about what he would do in the position should he get confirmed. Now, the video that you just watched is actually from 2023. Patel was on Steve Bannon's show, and we're going to get back to more of what he said in just a minute. But first, some more details. [00:01:08] Now, Patel is a hardline critic of the FBI, which I personally don't have an issue with. There are areas where critique of the FBI makes a lot of sense, but he has called for shutting down the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters. Patel's move, though, is considered to be mostly symbolic when it comes to shutting [00:01:28] down the Washington, D.C., bureau. In fact, he said, I take the 7000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. To which I say, great. What's the problem with that? [00:01:44] You know, Ken Klippenstein says that's not really dismantling the FBI. That's just moving people around. But Patel's argument is, well, once you're in that D.C. Bubble that, it ends up corrupting the agency. So he wants to kind of spread them out to other, you know, other headquarters [00:02:01] throughout the country. But most of Patel's grievances are personal, and he and Trump believe that the FBI engaged in unjustified investigations and prosecutions of Donald Trump. Remember, the FBI raided Mar-A-Lago because Trump had kept classified [00:02:20] documents and top secret documents that the federal government was asking him to return, but he was refusing to do so. So after this back and forth, after lies about how Trump had allegedly returned all the documents and the federal government knew that wasn't the case, the FBI ended up carrying out this search of Mar-A-Lago, [00:02:38] where they did, in fact, find that he was in possession of classified documents and top secret documents. Now, Trump did reference his nomination on Truth Social, announcing that, cash played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia Russia, [00:02:56] Russia hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution, by the way. Kash Patel literally traveled to the UK looking for Steele of the Steele dossier, without any green lighting from the federal government or anything like that. [00:03:14] So he is very, how should I say he is very heated about, anything having to do with Donald Trump being investigated, any wrongdoing in his mind toward Donald Trump? Patel laid out his vision for wreaking vengeance [00:03:29] on the FBI and Justice Department in a book, Government Gangsters, calling for clearing out the top ranks of the Bureau, which he called a threat to the people. He has vowed to investigate and possibly prosecute journalists once he's back in the government, adding that he would follow the facts and the law. [00:03:49] He says, quote, yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly. We'll figure that out. And here's more from Patel's appearance on Steve Bannon's podcast back in 2023. [00:04:09] Do you feel confident that you will be able to deliver the goods? That we can have serious prosecutions and accountability, and I want the Morning Show producers to watch us and all the producers to watch us. This is just not rhetoric. We're absolutely dead serious. We're not. [00:04:24] You cannot have a constitutional republic and allow what these Deep Staters have done to the country, the deep state, the administrative state, the fourth branch of government never mentioned in the Constitution is going to be taken apart brick by brick. [00:04:39] Cash. I know you're probably going to be head of the CIA, but do you believe that you can deliver the goods on this in a pretty short, in a pretty short order the first couple of months so we can get rolling on prosecutions? Yes, we got the bench for it. Bannon. The one thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go round is we got to put in all America Patriots top to bottom. [00:04:58] And we got them for law enforcement. We got them for Intel collection. We got them for offensive operations. We got them for DoD, CIA everywhere. And the one thing we will do that they never will do is we will follow the facts and the law and go to courts of law and [00:05:14] correct these justices and lawyers who have been prosecuting these cases based on politics and actually issuing them as lawfare. So that sounds threatening, obviously. And what's interesting is Ken Klippenstein is reporting on Kash Patel's public [00:05:31] statements and what he purports to do. Should he get confirmed? Patel's theory of reform fixates on these weird personal grievances with individuals who are now largely irrelevant, instead of the broader system of national security, which I think most [00:05:47] people agree needs to be upended. His entire memoir is based upon the premise that the FBI is all about FISA surveillance of Trump advisors and the Steele dossier, and the quest to prove collusion between Donald Trump and Russia. What about the rest of the country like law abiding protesters on both the left [00:06:06] and right that have been surveilled, or all of us who have to live through the consequences of the FBI's intelligence failures from nine over 11 to January 6th, for which no one is ever fired. Klippenstein also writes that Patel focuses on the centralization of power [00:06:23] as the problem, but is also suggesting some countervailing, centralized power to root it out. He wants to fight fire with fire. Klippenstein writes, or politicized politicization with more politicization, you know, with more of the same. And I think he's right about that. [00:06:40] Now, if you're wondering what Kash Patel's experience or background is, he did actually serve in Trump's first term. He was chief of staff at the Department of Defense, at the Department of Defense, deputy director of national intelligence and senior director for counterterrorism [00:06:55] at the National Security Council. Patel also worked as both a federal prosecutor and a public defender. So, he doesn't have the experience to be the head of the FBI, but he at least has some experience within, you know, DoD. [00:07:12] And, he was the deputy director of national intelligence as well as the senior director of counterterrorism at the NSC. - Jake. - Yeah. So there's a difference between what people want. Kash Patel to be and what he actually is. So and there's some people who want him to be exactly what he is. [00:07:31] So we'll break all that down right now. So if. Kash Patel said, hey, look, I'm looking for more transparency. Who are these folks wiretapping. Are they is it, right wing groups? Left wing groups? Why are they wiretapping them? Is it because they're a real danger? Or is this lawfare against some, American citizens, right, let alone [00:07:50] politicians like Donald Trump or anyone else that they might have politicized? Well, I'd be totally in favor of that, right? I mean, the FBI has looked into left wing groups ad nauseam. That's been the number one thing that they've done in terms of politics at least, which is infiltrate, Spy on. [00:08:06] ET Cetera. Left wing groups. So I'm here for it. But that's not what he's saying. He's saying no. Let's make sure that we only look after the people that went after Trump. Well, hey, that's not that interesting, right? [00:08:22] That. Okay, good. Fine, I get it. If that's part of a broader picture and you really have some sort of evidence that he was that people went after him in a way that was not kosher. But you can't just say, oh, they went after Trump. And even though he, like, clearly broke these laws, I'm going to fire everyone [00:08:38] who dared to do their job. Right. That's not getting off on the right foot. But but it goes down the list, he says, I'm going to close down the FBI office and scatter those FBI agents throughout the country, because they're better off not being in the Washington culture and being so politicized. Well, there's nothing wrong with that proposal. [00:08:54] That sounds pretty good, right? But then he says, no, I'm going to build an FBI within the FBI, basically, in essence. And so to like, basically make sure they're doing what we want them to do politically. Well, wait a minute. [00:09:10] That means you're politicizing them even more. Not exactly. Yep. Right. And so when you go down the list. So if he said, hey, you know, the 51 intelligence agents that signed that, letter about how Hunter Biden's laptop was from the Russians, I'm going to look into them, I'd say. Yeah, I get it, man. [00:09:26] That makes sense. I don't know why they signed that when it wasn't the Russians at all. We could argue about what was in the laptop, etc. But it wasn't the Russians. And I don't know why those 51 people made it up. Okay, that would be great and fair. But the media, you're going to go after the media on what pretense? [00:09:43] So, for example, we think that Joe Scarborough, is a serial liar. I think the view is a disaster. You know, we've talked about all the things that are wrong with mainstream media and saying absurd things like, Joe Biden is young and dynamic behind the scenes, but that's not illegal. [00:10:00] What do you what did the media do that's illegal? Or are you just going after your enemies here? So. And the reality is he has said repeatedly that yes, they're going to target their political enemies. Well, that's a disastrous pick, a terrible pick. [00:10:17] So if you're in the camp, in the MAGA camp that says, oh hell yeah, I never wanted to to depoliticize the FBI. I wanted to politicize it more, but to our benefit. Okay. All right, brother? I mean, you're a bad guy, and and I'm not interested in you, [00:10:33] and and I know we're going to strike back. We don't want less lawfare. We want more lawfare against anyone who dares to oppose us. Okay, well, you're in the authoritarian camp. You're in the un-American camp, and I got no interest in you. And it appears that Kash Patel is in that camp. If you actually want to do transparency and actually right the ship on the FBI [00:10:51] or the intelligence agencies, we're here for it. We've been here for it for 20 years, but they're not going to do that if Kash Patel is in charge. Yeah. And look, there's definitely some question as to whether he would get confirmed by the Senate. I know that you just need a simple majority, but there are some [00:11:09] of the more moderate Republicans who certainly do not favor him. You know, I'm thinking about the Susan Collins of the Republican Party. So I don't know if he's going to just easily breeze through the confirmation process. But assuming he does manage to get confirmed, if he is in fact planning to [00:11:28] carry out, you know, politically motivated investigations on behalf of Donald Trump, rather than use this as an opportunity to implement real reforms that benefit the American people. Overall, it's going to be a wasted opportunity because there are issues with the FBI. [00:11:44] There's no question about that. I mean, look, I have to say, nothing disgusts me more than the reputation laundering of the Bush administration and Bush administration officials, people like David Frum, who was a speechwriter for Bush, who's who basically created the phrase axis of evil [00:12:02] to justify and manufacture consent for wars that we should not have engaged in. But over the weekend, you know, in response to Kash Patel being named by Donald Trump, he was talking about a constitutional crisis. And it's like, let's let's remember what the FBI was up to [00:12:19] during the Bush administration. Let's remember the illegal wiretapping. Okay. Let's remember that Bush himself, you know, unconstitutionally suspended habeas corpus for two years until the Supreme Court finally stepped in and reversed it. There was a constitutional crisis taking place under the Bush administration. [00:12:35] So I don't want to hear a peep from David Frum about constitutional crises. But the other thing I want to just quickly mention is, you know, because of the Patriot Act, because of what happened on nine over 11, because of Bush's failures in protecting the country on nine over 11, and due to the fear, understandable fear that there was in the country, [00:12:54] the FBI was like spying on random college students just because they're Muslim. Remember, they were working with the NYPD and going on like weird random college field trips Because there were Muslims there [00:13:10] who were American citizens, by the way. They were just practicing Muslims, and there was no reason, no real probable cause cited for the spying and for all these, like, disgusting, you know, by the way, we're paying them, we're paying them to spy on Americans [00:13:25] who had not been found guilty of doing a damn thing wrong. Okay. We were detaining people without charging them. And we still have people in Gitmo who have never been charged with a damn thing, who haven't been found guilty of a damn thing, but they're still being detained at Gitmo. So it's just there are some real issues here. [00:13:42] And I know that Patel is obviously a politically motivated person based on everything we've heard him say, but I don't think he's a dumb person. I mean, he has this legal background, and it would be incredible if he used this opportunity to actually do something good on behalf of the American people. [00:13:57] But based on what he said publicly, it doesn't seem like he would take advantage of that opportunity. Yeah. No, look, we're not in the again, in the mainstream media camp where Scarborough today was like, you know, Kash Patel, this is totally unacceptable. I agree with him for the reasons that he's stating. [00:14:13] But then he turns around and goes, don't get me wrong, there's some good Trump picks like Marco Rubio. Of course he picks the most establishment guy, the guy who's going to say, oh yeah, let's pay for all of Israel's wars. Let's do we be more neocons, attack more people, start more wars. [00:14:30] Of course, Joe Scarborough is in favor of that. Right? So we're not in that camp at all. And it could Kash Patel ask relevant questions like, yeah, here, I'll give you one. Why did Merrick Garland wait two and a half years to appoint a special counsel for Trump? If he thought those were crimes against democracy, which I did, if he thought that [00:14:48] these were gross violations of the law, why did he wait two and a half years? I can understand on the documents case, because they were working with Trump and they kept asking for the documents and Trump wouldn't give them over, etc. But on the democracy case, there was no reason to wait. I think that the weighting of it was politicized, and I'd be very curious [00:15:05] to see what answers we're going to get, but it doesn't look like based on everything he said so far that Kash Patel has any real interest in uncovering what's wrong with the FBI and fixing it. It seems like he has an interest in doubling down on what's wrong with the FBI. Just directing it on behalf of Donald Trump and against his political enemies. [00:15:24] Look, the last thing on this is like the media again, I'm going to go back to that, because almost every part of media, whether it's right wing media, mainstream media, etc., has lied about us in in ways that range from mild to vicious. Right? Would I imprison any of them? [00:15:40] No, of course not. Well, outrageous liars at the New York Times who wrote an article about me that was so defamatory. It's such absolute trash, right, that even other journalists had to say, what are you guys doing? Why are you lying on purpose? Would I put them in jail? [00:15:55] Under no circumstances would I put them in jail. That that kind of talk is the talk that isn't against tyranny. That's. It's for tyranny. Yeah. Great point. And besides which, you know, Patel keeps noting over and over again, We're going to follow the Constitution. We're going to follow the law. [00:16:13] Well, if he intends to do that, what is the legal basis in which you're going to go after the press, which, of course, enjoys certain constitutional rights in order to be able to do its job, doesn't mean that the press does a good job all the time. Does it mean they're doing an accurate job? [00:16:29] But it doesn't matter. I mean, he's going to run into some serious constitutional issues if he does, in fact intend to, seek prosecution of media outlets or journalists that he doesn't like. Go ahead. Jake. Yeah. And one last thing for me. [00:16:45] Look, he can start out on a good foot. And any time that he does anything positive, we'll give him credit where credit is due. And the minute he does anything negative, you know, we'll do our best in fighting 200% against any kind of tyranny in this country. But what he should do to get off to a good start is, [00:17:02] convince Trump to pardon Edward Snowden. So there's no reason to hold Edward Snowden. He's the guy who revealed the wiretapping on all American citizens in the first place. He's the one that, if you want to call it a deep state, you can call it any name you like. But he's the one that revealed their wrongdoing in the deep state. [00:17:19] Chased them, across the world. He's now basically in Russia. Bring him back home. Give him a ticker tape parade. Right. So. And I know that the right wing agrees. I know that the left wing agrees. So are you going to actually do anything positive, or did you just say, [00:17:35] are you going to set up this tyrannical FBI within the FBI to bring it back to the worst days of the FBI, where they would just target anyone they disagreed with? Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. [00:17:51] You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows and specials right after they air. [00:18:07] So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.