A U.S. Senate committee hearing devolved into shouting on Tuesday as Cory Booker (D-NJ) charged FBI Director Kash Patel with inflaming partisan divisions on social media, an allegation Patel turned back around on the Democrat in swift order.
Asked by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) if he wished to respond to Booker’s irate remarks, Patel swung back hard.
“That rant of false information does not bring this country–” he said before Booker began talking over him. When Booker leaned in to interrupt, Patel reminded him he had the floor.
“My god, my god!” Booker exclaimed. “You want to talk about dividing this country? I follow you on your social media posts that are tearing this country apart.”
Both men angrily talked over one another, with Patel referring to the New Jersey senator as an “embarrassment” and Booker refusing to respect Grassley’s gavel.
“Sir, you are making a mockery of this committee. You don’t tell me when my time is over!” he shouted as Grassley attempted to restore silence.
“My time is not over!” one yelled in reply to the other. “I am not afraid of you, sir!” shot back Booker.
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Sen. Grassley informed his colleague that Patel would be granted extra time to speak, prompting Booker’s wrath to be directed at the chairman.
“I’ve watched him talk over us, and you’ve never once criticized us for not being able to get our questions out! He has been rude and disrespectful to senator after senator.”
Grassley rebutted his colleague, blaming Democrats for interrupting Patel in turn.
Patel arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to defend his handling of the Bureau, testimony he prefaced with multiple appearances on Fox News. He has faced criticism in the media since the assassination of Charlie Kirk after initially claiming that authorities had the shooter in custody, only for two individuals to be released before Tyler Robinson turned himself in.
President Donald Trump indicated that he approves of the job Patel is doing, however, easing concerns that he was losing favor in the White House. Axios reported on Monday that Trump is satisfied with the progress at the FBI under his appointee.
“I am very proud of the FBI,” Trump told Fox News Digital Saturday. “Kash — and everyone else — they have done a great job.”
“Kash’s job is safe. The president is happy,” a senior administration official told Axios on Sunday.
Online, MAGA influencers rallied to Patel’s defense as Democrats sought to capitalize on disorder in the hours after Kirk, 31, was shot and killed on a Utah college campus. Controversy over the government’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation was relegated to questioning in the second half of the hearing, underscoring how quickly the news cycle is changing under Trump.
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