Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton reacted to Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel (see UPDATE: Trump Nominates MAGA Favorite Kash Patel As FBI Director; Patel Reacts) to be his FBI director by blasting him as a latter-day secret police chieftain. “Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be his Lavrenty Beria,” Bolton wrote. “Fortunately, the FBI is not the NKVD. The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0.”
Beria was a Stalin loyalist who succeeded to the leadership of the NKVD, the Stalinist equivalent of the Cheka and KGB. He carried out the purges of the 30s, ran the gulag system, and kept the Red Army in the field during the trying 1940-1942 period through the use of political commissars, blocking units, and summary executions.
From the point of view of most conservatives, John Bolton’s opposition to Patel is a solid endorsement of him. Years ago, I liked Bolton, but it has become apparent that he’s well past his prime in just about every endeavor. The over-the-top comparison of Patel to a murderer, torturer, and sexual predator — at least a dozen bodies were exhumed from his wife’s rose garden — marks Bolton as an unserious man on this subject.
The implication of Bolton’s mind-bogglingly stupid statement dovetails with that of Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and some other notables who push the idea that the FBI and the Department of Justice operate under their own rules and independently of any oversight.
Jake Sullivan, Bill Barr, & John Bolton are all against Kash Patel being in charge of The FBI.
All this tells me is that Kash Patel is the right choice!!
They all want Chris Wray to stay in.
However, the American People, are done with Wray and want Kash Patel!! pic.twitter.com/ydjzrMvIIH
— Southern FFA Family (@FFAFamily) December 1, 2024
KRISTEN WELKER:
Jake, let me ask you about the breaking news overnight. President-elect Trump announcing he wants to nominate Kash Patel for FBI director. The FBI obviously plays a major role in counterterrorism operations. What do you make of this pick?
JAKE SULLIVAN:
Look, I’m not going to speak about the president-elect’s nominees. The only thing that I can point out, Kristen, is that we, the Biden administration, adhere to the longstanding norm that FBI directors serve out their full terms, because the FBI director is a unique player in the American government system. They’re appointed for ten-year terms, not terms just for the duration of a given president. The current FBI director, Chris Wray, was actually appointed by Donald Trump. Joe Biden didn’t fire him. He relied upon him to execute his responsibilities as the director of the FBI and allowed him to serve out the fullness of his term over the course of the Biden administration. So that’s how we approach things, and we would like to ensure that the FBI remains an independent institution, insulated from politics.
Just a quick fact check: Since the death of J. Edgar Hoover on May 2, 1972, only one man, Robert Mueller, has served a 10-year term. So, serving a full term as an FBI director is not a norm, much less a longstanding one.
The most important takeaway is that the FBI director does not set his own policies. He works in concert with the White House, implying that he’s bright enough to know when he’s asked or told to cross the line into illegality. His disagreement with a legal policy is not a legitimate reason to organize resistance to that policy, as James Comey and Christopher Wray did.
