At Senate confirmation hearing, Kash Patel faces scrutiny for ties to people promoting antisemitic rhetoric
Trump’s nominee for FBI director defended his appearances with Laura Loomer, Stew Peters and Ted Nugent
Kash Patel, nominated to be FBI Director, on Jan. 30. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 30, 2025
Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, faced tough questioning during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday over his ties to controversial figures known for promoting racism, antisemitism and conspiracy theories. The nomination of Patel, a former national security official and a controversial Donald Trump loyalist, to head the nation’s top law enforcement agency has sparked strong opposition from Jewish Democrats and caused unease among some Republicans.
Patel is among three vulnerable Trump cabinet picks – along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard – who face a narrow path to confirmation.
“I don’t believe I’m guilty by association,” Patel said in a tense exchange with Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois.
Durbin mentioned at least three individuals accused of promoting conspiracy theories and engaging in antisemitic rhetoric whom Patel appeared with in recent years. They include Laura Loomer, a self-described Islamophobe and conspiracy-theory promoter; Stew Peters, a Christian nationalist and a Holocaust denier; and Ted Nugent, who has posted antisemitic rants on Facebook.
Loomer has leaned into her Jewishness to attack critics and echoed Trump’s insults of Jews who vote for Democrats. During her first unsuccessful congressional run, in 2020, she faced backlash for using photos of concentration camp victims to attack incumbent Florida Rep. Lois Frankel, who is also Jewish. In 2018, to protest being banned from Twitter, Loomer chained herself to the social network’s New York headquarters wearing a yellow star, resembling the ones Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust.
At the hearing, Durbin said that in 2023, Patel shared a photo with Loomer promoting his book, Government Gangsters, and he held up her recent book, Loomered. Durbin said one of the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee described her as a “crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage” and another called her “really toxic.”
“Given all this, why did you associate with Miss Loomer?” Durbin asked.
Patel maintained that he was not responsible for the views of individuals who attended his events and pointed to his background as an Indian-American. “I certainly don’t believe that an individual who was the first minority to serve as a deputy director of national intelligence for this country is a racist in any way,” he said. “And I detest any conjecture to the contrary.”
Durbin also challenged Patel for appearing at least eight times on a podcast hosted by Peters, an anti-Zionist far-right media personality who espoused antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and the Rothschild family. Patel also participated in podcasts with Nugent, who once accused Jewish politicians of driving gun control efforts. “I’m just asking when it comes to your association with individuals, why are so many of them in this category?” Durbin asked.
Patel defended his media appearances as aimed at correcting misinformation, not endorsing it.
“My association, as you loosely define it,” Patel told Durbin, “is by appearing in media over a thousand times, to take on people who are putting on conspiratorial theories and to devow them of their false impressions and to talk to them about the truth. That is something that I will always continue to fight for.”
The FBI is tasked with monitoring and investigating hate crimes and terror threats. According to the most recent data, Jews — who make up 2% of the U.S. population — were targeted far more than any other religious group in 2023.
Earlier in the hearing, Patel also addressed past comments praising the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. “I have publicly rejected outright QAnon baseless conspiracy theories or any other baseless conspiracy theories,” he said. “They must be addressed head-on with the truth.”
The Jewish Democratic Council of America called Patel’s nomination “an assault on democracy.”
