Former national security adviser John Bolton said he believes Kash Patel, President Trump’s nominee for FBI director, resembles a “climbing weed” in his ascension to the role.
“You have to know what your job is and what your limits are. And Kash Patel sort of like a climbing weed doesn’t show respect for the limits,” Bolton said Monday in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki.”
He added that despite concerning issues over Patel’s ability to maintain security protocols, the nominee is likely to be confirmed by the GOP-led Senate with a hearing scheduled for Thursday.
“The Democrats don’t know how to play the game anymore and Patel may get through it,” he told host Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary.
Earlier in the interview, Bolton discussed new claims that Patel publicly spoke on a sensitive hostage mission while serving on the National Security Council.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he opposes the nomination.
In a Monday letter, Durbin wrote that Patel, “broke protocol regarding hostage rescues by publicly commenting without authorization on the then-in-progress retrieval of two Americans held captive by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in October 2020” in a letter to top defense officials according to CBS.
His comments confirming the rescue were published in a Wall Street Journal article hours before hostages were returned to U.S. custody.
Durbin’s letter signed by his fellow Democratic senators requests the release of all communications between Patel and the FBI’s Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell regarding the captive in question and any records reflecting a premature announcement of the hostage deal.
Bolton said Patel’s consideration for FBI director amid the accusations are “stunning” but he will wait for the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm Durbin’s findings.
“I think this is really stunning news assuming it’s true,” he told Psaki. “And the committee will want to verify that Kash Patel or anybody else made statements about an operation so sensitive before it was concluded, and by the way, it wouldn’t necessarily be Kash Patel that made it public in any case.”
