The Loyalist: Trump Picks Kash Patel for FBI Director

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

NBC News

News, Politics

4.5 • 664 Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jen Psaki examines Kash Patel's background and role in MAGA-world, which has been almost entirely defined by his blind loyalty to Donald Trump. Elaina Plott Calabro, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins Jen to discuss her reporting on Patel, including his long history of spreading lies and the danger he poses if confirmed as FBI director. Next, Jen is joined by legal expert Andrew Weissmann and national security analyst Frank Figliuzzi to discuss the implications of Patel's promise to dismantle the so-called "deep state." Jen is also joined by Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, to discuss his bid for DNC chair, including his plans to unite the party and meet voters where they are. Later, Jen shares some thoughts on The New York Times' recent reporting that Pete Hegseth's own mother accused her son of mistreating women for years, Finally, Jen is joined by Jacob Soboroff to discuss "Separated", a documentary film based on his book examining Trump's family separation policy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Well, it was a Saturday night announcement that was both completely shocking and entirely
0:06.2	unsurprising. Donald Trump announces that he intends to nominate an unqualified ultra-loyalist
0:12.2	as director of the FBI. We're going to spend a lot of time today digging into Cash Patel
0:17.0	with former top officials at the FBI and with a reporter who wrote the must read profile
0:22.2	about him.
0:23.4	Also today, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Ben Wickler, just announced his
0:27.5	run for DNC chair this morning.
0:30.1	And Ben's going to join me live in just a few minutes.
0:32.8	And later, a searing email that someone wrote to Pete Heggseth is obtained by the New York Times.
0:38.3	It's notable because the author accuses him of abusing women for years.
0:42.3	It's also notable because the author is his own mother.
0:50.3	Okay, so last night, as you all were just going about your post Thanksgiving
0:59.2	Saturday night recovery, maybe scrolling through Twitter or X, Donald Trump announced
1:04.3	his plans to nominate Cash Patel to be the director of the FBI. Now, this is notable and also
1:10.0	alarming, which I will get into, for a
1:11.9	host of reasons, all of which we're going to delve into with a variety of people today.
1:16.9	First of all, the job isn't even open, so let's start there. Christopher Ray, who Trump himself
1:21.0	appointed, still has a few years left on his 10-year term, which started when Trump fired James Comey.
1:26.7	Remember that?
1:33.0	So Trump is going to have to fire Ray once he's inaugurated in order to get Patel in.
1:39.6	Second of all, Cash Patel's only real qualification appears to be that he is very loyal to Donald Trump.
1:44.3	In a moment, I'm going to talk to Elena Platt Calabra, who is a staff writer for the Atlantic.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NBC News, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NBC News and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.