WATCH LIVE: Kash Patel Senate Confirmation Hearing

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick for the next FBI director, is set to face a grilling before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, beginning at 9.30am (ET).

A former public defender turned federal prosecutor; he catapulted to MAGA-world fame as a top aide to former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) before he landed senior roles in the Trump administration’s intelligence and defense apparatus, eventually becoming one of the ex-president’s most combative defenders in conservative media.

Now, Patel is nominated to take over the FBI—a bureau he has repeatedly bashed as a corrupt institution in need of an ideological purge. He once vowed to turn the agency’s D.C. headquarters into “a museum of the deep state” and send its 7,000 employees “across America to chase down criminals.”

Democrats are expected to hammer Patel on his incendiary remarks and whether he can lead the FBI with independence. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) has already called him “unqualified and unprepared” with “extremist views,” citing Patel’s “enemies list” of officials he has accused of weaponizing the justice system in his past writings.

Republicans, meanwhile, have largely lined up behind Patel. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) acknowledged that some of Patel’s past comments may seem extreme but dismissed them as “political rhetoric.”

With a GOP majority in the Senate, Patel’s confirmation appears all but certain—even if the hearing turns into a firestorm.

Watch above via PBS News.