Republican senator and Donald Trump ally Lindsey Graham blasted CBS Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan after she questioned him on the incoming Trump administration’s threats against journalists.
Brennan had been interrogating Graham on whether he endorsed Kash Patel to become the next FBI director despite several questions raised by US lawyers and national security veterans who have worked with him.
When the CBS host asked Graham whether he would be asking Patel about his threats against journalists, the prominent senator accused the host of being unfair in her reporting.
“You shouldn’t worry about Kash Patel,” he said. “You should worry about reporting the news fairly, which you don’t do when it comes to everything Trump.”
Trump’s pick of Patel to lead the FBI has drawn scrutiny from several lawmakers across Washington D.C. who believe he will weaponize the agency and mishandle sensitive information.
Brennan pointed to an example from the memoir of former U.S. attorney general Bill Barr, who described Patel as someone with very little experience.
“He was wrong there, and he’s wrong now,” Graham said in response. “And I take my advice on Kash Patel from Trey Gowdy, my dear friend from South Carolina who worked with Kash. Kash was a public defender. He was a prosecutor.”
Graham went on to refer to Patel’s supposed role in working on the so-called “Russia hoax” alongside former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy.
When questioned on whether Patel was likely to go after his political opponents as FBI director, Graham said the upcoming hearing before the Senate will prove that Patel is a “very qualified man of the law.”
“You’ll have to answer questions about what’s in the book, but I’m ready to vote for him, because I know him too,” he said.
Graham later attempted to shift the discussion away from Patel to the ICC’s arrest warrant for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is a far cry from the question about Kash Patel. You took me all the way to Israel from Kash Patel,” Brennan snapped back. “Are you committing to vote for him no matter what?”
“I am ready to vote for Kash Patel, because you will never ask me the role he played in exposing the darkest moment of the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover,” he said, referring to the former FBI director whom critics accused of overreach.
“That’s why I trust him,” Graham added.
