Kash Patel, Donald Trump's pick to head the FBI, will face the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning for his first confirmation hearing.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, is to encounter deeply skeptical questioning from Democratic senators about his loyalty to the president and stated desire to overhaul the bureau as he faces a high-stakes hearing that will help determine his path toward confirmation.

The Senate has a busy day coming on Thursday, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sitting for a second hearing, this time in front of the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at 10 a.m. ET; director of national intelligence pick Tulsi Gabbard facing the Intelligence Committee at 10 a.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director, will have to defend an extensive history of controversial remarks and actions to a skeptical Senate committee.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, has for years battled US intelligence agencies over the handling of some of the government’s most sensitive national security secrets.

Mr Patel is especially keen on pursuing leakers and their friends in the media. “When you have an underlying illegality committed by a government agent, anyone that participates in that illegality can and should be charged,” Mr Patel has said. He has also suggested “clawback mechanisms” for the money that news outlets make “by printing lies”.

Senators pressed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his past vaccine and abortion remarks in the first of two days of hearings before senators vote on whether to confirm him as President Trump’s health secretary.

An Associated Press review of more than 100 podcasts that Kash Patel hosted or on which he was interviewed reveals how Patel has habitually denigrated the investigations into Trump.

Patel, a Trump loyalist who has railed against the FBI over its investigations into the president and claimed that Jan. 6 rioters were mistreated by the Justice Department, was picked in November to replace Christopher Wray.

Patel said that if confirmed, he intends to collaborate closely with the Justice Department to bring safety and relief to American communities.

The Republican Party of 2025 is now the political home of dissent, challenge, and hope that a system as broken as ours can be fixed. These are the disrupter DNI, HHS and FBI picks chosen by our disrupter president, Donald J. Trump. Now let’s see what the new “Hope and Change” party might do.