The Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols reacted to Kash Patel’s nomination to lead the FBI by claiming he “believes in nothing except serving” President-elect Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Trump took to Truth Social to announce Patel will be replacing current FBI Director Christopher Wray for his incoming administration. Patel, a longtime Trump loyalist, defended Trump during his first administration amid an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Nichols reacted to the development during a panel on MSNBC by claiming it’s “incredibly dangerous” and that Trump is “creating an administration of people who really don’t care about the interests of the United States.”
Patel is about as dangerous as it gets, not because he’s that much of a true believer in anything, but because and I would recommend that people take a look at a piece that we had about him in the Atlantic. He believes in nothing except serving Donald Trump except, you know, his own interest. And what you’re going to see is Donald Trump creating an administration of people who really don’t care about the interests of the United States. That they’re there to build an authoritarian country and to put themselves beyond the reach of the rule of law. And if you want to be beyond the reach of the rule of law, one of the first things you’re going to want to capture is the FBI. Because the other thing that says putting Patel there, it says the FBI is no longer in the law enforcement business.
It’s certainly not in the counterintelligence business, which our enemies will be very happy to hear. It’s in the business of protecting Donald Trump, furthering Donald Trump’s interests and making sure that Donald Trump’s enemies are investigated and that Donald Trump’s friends are given a free pass. I mean, this is really, you know, I suppose if we still have the ability to be shocked, it’s shocking. But I think this is something we probably many of us saw it coming and, you know, shouldn’t be that surprising. But it’s an incredibly dangerous development.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
