Why Kash Patel shouldn't (but might) be confirmed as FBI director

[Dulcinea]

(MSNBC) Just one week after Donald Trump won a second White House term, the president-elect announced that he wanted then-Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as the next attorney general. This was, of course, utterly insane: The Florida congressman wasn’t just manifestly unqualified, he was also burdened by devastating scandals and a lengthy criminal investigation into alleged sex trafficking.

Eight days after the president-elect made his selection, Gaetz withdrew from consideration, recognizing the fact that he faced insurmountable and bipartisan opposition. (Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and a Justice Department investigation concluded last year without bringing any charges against him.)

In theory, this should’ve taught Trump a valuable and timely lesson: Limits still exist. Many of his outlandish picks will likely be confirmed by a Republican-led Senate, but as the Gaetz fiasco helped prove, the president-elect can go too far and face meaningful pushback.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kash-patel-shouldnt-might-confirmed-fbi-director-rcna182405

[Dennis Donovan]

1. I'd forgotten about this:

As regular readers might recall, Patel first came to national attention during Trump’s first impeachment scandal. Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert at the White House National Security Council, told Congress that she discovered that the then-president was ignoring the NSC’s Ukraine expert, choosing instead to listen to Patel — which struck Hill as quite odd.

In fact, Patel had no expertise on Ukraine, though he was a congressional aide who seemed to have a knack for telling Trump whatever the then-president wanted to hear. With this in mind, Hill found it necessary to warn her staff to be “very careful” about communications with the Republican operative, and she removed Patel from internal distribution lists.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Russian asset.