FBI Director Kash Patel Reveals He Doesn’t Know Who Dylann Roof Is During Congressional Hearing. Is He Dumb?

Here’s a question: Is there literally anyone in President Donald Trump’s federal government who is qualified for the position they hold?

Are any of these people worth a damn?

It’s almost as if this administration is running its own DEI program, only DEI stands for “Donald’s Evangelical Idiots,” or a “Dictator’s Ensemble of Imbeciles,” or “Damn, Everybody’s Ignorant!”

On Wednesday, during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Kash Patel essentially proved he’s just another clown from the revolving door of the clown car that is Trump’s current administration. That’s really the only accurate way to describe an FBI director who had never heard of — or pretended never to have heard of — white supremacist mass shooter Dylann Roof.

During the hearing, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) reminded Patel of his past acknowledgement that there is “violent extreme ideology” on both sides of the political and ideological aisle, which stands in direct contrast with the White House’s position that “the left” commits far more political violence than right-wing extremists, a narrative the Department of Justice has bolstered by deleting studies that show the opposite is true. Kamlager-Dove proceeded to rattle off a list of examples of right-wing political violence, such as the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, and, of course, Roof. Patel, the guy who is in charge of the federal government’s most important law enforcement agency, appeared to be out of his depth.

“These are not gotcha questions, and just deny, please, what you deem to be false. So Dylann Roof, who followed white supremacist propaganda, murdered nine black parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Do you deny this?” Kamlager-Dove asked Patel.

“I’m sorry. Dylan Ruth?” Patel replied. “Can you give me some more information?”

“You’re head of the FBI, you probably know this. If you don’t know, that’s fine,” Kamlager-Dove said.

“You can give me a reminder, I’ve got a lot in front of me,” Patel said.

“It was national news,” Kamlager-Dove said.

Just over a decade ago, Dylann Roof walked into the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and murdered nine Black people. It was all over the news. Every single major news outlet reported on it ad nauseam. To not know about that story then would be like not knowing about Charlie Kirk’s shooting now. Either Patel was living under a rock that also lived under a rock in 2015, or he’s playing dumb. (Or he’s not playing.)

“If you can give me a reminder, I’ve got a lot in front of me,” Patel 

Kamlager-Dove also mentioned right-wing extremists like Robert Bowers, who attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people, and Patrick Crusius, who murdered 23 people in an El Paso Walmart shooting in 2019. Hell, she didn’t even have to go back that far. She could have mentioned Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron, who targeted and gunned down 10 Black people at a supermarket and was, according to his own manifesto, a believer in the same Great Replacement Theory that has been promoted by Kirk, Trump, and various GOP lawmakers. Kamlager-Dove could have gone ahead and thrown Jan. 6 into the mix.

None of it would have mattered, though. Patel still would have been sitting there with that silly-ass deer-in-headlights look on his face, as if he wasn’t quite sure how he had even gotten into House chambers that morning.

And that’s why Democratic lawmakers spent significant time during the hearing eating that man all the way up.

From HuffPost:

“I’m seeing FBI leadership more focused on social media clout and on political revenge than on fighting crime,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said.

Patel also got into a heated exchange with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) after Booker told Patel that he wouldn’t last long as head of the FBI.

“You are an embarrassment to the division of this country!” Patel yelled at Booker in response, adding, “Your time is over.”

“You don’t tell me my time is over! The people of New Jersey tell me when my time is — you can’t lecture me!” Booker yelled back.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett was appropriately relentless.

“When I say that you are the least qualified FBI director in the history of the FBI, that is real, because you are the only one that never even served with the FBI,” Crockett said, to which Patel replied, “That’s false,” to which Crockett shot back, “I didn’t ask you a question.” (Bruh — *chef’s kiss*)

Crockett, of course, said nothing that was “false.” According to NPR, “Patel has no experience as a senior law enforcement official.” He worked as a public defender, a federal prosecutor, and a congressional aide before Trump appointed him as a national security official during his first term, but Patel was never employed by the FBI prior to being tapped by Trump to lead it.

It’s worth mentioning that Patel sounded as boneheaded as Education Secretary Linda McMahon did in June, during a congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s efforts to ban what it considers to be “illegal DEI practices” at K-12 public schools. McMahon was asked if the Tulsa Race Massacre and the story of Ruby Bridges would be regarded as “illegal DEI” teachings, only to reveal she knew nothing about either historical event.

It’s almost as if the only qualification one needs to be a Trump Cabinet member is loyalty to Trump. From McMahon to Patel to Pete Hegseth to RFK Jr., we’re seeing over and over again that actual expertise in any field at all is no prerequisite to serve the MAGA messiah.

In fact, I’ve written about this before:

We have a Homeland Security secretary who failed to correctly define habeas corpus; a Health and Human Services secretary who takes his grandchildren with him to swim in toxic sewage and has declared that people shouldn’t take medical advice from him; a Secretary of Defense who has a remedial grasp on who our foreign allies are and can’t seem to get it through his head that Signal group chats are not appropriate platforms to discuss confidential war plans on; a tech CEO who recently left the Department of Government Efficiency because it became more and more clear he didn’t know what he was doing (Elon won’t admit it, but that’s why), and a host of other administrators who appear to be clueless when it comes to the thing they’re supposed to be experts in. 

These people are the people running America, y’all.

We are COOKED!

SEE ALSO:

Trump’s Confederacy Of White Dunces

MAGA Hardliners Split Over Sudden Disappearance Of Epstein List