Democrats Issue Warning Ahead Of Kash Patel Vote: 'This Is A Real Danger'

Senate Judiciary Democrats issued a harsh warning about President Donald Trump's nominee for the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

They claimed Kash Patel would weaponize the department during a news conference Thursday morning in front of the FBI headquarters.

Sen. Alex Padilla spoke bluntly.

"No, this is not a distraction," Padilla said. "This is a real danger and a real threat."

"You know it's pretty clear to me what's going on," Padilla said.

Padilla said Trump has a "trademark strategy" of putting "us in a state of constant chaos for the purpose of confusing the American people."

"Make people feel overwhelmed with so much that happens in a single day and to distract from the real dangers and threats that he represents," Padilla said.

"He's doing it again and doing so to try to pull attention away from the extreme the extreme nominees he has put forward," Padilla said.

Patel has several "red flags" that disqualify him, including supporting "outrageous conspiracy theories" that benefit President Trump, Sen. Dick Durbin said.

Among them, Durbin claimed, was that Patel claimed the FBI planned the Jan. 6th Capitol riots.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have remained very vocal about Patel's character since Trump announced him as a nominee.

Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, released a searing statement that alleged Patel has "threatened to go after President Trump's political enemies."

"He has a trail of grievances and history of lashing out at those who don't agree with him," Durbin said. "That's not the kind of nonpartisan, law enforcement professional who should lead the FBI."

William Webster, a Republican and a former director of the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency had warned that his appointment posed serious risks to national security.

Webster wrote a scathing letter to the Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley calling Patel "unqualified."

Patel was confirmed on Thursday afternoon and will oversee the FBI for a decade, following the resignation of Christopher Wray, another Trump appointee from his first presidency.