for his brother, bobby kennedy also has other archenemies considered titans in the book, one is j edgar hoover, another is jimmy hoffa, union leader industrial labor racketeer union leader. and then there were other titans, joe pataki is confronted with a rebellion in the lower ranks of his crew led by the garo brothers. they would be three more titans. all of these are big powerful men. that basically lock horns in volume two of my trilogy. peter: for the purpose of this interview what is a good working definition of mafia? louis: an underworld society completely obsessed with profits. i guess that would be the best definition off the top of my head. peter: how did it develop? louis: i trace the development of the mafia in volume one of the book of the trilogy which came about in sicily and i wanted to get deep into the socioeconomic routes of the mafia, where it began and to the best of my recollection a lot of historians say it comes from the middle ages and i have no evidence to support that. the best of his and i found was after the unification of italy in the 1860's, sicily was engulfed

j edgar hoover, fbi director, was eavesdropping and the mob talked about the money they were dumping into the kennedy campaign. the mob is nonpartisan. they have given money to johnson, kennedy, nixon. they do not care who it is. they just want someone who is out for their interest. just to be clear, they are nonpartisan. at this point, kennedy wins the election with the help of the mob and then appoints bobby attorney general, which shocked if you mob guys and they said, who was going on, but joe kennedy was still there and at some point bobby decided to use all the resources of the u.s. government at his disposal as attorney general he is in charge of the fbi, are -- irs, every law enforcement organization is under him and he decides he is going to go after all the mobsters that flicked the finger at him during the committee and he is going to get revenge and he starts going after mobsters who helped him win the election in chicago. the acting boss of the chicago mob. so they are like, what is going on? at some point they are all under indictment and despised bobby kennedy and they

j. edgar hoover aside. and that's complicated because he was there for so long, had an fbi director who was such just a close political, political ally of a president and for whom that really is the primary connection. >> john. >> even j. edgar hoover, if he were here to have this conversation with us, would vociferously protest that he was a political person and he really wasn't. when you look at hoover, he wasn't attached so much to one political ideology or one politician. he was very much the tool and the executioner for every president he ever served. kash patel is fundamentally different. he is intrinsically connected to our current president. he is admittedly as he as he put in his senate confirmation questionnaire, served as a surrogate for the president for the last two years. he's campaigned with the president, uh, appeared at campaign events and things like that. so this is the first time the fbi has ever had an overt, admittedly political fbi director. and i think that opens up a lot of really s

j. edgar hoover. he was the sole reason for so many reforms. >> including the ten. >> year term. for the fbi. director and many other things, wiretapping laws, etcetera. but what's key about the fbi's history and. >> doj's history is. the independence. >> of those. institutions vis a vis the white house. and that. >> has become. >> just part of our system of justice. >> i think americans. >> assume that the department of justice and the fbi are going to act independently, act in a nonpartisan way. in investigating and prosecuting crimes. frankly, that's the only way our. democracy can work. >> and to the extent that that's. >> threatened by recent. >> actions. recent nominations. >> and appointments. i think americans should be concerned. >> congress should. >> be concerned. >> we're not hearing much from. >> congress yet, but i think. >> as time goes on. >> congress will understand. that the independence that has been taken for granted. >> on the part. >> of doj and the fbi is. >> not. >> something. >> that. >> really can be taken. >> for granted. >> yeah, absolutely. >> okay. >

j. edgar hoover building. the senate confirming kash patel as the fbi director with the slimmest of margins, 51 to 49. senators lisa murkowski and susan collins, the lone republican holdouts. so what will patel do on day one at the fbi? well, he's already given us a hint. >> i shut down the fbi hoover building on day one and reopening the next day as a museum of the deep state. we will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about american citizens who helped joe biden rig presidential elections. we're going to come after you. >> he's also promising that there will be, quote, no politicization and no retribution at the bureau. let's talk about it now with christopher o'leary, former fbi agent and senior vice president for global operations at the soufan group. and garrett graff, author of the threat matrix inside robert mueller's fbi and the war on global terror. garrett, i'll begin with you because, as you know

j. edgar hoover has that head of the department invited so much controversy. may be the word of the week when it comes to the justice department from the mayor eric adams corruption case to the top prosecuting resignations. so for tonight's interview we turn to justice correspondent scott mcfarland. so scott, kash patel is now the head of the fbi, what does that mean for the borough? >> immediately it means they are going to move people out of washington and redeployed the male storm of the country, the first and out men from the new fbi director kash patel is that 1,000 agents and employees win employees will be relocated from the eight headquarters at washington to the many dozens of field offices and regent offices worldwide. that's a change, but there is a fundamental transcendent change here. that kash patel had a job opening to apply for in the first place is big. big moving forward. the previous fbi director chris ray stood down from his post just before president trump came in knowing he would be fired otherwise, and the fbi, the borough that is pride

j. edgar hoover, but instead of j. fter martin luther king or even the john birch society for political reasons, it's donald trump doing it to use the justice department or the fbi to exact retribution or pursue political enemies. but i got to say, there is a responsibility that we have in the united states senate as an independent institution to cry foul here. and i really am hoping that my republican colleagues, who many of whom i have great respect for, see that this is no game anymore. i mean, what the president did with this impoundment, he has no authority to do what he's doing with the purging of the fbi. it's showing that he is deadly serious. and i think there was a lot of wishful thinking on a lot of folks that the trump agenda would be different than it was, but he's made it clear lawlessness and cruelty. he will use both of those to have to take care of his need for retribution, but also to privilege the elon musk of the world. and there's only a few of them, but those who those are the ones who are in charg

j. edgar hoover was bad, honey. kash patel ain't got, ain't got like j. patel. >> nothing. can i just look this whole kash patel crap can be summed up in one one quote from him. so let it let it come out of his own mouth so we know exactly what he thinks about the job that he's being asked to, to, to do this is his give me e 34. >> what's that? >> hoover building. >> on day one and reopening the next day as a museum. >> of the deep state. >> that's all you need to know. i don't give a damn what he says after that, because that tells you the man, the sum and substance of the next fbi director right there. and if you work in the building, that's the person you don't want coming in the door on day one, because that's what he wants to do. that's what he thinks of the men and women who sacrifices their life every day, every day for us. he wants to open up their office, their building, their field, their field operations as a museum to the deep state of which, by the way, he this whole made up fanciful thing. so for someone like yourself who's put their life on

j. edgar hoover, the founder of the fbi. exercised when he had wiretaps on martin luther king, jr. and other civil rights leaders and branded them as communists for the last half century. these laws, this law, has served its purpose. >> as you can hear, senator dick durbin vehemently opposed to the nomination of kash patel, going through the reasons why he thinks he is unqualified to lead the fbi. this committee vote will happen shortly. we will keep you posted. what happens? it is anticipated that kash patel will be passed through the committee if that does not happen, obviously we will let you know. also this morning, house republicans have released their budget blueprint calling for a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. the response from democratic congressman jim clyburn of south carolina, quote, republicans want to cut medicaid for seniors all the while. elon musk just got a $38 million government contract. they have one agenda stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. with us now is congressman james clyburn, a member of the house a

j. edgar hoover may have been involved in the assassinations of rfk or jfk or martin luther king. huge overreach of the fbi. of course, rfk jr.'s on that right now, so there is a historical issue here: get the fbi back to what it's supposed to do: crime solving. it's not a judicial branch, not a political branch. it's supposed to protect america and go after crime. >> democrats hold a press conference. listened to about 15 minutes of it. we have a picture. it was heavy on hyperbole. it was light on the data points. a lot of apoplectic speak. kash patel looks like he might get through this afternoon. you could have a new fbi director. we might be saying fbi director kash patel in short order. coming up, president trump's latest immigration movement, tamovement,-funded benefits for illegal immigrants. (man) got one more antoine. (vo) with usps ground advantage, it's like you're with us every step of the way. ♪ (man) cooool. ♪ (man) right on time! (vo) stay in the know. from your dock... to their door. as your host, i have some rules. first, no showers longer than 5 minutes. this isn

j. edgar hoover building today after already laying out his mission as director. is he vowing to let good cops be cops and rebuild trust in the bureau telling me, quote: that the american people deserve an fbi that is transparent, accountable and committed to justice. the politicization of our justice system has eroded public trust but that ends today. kash told me working alongside the dedicated men and women of the bureau and our partners, we will rebuild an fbi the american people can be proud of. so here's what some democrats said about our new fbi director. listen. >> my republican colleaguings will ryu rue the day they will e they are not on it? >> kash patel has proven himself to be a wildly vindictive partisan when around donald trump he was moved himself to be a sink owe fant. >> he does plan on moving some agents and employees into the field patel will locked into 10 year term and j.d. vance will be swearing him in. >> brian: thanks so much, brooke. one of his biggest supporters the turning point was trey gowdy. >> lawrence: i so agree. a lot of people d

j. edgar hoover being a politically connected and compromised f.b.i. leader, in the decades since his tenure ended, we have engaged in a discipline balanced bipartisan process to confirm f.b.i. directors for long terms, 10-year terms. and i have voted for a republican nominee put forward by republican presidents. we need as director of the f.b.i., someone who will stand up for the men and women of this incredible law. agency and in his testimony before this committee, and in his comments and actions before coming in front of this committee, kash patel has shown that he is not that leader. he has activity undermining the bureau he seeks to lead as someone who is the doe chair of the law enforcement caucus and a-and-who spent years leading, supervising responsible for the second largest law. agency in my state, i see in mr. patel an alarming willingness to do the baiting of a vengeful white house as you heard from my colleagues senator durbin, whistleblowers are alleging that he has already helped orchestrate the purge of the most senior leadership of th

j. edgar. find out who did this. well, j. edgar hoover did not have a wonderful interest in civil rights and he ended up. there's. there's there's transcripts of this. lbj said, i don't care what you have to do. forget the communism stuff. get everything you do to the communists. go here, get these guys. they didn't have any people to infiltrate the klan at that stage, but they had just flipped the guy from new york and flipped. i mean, he was one of the first people to become a mafia and informant, a guy from the colombo family named greg scarpa, arguably one of the most lethal killers the mafia ever had. and and they sent greg scarpa down to mississippi because they couldn't get the fbi to get people to talk. and greg scarpa, on several occasions, not just the three civil rights workers and scarpa held a knife to a part where men would probably be uncomfortable with that and put a gun in their mouth and said to the klansman, you tell us where the bodies are and this was not known for decades. and bits and pieces have come out over the y

uh, j edgar hoover had been running it almost since its inception, or if not from its inception until he died when he died in may of 1972, nixon put in a political crony, a fellow by the name of l patrick gray, first as acting director, and then tried to get him confirmed. well, the fbi didn't like pat gray, didn't want to be politicized and wasn't ready to have all of the hoover, uh, cronies and associates, uh, booted out, if you will. so they leaked and they leaked very effectively. in fact, they destroyed richard nixon with their effective leaks all the way up to the level we know today of an assistant director leaking to the washington post and getting the moniker deep throat. >> yeah, it's fascinating historical perspective. john dean, dan bruner, appreciate you both. thanks so much. >> my pleasure. >> still to come, the drama continues. lawyers for it ends with us costars blake lively and justin baldoni go face to face in court for the first time. what happened in this high profile hollywood case? >> cookbooks. >> corporate fat cats. swindling socialites, doped up cyclists. >> a

j. edgar hoover here. yes. you know, we'll we'll see whether this ten year term, which was meant to insulate the office and allow an fbi director to go from one administration, continues serving into the next a norm and more than a norm of practice. that was changed when essentially, chris wray decided he needed to resign because it meant ultimate conflict with donald trump. and he felt that it was in the best service of the fbi not to continue as director. >> look. >> when donald trump is gone, there's a democratic president. i can't imagine they're going to want to keep on someone as destructive as kash patel. but i couldn't imagine, frankly, that we would be in this place to begin with. so we're in uncharted waters. we've had a debate about what level of constitutional crisis we're in, and frankly, i think we're already there. and yes, it can get worse if they just start ignoring court opinions. but when you have someone who is essentially the president's roy cohn, his hatchet man, now controlling the premie

j. edgar hoover unilaterally use it for his own ends. now we have something very different, which is a president of the united states seeking to use it for his own ends. but once you train law enforcement on the personal interests of the most powerful person in the country, it can be. utilized against any single one of us for any single reason. and that should concern all of us. >> how should democrats talk about this? i mean, how do you how do you illustrate in a way that isn't the democrats defending an institution that trump and his allies have successfully smeared for nine years? how are you explaining that if your if your business is defrauded and the person defrauding them is a trump ally, they won't investigate them aggressively. if your home insurance is canceled a week before a flood, and that insurance company contributed to the inauguration of donald trump, they will not be prosecuted by white collar. i mean, how do you tell those stories? >> well, you just did, nicole. and i think we have to drill it down into the regular liv

j. edgar hoover look like a boy scout in terms of the abuses that may be coming at us. and when you combine attorney general bondi and then kash patel across the street at fbi headquarters, you have the potential for tremendous abuse of power with regard to targeting political enemies, opening and closing cases at the whim of the president, which should not be happening, but is already happening. by the way, the dismissal of cases from eric adams to former governor blagojevich in illinois. we're going to see the targeting of people and the real weaponization of the fbi. >> we already know the doj has forced the fbi to provide a list of agents who worked on the january 6th cases. the white house also wants the fbi to turn over the names of probationary employees, nearly 4000 people. these are agents who have gone through all of the trainings and the qualifications to be part of the fbi, but they haven't, i guess, made full status yet. there's sort of this waiting period. frank, talk to us about your concerns regarding what's happening with these lists that have to be tur

j. edgar hoover was explicitly partizan and carried out completely inappropriate wiretapping of civil rightsour own country to advance a political agenda. and for decades now, we have had independent fbi directors. i asked those same questions of chris wray, a republican nominated by trump, who i voted to confirm because he correctly answered that it's critical for the fbi director to be independent, to be willing to resign rather than carry out an illegal order, and to refuse to initiate an investigation. if it was for partizan political services purposes. excuse me, kash patel didn't pass that test and i will vote against it. >> so you believe that he will be in this position and be able to investigate and or fire anybody who conducted investigations into donald trump? >> that's my concern. and frankly, senator whitehouse, sheldon whitehouse of rhode island, and senator dick durbin in the confirmation process and publicly have raised concerns that mr. patel is already involved in inappropriate firings of some of the most senior fbi director, fbi staff, leadership, staff in washington, and

j. edgar hoover died in may 1972 is already over. that institution is already dead.e are arguing right now over the wreckage of what it might be when it is rebuilt at some point in the future. and i think that this is. >> what does it look like for the next four years? i mean, they very clearly have plans that are being, you know, if you don't like trump and you're watching this, this is not the chaos of of round one. and these initial weeks, like we're just in the third week now, two weeks in, they're they're well executed. and they are they are carrying out exactly what they said they were going to do. so what does that actually look like, do you think? >> let me give you two very specific examples. it looks like 9/11. and it looks like corruption. it looks like 9/11 because the fbi that is being neutered right now, particularly the agents working on domestic terror and and foreign terror involved in these january 6th prosecutions, are exactly the people tasked day in and day out with preventing the next 9/11. >> that's a remarkable analysis to to see what that cou

j. edgar hoover look like a kindergarten teacher.he head of the, you know, on the building. yeah. on the surveillance that the fbi was doing on civil rights leaders, the surveillance, the bombings that they executed on civil rights leaders, and in black towns and spaces like these are things that the fbi has within deep inside of its history. it's not as if it was a boy scouts club. so let's just be clear on that. but the fact of the matter is, is that you're turning over the keys, much like we did the country, to a person who does not believe in democracy and has called the media the enemy of the people, and has said that he's going to use the power of the fbi to, you know, to extract what they believe to be the enemy of the people. right. so anybody that dissents against this administration. so, i mean, it's extraordinarily dangerous. but i also believe that a lot of these confirmation hearings are nothing more than pageantry. there are opportunities for these senators to get up on their soapboxes and to be able to fundraise off of

j. edgar hoover, who among, you know, all the work that he did to include fighting crime, he was also accused of currying favor with several presidents. and so what congress decided is they didn't want those abuses. they didn't want an fbi director to be lashed up so closely with the president. of course, in kash patel, we know, you know, based on his own words, this is, you know, assessment of what he said, that he's, you know, pledged his loyalty to donald trump. he's also done things, you know, spread conspiracy theories accusing the fbi of instigating the january 6th riot, for example, calling them the deep state. so a lot of concern there about what this might do to transform this institution that is supposed to be independent. >> so what kind of effect is that having inside the bureau right now, as you're talking to agents there? >> well, they're concerned because, you know, on any given day, most fbi employees don't wake up thinking about who the director of the fbi is. they have their work, you know, they put their head down and they do their work. but the fbi director has great power

j. edgar hoover building, it's even more tense. the fbi, fbi today compiled with the doj demand, complied with a doj demand to give information on thousands of agents who worked january 6th cases. we're talking about i.d. numbers and job titles, not names. several fbi agents even filed a lawsuit accusing the doj of conducting a loyalty purge. the acting director of the fbi, brian driscoll, has tried to stand in the way defending the rank and file and becoming somewhat of a g-man folk hero along the way. with a.i. memes like, like this one, celebrating him for pushing back on the agency's purge. but soon driscoll will have to face his new boss, the newly confirmed attorney general, pam bondi, who begins her first full day tomorrow. lots to get to on all of this tonight with national security attorney mark zaid and former top counterterrorism executive at the fbi, christopher o'leary, who is currently a senior vp vp for global operations at the soufan group. thank you both for being here. chris, let me begin with you. i want to know

j. edgar hoover days, in the early days, he was given this massive responsibility to conduct law enforcementionwide, crossing state lines never done before. he did it by creating what we call task forces now, and really taking a small agency. and they became force multipliers across the country in the modern era. we've done that by building task forces and counterterrorism in transnational organized crime and violent crime. so that not only secures the united states, but allows us to conduct operations around the world. counterterrorism, where i spent my entire career, is a team sport. it takes a network to defeat a network. we do that effectively by partnering with other agencies in the united states to be able to go capture terrorists around the world. cash is very knowledgeable of that, and we do it with our very close international partners, their partnership, their sharing of knowledge, resources, authorities, capabilities is what's critical to defend this nation. >> all right. hopefully we can see that team come together. chris o'leary, thank you so much for joining us. and still ahead

j. edgar hoover building, it's even more tense. the fbi, fbi today compiled with the doj demand, complied with a doj demand to give information on thousands of agents who worked january 6th cases. we're talking about i.d. numbers and job titles, not names. several fbi agents even filed a lawsuit accusing the doj of conducting a loyalty purge. the acting director of the fbi, brian driscoll, has tried to stand in the way, defending the rank and file and becoming somewhat of a g-man folk hero along the way. with a.i. memes like, like this one, celebrating him for pushing back on the agency's purge. but soon driscoll will have to face his new boss, the newly confirmed attorney general, pam bondi, who begins her first full day tomorrow. lots to get to on all of this tonight with national security attorney mark zaid and former top counterterrorism executive at the fbi, christopher o'leary, who is currently a senior vp vp for global operations at the soufan group. thank you both for being here. chris, let me begin with you. i want to know

j. edgar hoover. >> right. wiretaps. >> planting of evidence. >> microphones in martin luther king's rooms. >> you name it. we saw it unchecked. that could. happen again. and it could be even. >> worse with someone. >> whose allegiance is to. a president. so if, for. >> example, patel gets briefed next week, sir. >> we have. >> a. successful undercover operation. >> against a republican governor in this state. >> we're. >> coming to a conclusion with it. i just wanted you to know. do you think he's going to keep. >> that from pam bondi? >> he's going to keep. >> it more importantly. >> from donald trump. >> and do you. >> think donald trump is going to say, oh. >> excellent. >> go arrest my. >> friend. >> the corrupt. >> republican governor? >> that's what. >> i'm concerned about. >> director brennan. i want to sort. >> of pick up. >> on the. >> spirit of simmons question earlier, which was what is. >> even happening? >> my question. >> here is. >> are we safer or less safe. >> than we. >> were before kash pate

j edgar hoover became director in 1924 and yet the bureau for 48 years until his death in 1972. he was credited with professionalizing the bureau and developing its investigative ability. however, with little or no oversight, who were also used the bureau's investigative powers improperly. he infamously directed the fbi to spy on dr. martin luther king jr., thurgood marshall, and other civil rights leaders of the day. in 1975, the united states senate created frank churches committee and disclosed widespread abuses by the fbi and other u.s. intelligence agencies could the church committee concluded the agencies engaged in illegal surveillance and as a result "groups have been assaulted, repressed, harassed and disrupted because of political views, social beliefs and lifestyles." and "political agencies have served high-ranking officials." the hoover era of the fbi, the watergate scandal and the funding of the church committee highlighted the risk of political interference in fbi investigations that led to significant important reform. in 1976, congress passed a law that limits t

j. edgar hoover illegally wiretapping and planting evidence against. people he. thought were a threat to him and to the nation. look, patel has been accused multiple times of deceit regarding sensitive hostage negotiations. hostage rescue. he demanded from doj a criminal immunity promise in order to testify to a grand jury about the mar-a-lago case. and now we've learned that he's been paid by the russians for a speaking engagement. tens of thousands of dollars. he owns $1 million or more in stock in a. chinese company. and he's told us repeatedly that, yes, he has an enemies list. >> he may. >> deny that language, but we've already seen the evidence at doj prosecutors being fired at fbi. lists of names of agents who worked for the january 6th cases being demanded. he's in on that. and we're going to see it when i think day one occurs with him walking into the hoover building. >> in fact, senator dick durbin sent a letter to doj accusing patel of secretly ordering the firing of fbi officials, even though he wasn't even an fbi in charge of the fbi yet. but are the

j. edgar hoover building as the fbi gets ready for a major trump purge. so just how far are they planning to go? and will anyone stand in their way? tonight on laura coates live. well, it's day 15 of donald trump's second term, and we almost got into two trade wars while also watching elon musk press control alt delete on an entire federal agency. yes, the world's richest man and doge leader. he's working to end the program responsible for delivering humanitarian aid all across the globe. now, he claims that usaid is a criminal organization and it's, quote, time for it to die, unquote. now, advocates argue that usaid saves lives around the globe. it treats diseases. it fights poverty. it responds to famines and natural disasters. it creates goodwill and promotes america's image abroad. now, that's the point that democratic lawmakers and protesters were trying to make outside the agency's headquarters. they say what trump and musk are doing is not even legal, because only congress can decide what happens to that agency. but that's not actually stopping the

j. edgar hoover died in may 1972, is already over. that institution is already dead.e are arguing right now over the wreckage of what it might be when it is rebuilt at some point in the future. and i think that this is. >> what does it look like for the next four years. i mean, they very clearly have plans that are being, you know, if you don't like trump and you're watching this, this is not the chaos of of round one and these initial weeks, like we're just in the third week now, two weeks in. they're they're well executed. and they are they are carrying out exactly what they said they were going to do. so what does that actually look like, do you think? >> let me give you two very specific examples. it looks like nine over 11. and it looks like corruption. it looks like nine over 11 because the fbi that is being neutered right now, particularly the agents working on domestic terror and and foreign terror involved in these january 6th prosecutions, are exactly the people tasked day in and day out with preventing the next nine over 11. >> that's a remarkable analysis

j. edgar hoover and massive reforms that were enacted again 50 years ago to make the fbi independent fromcted officials who could interfere or direct them in terms of criminal prosecutions and criminal investigations. so it's extraordinary. and just the last point, this is all about january 6th. the questionnaire you mentioned asking fbi agents than they have to answer until today. did you investigate the january 6th riots is just unprecedented. the fbi agents association is urging some of them to not answer if they can, but to remain calm. but essentially, it's an argument from the sitting president that it was wrong to investigate the january 6th riot at the us capitol, that it was wrong and improper, and anyone who did so should be removed from the fbi. >> i mean, ryan, that's such an extraordinary statement. this is the biggest investigation in doj history. these people, agents who were assigned, you know, it's not like they willingly chose necessarily. and it could lead to just gutting of the of the bureau. so talk to us a little bit more about that, but also a few of those who are t

me that the tradition with had anchored in the fbi since 1972, when it was politicized, when j edgar hoover went over -- after mark luther king in a disgusting way, when after folks for political leaves, we have no political appointees over there. it will be up to you i think to strengthen that tradition. we heard about the political appointees over there now -- i guess not officially appointees but they've been sent by the administration, you didn't know about it. one of them is from spacex. elon musk is a rich guy but he has no authority other than what is delegated by the president, he has no official authority. you can't answer this, but do you want someone like elon musk peering over your shoulder telling you what to do about personnel? mr. patel: no, i want to be independent. sen. welch: kick him out. he has no basis to be there, you pick the people you want to listen to, you will be accountable to this committee. but no on elon musk, he's a political crony that knows nothing about law enforcement. thank you for that assurance. >> mr. patel, when mr. booker was asking questions his fi

j. edgar hoover. going. >> after fbi agents. >> like. >> the head of the new york field office who are decorated marines who. >> have gone on. >> raids, risking. >> their lives gun in hand, hostage rescues. you're talking. >> about something else. this could be a political disaster for trump. and the other thing about it is, as you start cutting body counts, as you start removing people from positions. example is ryan talked about those january 6th. >> prosecutors. >> a dozen of them were to be assigned to superior court in dc to deal with misdemeanor cases. and trump ran in part on the crime wave in washington, dc. yeah. so you're going from sort of going after. institutions to going after cops on the street. and we haven't even talked about the pardon of. >> all. >> those people who committed violence. >> against law enforcement. >> this is a very politically dangerous move for the president to be making. >> and of his campaign promises, this this bucket of conduct. to your point, glenn, is the leas

j. edgar hoover's decades of abuse, there was massive reforms in the 1970s. >> there's only been. >> onet's the director. you now have a half dozen people coming in to work for. workforce doesn't know who they are, and current fbi officials are very worried about what's happening. so it was a. >> blockbuster day. >> on the hill yesterday. there are two other major hearings. let's talk about those now. second day of bobby kennedy junior's hearings for hhs. he still again seemed confused about the very basics of medicare and medicaid. it was interesting. i caught my attention. senator cassidy position himself really pressed him on questions there at the end that kennedy didn't answer all that well. some believe that maybe cassidy creating a path to get to know. maybe he would be a fourth vote. we're not sure. and there's also tulsi gabbard, who and i'll just read from it here, some republicans who maybe went into this hearing inclined to support her, or at least giving her the benefit of the doubt. maybe not a few, just a few reactions here. senator lankford from oklahoma, who previously s

it is the people on the top floor of the j edgar hoover building, not your local fbi agent's that have caused the low approval rating. mr. patel, i know you know this, but it is your job to restore the public trust and return the fbi to its core mission of fighting crime. your extensive background gives you a unique position to make this happen. mr. patel's career has been a study inviting unpopular, but righteous causes, exposing corruption and putting america first. for almost a decade, mr. patel served as a public defender, defending the constitutional rights of some of the least popular people in this country. after serving as a public defender, mr. patel joined the department of justice under president obama as a counterterrorism prosecutor in the national security division. in this role, he investigated and he prosecuted many important cases including the world cup bombing in uganda in 2010 for which he received an award of excellence. in 2017, representative devin nunes asked mr. patel to join the house permanent select committee on intelligence to uncover the truth about russia