Wednesday, September 15, 2026. Ka$h Patel appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee, ICE attacks 2 US teenagers, does Chump still "love inflation" like he proclaimed June 10th, and much more.
FBI Director Ka$h Patel appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. He came with insult lines printed for him. Why? Apparently he wants to be the new Pam Bondi. Josh Fiallo (THE DAILY BEAST) notes:
Patel, 46, printed out attack lines against Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, a ranking member on the committee—including suggestions that the senator and his wife are directly profiting from his time in Congress.
Patel’s bullet list, whose first page was titled “DURBIN INFO” and includes bolded and red text, calls out Durbin’s wealth. The list claims that it has “increased 364% since 1997.”
Though he didn't wear a blond wig, there were questions wondering if he was wearing Pam Bondi's undergarments? What is known is that he borrowed her shoulder pads.
He tried to echo her in delivery and in poses such as during the following exchange:
Senator Peter Welch: This is existential. You told Mr. Blumenthal that you weren’t sending FBI agents to election sites. According to [Michigan gubernatorial candidate John James] you said the FBI is on the way. This is about whether the United States Citizens -- Republicans, Democrats, Independents -- are the deciders of this election. Or, there's election interference led by the FBI in the Trump Administration. That's what this is about. Do you pledge that you will not, in any way, interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?
Director Patel: I pledge, unequivocally, that I will not participate in your charade of lies.
Senator Peter Welch: Then why are you being such a panderer to President Trump, who's still claiming that he won the 2020 election, and who has said the only way Democrats can win in 2026 is if they cheat. Do you believe that?
92 year old clod Chuck Grassley is the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If he can continue to breathe, he'll be up for re-election in 2028. At which point, he'll be 94 years old and hopefully able to take a hint that it's time to retire. He won't be missed. Nor will his kiss up efforts such as today when his opening statement contained the sort of remarks Patel should have been making -- statistics and figures for the FBI. He also declared, "You’ll hear Democrats criticizing you for dreamed up failures."
He's got a lot of bitchy in him for 92.
Senator Dick Durbin is the Ranking Member on the Committee. Unlike Chuck, Durbin stuck to facts.
Ranking Member Dick Durbin: One year ago, my home state of Illinois was experiencing the beginning of a ruthless, reckless, deadly campaign orchestrated by this Administration known as Midway Blitz. Masked federal agents armed with military grade weapons and unmarked vehicles descended on Chicago and other communities, bashing in car windows, indiscriminately rounding up people, deploying chemical agents, and shooting innocent people. A border patrol agent shot U.S. citizen and Chicago native Marimar Martinez five times after sideswiping her vehicle. She survived. After Ms. Martinez was shot, DHS [U.S. Department of Homeland Security] branded her as a domestic terrorist. A border patrol agent bragged about shooting her. And an FBI agent falsely claimed she chased a border patrol agent before she was shot. Director Patel, after the shooting, you took to social media, posted a video of a different collision, that you said supported DHS. You said, "Attack our law enforcement and this FBI will find you and bring you to justice." DHS and FBI have since refused to correct the record. No charges filed against Ms. Martinez, who was shot five times by these agents. .In another event, an ICE agent shot and killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez shortly after he dropped his children off at school and daycare. Publicly released video footage and the ICE agent's own statement contradict DHS claims that the ICE agent who shot him was "dragged a significant distance" and "feared for his life." In the past, the FBI would have swiftly responded to these shootings, gathering evidence and working with the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to conduct a civil rights investigation. But not now.
Ka$h insisted that the FBI had not refused to investigate and that investigations were currently ongoing. Interesting because Marimar Martinez was shot October 4, 2025. That's 17 days shot of exactly one year ago. And it's still under investigation? And Ka$h still can't correct the record about her attacking DHS?
Two months later, the government dropped its charges against Martinez, admitting that she had not attempted to ram a DHS vehicle. The government refused to release bodycam footage of the shooting, arguing that it contains sensitive material.[2] In February 2026, a federal judge ordered the release of the bodycam footage and other evidence in the case. The footage indicated that Exum turned his vehicle toward Martinez immediately before they collided, contradicting the government narrative.
And yet Ka$h maintains there's an ongoing investigation -- which he can't talk about -- and he refuses to withdraw the statements he made on social media and also refuses to apologize for them.
Republican Senator John Kennedy was puzzled by some of the changes that Ka$h has made including in taking bestiality out of the objectionable list of items that prevented someone from becoming an FBI agent. At one point, he asked, "If Joe participated in bestiality -- not as the animal, but as the human -- don't you think he ought to be disqualified if he voluntarily did it?" Ka$h was concerned that applicant Joe might have been trafficked into it, "They don’t just traffic you for prostitution. They traffic you for degrading acts of all kind. And they force you into that type of conduct. And some of these individuals have gone on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI.”
Ranking Member Durbin also raised this issue.
Ranking Member Dick Durbin: According to a memo issued this June, the FBI has lowered its hiring standards by dropping automatic disqualification for applicants who have stolen from prior employers, paid for sex, or engaged in bestiality. In July, you claimed the FBI is "losing too many qualified candidates to the rigors and requirements from yesteryear." Director Patel, do you believe those who have previously stolen from employers, solicited sex, or engaged in bestiality are qualified candidates the FBI is losing? [. . .] What I'm reading to you is that you dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality. Not victims of bestiality -- applicants who have engaged
Let's note some of Senator Mazie Hirono's remarks.
Senator Mazie Hirono: Mr. Patel, the FBI Director should at least try to be above reproach. But there are many questions and concerns raised about your judgment and character. For example, in August 2025, you took a VIP snorkeling tour around the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, a sacred site. Sacred. That is why these tours are rare. Since 2020, only senior Defense officials, members of the military, and one congressman who was a special forces veteran have participated. And then came you. When this incident came to light in May, Senators Schumer, Durbin, and I sent you a letter. And we asked you three simple questions: First: what personal travel have you taken as FBI Director? Two: what non-official activities have you attended as part of official travel? Three: what has been the cost to taxpayers of these kinds of activities? Three months later, we have received no response. Mr. Patel, when can we expect your response to that letter? Is there a date anywhere when we can expect a response? I don't have a response, do you have it with you? Maybe you can hand it to me. The reason I ask that is because I had a director who said that there was a report that he had, right then and there. And then it didn’t come to me until a lot later. If you have a response, give it to me right now please. I assume there is no response. I'm not going to be holding my breath that you will provide that response. If this snorkel tour were a one-off incident, that would be one thing. But it’s part of a broader pattern of using your office to benefit yourself, showing your lack of judgement and character. You have wasted untold taxpayer dollars driving around in foreign luxury cars, partying in Italy, and flying a private jet to play golf and watch hockey. There has been bipartisan criticism. I'm glad to know that some of my Republican colleagues actually criticized some of this activity, and they have criticized this waste and abuse. Maybe today one of my Republican colleagues will demand an explanation. Now, Mr. Patel, you have clearly politicized the FBI. And whenever you are asked, even today, questions you don't feel like answering you respond it's "ongoing" it'’s "part of an investigation." You think that covers everything and so you don't answer. That is what you’ve resorted to, aside from, I've just watched you today in a very combative mode with my colleague Senator Welch and you attacking him, which is also the way you approach questions that you don't want to answer. And then I note your recent appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee, I'll get to that in a bit. To be clear, there are many things you should answer for. You have been at the helm of the FBI for almost two years, and the list of your failings is long and frankly growing. You have decimated the FBI workforce. The FBI today is down thousands of dedicated professionals who worked to keep our country safe. And frankly, your answers to questions along those lines have been unbelievable. If I thought I could get a truthful answer out of you, I’d ask you questions like what the hell you were thinking firing a dozen Iran experts on the eve of an illegal war with Iran.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Tuesday launched an effort to impeach Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, citing the Pentagon’s military actions against Iran.
Massie, a frequent critic of President Trump, accused Hegseth of launching an illegal war that was not approved by Congress. He introduced articles of impeachment on the House floor against Hegseth for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Massie also took the remarkable step of making his resolution privileged, meaning he’s forcing it to the floor for a vote. By House rules, that vote must come within two days.
He argued that Hegseth violated “his oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and violated “his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, especially with regard to the commission of war.” He added that Hegseth has “abused the powers of the Department of Defense.”
US House Rep Ro Khanna joined Massie in calling for Hegseth's impeachment.
Massie also criticized the U.S. military's actions in Venezuela, including the capture of the country's former president. And he accused Hegseth of undermining "effective journalist oversight" after shrinking the Pentagon press corps.
He took particular issue with a U.S. strike on an Iranian primary school that killed more than 100 children at the start of the Middle Eastern conflict. The strike "exposed systemic failures in the Department of Defense targeting process," he said.
The Pentagon has yet to release the findings of an investigation into the Feb. 28 airstrike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school. At least 168 people died in the attack, most of them children, according to Iranian state media.
Meanwhile the Iran War has destroyed the US economy. Why Chump chose to go to war is anyone's guess. He said it would be two weeks and it's now closer to the eight month. He's stuck in Iran and can't get out. Martha McHardy (DAILY BEAST) notes:
Donald Trump’s closest White House aides are scrambling to control the fallout from his ill-advised war on Iran as fuel prices hit new highs ahead of the midterm elections.
The conflict, launched by Trump in February without congressional authorization, has disrupted the global energy market and closed the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for oil shipments, driving up energy prices worldwide.
Brent crude climbed to around $109 a barrel on Monday, its highest level since May, while gasoline has reached $4.32 a gallon and diesel a record $6.23, according to AAA.
According to Politico, the crisis has led to “frustration” in the White House as officials desperately seek an exit strategy before elections that could see Trump lose his grip on Congress.
The cost to American households is mounting. Brown University’s Iran War Energy Cost Tracker estimates the conflict has added more than $100 billion to U.S. gasoline and diesel costs, with the average household paying more than $750 extra.
Oil executives have been warning this was coming, and now they say it's arrived: With the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut and a key Saudi pipeline knocked offline, industry leaders like Chevron CEO Mike Wirth contend that the global system has burned through its safety nets, reports the Wall Street Journal, pushing crude near $101 a barrel and diesel to a record $6.23 a gallon. The damaged Saudi pipeline alone, which was being used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, took 2.5 million gallons a day off the table, and is expected to be offline for weeks, notes the AP. "All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk," Wirth says. "Those have largely now played out."
The average price of a gallon of diesel in the U.S. hit a fresh record high of $6.27 on Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association.
U.S. diesel prices are soaring once again as the squeeze in the fuel market tightens, breaching $6 a gallon for the first time on Friday. Higher prices at the pump come as Brent Crude trades at around $107 a barrel, with renewed supply concerns mounting and Northern Hemisphere farmers entering the diesel-intensive harvesting season.
Prices had jumped at the start of the Iran conflict before cooling after refiners ramped up production. The average price for a gallon of diesel was $3.69 a year ago.
The higher prices are a blow to President Trump who made easing the cost of living central to his 2024 re-election campaign and has repeatedly called for lower interest rates. However, energy-cost inflation has boosted expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will hike interest rates Wednesday.
Gasoline prices are rising, but it will be a few months before everyday Americans and policymakers know whether or not the latest spikes will lead to higher inflation.
With the conflict in the Middle East intensifying in recent weeks, prices at the pump are on the rise again, jumping 13 cents in just a week and hitting $4.32 per gallon for regular unleaded on Monday, according to AAA. Diesel prices were surging even more, averaging $6.23 per gallon, the highest average on record.
But whether the latest price spikes will lead to higher rates of inflation in the coming months is a complicated question—and will take time to play out.
It generally takes about three months to see a 10% gas price shock show up in the core personal consumption expenditures price index measurement, which excludes energy and food prices, says Bernard Yaros, lead economist at Oxford Economics.
A “computer glitch” at a New Jersey data center has sent roughly 5,000 gallons of diesel pouring into the state’s wetlands. Michael Gonnelli, mayor of nearby Secaucus, has said the leak came from a storage tank at the site, run by digital infrastructure group Equinix. He blamed the glitch, though the firm said it’s still reviewing the cause. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said crews used vacuum trucks and barriers to remove the fuel from a creek before it reached the Hackensack River.
Two U.S. citizen teenagers who were on their way to file enlistment papers to join the Marines were violently attacked by ICE agents, who reportedly detained them for nearly eight hours before letting them go.
Telemundo reports that agents pepper-sprayed the teenagers because they were allegedly filming ICE arresting parents outside of Santos Livas Elementary School in Alamo, Texas. ICE agents were caught on video pulling one teen from the car and punching him repeatedly in the face while he lay on the ground. The other teen, Luis Ochoa, said he informed the ICE agents he was a citizen, but was told, “I don’t give a damn.... Your parents can’t help you now.”
Ochoa is reportedly rethinking his decision to enlist, with his mother telling Telemundo, “How are they supposed to serve a country that doesn’t even uphold their basic rights?”
And we're going back to yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee to note this exchange on immiration:
Senator Alex Padilla: Reports indicate, in July, field offices received guidance to stop investigating confrontations with immigration enforcement officials or agents involved with immigration enforcement. Yes or no, did you or your leadership team instruct field offices to stop investigating excessive use of force by ICE or CBP?
Ka$h Patel: No.
Senator Alex Padilla: Can you reiterate for me, for the community, for the public, what is the current guidance to field offices as it pertains to these types of investigations?
Ka$h Patel: Every single investigation is different, depending on the location, on who the officer is. We have to bring in the lead home agency if it's one of theirs, one of ours.
Senator Alex Padilla: But every incident is investigated?
Ka$h Patel: To my knowledge, every incident is investigated through the interagency process.
Senator Alex Padilla: With FBI participation in those investigations?
Ka$h Patel: Yes, and we’re always called in. We’re always asked to participate because we have some technical capabilities that other agencies don’t.
The U.S. withdrawal is underway, and officials say the hundreds of troops remaining in northern Iraq will be out by the Sept. 30 deadline.
The Iraqi government has linked the U.S. withdrawal to an ultimatum for militias to lay down their weapons. But most have indicated they have no plans to do so.
That leaves major questions about what the day after will look like in Iraq.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Dick Durbin's office:
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered an opening statement in today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing conducting oversight on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) featuring testimony from FBI Director Kash Patel. During his remarks, Durbin underscored that Americans are less safe with Kash Patel leading the FBI as he is far more concerned with weaponizing the agency against the President’s perceived political enemies while covering up the wrongdoings of President Trump’s allies. Further, Director Patel’s personal conduct—wasting and exploiting FBI resources and failing to account for when official business ends and personal recreation begins—has shown that he is a liability to national security.
Key Quotes:
“Let me say at the outset, that we just heard again, an introduction by the Chairman [Grassley] that gave reference to Crossfire Hurricane and a lot of things that are in the history of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Over a year ago, all of the Democrats on this Committee said, ‘Stop giving these speeches, and bring the people before us to testify under oath as to what actually happened.’”
“Jack Smith, the special counsel, who is a constant reference point when it comes to this ‘Grand Conspiracy,’ has volunteered for more than a year to appear before this Committee under oath and answer the questions. What more could we ask of him?”
“Perhaps in a few weeks when we have been promised he will show up, they [Republicans] could start by explaining, why did you wait a year if we are talking about a ‘Grand Conspiracy?’ Jack Smith, the special counsel, will be under oath before this committee. Each of us will have a chance to ask pertinent questions to clear it up. For some reason, the decision was made at some level to let this controversy fester rather than bring the person in who could actually answer the questions.”
“Director Robert Mueller led the FBI at this tumultuous time [post-9/11]. He, more than any single individual, was responsible for modernizing the FBI to combat the threats we face in the 21st century. I was proud to work with him on a bipartisan basis… We didn’t always agree, but I always respected him. He was a patriot and a person of honesty and integrity.”
“Modernizing the FBI has not been an easy process. Balancing a growing focus on national security and terrorism prevention efforts with traditional work investigating white-collar crime and corruption has taken a lot of time and effort. Over the years, the FBI, as it gained more authorities, at times in history, misused it. There is still work to be done to earn public trust and ensure the most powerful federal investigative agency in the world only engages in lawful operations.”
“Continuing to meet new threats while tackling these challenges requires steady, committed leadership from someone who understands the stakes and has the humility to lead as a servant of the public, like Bob Mueller. Sadly for the American people, the current director does not meet these standards. Mr. Patel is the least qualified and most partisan FBI Director in our nation’s history. He does not have the judgment, experience, or temperament of Director Mueller.”
“Before he was confirmed, Mr. Patel falsely claimed in public that the FBI ‘was planning January 6 for a year.’ He compiled an enemies list of public servants he called ‘government gangsters’ who he promised to target if he was confirmed as head of the FBI.”
“Despite the warnings of Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing, our Republican colleagues chose to ignore these facts to prioritize President Trump’s retribution campaign over the safety of Americans. They joined on a partisan basis, confirming Director Patel to lead the FBI.”
“Under Mr. Patel’s failed leadership, decades of efforts to modernize and reform the FBI are being undone, and the Bureau has been reshaped as a political weapon against President Trump’s political enemies and a shield to protect the President and his MAGA loyalists—not the American people. Director Patel has been the central figure pushing the so-called ‘Grand Conspiracy,’ diverting FBI resources to inane debunked conspiracy theories that the ‘deep state’ has been targeting President Trump since his first campaign.”
“Director Patel is also wasting FBI resources to relitigate the 2020 presidential election. How many times have nominees who are judges, respected professionals, professors come before this Committee and refused to acknowledge what every eighth-grader in America knows? President Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden by 7 million votes. That’s simple. It’s obvious. It’s a matter of fact. Yet, these nominees refused to acknowledge that reality because this is part of the great conspiracy theory that Trump never loses anything.”
“To weaponize the FBI against the President’s opponents, Director Patel has overseen a purge of thousands of law enforcement officials. From analysts and agents to the most senior leadership, the Bureau has been deprived of tens of thousands of years of cumulative experience.”
“Director Patel has installed MAGA loyalists as political appointees in key career positions. And he even imposed loyalty tests, requiring FBI officials to undergo polygraphs to say whether they ever criticize him.”
“Thousands of agents have been reassigned from their primary criminal and national security mission to immigration enforcement, with the number of FBI personnel working on immigration matters increasing by over 2,000 percent as of last September.”
“In total, over 9,000 FBI personnel—25 percent of the Bureau—worked on immigration cases between January and September of last year. As part of this shift in resources, the Department of Justice shut down almost 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of the Trump Administration.”
“To replace the career professionals he purged, Director Patel has gutted hiring standards. Today will be his opportunity under oath to answer some basic questions about the standards being used for new FBI agents. In an interview in July, he claimed the FBI is ‘losing too many qualified candidates to the rigors of the requirements from yesteryear.’ What are those so-called obsolete requirements? According to a memo issued in June, the FBI has removed from its list of automatic hiring disqualifications theft from an employer, sex solicitation, and bestiality.”
“To add insult to injury, Director Patel is trying to take credit for the successful efforts of state and local law enforcement to reduce violent crime. The reality is that violent crime spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic and has been steadily and consistently declining since 2022. Every member of this Committee knows that our state and local police – not the FBI – are primarily responsible for combatting violent crime. Don’t believe me? Look at the data. Cities where the National Guard or other federal forces were not deployed had a 2025 drop in violent crime similar to the cities where they were deployed.”
“It is misleading and offensive for this Administration – which has coddled January 6 rioters by giving them full, unconditional pardons from the President as one of his first acts in office. This Administration has ended the careers of thousands of professional FBI agents because they didn’t meet some political test and blocked hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to local law enforcement– to claim credit for the work of our brave frontline police officers. That is not ‘backing the blue’ by any standard.”
“In fact, the cities where federal forces were deployed experienced widespread abuses of the constitutional rights of their residents—including multiple lethal shootings of American citizens.”
“The FBI is charged with investigating deadly uses of force by federal agents, but it has turned its back on its duties under Director Patel. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security is now the primary investigator of whether its own poorly vetted and trained employees violated the law during the ill-conceived missions.”
“Director Patel has also played a key role in the Trump Administration’s cover up of the Epstein files. Director Patel diverted more than a thousand FBI agents from their critical missions to work on 24-hour shifts reviewing every page of the Epstein files. These personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump’s name was mentioned. That review ended in an unsigned memorandum from the Department of Justice and FBI simply claiming, ‘there is no incriminating client list.’ Director Patel has still not responded to our letter from more than a year ago asking about his personal role in this cover-up. But we now know that Director Patel reportedly joined a meeting in the White House Situation Room about how to protect the President from the fallout from this cover up of the Epstein files.”
“Director Patel failed to ensure the Trump Administration actually released, as they were required, everything about Epstein and his co-conspirators. This has come at the expense of the American people, who deserve transparency. And it has also been at the expense of the survivors of Epstein’s abuse, who deserve justice and accountability.”
“So today, we find ourselves in a position where the FBI is expending immense resources to protect President Trump politically and deliver retribution to his enemies—but is diverting resources away from protecting the safety, security, and rights of ordinary Americans and their families.”
“I was proud to be part of bipartisan efforts over the many years to ensure the FBI protected both the security and freedom of the American people. And I’m disappointed that this Committee has stood by since January 2025 as that work has been undone.”
“I look forward to a day – hopefully in the near future – when this Committee will fulfill its duty to hold Director Patel accountable for his leadership.”
Video of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s opening statement is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s opening statement is available here for TV Stations.
