Sen. John Fetterman said that Kash Patel, Donald Trump's nominee to lead the FBI, assured him he will not be targeting Trump's enemies.
Patel has “talked about going after Trump's enemies,” ABC's Jonathan Karl told Fetterman during an interview that aired Sunday on This Week. Fetterman recently met with Patel to discuss his nomination.
“Yeah, and… we've had conversations, but… all of these interviews were all off the record,” Fetterman said of meeting with Patel. “So I'm not going to go into detail, but — but he absolutely… that, that's — you know, that's never going to happen, you know, like he was — he was very looking forward to that.”
“He's not going to use the FBI to go after Trump's enemies?” Karl asked.
“Yeah — no, that's not it,” the senator said.
Many view Patel as an extremist who could use the FBI to carry out Trump's personal vendettas. Patel is an election denier who has previously defended QAnon and said he wants to get rid of the so-called “Deep State.” Patel sued current FBI Director Christopher Wray along with former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and top Department of Justice officials in 2023, claiming they violated his Fourth Amendment right to privacy by subpoenaing his private emails in 2017. The case was dismissed in September.
“We will go out and find the conspirators — not just in government, but in the media,” Patel said during the 2024 campaign.
But rather than resurfacing Patel's troubling past statements and actions, Fetterman highlighted Patel's immigration story. “I found out, you know, his family's origin story and immigration,” Fetterman said. “And we talked about that, and my wife, my family immigration and things. And so I learned things about him. I never knew that he was a public defender.”
Trump and Elon Musk apparently liked Fetterman's comments about Patel so much, they tweeted them out. Trump's campaign posted a video of Fetterman's interview where he spoke about Patel and his family. That video was also shared by Musk's political action committee, America PAC.
Fetterman has broken ranks with Democrats since taking office, including by supporting harsher immigration laws. In 2023 he told NBC News, “I'm not a progressive. I just think I'm a Democrat that is very committed to choice and other things. But with Israel, I'm going to be on the right side of that. And immigration is something near and dear to me, and I think we do have to effectively address it as well.”
The senator described Trump as a “singular political talent” when answering Karl's question about why Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election.
“He had the energy and almost a sense of fearlessness to just say all those kinds of things. And people, it's, it's undeniable that it has an entertaining aspect for that too, and just if you're not afraid to say all of those things,” Fetterman said.
He added, “After you survived an assassination, you literally were shot in your head and had the presence of mind to respond, you know, 'fight, fight, fight,'” referring to Trump raising his fist after a would-be assassin shot at him.
“I mean, that's a political talent, it's undeniable,” Fetterman said. “And also, I never believed that it was about fascism. And for me, that made it difficult.”
Fetterman waved off fellow Democrats — including Vice President Kamala Harris — who have called Trump a “fascist.”
“It's not a word that I would use,” Fetterman said. “Because you put a lot of Democrats, especially in my state, that I know, and I happen to love people that are going to vote for Trump, and they are not fascists. And also fascism, that's not a word that regular people, you know, use, you know? I think people are going to decide who is the candidate that's going to protect and project, you know, my version of the American way of life, and that's what happened.”
The senator scolded Democrats, saying they need to “chill out” ahead of Trump becoming president again. “I've been warning people like, you got to chill out, you know, like the constant, you know, freak out. It's not helpful. So, you know, pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn't even taken office yet.”
He added that he has “hope” that Trump will be a successful and good president. “I hope, I hope, because I'm not rooting against him,” he said. “If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation. And, and I'm not ever going to be where I want a president to fail.”
Fetterman signaled that he is open to voting for some of Trump's nominees while potentially voting against others. In addition to meeting with Patel, he has met Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth has been plagued by allegations that he has had problems with alcohol and has sexually assaulted women.
“There is going to be some [Trump nominees] that I will vote yes, and there's some maybe that I'll vote no. But nobody can accuse me of just saying I had a closed mind, or I just said no because Trump picked this person, or whatever,” he said.
