The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
21 Feb 2025
Kash Patel was confirmed as the new FBI director yesterday despite questions about his qualifications. The vote was the narrowest in recent memory with two Republicans joining the Democrats in voting "no." Then, Donald Trump is undertaking efforts to slash federal government spending, which includes international pro-democracy and human rights groups. Is China moving in to fill the vacuum the U.S. leaves behind? This episode: political correspondents Ashley Lopez and Susan Davis, justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, international correspondent Emily Feng, and senior editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. The podcast is produced by Bria Suggs & Kelli Wessinger, and edited by Casey Morell. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. We're recording this at 1225 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, February 21st, 2025. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover voting.
I'm Ryan Lucas. I cover the Justice Department.
And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
Kash Patel was confirmed as the new FBI director yesterday. Despite questions about his qualifications, Ryan, this was a pretty tight vote, even though it seemed like his confirmation was never really in doubt, right?
No, it wasn't really in doubt. Republicans did, for the most part, kind of unite and lockstep behind it. But this vote came out to 51 to 49. There are two Republican senators who voted against confirming Patel. That would be Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. And if you look at the three directors immediately before Patel, they all received at least 92 votes in favor.
So that gives you a sense of how controversial a nominee Patel is to lead the FBI, which, to remind people, is a really big job. The FBI is responsible for investigating counterterrorism, bank robberies, cybersecurity, all sorts of things across the spectrum. And there's a lot of crime going on. And a lot of this comes down to the FBI to fight. So this is a very big job.
And there are a lot of people, whether they be Democrats and also former national security officials, who have concerns about Patel, about his qualifications, about his experience, his temperament, and whether he's really the right man for this job.
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