Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s FBI pick, greets parents with ‘Jai Shri Krishna’. Video goes viral

1. Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s FBI pick, greets parents with ‘Jai Shri Krishna’. Video goes viral

Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s FBI pick, greets parents with ‘Jai Shri Krishna’. Video goes viral ByHT News Desk Jan 30, 2025 11:27 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Kash Patel, selected by Donald Trump to lead the FBI, positions himself as the right choice to restore public trust in the law enforcement agency.

Kash Patel, US President Donald Trump's FBI nominee, greeted his parents with 'Jai Shri Krishna' after introducing them at his confirmation hearing to head the federal agency on Thursday.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)

Kash Patel, an Indian-origin figure selected by President Trump to lead the FBI, presented himself as the right choice to restore public trust in a law enforcement agency he claimed had lost credibility. He promised to uphold "due process and transparency" if confirmed as director.

In a video shared on the microblogging platform X, which HT.com could not independently verify, Kash Patel says, “I'd like to welcome my father, Pramod, and my mother, Anjana, who are sitting here today. They travelled here from India. My sister, Nisha, is also here. She also travelled across the oceans just to be with me. It means the world that you guys are here. Jai Shri Krishna.”

During the confirmation hearing, Kash Patel prepared for tough questioning from Senate Democrats regarding his loyalty to the president and his proposed overhaul of the bureau. A known Trump ally, Patel had previously criticised the FBI over its investigations into the president and alleged mistreatment of January 6 rioters by the Justice Department.

Meanwhile, Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasised the FBI's crucial role in protecting the country from various threats. He said that the agency needed a director who fully understood the importance of the mission and was prepared to take action from day one, rather than someone driven by personal political grievances.

Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who had served as the head of the FBI for over seven years before being ousted by Trump due to perceived disloyalty.

Patel, a former aide to the House Intelligence Committee and ex-federal prosecutor in Trump's first administration, has raised concerns with his rhetoric. In various podcasts and books, he has shown strong loyalty to Trump while criticising the agency he is now tasked with leading. He has also publicly named officials he believes should be investigated.

In a podcast interview last year, Patel declared that if he were in charge of the FBI, he would “shut down” the bureau’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington and “reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.’”

“And I’d take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to go chase down criminals. Go be cops,” he added.

Patel was also part of a small group of supporters who attended Trump's recent criminal trial in New York, where he told reporters that Trump was the victim of an “unconstitutional circus.”

This close relationship with the president would break from the typical norm of FBI directors maintaining distance from sitting presidents.

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