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Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, spent years criticizing Elon Musk in public interviews and conversations, a brand new report reveals.
Patel, who hosted the podcast Kash’s Nook, has referred to as Musk a monopolist, claimed he mass-harvested knowledge and accused him of constructing his fortune from federal contracts funded by taxpayer {dollars}, in response to Rolling Stone.
One instance reveals Patel claiming Musk is the “greatest” Department of Defense contractor throughout a December 2021 Fox Information interview. Whereas Musk isn’t the biggest, his firm SpaceX does have billions of {dollars} in federal contracts, Rolling Stone studies.
“I imply, we’re all paying for it, that is why he’s so wealthy,” Patel mentioned within the 2021 interview.
Then, in a 2022 episode of his podcast, Patel claimed Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X) gave the world’s richest man an excessive amount of entry to People’ knowledge, in response to Rolling Stone.
“He’s already bought Tesla, he’s already bought the SpaceX program and the federal government DOD contracts, which I imagine to be the biggest portion of his earnings,” Patel claimed. “And now he’ll have Twitter. So what scares me is, you wish to speak about a monopoly, he’s the final word monopoly.”
Patel went on to assert, seemingly with out proof, that Musk could promote the info to the Chinese language Communist Occasion, in response to Rolling Stone.
However regardless of this bitter historical past, Musk publicly endorsed Patel to steer the FBI below Trump earlier this month.
Trump introduced Patel’s nomination to steer the company in December. Patel is a staunch ally of Trump’s and has promised a group of “all-American patriots” throughout authorities will “come after” members of the media he claims “lied about Americans” and “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
“We’re going to return after you, whether or not it’s felony or civilly, we’ll determine that out,” Patel mentioned on Steve Bannon’s Struggle Room podcast.
Patel can be a fervent conspiracy theorist, selling a number of false theories together with suggesting that the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots have been deliberate by federal brokers, Rolling Stone studies.
Lawmakers have additionally proven issues about Patel’s conspiracies. Throughout a Senate affirmation listening to, Senator Dick Durbin about Patel’s information of Stew Peters, a far-right podcaster.
“Are you familiar with Stew Peters?” the Democrat requested.
“Not off the highest of my head,” Patel responded.
“You made eight separate appearances on his podcast,” Durbin shot again. “He promoted outrageous conspiracy theories and labored with a distinguished neo-Nazi.”
Patel has additionally urged he desires the FBI’s authority to be severely restricted after Republicans claimed the company has improperly focused conservatives below the management of departing FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Patel beforehand served as chief of employees on the Division of Protection throughout Trump’s first time period, deputy director of Nationwide Intelligence and senior director for Counterterrorism on the Nationwide Safety Council.
His affirmation vote is anticipated within the coming days after the Senate voted to finish debate on Tuesday.
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