President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation picked up support from a key Republican senator.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said Tuesday that he would vote to confirm Kash Patel to serve as FBI director for a 10-year term.
“I’ve spoken to multiple people I respect about Kash Patel this weekend—both for and against,” Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote on X.
“The ones who worked closely with Kash vouched for him. I will vote for his confirmation,” Cassidy said.
The Senate overcame a procedural hurdle on Patel’s nomination Tuesday with a party-line 48-45 vote, setting up a final vote on his nomination likely Thursday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Patel’s nomination in a 12-10 party-line vote to be considered by the whole upper chamber of Congress last Thursday. After Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats held Patel’s nomination for seven days, the committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, defended Patel last week ahead of the vote.
Grassley said Patel “spent his whole career fighting for righteous causes” and has “been a public defender, representing the accused against the power of the state.”
Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have not confirmed whether they will vote in support of Patel.
Both Collins and Murkowski notably voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation, for which Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.
