Opinion

Gabbard, Patel key appointees in fight against Deep State

February 18, 2025

Ben Weingarten (Opinion Contributor)

Gabbard and Patel are, in fact, among Trump's most important nominations, and could help restore their agencies to their intended missions. — Image credit: Getty Images

All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.

As President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks continue to be confirmed, two nominees have emerged as particularly divisive. The U.S. Senate confirmed former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as the eighth Director of National Intelligence (DNI), while the Senate Judiciary Committee recently voted along party lines to advance Kash Patel’s nomination as FBI director. Both nominations have drawn controversy, with Democrats fearing they will weaponize the FBI and intelligence agencies to pursue Trump’s personal partisan interests despite both roles requiring political independence.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten argues that Gabbard and Patel are, in fact, among Trump’s most important nominations, and that they could help restore their agencies to their intended missions.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

Simply put, police states cannot be free states. And from Russiagate and the fostering of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, to Trump Impeachment I and the Jan. 6 inquisition, to the targeting of all from faithful Catholics to pro-life activists and parents concerned about their kids being indoctrinated in school, increasingly our Deep State has operated like a police state.

As I recently reported at RealClearInvestigations, in fact, the evidence shows that at least at the FBI, whistleblowers on the misconduct have had their careers and lives destroyed. Those defending them have faced retaliation too.

Gabbard and Patel know this better than anyone because they both have extensive experience with the security state, including finding themselves in its crosshairs. And that makes them uniquely equipped to take it on.

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All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.

Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel represent two of the absolute most vital nominations President Trump has made – I would argue more vital than Americans know.

What is it that makes these picks so critical and unique?

Our intelligence community and national security apparatus have been weaponized against dissenters from Ruing Class orthodoxy.

And that is the death knell of the republic — not to mention ultimately a boon to our adversaries. After all, from their perspective, what could be better than seeing the U.S. destroy itself by eviscerating liberty and justice in targeting domestic Wrongthinkers, while at the same time diverting precious resources from pursuing our actual enemies.

Simply put, police states cannot be free states.

And from Russiagate and the fostering of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, to Trump Impeachment I and the January 6 Inquisition, to the targeting of all from faithful Catholics to pro-life activists and parents concerned about their kids being indoctrinated in school, increasingly our Deep State has operated like a police state.

As I recently reported at RealClearInvestigations in fact, the evidence shows that at least at the FBI, whistleblowers on the misconduct have had their careers and lives destroyed. Those defending them have faced retaliation too.

Gabbard and Patel know this better than anyone because they both have extensive experience with the security state – including finding themselves its crosshairs. And that makes them uniquely equipped to take it on.

Gabbard spent more than two decades in uniform including deploying to Iraq, and served on the Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, and Armed Services Committees in Congress.

She is an ardent counter-jihadist who has devoted her career to defending our country against those and other foes. At the same time, she has recognized how the government’s awesome powers have been turned on the American people in the name of safety and security, violating our civil liberties. And she has broken from the national security and foreign policy blob on a slew of issues.

The Democrat Party left Gabbard by becoming the champion of the security state. She defected from it. Then she paid a price. 24 hours after criticizing Kamala Harris and her nomination, Gabbard “was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list,” the TSA’s Quiet Skies program – someone who fought for our country and represented it in Congress. Unbelievable.

That targeting is a testimony to her taking principled stands against the Deep State and calling out the very kinds of depredations that she faced.

As she noted in her testimony “what truly unsettles my political opponents is I refuse to be their puppet.”

Patel was a federal public defender, prosecutor, staff member at DOJ, and, during the Trump I administration, senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, principal deputy to the acting Director of National Intelligence, and Chief of Staff to the Acting Secretary of Defense.

But perhaps most notably, Patel was the exposer par excellence of the Russian collusion hoax while serving as a top investigator on the House Intelligence Committee. There, he helped lead the drafting of the “Nunes memo” that revealed the fraud perpetrated on the FISA court used to spy on the Trump campaign by way of advisor Carter Page.

In the weeks prior to issuing the memo, Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reportedly threatened to subpoena Patel’s communications, as well as those of his colleagues.

Little did Patel know that those communications records were already being collected under subpoena, per requests covering data dating back to as early as Dec. 1, 2016.

The same DOJ whose misconduct he was investigating was spying on him – and on absurd grounds, the DOJ Inspector General would reveal.

In responding to a question from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley regarding this episode during his confirmation hearing, Patel said:

Senator, this may be one of the scenarios that most uniquely qualifies

me to take command at the FBI. Having been the victim of government

overreach and a weaponized system of justice and law enforcement.

I know what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States

government barreling down on you. And as the Biden inspector General

determined those activities by the FBI and DOJ were wholly improper

and not predicated upon law and facts. I will ensure, if confirmed

that no American is subjected to that kind of torment, to that kind

of cost, financially. and personally.

Patel and Gabbard have been targeted not because of lack of qualifications, demonstrated valor, or patriotism, but precisely because they have the qualifications, valor, and patriotism required to courageously question the Deep State over its failures and failings. They have vowed to root out its corruption, politicization, and weaponization – to restore the intel community and natsec apparatus to their actual missions.

Perhaps their most important shared trait is that they are not captured by the entities they would lead. Rather, they have the scars illustrating how those entities have strayed from their missions, and the smarts and tenacity to restore them.

Last week Gabbard was confirmed and sworn is as Director of National Intelligence. Patel passed out of committee, setting him up for a floor vote that should see him confirmed as FBI Director soon.

Little could be more important for the future of this country.

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