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Speaker 1: Richard Arnold, how are you.

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Speaker 2: I'm well, Good morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Now the FBI picked another interesting choice.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's another confirmation paddle ahead, it seems, with Trump

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Speaker 2: naming Cash Pateller's his choice to head the agency. Patell

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Speaker 2: is someone who has been by signed with Trump for

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Speaker 2: some years now, speaking out on the need for retribution

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Speaker 2: against what he calls the deep state. Now there are

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Speaker 2: several contentious Trump choices through his cabinet and other aids,

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Speaker 2: of course, but this could be the biggest one of them.

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Speaker 2: After the first Trump to Bill Barr, who served as

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Speaker 2: Trump's ag wrote in his memoir that Cash Pateel was

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Speaker 2: suggested at one point as someone who might become deputy

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Speaker 2: in the FBI. Over my dead body, wrote Bill Barr.

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Speaker 2: In a recent interview, Patel has said he wants to

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Speaker 2: shut down the FBI headquarters and then reopen the place

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Speaker 2: as a museum after seeding all power to the president. Then,

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Speaker 2: Patel said, quote, We're going to come after the people

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Speaker 2: in the media who lined about American citizens who helped

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Speaker 2: Joe Biden read presidential elections. End quote. So patell has

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Speaker 2: signed on to the campaign statements by Donald Trump that

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Speaker 2: he would carry out quote retribution against quote unquote the

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Speaker 2: enemies inside. One initial issue is that the FBI post

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Speaker 2: isn't open. The current FBI director, Chris Ray, has more

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Speaker 2: than three years left in his ten year term unless

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Speaker 2: he resigns under pressure or is sacked by Trump. Ray

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Speaker 2: was appointed by Donald Trump during his first term, but

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Speaker 2: their relationship soured early on, and then things worsened when

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Speaker 2: the FBI issued that search warrant for classified documents that

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Speaker 2: Trump had refused to return and kept in the bathroom

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Speaker 2: and elsewhere at more Lago. That case, of course, collapsed

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Speaker 2: with Trump's re election. Jake Sullivan, the current National Security Advisor, says,

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Speaker 2: the FBI role has been shaped so it does not

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Speaker 2: become a partisan operation.

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Speaker 3: We would like to ensure that the FBI remains an

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Speaker 3: independent institution insulated for Pollock.

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Speaker 2: Well, we'll see why. Some Republicans agree with that. This

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Speaker 2: has yet to be determined. They've been remarkably weak in

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Speaker 2: defending US government systems when they're challenged by Trump. Democratic

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Speaker 2: Senator Chris Murphy says he is a no vote on patrol.

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Speaker 4: Tell's only qualification is because he agrees with Donald Trump

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Speaker 4: that the Department of Justice should serve to punish, lock

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Speaker 4: up and intimidate Donald Trump's political opponents.

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Speaker 2: Well, Patel was alongside Trump during much of his New

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Speaker 2: York trial. He has also taken in hundreds of thousands

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Speaker 2: of dollars a year in advising Trump related groups. So

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Speaker 2: this will be in a historic confirmation fight.

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Speaker 1: And we got the hostage video.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this was brutal. The release of that three and

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Speaker 2: a half minute hostage video showing one of the Americans

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Speaker 2: held captive, Eden Alexander, basically pleading for his life. His

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Speaker 2: mum has reacted, but he cried, I just want to

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Speaker 2: hold them and I want him to know that we

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Speaker 2: are doing everything that we can to bring him home.

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Speaker 1: Well.

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Speaker 2: President Biden also has responded with this message to Hamas.

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Speaker 3: We are working active lead, says.

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Speaker 2: The President in relation to all of this. The only

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Speaker 2: way out is to release the hostages, including American citizens,

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Speaker 2: which they oh While National Security Advisor Sullivan is offering

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Speaker 2: some hope, perhaps take a listen to what he's saying.

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Speaker 3: We are working actively to try to make it happen.

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Speaker 3: We are engaged deeply with the key players in the region,

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Speaker 3: and there is activity even today. There will be further

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Speaker 3: conversations and consultations, and our hope is that we can

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Speaker 3: generate a ceasefire and hostage deal. But we're not there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we've heard similar comments so many times, haven't we.

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Speaker 2: Even Alexander has been health more than four hundred and

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Speaker 2: twenty days. Totally inhumane in the midst of this ongoing

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Speaker 2: inhumanity all round.

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Speaker 1: Roight might catch up Wednesday. Appreciate it. Richard Arnold steitz.

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