{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/icymi-booker-blasts-fbi-director-kash-patel-drawing-praise-for-demanding-accountability-at-committee-hearing", "ICYMI: Booker \u201cBlasts\u201d FBI Director Kash Patel, Drawing Praise for Demanding Accountability at Committee Hearing", "2026-09-18", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "NJ", "Cory A. Booker", "B001288", "www.booker.senate.gov", "booker", "https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press", "scraper", "Booker to Patel: \u201cYou\u2019re an embarrassment to this agency\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, DC\u2014In case you missed it, earlier this week U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, \u201cgrilled\u201d FBI Director Kash Patel at a committee hearing and called him an \u201cembarrassment to the agency,\u201d drawing widespread praise for \u201claying out the degree to which he is not qualified\u201d for the role. He specifically pressed Patel on the FBI\u2019s investigation into a New York Times reporter who covered his use of agency resources, as well as grand jury subpoenas issued to Times reporters after they reported on security lapses involving Trump\u2019s Qatari-gifted Air Force One replacement.\n\nSEE FOR YOURSELF:\n\nMS NOW\n\nThe Weeknight: Cory Booker on Kash Patel\n\nSeptember 15, 2026\n\nCommentator: \u201cI think that Cory Booker did a great job of laying out the degree to which Kash Patel is not qualified for this.\u201d\n\nBooker: \u201cWe have a lackey here who is using [the FBI]. And frankly, he\u2019s not even a good lackey. He\u2019s an incompetent lackey. He\u2019s like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He\u2019s an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn\u2019t qualify even to be an FBI agent. What\u2019s bad is that we have Republicans in the Senate that are enabling him to go without any objective oversight or transparency or accountability.\u201d\n\nCommentator: \u201cI thought that point was so important because Trump has a lot of lackeys. The issue is, they are all incompetent for the most part. And secondly, to have the head of the FBI likely not even pass a background check to be an agent speaks volumes of where we are.\u201d\n\nABC News\n\nSen. Cory Booker and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman\n\nSeptember 15, 2026\n\nFBI Director Kash Patel during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday was pressed about whether he would send the FBI agents to polling places -- clashing with Democrats over the topic.\n\nCentralJersey.com\n\nBooker Calls FBI Director Patel a \u201cLackey\u201d as GOP Lawmaker Moves to Impeach Hegseth\n\nSeptember 16, 2026\n\nBy: Josh King\n\nU.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ, told FBI Director Kash Patel that the bureau no longer has a real director, only someone doing another person's bidding.\n\nBooker made the remark directly to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, while Patel sat in the room during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight held on September 15, 2026.\n\nBooker did not stop there. He said Patel was not even competent at deferring to others, comparing him to a teenager trying to join a fraternity he could never actually get into, complete with drinking games.\n\nBooker said Patel was an embarrassment to the agency who would not even qualify to be a rank-and-file FBI agent, and he separately called the director a thug.\n\nBooker argued the real problem goes beyond Patel himself. He said Senate Republicans are letting a rogue FBI director intimidate reporters without any objective oversight, transparency, or accountability, per Insider NJ.\n\nInsider NJ\n\nBooker Shreds Patel as Massie Moves to Impeach Hegseth\n\nBy Max Pizarro\n\nSeptember 16, 2026|\n\nU.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) criticized FBI Director Kash Patel at yesterday's Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s hearing on FBI oversight.\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have an FBI director, we have a lackey here,\" Booker told Chairman Chuck Grassley, as Patel looked on.\n\nBooker continued of the FBI Director: \"[He's] using govern\u2014and frankly, he\u2019s not even a good lackey, he\u2019s an incompetent lackey. He\u2019s like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of. Doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He\u2019s an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn\u2019t qualify, even, to be an FBI agent.\"\n\nThe senior U.S. Senator from New Jersey also referred to Patel as a \"thug.\"\n\n\u201cWhat is bad is not just that we have a rogue FBI agent intimidating reporters, what\u2019s bad is that we have Republicans in the Senate enabling him to go without any objective oversight or transparency or accountability!\u201d Booker added.\n\nBooker's clash with Patel came on the same day that a Republican congressman introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.\n\nPOLITICO\n\nFBI\u2019s Kash Patel brawls with Senate Democrats at Judiciary hearing\n\nBy: Chris Marquette\n\nSeptember 15, 2026\n\nSenate Democrats battered FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary oversight hearing, combatively criticizing a broad swath of his behavior and performance to the point the panel\u2019s chair asked one to \u201cshut up.\u201d\n\nThe scrutiny from Democrats previews how they may try to hold members of the Trump administration accountable if they take the majority after the midterms. It also highlights how the party has embraced the course confrontations common from Cabinet member testimony during the second Trump administration.\n\nBooker had called Patel a \u201cthug\u201d who targets reporters and their families when they write stories critical of him and the broader Trump administration and who investigated a journalist after writing a story on his girlfriend. When Grassley asked Booker to wrap up his comments, Booker said Grassley wasn\u2019t being equitable with members\u2019 time to speak. \u201cHe\u2019s like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of doing keg stands and chugging with friends,\u201d Booker said.\n\nSen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) questions FBI Director Kash Patel about the use of FBI resources and accused Patel of retaliating against the media. Booker went on to clash with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) at the hearing.\n\nHuffington Post\n\nA Heated Exchange Between Patel, Sens. Cory Booker, and Chuck Grassley\n\nSeptember 16, 2026\n\nSen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) accused Patel of abusing his role as FBI director and of \u201cstonewalling\u201d the committee over questions about using the FBI to go after reporters who have put out stories unfavorable to him. The New York Times reported in April that the FBI investigated its reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, after she reported that Patel spent agency money on her to protect her and drive her around.\n\nBooker also referenced another instance where New York Times reporters were served with grand jury subpoenas after reporting on security issues with Trump\u2019s Qatari-gifted new Air Force One plane.\n\n\u201cIt is interesting that he is using resources from the FBI in a way that he\u2019s not willing to be transparent and open about,\u201d Booker said. \u201cThe message that every reporter in America is getting right now is that we have an FBI director that is attacking the most vaunted of our amendments, which is our first one: freedom of the press. If you write about this director, this FBI will run your name through government databases. That\u2019s not law enforcement. That is this man before us using a police agency to settle personal grievances about a story that embarrassed him.\n\nDaily Kos\n\nSen. Cory Booker lays into FBI Director Patel AND his GOP colleagues during Tuesday hearing\n\nBy: Janesaunt, Democratic Party Spotlight\n\nSeptember 15, 2026\n\nToday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing with FBI Director Kash Patel. When it was time for Sen. Booker\u2019s questioning things got a little heated. By then Patel was getting tired of being in the hot seat and Booker DID NOT CARE.\n\nThe questioning starts out with Booker asking Patel about a New York Times article that said an FBI Swat Team was driving his girlfriend. Director Patel tried to pretend that Sen. Booker was questioning his relationship, which was obviously not what was asked. The question was did Patel ask agents to search federal databases about the reporter. No surprise that Patel refused to answer the question\n\nBooker also brought up the story about the prez sneaking off of the fake Air Force 1 to a smaller jet, and the FBI searching records for the reporters that broke that story. Not only did they search recent records, and subpoena reporters and their families, according to Sen. Booker, but records going back to January 2026, adding, \u201cThe Judge admonished you for this! The Judge saw it for what it was, an abuse of power\n\nThe Wrap\n\n\u201cThis is a mockery and a sham,\u201d Booker says of the FBI director\u2019s oversight hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee\n\nSeptember 16, 2026\n\nBooker: \u201cMy concluding remark is: We don\u2019t have an FBI director, we have a lackey here who\u2019s using government \u2013 and frankly, he\u2019s not even a good lackey, he\u2019s an incompetent lackey,\u201d\n\nBooker: \u201cHe\u2019s like an 18-year-old kid who wants to join a fraternity that he could never be a member of, doing keg stands and chugging with friends. He\u2019s an embarrassment to the agency and wouldn\u2019t qualify even to be an FBI agent. He won\u2019t answer questions for a committee. He insults Democrats here, and you don\u2019t step in. He has a little book by his side that he literally is using to try to intimidate people, in the same way he intimidates reporters.\u201d", 1, "2026-09-19T09:11:33Z", "2026-09-19T09:12:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/icymi-booker-blasts-fbi-director-kash-patel-drawing-praise-for-demanding-accountability-at-committee-hearing"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8997090626507998, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}