Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the FBI, has a "certain style of bravado that we need" at the agency, former Rep. Pete King said on Newsmax Sunday.
"I think it's a very important pick," the New York Republican, appearing on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" with former Georgia GOP Rep. Jack Kingston, commented. "I was on the Intelligence Committee during the whole Russia investigation [and] Kash Patel was the staff director for the Republicans. He's an incredibly intelligent, hardworking guy. Very, very tough on issues like law and order, terrorism."
King added that he has had a "great regard" for the FBI over the years, but still believes that "all of the top levels of federal law enforcement have to be looked at, have to be cleaned out," and Patel "will do a great job on that."
Kingston added that Patel "came up the hard way" and knows the Department of Justice and national security.
"He's prosecuted terrorism," he said. "He has defended President Trump. He blew the lid on the FBI corruption in terms of the Russian hoax. So I think he's going to be a great and vigorous pick, which is why he's going to get a lot of criticism right now."
The former congressmen also discussed the threats being made against members of Trump's incoming administration.
"It's important for everybody in politics on both sides to denounce this immediately," said King, calling on federal, state, and local law enforcement to coordinate their investigations.
He added that he saw a media report blaming the threats on Trump's rhetoric, while "forgetting the fact that Donald Trump is the guy who was almost assassinated twice."
"The majority of these threats are coming against Trump appointees," said King. "This is absolutely disgraceful and it's dangerous."
Kingston pointed out that there must be swift action against such threats.
"You can reverse this stuff if you are absolutely certain that you're going to enforce the law," he said, adding that too many people consider "swatting" to be "just above a prank."
"It does divert the resources of first responders and law enforcement," he said. "I think there's just this general ignorance that it's just a jolly fun little prank that you can play and cause a lot of inconvenience and that's the message that's been sent."
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