John Kennedy presses Patel on the FBI hiring-standards change
U.S. Senator (R-LA); member, Senate Judiciary Committee
“Why would you even get into bestiality?... So you disqualified the animal?... But you’re not telling us today that if a human being had sex with an animal, they can still be an FBI agent?”
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Fullest account of the Sen. John Kennedy–Patel exchange at the hearing.
Reporting
About this source
Same-day broadcast transcript containing verbatim video-clip transcriptions of the hearing exchange plus a full on-air interview with Andrew McCabe. Marked by CNN as a rush transcript that "may not be in its final form."
Before the quotation
Questioning Patel at the September 15, 2026 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about the FBI’s hiring-standards change.
After the quotation
Kennedy separately confirmed with Patel that a person who voluntarily had sex with an animal could not still become an FBI agent under the policy.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Kash Patel defends FBI’s removal of automatic hiring disqualifiers for bestiality, prostitution, and employee theft
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Kennedy’s own questioning accepts, in principle, that a genuine trafficking victim should not be automatically disqualified, while harshly attacking the policy’s process, messaging, and reputational cost ("Why would you even get into bestiality?"; "So you disqualified the animal?"). This combines conditional acceptance of the underlying principle with sharp criticism of its execution, rather than a flat condemnation or defense of the policy itself.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Kash Patel, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Kash Patel defends FBI’s removal of automatic hiring disqualifiers for bestiality, prostitution, and employee theft
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“In 21 years in the FBI, this issue never came up... the fact that the director is using this as a way to kind of soften the blow... is not entirely believable in my estimation. The idea that the FBI director would put his own credibility and judgment on the line over something as esoteric and irrelevant as protecting victims of bestiality who might happen to want to work for the FBI is really unconscionable to me.”Read statement
“You dropped automatic disqualification for applicants who have been engaged in bestiality, not victims of bestiality – applicants who have engaged.”Read statement
“We did not want to punish victims of bestiality, victims who were trafficked... Applicants who have engaged in bestiality means they were victims of bestiality because they were forced to do so.”Read statement