ACTION 41 – Last Chance for Susan Collins
Background: Maine’s senior senator continues to disappoint. On Thursday, tomorrow, the vote to confirm Kash Patel for FBI director is scheduled. If she votes for him, how can we ever trust her to act in the national interest again? This man is a danger to national security. Background on this dangerous nominee is found in Action 19, dated January 25. (See link in “extra credit”) Also under “extra credit” is the text of the briefing sheet we gave to Collins’ staff in Bangor on February 5. Susan has become an embarrassment to the state, a profile in cowardice recognized across the country. In spite of numerous opportunities for her to show a “Margaret Chase Smith moment”, she has failed.
Action: Call Susan Collins’ office. This may be for the last time. You might consider informing her staff that if she votes to confirm Patel, it is the last straw, and that you will work as hard as you can to defeat her in the 2026 election. (Note, she has a challenger from the Musk wing of the Republican Party.)
Contact: Augusta 207 622 8414 Bangor 207 945 0417 Washington DC 202 224 2523
Urgency: today, Wednesday February 19
Extra Credit:
1. https://isledems.org/initiatives/action-19-reject-kash-patel-for-fbi-director
2. Text of the briefing we gave to Carol Woodcock in Bangor, Re: Kash Patel for director of FBI:
This position is serious and consequential. The chosen candidate is dangerously partisan and unqualified. We urge you to reject this candidate.
The FBI director leads an agency that investigates spies, mobsters and kidnappers. These are life and death situations, not political games. Patel developed a reputation for leaking sensitive information to media outlets earlier in his career – a dangerous political game.
Will the other members of the Five Eyes international intelligence community be comfortable sharing intelligence with him? Highly doubtful. Patel rose to prominence through ambition and an uncanny survival instinct in a political world. Is he an acceptable person to lead this agency of some 35,000 professional employees who are supposed to be nonpolitical? The FBI Director serves 10 years precisely because the position is supposed to be insulated from politics. Appointing Kash Patel makes a mockery of that.
Kash Patel is a proven 100% loyalist to Mr. Trump, the person you rightfully voted to impeach in 2021.
o Patel has denied well-documented covert Russian influence in our elections.
o He has denied that the televised January 6 riot was an insurrection.
o He disrespected police officers who defended against the mob on Jan.6.
o He has said he intends to use the FBI to exact retribution on his “enemies list”.
o He has publicly threatened the free press.
o He has threatened Trump opponents with jail time.
o He has no respect for the agency he is nominated to head.
o He also has no respect for the Senate confirmation process,
perjuring himself about previous statements made in print
Senator Collins, you have disavowed political games and political theatre in the interests of soberly conducting the business of the American people. This nominee is destined to destroy an important national security bulwark, turning it from a primary means of enforcing national laws into the secret police of a lawless administration. To what end and in whose interest?
3. The following link is supplied by Emanuel Pariser. Thank you
https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/kash-patels-potential-targets-fear-tenure-fbi-director-rcna182416