Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be FBI director, vowed to make counterterrorism a priority under his leadership during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, telling senators that the threat of a major terrorist attack is “as high as I’ve ever seen it.”

Patel, a Trump loyalist and longtime Republican operative, referenced his concerns about terrorism repeatedly in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying in his opening statement that two terrorist attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas on New Year’s Day “serve as a stark reminder that our national security is at threat, both internally and externally.”

Patel also touted his experience as a counterterrorism prosecutor in the Justice Department’s National Security Division during the Obama administration and senior director of counterterrorism at the National Security Council in Trump’s first term.

Asked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) what the bureau should be doing to prevent future terrorist attacks, Patel replied, “Working hand in glove with our intelligence community and obtaining information that directly relates to the FBI’s criminal mandate on an intelligence basis.”

“Thwarting and prosecuting and stopping any terrorist attacks here and any homegrown activities abroad that are directed at the United States of America, along with countermanding the CCP espionage rings in this country, which dovetail with the foreign terrorist organization activity,” he told Cruz. 

Patel later told Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that the “top areas of concern” affecting national security “have remained unchanged and the threat dynamic has increased.” Among those areas of concerns were “thwarting terrorist activities and terrorist attacks here and overseas against our citizens and our allies,” “CCP espionage, which is running rampant these last five years through our country including our cyber-infrastructure and our agricultural properties” and “taking on Iran, the No. 1 state-sponsor of terror, and any other adversary that wishes to harm America.”

Speaking to Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) about returning the FBI to its “core mission” of fighting crime, Patel said that he planned to prioritize the issue of narcotics trafficking, something he described as key to handling both violent crime and national security. 

“Whether we prioritize going after violent crime and national security, we cannot defend against either of those successfully unless we go after the underlying criminal nexus there. Whether it’s human trafficking, whether it’s terrorism, whether it’s opioids and whether it’s just outright gang violence, the intersection there is narcot trafficking,” Patel said.”It is the underlying underbelly, the evil, illegal underbelly of all those operations. We have not prioritized, in my opinion, as a law enforcement agency, the collective power we can rain down on criminal narcot trafficking networks.”

Patel added that he’d like to work with Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, on setting up a task force to share information on criminal networks with local law enforcement.

“I believe if we are successful in actually crippling the narcot trafficking networks we will see a decrease, monumental, in violent crime and at the same time protect American national security,” he said.

Patel faced heavy criticism from Democrats on the committee about his litany of past public comments vowing to rid the FBI of Trump’s enemies and support for those convicted for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and other conspiracy theories. Patel defended himself by walking back some prior statements or arguing they were being presented out of context. 

Following a difficult set of questioning by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the top Democrat on the committee, Patel defended his appearances on programs hosted by fringe political figures — including at least one antisemitic conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier — arguing he was not associated with those individuals by merely going on their shows to “take on people who are putting on conspiratorial theories and to devow them of their false impressions.”

“I don’t believe I’m guilty by association and I certainly don’t believe that an individual who is the first minority to serve as the deputy director of national intelligence for this country is a racist in any way,” Patel said. “And I detest any conjecture to the contrary.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Patel that he expected him to not operate from a place of vengeance and instructed him to uplift those at the bureau doing honest, apolitical work in his role as the nation’s chief law enforcement agent. 

Kennedy pointed to the old adage that, “two wrongs don’t make a right, but they do make it even,” noting that he thought the saying was misguided and “the wrong approach” to “reforming the FBI and the Justice Department.”

“There’s some good people at the FBI, and there’s been and may still be some bad people there,” Kennedy said. “You’ve got to find out who the bad people are and get rid of them in accordance with due process and the rule of law. And then you’ve got to lift up the good people. Don’t go over there and burn that place down. Go over there and make it better.”

The subject of Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Act came up repeatedly, with members on both sides of the aisle seeking clarity on Patel’s position on recent reforms and the need for additional changes. Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Act provides the government with surveillance authorities lawmakers describe as essential to the U.S. intelligence apparatus, though some on the far-right have opposed it as an unconstitutional overreach and have claimed it was misused to target Trump allies. Lawmakers will need to re-authorize the powers next year.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed the matter at length with Patel during the hearing, defending the law as a necessary tool for the intelligence community, something Patel concurred with. 

“The issue for me is not with FISA and 702. The issue has been those that have been in government service and abused it in the past. So we must work with Congress to provide the protections necessary for American citizens,” Patel said.

He said he did not believe warrants should be required to utilize those authorities.

“Dealing with these matters, including hostage rescue operations in real-time, which we use FISA collection to find and save American hostages,” he added. “Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comportive with the requirement to protect American citizenry. I’m all open to working with Congress on finding a better way forward but right now, these improvements that you’ve made go a long way.”