September 16, 2025: Trump presidency, Kash Patel hearing

Sen. Cory Booker got in a heated exchange with FBI Director Kash Patel during Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing after the New Jersey Democrat warned that President Donald Trump “will cut you loose.”

“Mr. Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long,” Booker warned Patel. “I think this might be your last oversight hearing.”

Booker told Patel that “as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America,” Trump has shown “he is not loyal to people like you.”

Booker criticized Patel for shifting agents to focus on immigration and allegedly firing agents for political reasons.

“I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe,” Booker said.

Patel replied by telling Booker, “that rant of false information does not bring this country together.”

“My God, my God,” Booker said. “You’re going to lecture me on dividing this country?

The two began shouting over each other, with Patel telling Booker the senator was “an embarrassment” and Booker ridiculing Patel for “making a mockery of this committee.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Patel concluded.

Booker later told reporters that Patel was “disrespectful” to senators after the fiery exchange with the FBI director during the hearing.

“He was disrespectful, he was combative when we have simple fact-based questions. He wouldn’t step forward and be accountable for the information that we constitutionally should be getting about the agency,” he said.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report