Transcription
Thank you all for being here today to celebrate Cash Patel. I want to hurry and get him sworn in because I'm the happiest person today ever. All right, here we go. Please place your hand on the guitar and raise your right hand. I do solemnly swear, solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, against all enemies. That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any reservation, national reservation, and purpose of the nation. And that I will well and faithfully, and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. Discharge the duties of the office. So help me God. Wow, wow, wow, wow.
First and foremost, we were just with President Trump, and I just want to thank him. I know he's not here in the room right now, but what a ride we have been on. What a courageous warrior and leader he has been, and the faith and trust he has put in me to lead the FBI is the greatest honor I'll ever have in my life. To General Bondi, that sounds pretty freaking cool. Pam, you're my sister, you're my mentor, you're my friend, you're my boss, and the confidence you have placed in me, I will never violate that trust. The men and women of the FBI will be led under your leadership through one standard, the Constitution. So thank you for entrusting me. Oh man, this is effing crazy.
So obviously, you don't get here alone. I'm here because of God, I'm here because of my family, and I'm here because of my friends, and you're literally in this room because you made it happen. My sister, Nisha, and my nephew, Ane, flew in from London just to be here. My beautiful girlfriend, Alexis, is here. My aunts and uncles are here; they've come from all over the country. I am living the American dream, and anyone that thinks the American dream is dead, just look right here. You're talking to a first-generation Indian kid who's about to lead the law enforcement community in the greatest nation on God's green earth. That can't happen anywhere else.
To the senators and the men and women of the United States House of Representatives, you placed an enormous trust in me, an enormous leap of faith, one that I didn't know that I could possibly earn back, but I'm going to spend every single day on this job doing so. The fact that you placed the confidence you did in me has inspired me to reach new heights at this job. I promise you the following: there will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend. This is great; we all used to live in the same freaking house. Yeah, I don't have any prepared remarks. I wish I could go around the room and tell the story about how each and every one of you has magically touched my life to put me in this position. What a roller coaster ride it has been.
I do know this: we're in this room together because you guys have a love of country that is truly inspirational and it bleeds out everywhere we go. And if you look around this room, you see civil servants, you see warriors, you see attorneys, you see great husbands and fathers and mothers and wives, and we're fighting for the same thing: our future, our children, this guy. And there is no greater mission. I wish I had more words to thank every single one of you, but every time I look at every single one of you, you guys know the stories—you can't tell, more importantly, the ones you can. Pam and I were just talking in the back, and we're like, do you believe this? We were on the campaign trail together, we were attorneys in the first administration together. Now we're here. She's the attorney general and the director of the FBI; this is insane. I don't really fully believe it yet. I'm just not here without you guys.
Look, I know the media's in here. And if you have a target, that target's right here. It's not the men and women at the FBI. You've written everything you possibly can about me that's fake, malicious, slanderous, and defamatory. Keep it coming, bring it on, but leave the men and women of the FBI out of it. They deserve better. And for those of you who think that there's going to be a two-tier system of justice, not with Attorney General Bondi; there's a singular system of justice for all Americans, and there will be accountability. The reason this mission is so important is simply the following: 100,000 people last year raped, 100,000 people died of CCP fentanyl overdose and heroin, 17,000 homicides. Violent crime is out of control. We cannot have a United States of America where that is acceptable, where someone dies every 30 minutes, where someone OD's every 7 minutes, where someone's raped every 6 minutes. That cannot be allowed to continue and it will not be allowed to continue. Our national security mission is equally as important. Anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life and our citizens here or abroad will face the full wrath of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And if you seek to hide in any corner of this country or any corner of this planet, we will put on the world's largest manhunt and we will find you and we will decide your end state, not you. We will uphold the Constitution. We will uphold ourselves to the Constitution. The men and women at the FBI, I have your back because you have the backs of the American people. You will be held to the same high standard. Any deviation from that standard will not be tolerated at this Federal Bureau of Investigation. The men and women at the FBI who make us safe deserve better, and they are going to get it with our leadership and your support. God bless America and God bless every one of you. I love this country.