The Senate on Thursday voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted “yes” on the conservative firebrand’s confirmation, even while moderates Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted “no.”

A vote to invoke cloture and begin two hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47 earlier Thursday.

“I cannot imagine a worse choice,” leftist Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate.

In a statement posted on X, Patel wrote the following:

I am honored to be confirmed as the ninth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Thank you to President Trump and Attorney General Bondi for your unwavering confidence and support.

The FBI has a storied legacy—from the “G-Men” to safeguarding our nation in the wake of 9/11. The American people deserve an FBI that is transparent, accountable, and committed to justice. The politicalization of our justice system has eroded public trust—but that ends today.

My mission as Director is clear: let good cops be cops—and rebuild trust in the FBI.

Working alongside the dedicated men and women of the Bureau and our partners, we will rebuild an FBI the American people can be proud of.

And to those who seek to harm Americans—consider this your warning. We will hunt you down in every corner of this planet.

Mission First. America Always. Let’s get to work.

Patel, a vociferous opponent to the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint at headquarters in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering and national security work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades.

Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.

“Mr. Patel wants to make the FBI accountable once again -– get back the reputation that the FBI has had historically for law enforcement,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before Patel was confirmed.

“He wants to hold the FBI accountable to Congress, to the president and, most importantly, to the people they serve — the American taxpayer.”

Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. He attracted Trump’s attention during the president’s first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped write a memo with pointed criticism of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Patel later joined Trump’s administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary.

(AP)