Current and former U.S. national security officials and lawmakers told Fox News Digital that FBI Director Kash Patel, "objectively," is "one of the most experienced people ever to be nominated" to lead the bureau.

Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont told CNN of Patel's confirmation: "It's the end of the FBI as we know it. Patel is an instrument of Donald Trump. Donald Trump's policy towards the Justice Department and the FBI is retribution and Kash Patel has signed onto that full throat."

Senate vote puts an ideological ally of President Trump in charge of a bureau that he has vowed to radically change.