On Capitol Hill, we expect to hear dry policy discussions and heated debates about the latest group Republicans have decided to strip of their rights, but there is one word most Americans probably didnāt think would ever be uttered in he halls of Congress: bestiality.
That changed today when Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioned FBI Director Kash Patel about a recent policy change involving having sex with animals.
During a Senate committee hearing, Kennedy grilled Patel about his agency lowering its hiring standards to allow people who have engaged in sex work or bestiality to be selected as new trainees.
The FBI argued that the recent shift in hiring policy is meant to stop victims of human trafficking from being unfairly penalized if they had been forced into those acts.
āIt automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously we were never going to hire the criminal,ā Patel explained to Kennedy.
āThis side of what? The bestiality? So you disqualified the animals?ā This logic seemed to stump Kennedy, known for his deadpan, folksy demeanor. The Republican from Louisiana also went viral back in 2023 for reading out explicit gay sex scenes from George M. Johnson's All Boys Arenāt Blue and Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on book banning.
āWell, we have great canines, but weāre not going to disqualifyā¦ā Patel said, before Kennedy asked, āIām trying to understand why you did this. Why would you even get into bestiality?ā
āWe are not into bestiality,ā Patel replied with a smirk.
āI know youāre not, but you changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality,ā Kennedy said. āIf Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal but as the human, donāt you think he ought to be disqualified?ā
āIf he voluntarily did it, sure, but if he was trafficked into it,ā Patel said, then Kennedy replied, āHow do you involuntarily do it?ā
Kennedy continued: āWhen you saw bestiality ā I say this with respect to the person who recommended it ā why didnāt you just say, āWhat planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to lead with my chin and get into bestiality?āā
āThat was my initial response, senator,ā Patel said. āBut they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought they should be considered. Itās not an automatic disqualification. Thatās all.ā
This back-and-forth was so strangely hilarious that it even caught the attention of Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan, hosts of the Iāve Had It Podcast, who reacted to the video clip and couldnāt stop laughing at how ridiculous the line of questioning between Kennedy and Patel was.
āKash, if you were trafficked and you did some shit with an animal, but it wasnāt your fault, itās ok,ā Welch joked on her podcast. āBut you donāt have to go down this road, and you donāt have to take the United States down this road.ā
