William Webster, the only man to head both the FBI and the CIA, has urged the US Senate to reject Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s nominees as directors of the bureau and national intelligence, arguing that they are unqualified.

Writing to senators, Webster, who is aged 100 and who was appointed by both Democrat and Republican presidents, called on them to “weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience” and suggested that Patel and Gabbard possessed neither attribute.

“The safety of the American people – and your own families – depends on it,” he wrote, emphasising the importance of Senate confirmation hearings that will scrutinise the two nominees.

Wesbster, who was appointed as FBI director by Jimmy Carter in 1978, took aim at Patel’s suitability to head the bureau, implying that he exhibited an over-zealous loyalty to Trump that could undermine the rule of law and set a “dangerous precedent”.

  • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    The electoral college was designed to keep the wealthy minority in power, and it works well as intended. At the time that meant places with fewer people, since slaves weren’t counted, needed to compete with large cities with more diverse opinions. So the electoral votes don’t scale linearly by putting a low cap on them and a minimum. And additionally, it created a necessity for a two party system since if no one gets more than half of the votes, then the whole thing is meaningless since a single person then decides, which can be both controlled by the wealthy super-minority much more easily than having to control lots of parties. And you can confirm this even more by the fact that the electoral votes are not tied to the vote at all. The vote is just a suggestion. The state representative can vote however they want.