Kash Patel’s plan to come after Donald Trump’s critics as Nancy Pelosi blames Kamala Harris’ loss on Joe Biden

A close ally of Donald Trump, who is tipped to become the head of the CIA, has said he will come after the President-elect’s critics. Follow updates.

A close ally of Donald Trump, who is tipped to become the head of the CIA, has said he will come after the President-elect’s critics.

Kash Patel, an Indian-American lawyer, who is a confidant of Mr Trump, has spoken of what his priorities are.

In a podcast interview with Steve Bannon, who was released from jail after serving time for being in contempt of Congress, he said he would “come after” the President-elect’s critics “criminally or civilly”.

“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media. Yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig a presidential election. We’re going to come after you.“We’re putting you all on notice.”

It comes as the Democratic veteran who orchestrated the internal rebellion against Joe Biden has suggested the party could have picked someone other than Kamala Harris to take on Donald Trump had the President dropped out of the race sooner.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the key player in the plot against Mr Biden after his disastrous debate performance against Mr Trump, which ultimately forced him to abandon his bid for a second term.

At the time, while it was reported that she wanted a competitive process to replace him, she threw her support behind the Vice President in the 107-day race to the election.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the key player in the plot against Mr Biden. Picture: AFP

But in an interview with The New York Times after Mr Trump’s big victory, Ms Pelosi said: “Had the President gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race.”

“The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said.

“Kamala may have, I think she would have done well in that and been stronger going forward. But we don’t know that. That didn’t happen. We live with what happened.”

“And because the President endorsed Kamala Harris immediately, that really made it almost impossible to have a primary at that time. If it had been much earlier, it would have been different.”

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■ FBI thwarts Iranian murder-for-hire plan targeting Donald Trump

■ Special counsel Jack Smith made first move in possible end to Trump prosecution

■ Donald Trump returns to social media for first time as “president elect”

■ Kevin Rudd’s ‘reckoning’ with Trump scrutinised Washington insiders

■ Donald Trump wins Nevada

■ Democrats ‘held hostage’ by far left

■ Musk joined Trump’s call with Zelenskyy

■ ‘Hypocrisy’ on Gaza and Ukraine cost Harris votes

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Originally published as Kash Patel’s plan to come after Donald Trump’s critics as Nancy Pelosi blames Kamala Harris’ loss on Joe Biden