FBI Director Kash Patel joins FOX Business Network’s “Kudlow” to discuss Operation Summer Heat, the number of arrests under the Trump administration, a federal grand jury indicting alleged Antifa members, and FBI staff being paid during the shutdown.

LARRY KUDLOW, FOX BUSINESS: Director Kash Patel, hats off to you, Kash. You’ve done a great job. The way I read it, you’ve depoliticized it, you’ve de-weaponized it, people are going back to work, and these numbers, we’re going to put it on the full screen, the FBI, Summer Heat, and all crushing of violent crime, you’ve just done this in only a few months. It’s remarkable. And I think it’s just what the public wanted, Kash. FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL: You’re absolutely right, Larry. It’s great to be with you. Deputy Director Bongino and I launched the juggernaut that you just advertised as Operation Summer Heat. And here’s the good news, Larry. That was just three months from June to September. Those numbers that you attributed out were just three months of arrests. The total number of arrests year-to-date this year by the FBI of violent offenders is 28,000. Just to put that in perspective, that’s double the amount of violent offenders the Biden administration arrested in the same time period last year alone. And just to put something else in more perspective, the fentanyl that you cited in a three-month surge under Operation Summer Heat, 450 kilograms, is only a third of the fentanyl seized during the entirety of this year, some 1,900 kilograms, enough to kill 125 million Americans. Larry, that’s an increase of 31 percent in fentanyl seizures year-to-date during the Donald Trump administration versus Joe Biden. And something we didn’t get into yesterday in the Oval Office, the homicide rate in America is on track to be the lowest in the United States modern history by double digits. This FBI and our G-men and women are getting back to being cops and going out on the streets and going after bad guys because President Trump gave us the authorities and resources we need to go after him. And another thing that needs highlighting, why are there so many violent felons in America? Because of four years of disastrous policies intentionally done so by the Biden administration to prioritize criminals and illegals over American citizens. Not anymore. This FBI and President Trump are flipping the script. KUDLOW: And just to circle back on this, because you said it yesterday in the Oval with the president, you have ended the weaponization and the politicalization that’s been going on in the upper echelons. And it’s essentially back to work, as you say, the G-men and the G-women. I call them the G-men because that was their stock phrase many years ago. But the politicalization is over. The weaponization is over. It’s back to work. And these are the results. We have it up on the full screen. You can read it off if you want, but I’m just saying you’ve depoliticized the operation and it’s now doing what folks voted it in to do. Is that fair? Is that what’s happened here? PATEL: That’s exactly right. Not only are we crushing violent crime, but we’re defending the homeland. The stats speak for themselves. The men and women of the FBI are doing the work. Larry, this year alone, we have more than 35 percent increase in espionage arrests from the PRC, Iran and Russia alone. We have an increase of 25 percent in counterterrorism-related offenses this year to date alone. The FBI is doing the job on all fronts. And these statistics where we dismantle child sexual abuse predator rings by the thousands has never happened before. And it’s needed to be done because the Biden administration allowed these predators to go online and lay siege to our children and our youth with not just narcotics, but illicit sexual trade activity. And this FBI is cracked down in numbers that are just absolutely record-breaking and historic. And for the fake news media out there that’s going to attack us and say we’re inflating the numbers, you’re not attacking me, you’re attacking the men and women of the FBI. And that is unspeakable when it comes to the brave men that do this job every day. KUDLOW: Director Kash Patel, in your professional judgment, is crime now coming down in America? PATEL: Crime is coming down, Larry. But remember, this was four years of disastrous policies. We’ve only been at it eight months. This is what we call phase zero and one. Crime is definitely starting to come down, but we’ve got a lot of work left to do. And as President Trump brilliantly did, unleash the FBI quietly into Chicago and other cities like Memphis and St. Louis and elsewhere months ago to lay the groundwork and to cultivate the intelligence necessary to work with state and local partners, and then to bring in the National Guard to secure the perimeter so our men and women in law enforcement and the interagency can do the work. And this is the focus of this FBI. We aren’t about politics and we’re certainly not about weaponization. We’re not chasing down our political enemies. We are holding those accountable to the American public that did weaponize it. That’s not us weaponizing government. They are the hypocrites. And we are finally bringing them to the forefront of the criminal justice system where they belong. KUDLOW: And Kash, yesterday at the in the Oval Presser, the president mentioned San Francisco. Is the FBI headed for San Francisco? PATEL: We’re already there, Larry. That’s the president’s brilliance. He told us, me and Dan, seven months ago, we got to safeguard our cities. I need you guys to get in there and begin the hard work that it’s going to take the interagency to complete the mission. Just look what we did in the state of Virginia. Just look what we’re doing in Memphis. It used to be the highest per capita homicide rate in the country. No longer. We are crushing gangs out there and we are dismantling terror networks and drug networks. And we haven’t even talked about the narco trafficking cases that we’ve been bringing by the thousands.

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