Congressional hearings can cover just about anything, but bestiality probably wasn’t on most people’s bingo cards for the day.
Yet that was the subject dominating an especially bizarre exchange between Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and FBI Director Kash Patel, after Kennedy questioned Patel about a change to the agency’s hiring standards.
The policy change concerns applicants who have previously engaged in sex work or bestiality. The FBI says the adjustment is intended to prevent victims of human trafficking from being automatically disqualified if they were forced into such acts.
RELATED: FBI Loosens Hiring Rules on Bestiality, Prostitution and Theft
The exchange also puts an especially bizarre spin on the Trump administration’s FBI hiring policy, which has drawn attention because bestiality is among the conduct no longer treated as an automatic disqualifier in certain circumstances.
“It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously we were never going to hire the criminal,” Patel explained to Kennedy.
Patel: “[Before] it automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of [bestiality].”
Sen. Kennedy: “So you disqualified the animal?” pic.twitter.com/JUEDDTUVHj
— Bulwark Clips (@BulwarkClips) September 15, 2026
Kennedy, however, wanted to know exactly what that meant.
“This side of what? The bestiality? So you disqualified the animals?”
Yes, that really was said during a Senate hearing. Patel started to respond with a reference to the FBI’s canine force before Kennedy brought the conversation right back to the question of why bestiality had entered the agency’s hiring discussion in the first place.
“Well, we have great canines, but we’re not going to disqualify…”
Kennedy interrupted with another question.
“I’m trying to understand why you did this. Why would you even get into bestiality?”
Patel’s response was perhaps the most straightforward sentence of the entire exchange.
“We are not into bestiality,” Patel replied with a smirk.
Sen. Kennedy: “Why would you even get into bestiality?”
Patel: “We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals…”
Sen. Kennedy: “But you changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality!” pic.twitter.com/hlqDer0Zas
— Bulwark Clips (@BulwarkClips) September 15, 2026
Kennedy wasn’t quite finished. He wanted Patel to explain whether someone who had voluntarily participated in bestiality should still be eligible for an FBI position.
“I know you’re not, but you changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality,” Kennedy said. “If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?”
Patel drew the distinction the FBI says is central to the policy.
Kennedy: if Joe participated in, not as the animal, but as the human, don’t you think he ought to be disqualified?
Patel: If he voluntarily did it, sure. But if he was trafficked into it—
Kennedy: How do you involuntarily do it? pic.twitter.com/2lXbfaM6yq
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 15, 2026
“If he voluntarily did it, sure, but if he was trafficked into it,” Patel said, then Kennedy replied, “How do you involuntarily do it?”
Kennedy Has Been Here Before, but Bestiality Takes This Hearing Somewhere New
For Kennedy, the unusual subject matter wasn’t entirely unfamiliar territory. The Louisiana Republican previously went viral in 2023 after reading explicit passages from George M. Johnson’s All Boys Aren’t Blue and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing concerning book banning.
Sen. John Kennedy having a very normal one during this Senate hearing pic.twitter.com/TafATlG1l7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 12, 2023
This time, however, the conversation took an even stranger detour. Kennedy continued pressing Patel over why the agency had chosen to address bestiality at all.
“When you saw bestiality — I say this with respect to the person who recommended it — why didn’t you just say, ‘What planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to lead with my chin and get into bestiality?’”
Patel said that was essentially his first reaction too.
“That was my initial response, senator,” Patel said. “But 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. It’s not an automatic disqualification. That’s all.”
And just like that, a discussion about federal hiring policy had somehow become a conversation about whether someone could be involuntarily involved in bestiality. Washington really does know how to keep things interesting.
The clip was too bizarre to ignore
Whatever your expectations for a Senate hearing might be, this probably wasn’t it. The exchange was undeniably strange, but the policy question underneath it is more serious: whether people who were victims of trafficking or coercion should be automatically excluded from federal employment because of acts they were forced to commit.
Still, somewhere between Kennedy asking whether the animals were disqualified and Patel assuring everyone that the FBI is, in fact, not into bestiality, the hearing produced a moment almost impossible to imagine anyone scripting.
Washington hearings may cover everything from national security to federal hiring standards. Somehow, on this particular day, the conversation ended up here.