Kash Patel, Donald Trump's pick to lead the FBI, is expected to face an intense grilling at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET - with Democrats planning to hit him on his relative lack of experience, and concerns that he will prosecute his political enemies - which is hilarious considering what the 'weaponized' FBI has done to Donald Trump for a decade.

Watch Live (due to start at 0930ET):

Patel, 44, is a former public defender, federal prosecutor and veteran of the first Trump administration. He's been a fierce critic of the Justice Department and the FBI. He's held senior national security jobs, however Senate Democrats are expected to press him about his qualifications to lead the bureau, and whether he'll maintain the FBI's so-called traditional independence from the White House.

If confirmed, he will oversee more than 35,000 employees within the agency tasked with investigating federal crimes.

In a podcast interview last year, Patel said that if he were in charge of the FBI, he would "shut down" the bureau's headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C. and "reopen it the next day as a museum of the 'deep state.'"

"And I’d take the seven thousand employees that work in that building and send them across America to go chase down criminals. Go be cops," he added.

Patel also said he would "investigate [Ukrainian president] Zelensky's activities.

Patel was also part of a small group of supporters during Trump's New York criminal trial who accompanied Trump to the courthouse, and told reporters that Trump was the victim of an "unconstitutional circus."

Several Democrat Senators on the Judiciary Committee met with Patel before his confirmation hearing, including Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois - who issued statements opposing the pick.

"I’m deeply concerned about his fitness to serve as FBI Director. He has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to head this critical agency," said Durbin in a statement.

Trump's Republican allies in the Senate who share the belief that the agency has been weaponized under Obama and Biden, see Patel as someone who can provided much needed change.

According to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) who will introduce Patel on Thursday, said he had spent hours with him "pinning down every single thing I expect to see in the hearing."

Tillis says that he's "created a bingo card for all the things that I know the Democrats are going to say about him that I believe are unfair, and I think he’s ready to respond to."