Kash Patel, the newly confirmed director of the FBI, is shown during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Sen. Susan Collins was one of two Republicans to vote against the confirmation of Kash Patel, who narrowly won confirmation Thursday as the new director of the FBI.

The Senate voted 51-49 to confirm Patel after Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined all of the Senate’s Democrats and independents in voting against one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees.

Republicans managed to rally just enough support in the face of intense criticism from Democrats. His supporters said Patel will bring much needed reform of an agency they see as politicized and unaccountable.

“Mr. Patel wants to make the FBI accountable once again — get back the reputation that the FBI has had historically for law enforcement,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before Patel was confirmed. “He wants to hold the FBI accountable to Congress, to the president and, most importantly, to the people they serve — the American taxpayer.”

Democrats warned that Patel will carry out President Donald Trump’s desire for revenge against federal agents and politicians involved in investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Patel raised alarms for saying before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the federal government and media and for publishing a list of federal workers he accused of being “a dangerous threat to democracy.”

“This is someone we cannot trust,” said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California. “This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job. We know that, our Republican colleagues know that.”

Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats, also voted against the nomination. His office did not provide a statement outlining his concerns.

Collins, who has been seen as a potential Republican swing vote on Trump nominees, issued a written statement before her vote citing the potential for politically driven legal action against FBI employees and agents in the field. She pointed out that the vote comes amid the resignations of career prosecutors “who felt they were being instructed to act in a manner inconsistent with their ethical obligations” and as FBI employees have received a questionnaire about their involvement in “certain investigations.”

“In this context, there is a compelling need for an FBI director who is decidedly apolitical,” Collins said in a written statement. “While Mr. Patel has had 16 years of dedicated public service, his time over the past four years has been characterized by high-profile and aggressive political activity.

“Mr. Patel has made numerous politically charged statements in his book and elsewhere discrediting the work of the FBI, the very institution he has been nominated to lead,'” she said. “These statements, in conjunction with the questionnaire sent to thousands of FBI employees, cast doubt on Mr. Patel’s ability to advance the FBI’s law enforcement mission in a way that is free from the appearance of political motivation.”

Collins voted against one other Trump nominee. She was one of three Republicans to oppose Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host, for defense secretary. He was confirmed after Vice President JD Vance broke the 50-50 tie.

She provided crucial support to two of Trump’s other nominees — anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration.

Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and served for more than seven years but who repeatedly angered the president and was seen by him as insufficiently loyal. He resigned before Trump took office.

Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. He attracted Trump’s attention during the president’s first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped write a memo with pointed criticism of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Patel later joined Trump’s administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary.

This article contains material from The Associated Press.