The hits hold coming for the beer-guzzling director of the FBI.
NCS anchor Jake Tapper tore into Kash Patel for partying with Olympians on taxpayers’ dime and refusing to again down from criticism of his habits on what the FBI beforehand mentioned was a piece journey.
Social media has been abuzz with clips of Patel, 45, chugging beer and singing his coronary heart out with Team USA after they defeated Team Canada within the extremely anticipated males’s hockey closing of the Winter Olympics in Italy.
“Believe it or not, that’s your FBI Director Kash Patel,” Tapper, 56, mentioned on a Monday broadcast of NCS’s The Lead. “It was an incredible win that all Americans can celebrate. Now, why exactly the FBI director—who you might think would be busy with all sorts of things—why he’s in the locker room in Italy, seemingly pounding beers along with the team? Well, you can be forgiven if you’re asking that question.”
Ben Williamson, the FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs, has repeatedly defended Patel and lashed out on the media over stories indicating that he used an company jet to fly to Italy for the Winter Olympics. The Government Accountability Office estimates that flying the FBI’s non-public jet prices at the least $5,000 per hour.
Patel attended the lads’s hockey closing in Milan as chaos unfolded at house. / Elsa/Getty Images
“No, it’s not a personal trip,” Williamson wrote in an X post final week responding to a CBS News report. “Director Patel is on a trip that was planned months ago. It includes: partner meetings with Italian law enforcement and security officials (they invited the Director last July), meeting with Ambassador Fertitta (as a follow up to our law enforcement roundtable he hosted in January), meetings with Legat staff, and more.”
Tapper additionally performed a 2023 clip of Patel mocking his predecessor, Christopher A. Wray, for utilizing the company’s planes, arguing that “Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G5 jet to go to vacation. Maybe we ground that plane. $15,000 every time it takes off. Just a thought.”
Patel was unfazed as he addressed the controversy himself on X.
“For the very concerned media – yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” Patel wrote on Sunday simply earlier than 2 a.m. native time. “Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth. 👊🏼🏒”
Kash issued an announcement
But Tapper says Patel’s patriotism isn’t on the coronary heart of the problem.
“Of course, the issue is not whether or not Kash Patel loves America,” he mentioned. “It’s about his judgment and whether or not he’s embarrassing the Bureau, and the perks he grabs and the seriousness with which he treats his job.”
“And one would think the FBI is pretty busy these days, with lots of things going on,” he added.
The FBI director drew flak from social media customers on either side of the aisle, with a number of individuals stating that he was out partying after a man was killed by Secret Service agents after breaching President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, and amid the continuing seek for lacking 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.
“I just can’t imagine being somebody in, let’s say, a missing person’s case, thinking that the FBI could be doing a better job, should be doing a better job, and looking up and seeing that image—just shocking,” Tapper mentioned.
The FBI didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the NCS anchor’s remarks. Tapper mentioned the company directed the community to Patel’s social media submit.