When Kash Patel arrived at the FBI as its new director a couple of months ago, he faced the kind of credibility hurdles his predecessors didn’t have to worry about. If Patel was going to be seen as a serious and capable figure, one who is prepared to help lead federal law enforcement, he would have to invest time and energy into proving his mettle, rolling up his sleeves and doing real work on behalf of the bureau.
Or perhaps not. The New York Times reported:
Kash Patel flew to Miami on Air Force One last weekend to watch an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, wearing his signature wraparound sunglasses — at least the second time he has gone to a mixed-martial arts fight as F.B.I. director. Days earlier, he showed up at two N.H.L. games, grinning in photographs with the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky. … And since taking over the agency, Mr. Patel has been a noticeable presence at President Trump’s side, delivering a warm-up speech at the Justice Department before Mr. Trump himself spoke and hovering behind him during the U.F.C. match in Miami.
The Times’ report added that while his FBI predecessors did their jobs with minimal fanfare, reluctant to detract from the bureau’s work, Patel has thrown caution to the win, “embracing the spotlight.”
This included an instance last month in which Patel was included in an FBI recruitment video — wearing hunting camouflage — in a move that the Times said “rankled some former and current agents as performative.”
Just as notably, the report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, alleged that Patel appears to have used FBI planes for personal travel — something that some congressional Republicans criticized when Donald Trump’s first handpicked director, Chris Wray, took similar trips.
But I’m also struck by Patel’s apparent indifference to the broader circumstances.
As my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones summarized in February, “Patel’s confirmation makes a conspiracy theorist and Donald Trump loyalist the federal government’s top crime-fighter. Patel has issued public threats to go after Trump’s perceived political enemies, including publishing a list of members of the so-called deep state he’d investigate if given power. He has also openly promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and shown support for the violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Indeed, after his Senate confirmation hearing, Patel’s record became even more controversial, not less, making it that much more implausible that senators would confirm a partisan operative with very little experience in federal law enforcement who’d been condemned by some of his former Trump administration colleagues.
And then Republicans confirmed him anyway, giving Patel an opportunity to prove himself as a serious official deserving of such power. Two months later, he doesn’t appear to have made much of an effort to shake his reputation as an unqualified amateur. Since taking office, Patel has misstated key elements of the FBI’s recent work. He reportedly confused intelligence and counterintelligence. He said he planned to spend a lot of time in Las Vegas, where he’s been living, even as others were told that remote work is prohibited. He ordered officials to relocate 1,500 employees from Washington, D.C., and when told the bureau didn’t have the resources for such a restructuring, he reportedly told his subordinates to simply figure out a way to execute his directive. Perhaps most importantly, the FBI director has taken steps to break down the firewalls that used to exist between his office and the White House. NBC News reported that Patel went so far as to ask about creating a possible hotline that would facilitate direct communication between himself and Trump. In case that weren’t quite enough, NBC News reported on Patel also placing Brian Auten, a government expert on Russia, on leave — which was notable because Auten’s name appeared on Patel’s published list of alleged “deep state” actors. These are not the actions of an official who is eager to bolster his credibility. These are, however, the actions of an official confident in the knowledge that the incumbent president only ousts FBI directors who fail to honor his political whims.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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