When Kash Patel was nominated for FBI director, it was clear that he was the wrong person for the job.
Apart from a lack of the kind of high-level law enforcement experience typical of his predecessors, he was fundamentally unserious. This was a man who wrote a children’s book falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, said that he agreed with some parts of the QAnon conspiracy and published a list of public servants he called “government gangsters.”
But the Senate confirmed him anyway. The tally was 51–49. Every Democrat opposed Patel, joined by only two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The rest of the GOP wrung their hands about his obvious flaws, then voted to hand him the keys to the FBI. That abdication of responsibility is how we got here.
Every Democrat opposed Patel, joined by only two Republicans.
Patel’s actions surrounding not only the release of the Epstein files, but the murder of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk have shown that even Trump supporters should regret this pick.
Remember, before becoming FBI Director, Patel said House Republicans should “put on your big boy pants” and release information from the Epstein files. However, since assuming the post of FBI Director, Patel claims that “all credible information” has been released. His former MAGA cohorts do not believe him.
Then there is the Kirk investigation. From the very beginning, Patel undermined public confidence in it. Hours after the shooting, Patel tweeted that “the subject” in Kirk’s killing was “in custody.” An hour and a half later, he posted a follow-up admitting that the initial suspect had been released.
That wasn’t law enforcement — it was posturing and a PR disaster that undermined the bureau’s credibility at a time when truth was most urgent.
The next morning, Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino held a profanity-laced phone call with law enforcement officials around the country, in which Patel called out subordinates for not giving him information sooner, according to The New York Times, which cited three people familiar with the call.
When the FBI announced it had taken suspect Tyler Robinson into custody, Patel ended the press conference by adding, “To my friend, Charlie Kirk, rest now, brother. We have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
The inconsistent and incoherent actions and demonstrations by the FBI director needlessly politicized the arrest of the prime suspect. This week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel, who had been called to testify about the Kirk investigation and other issues with the agency, attacked his critics in Congress in a manner not befitting his position.
His shouting match with California Sen. Adam Schiff — in which Patel called him “the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate” and “a political buffoon” — demonstrated once again Patel has neither the temperament nor the skills to take responsibility for his leadership of the FBI. He similarly attacked Rep. Eric Swalwell on Wednesday, at one point singing the alphabet song while demanding he spell out a question he refused to answer.
But the truth is, after angering the MAGA faithful and mishandling the Kirk investigation and lashing out at his congressional critics, Patel will face no real repercussions.
That’s the era we live in: the age of no accountability. No one in this administration pays a price for anything they say or do. People get sick, and no one is accountable. Citizens are detained or disappeared from their community without probable cause, and no one is accountable. Officials lie or hide from their constituents, and no one is accountable. Trump wields power like a cudgel, and no one is accountable. And when Patel predictably stumbles, nothing happens. His response is to call a senator with oversight of the FBI a “buffoon.”
Kash Patel’s record is already a litany of failures and abuses that would disqualify anyone else from leading a federal law enforcement agency. He has mishandled the release of the Epstein files, politicized the bureau and injected conspiracy rhetoric into the country’s premier investigative agency. Each of these on its own would corrode public trust. Together, they have gutted the FBI’s credibility and eroded the very safeguards meant to protect us from violence, corruption and abuse of power.
And yet nothing changes. Why? Because in this Washington, the only thing that matters is what Donald Trump wants. Patel won’t be forced out over incompetence, dishonesty, or even endangering investigations.
And that is the danger of Kash Patel and others like him in this administration. Not just their unfitness for office, but the grim reality that our institutions, our checks and balances, and even our collective outrage no longer carry weight. We are left with this bitter truth: nothing short of Trump’s whim will decide Patel’s fate. Until we stop pretending otherwise, we will keep “finding out” the hard way.
For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch “The Weeknight” every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
