Kash Patel’s difficulties at the FBI certainly didn’t start last week, but his handling of Charlie Kirk’s shooting death hasn’t exactly helped the bureau’s hapless director.
On Wednesday afternoon, for example, Patel suggested via social media that Kirk’s shooter had been captured. That wasn’t just wrong, it also had the potential to undermine the investigation: People might’ve been discouraged from calling in tips after they saw the FBI director told the public that the suspect was no longer at large.
Patel was forced to walk back is mistake soon after, but the incident quickly led to criticisms from both the left and the right. Just as notable, however, were relevant details that soon followed. NBC News reported on Friday:
FBI Director Kash Patel was dining at Rao’s in New York on Wednesday night after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, two sources familiar with his whereabouts told NBC News. Patel had posted on X at 6:21 p.m. ET that the ‘subject’ in Kirk’s killing was ‘in custody.’ Rao’s, a well-known restaurant that is notoriously tough to get into, opens at 7 p.m. Then, at 7:59 p.m., Patel posted a follow-up post that the ‘subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.’
The reporting on his whereabouts certainly didn’t make Patel look any better, but the details also suggest that there were people within the FBI who were eager to alert the public to the embarrassing details of Patel’s mistake.
Around the same time, a current law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told NBC News that the “horrific event” of Kirk’s killing showcased Patel’s “public inability to meet the moment as a leader.”
Two days later, Fox News published a report with a headline that said “knives are out” for Patel — a Shakespearean metaphor suggesting that at least some of the director’s opponents are coming for him from within the FBI. The same report quoted one insider who added that the White House, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “have no confidence in Kash.”
That reporting has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, and the president himself continues to offer public praise for the FBI director.
Yet, as the ground beneath Patel’s feet appears less certain, former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is poised to be sworn in as the FBI’s first co-deputy director, a move that continues to be bizarre (since the FBI already has a deputy director in former podcast personality Dan Bongino) and that probably won’t help quiet the whispers about Patel’s future.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
