FBI Director Kash Patel is taking heat for partying with U.S. Olympians during a work trip as his office faces multiple crises at home.
Patel, 45, has come under fire after videos showed him chugging beer and singing an anthem alongside the U.S. men’s hockey team in a locker room after their win over Team Canada at the Winter Olympics in Milan.
The FBI director’s partying flies in the face of his agency’s insistence that the trip—for which Patel used the FBI’s private jet—is not personal and focused on security meetings. It also comes as American tourists in several Mexican tourist hotspots were issued shelter-in-place warnings after the death of the country’s most wanted cartel boss. Meanwhile, Patel is also facing heat over the ongoing case of missing 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie.
Former The View host Meghan McCain led the way in criticism, commenting on a video of Patel partying, “Does Kash Patel ever work?”
The video of Patel’s chest-thumping celebration in the locker room also drew outrage from current and former FBI agents, MS NOW reported.
“Current and former FBI officials we speak to cannot imagine any previous FBI director thinking it would be appropriate to stick taxpayers with the bill for a Walter Mitty moment,” MS NOW reporter Ken Dilanian wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Jessica Tarlov, co-host on Fox News’ The Five, recalled President Donald Trump’s largely unsuccessful crusade against waste and fraud in the federal government.
“Where’s DOGE when you need it?” Tarlov wrote on X.
Steve Baker, a reporter for the conservative outlet The Blaze, panned Patel’s spokesman Ben Williamson, who had claimed that MS NOW and CBS “purposefully misled people to think Kash was flying to Italy to hang out at the Olympics.”
“Ummm … what was that you said, @_WilliamsonBen?” Baker wrote.
Williamson dismissed MS NOW’s reporting in a post made to X late Sunday night, refuting claims that Patel only traveled to Milan for hockey and reiterating that any personal expenses would be reimbursed. “It is NOT accurate to say he’s flying out on government funds for a personal trip,” Williamson wrote in an email sent to MS NOW on Feb. 19 that he shared in the post.
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat, commented, “While Americans are facing rising costs. Trump, Kash Patel, and others are using our taxpayer dollars to fund their lavish lifestyle.”
Former Obama staffer and Pod Save America co-host Tommy Vietor wrote on X, “Your tax dollars paid for this dipshit to fly on a Gulfstream G550 to Milan to cosplay as an olympian.”
“Can someone in Congress please subpoena how much Patel’s make-a-wish trip cost us?”
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office also joined in, sharing a photo of Patel drinking a beer in the locker room on X and writing, “He’s ‘releasing’ the ‘files’”.
The Daily Beast has contacted the FBI for comment.
Others online slammed Patel for partying amid the nationwide search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie, Savannah Guthrie’s abducted mother, and as Americans in tourist hotspots in Mexico were told to shelter in place after the country’s top drug lord was killed on Sunday.
Additionally, as he was watching the final in Milan, Patel posted on X about the armed man who was shot and killed while attempting to gain access to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“FBI is dedicating all necessary resources in the investigation of this morning’s incident at President Trump’s Mar-A-Lago – where an armed individual was shot and killed after unlawfully entering the perimeter,” Patel wrote from Arena Milano. “We will continue working closely with @SecretService as well our state and federal partners and will provide updates as we are able.”
Much of MAGA, for the most part, was supportive of Patel’s partying. White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung called out critics for being “mad because America won.” Others expressed similar sentiments.
Hours later, Patel tried to play it cool while addressing the backlash in an X post he shared just before 2 a.m. local time.
“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 X. “Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth. 👊🏼🏒”
Patel has previously faced criticism for what people view as his excessive and inappropriate use of the FBI’s fleet of private jets, including to attend other hockey games and go on dates with his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins.
Prior to his Italian getaway, Patel and Wilkins spent Valentine’s Day weekend together in New York City to attend a wedding as 2500 miles away, the FBI’s search for Nancy Guthrie continued to come up empty.
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