It has been almost 80 days since FBI Director Kash Patel started in his position, and the worst complaint the media can lob at him is that he doesn’t do meetings the same way his predecessors did.
NBC News published a hit piece seemingly aimed at giving the impression that Patel does not take his job seriously because, apparently, they can’t find any other line of attack that might work.
The article started out by detailing how Patel’s approach to meetings is different from his predecessors.
For decades, the head of the FBI has attended a daily 8:30 a.m. “director’s brief,” where he is presented the most important intelligence and law enforcement information gleaned from thousands of agents and analysts across the country, current and former FBI officials say.
And on Wednesday afternoons, the FBI director or his deputy held a secure video teleconference with the leaders of field offices across the country to share information about bureau priorities.
But that schedule has changed under FBI Director Kash Patel. Unlike his recent predecessors, Patel is receiving the “director’s brief” two days a week, according to two current officials with direct knowledge and two former FBI and Justice Department officials familiar with the matter. Patel has also stopped holding the weekly Wednesday-afternoon video teleconference with FBI leaders, one current and one former FBI official said.
Patel’s approach to his new job has raised concerns that he is not taking the position seriously enough, a dozen current and former DOJ and FBI officials told NBC News.
Officials who worked on the morning director’s briefings were told that the schedule was changed because Patel sometimes failed to arrive on time, said two current and two former FBI and Justice Department officials familiar with the matter.
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Gadzooks! The new FBI director schedules his meetings differently from others who previously held the position, and sometimes shows up late. This is certainly a case for impeachment, is it not? Countless lives must have been lost because of this, right?
The article further details how Patel has come under fire for attending sporting events and hanging out with famous people.
At the same time, Patel has drawn attention for regularly appearing with celebrities at professional sporting events around the country, according to flight logs and social media posts.
Since taking office on Feb. 20, Patel appears to have made three flights on FBI planes to Nashville, Tennessee, where his girlfriend, a country singer, lives; two flights to Las Vegas, where he has a home; and one flight to New York, where he attended a professional hockey game. FBI policy in recent years has mandated that directors fly on government aircraft for security reasons.
Okay, I’ll concede this point. Using FBI planes to attend sporting events isn’t a good look. The government shouldn’t be using the money it takes from us to fly officials around the country for recreational purposes.
Still, the article acknowledges that the meetings issue is overblown. An FBI spokesman told the outlet that Patel has not been tardy for meetings and that he attends five morning confabs each week. He further indicated that others in the FBI suggested rearranging their meetings, not Patel.
But is that all? Not really. According to NBC News, a few people indicated that Patel “sometimes seemed uninterested in the material” and that “his intelligence briefers are struggling to craft a briefing that captures his attention.”
What does this even mean? In what ways has Patel indicated he is not interested in doing his job? There is no detail here, which suggests that these agents could have been stretching their fingers out to take hold of the elusive straws they desperately wish to grasp.
The article then uses a well-used tactic, claiming that even supporters of President Donald Trump believe there’s an issue.
Some former FBI officials — including some who are supporters of President Donald Trump — have questioned Patel’s dedication to the job.
“When you look at the things that people in America value about Donald Trump, if nothing else, it’s the incredible amount of work ethic that he has,” said Kyle Seraphin, a conservative former FBI special agent who had a close relationship with Patel but has since become a critic. “Then you’ve got Kash Patel, who’s apparently taking time doing sports events, doing lots of public appearances, popping up with FIFA, going to UFC, flying around in our private jet.”
A longtime Patel associate who asked not to be named defended the new director. “I’ve known Kash for a long time,” they said. “The only thing he’s doing late into the night is going to the gym.”
I don’t know who this “associate” is, but I do know Seraphin, who has been an ardent critic of Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino since they took office. In Bongino’s case, Seraphin has continuously blasted the former conservative podcaster. This line of attack wasn't all that compelling.
As if the previous criticisms weren’t nitpicky enough, NBC News also complains that instead of receiving “an oral and written version of the President’s Daily Brief (PDB),” Patel just takes the written form. Oh my stars and garters!
Yet, another FBI official who attended the meetings with Patel told NBC that the director “asks tons of questions and pushes staff to get to the point and present solutions.”
He further stated, “To a bad-faith individual who loves to bloviate and gossip to NBC News, that might come off as lack of interest. It’s not. It’s being efficient with time and wanting to fix problems.”
Anyone who has worked in corporate America for any length of time knows this is true.
As much as I am critical of the FBI — and will continue to be — this is a nothingburger. It certainly isn’t as egregious as an FBI director who presided over the labeling of parents concerned about what schools are teaching their kids as “domestic terrorists,” is it?
Patel switching up meetings isn’t nearly as egregious as targeting traditional Catholics based on their religious beliefs from where I sit. Also, sending armed men to conduct raids on the homes of pro-life protesters isn’t great either. So, if this is the worst of the current iteration of the FBI, then perhaps NBC News might want to find something else to whine about.
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