Paranoid freak-out, excessive drinking: Report describes erratic Kash Patel leading FBI

0:02 HAPPEN ON A FRIDAY, BIG STORIES BREAK

0:05 ON TALKING ABOUT THE DEMOCRATS ON A FRIDAY.

0:06 AS I JUST MENTIONED WITH CHRIS,

0:07 BUT IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, THERE IS SOME BREAKING NEWS,

0:11 THIS ABSOLUTELY BONKER STORY STORY THAT JUST POSTED TONIGHT CONCERNING,

0:15 WELL, THE CLOWN CAR OF PEOPLE WHO MAKE UP TRUMP'S CABINET.

0:18 AND I MEAN, THIS TIME IT'S REALLY FOCUSED ON FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL.

0:22 AND IT'S AN EXPLOSIVE NEW STORY IN THE ATLANTIC THAT JUST POSTED.

0:25 IT CITES DOZENS OF F .B .I.

0:26 SOURCES WHICH IS A BIG DEAL, IT'S NOT,

0:28 IT'S A LOT OF SOURCES IN THIS STORY DETAILING NEW ALLEGATIONS ABOUT

0:32 PATEL INCLUDING SOME SOURCES WHO SAY PATEL IS FREQUENTLY DRUNK ON the job,

0:38 regularly absent from work and paranoid about getting fired.

0:41 And there's quite an anecdote about that we're going to talk about.

0:44 And I'm just going to read you a few of the key passages because

0:47 I think that will tell you everything you need to know about this story.

0:49 Here's one.

0:50 Several officials told The Atlantic that Patel's drinking has

0:53 been a recurring source of concern across the government.

0:56 Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later

1:00 in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled NIGHTS,

1:03 SIX CURRENT AND FORMER OFFICIALS AND OTHERS

1:06 FAMILIAR WITH PATEL'S SCHEDULE TOLD THE ATLANTIC.

1:09 AS A SIDEBAR, NOT NORMAL.

1:10 EV WORKED IN TWO ADMINISTRATIONS.

1:13 AGAIN, BACK TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HIS SECURITY DETAILS

1:18 HAD DIFFICULTY WAKING PATEL BECAUSE HE WAS SEEMINGLY INTOXICATED.

1:23 THIS IS WHAT CHRIS WAS REFERENCING AND THAT'S ACCORDING

1:25 TO INFORMATION SUPPLIED TO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND White House officials.

1:28 A request for breaching equipment, normally used by SWAT and hostage rescue

1:34 teams to quickly gain entry into buildings,

1:37 was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind

1:40 locked doors according to multiple people familiar with the request.

1:44 Multiple officials also tell The Atlantic that Patel is

1:48 deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy well

1:51 like that's understandable and one incident earlier this month

1:55 Patel struggled to log into an internal computer system he

1:58 quickly became convinced that he had been locked out

2:01 and he panicked frantically calling AIDS and allies to announce

2:04 that he had been fired by the White House

2:07 according to nine people familiar with his outreach, nine people.

2:11 Now the access problem turned out to quote have been

2:14 a technical error and it was quickly resolved and that's

2:16 according to two people familiar with the matter now I

2:20 should note MSNOW has not independently verified any of this reporting.

2:23 We've reached out to the FBI for comment and if we get

2:26 a response over the next hour I will surely let you know

2:29 as soon as we get a response but I should note the FBI

2:32 responded to The Atlantic with a graceful

2:34 and eloquent statement attributed to Patel, and here's what he said.

2:38 Print it.

2:39 All false.

2:40 I'll see you in court.

2:41 Bring your checkbook.

2:42 Graceful.

2:43 Eloquent.

2:43 Okay.

2:44 Joining me now is the reporter who broke that story,

2:47 staff writer for The Atlantic, Sarah Fitzpatrick.

2:50 First of all, Sarah, I'm so grateful you could be here because we saw

2:52 this story and we reached out and we were like,

2:54 can you come talk to us about it?

2:55 And here you are.

2:56 I want to talk to you about all the details of this bombshell report,

3:00 I just skimmed the story, the top, the service there, I should say.

3:03 But first I just want to give you an opportunity to respond to this reaction

3:06 to your piece because Patel's advisor

3:08 Erica Knight called your piece fabricated stories.

3:11 She said that every Every serious D .C.

3:14 reporter passed on, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Jeffrey Goldberg printed it anyway.

3:18 Lawsuit is being filed.

3:19 What do you say to that?

3:21 I say that I am a very careful, very diligent,

3:24 award-winning investigative reporter with a history

3:27 of award-winning work across multiple organizations.

3:29 You and I, in fact, have worked together previously.

3:31 I stand by every word of this reporting.

3:34 We have excellent attorneys.

3:36 And, you know, it is a surprise━it is a surprising statement,

3:39 but a very telling statement, I believe, from━and I would also note,

3:43 we reached out for comment to the White House and to the Justice Department,

3:46 neither of which disputed anything.

3:49 We gave multiple opportunities, including 19 detailed, detailed questions.

3:53 So we stand by every word.

3:55 And look, this is telling because there are so many people.

4:01 You alluded to it earlier.

4:02 These are not the types of people.

4:04 who are willing to speak out outside of the FBI, especially right now,

4:10 because Kash Patel is going after people with polygraphs

4:14 in a way that has never happened at the Bureau.

4:17 So for it to be this level of alarm,

4:19 this is people genuinely concerned that America is

4:22 a danger as a result of this conduct.

4:25 And I feel, you know,

4:26 a real responsibility to take care of that reporting incredibly carefully

4:30 and the Atlantic is nothing but diligent and we have amazing lawyers and amazing

4:35 editors and I stand by every word I'm not surprised in any way

4:39 by their response I will I will say and you as you said

4:42 you know it and I noted nine sources for the opening anecdote

4:45 of the story as well let's get into some of the details about

4:50 this because but Patel's excessive drinking seems to be what is alarming a lot

4:53 of the sources and here there are MULTIPLE ANECDOTES THAT REFER TO THAT.

4:57 THAT'S UNDERSTANDABLE.

4:58 THEY'RE MOVING MEETINGS.

4:59 PEOPLE COULDN'T WAKE HIM.

5:00 WHAT MORE HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT THE EXTENT OF HIS DRINKING HABITS

5:04 AND HOW IT SEEMS TO BE AFFECTING HIS ABILITY TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR?

5:08 Victor?

5:09 I think the key point is that this is happening in places in which it is public.

5:13 There are lots and lots of people around who are seeing it,

5:16 who are hearing about it, who are learning about it.

5:18 For example, we have video of Patel chugging a beer, 2XS, on video.

5:24 We've all seen it.

5:25 Everybody's seen it.

5:26 Yes.

5:27 And I think it speaks to, you know, he was on official travel at that time.

5:31 There were ongoing threats in the United States at that time.

5:34 So, you know, I'm going to go back to it because the excerpt I just read,

5:51 just to remind people, a request for breaching equipment normally used

5:54 by SWAT and hostage rescue teams to quickly

5:57 gain entry into buildings was made last year

5:59 because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors.

6:02 according to multiple people familiar with this request.

6:05 I find that, I mean, I've traveled with two presidents.

6:08 I've worked in the government.

6:10 I've worked in the State Department.

6:12 Shocking, really?

6:13 People should feel shocked by THIS IS NOT A 22-YEAR-OLD WHO'S IRRESPONSIBLE,

6:19 WHO'S ON A TRIP AND SHOULD BE BEHAVING BETTER.

6:21 THIS IS THE FBI DIRECTOR.

6:22 CAN YOU TELL US MORE JUST ABOUT THAT SCENE OR PAINT

6:25 IT FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT YET READ YOUR STORY?

6:27 I THINK THE MOST important thing here is

6:29 that most national security officials at this caliber,

6:32 or even several layers below,

6:34 those types of people sleep with their phones on their chest.

6:37 They are so concerned because they need to be reachable immediately,

6:41 because there are life or death decisions that have to be made quickly.

6:45 There may be threats in which they need to be moved quickly.

6:48 And so this timing aspect,

6:49 the ability to reach that person quickly and make sure that they are responsive.

6:55 I think this is a request that was not made lightly,

6:59 and I think it's the fact that it was made and that it was well known,

7:04 I think because of that level of concern,

7:07 really tells you about, you know, the kind of larger picture here.

7:11 And look, you have a...

7:12 The FBI is...

7:13 You and I both know so many people

7:15 that have given their lives to this organization.

7:17 This is a place protecting...

7:19 Are still giving their lives, to be clear.

7:21 Are still giving their lives.

7:22 Yes, and the threats have never been higher.

7:24 The risks have never been higher.

7:25 And so you have a group of people that have totally, like,

7:29 the biggest fear would be that something could happen to this person.

7:33 And I think they take that responsibility incredibly seriously,

7:36 but that's not, that goes beyond the entire organization.

7:40 You have an organization that is dependent on this person being available,

7:43 being cogent and being able to quickly respond

7:46 to multiple things all at the same time.

7:49 The opening anecdote of the story was

7:52 incredibly striking for a number of reasons.

7:55 I mean, because you describe this freak out in HE

7:58 THINKS HE WAS LOCKED OUT OF HE THINKS HE WAS INTOXICATED,

8:01 HE THINKS HE WAS LOCKED OUT OF AN FBI.

8:02 HE WAS NOT IN THAT CASE.

8:05 IT JUST BROKE.

8:06 I'M TRYING TO REMEMBER ALL the details of it.

8:08 Thank you for correcting me there.

8:09 But he thought he was locked out of an FBI computer system.

8:12 He grew incredibly paranoid, thought he was going to be fired.

8:16 It turned out to be a technical issue.

8:17 Talk about that level of paranoia, what But that tells you why it was important

8:22 to kind of lead with that anecdote in the story.

8:24 The anecdote was just incredibly telling for a couple of reasons.

8:27 One is that it set off such a panic within the FBI and within Washington,

8:32 it set off a panic in Congress.

8:34 The White House was fielding calls.

8:36 I mean, there was a real under lack of understanding

8:39 about who was in charge at a given moment,

8:41 which as you know, as a former member of government is

8:43 an incredibly important who is in charge at a given moment.

8:47 But I also think it speaks to character

8:50 and impulsivity and the ability to, you know,

8:53 be in a stressful situation and think about what those next steps are.

8:57 And I think it is also emblematic of other occasions that we have seen

9:01 that are very public in which information has been shared by the FBI director,

9:06 which was not yet that went beyond what the investigation was ready

9:11 to make public at that time and that later had to be walked back.

9:14 And in multiple cases that we have seen,

9:16 all very publicly reported, the fact that this has impacted the investigation,

9:21 this has impacted their ability to pursue people that were,

9:26 you know, potentially mass shooters or other things of that nature.

9:29 So I think it's just, it's a very,

9:32 it is an exam, it was a very telling anecdote,

9:35 but it's not unusual for those that are

9:37 familiar with his behavior and his temperament.

9:40 Erratic is not what you want in that job,

9:42 but they need stability and it's, that, that's what you need in that job.

9:46 But also remember that, you know,

9:48 there's a bit of an irony here, which is that the whole,

9:51 one of the major purposes within our legal system is that the FBI comes

9:54 in often when you are in court

9:56 and comes in and they are providing the information,

9:58 swearing that it is fact under law.

10:02 There's so much work that goes on into putting

10:05 a fact into the public record in lawsuit.

10:08 And so, again, the jumping ahead of waiting

10:12 for verification is just incredibly telling because

10:14 every other FBI employee if they were to make that same mistake would be fired.

10:19 Incredible.

10:20 That's what they're taught through their whole

10:22 careers is to operate in that manner.

10:23 Patel's been now in office for 14 months.

10:26 He clearly almost almost 14 months trying to hold on to this job.

10:31 Why do you think he's still there?

10:32 It's interesting.

10:33 I think that he has a very close at times

10:36 a very close relationship with the president and the president views

10:40 the Justice Department as a means to go after his political

10:44 perceived political enemies and punish them either by harassment you know

10:50 expensive legal suits by firing them from jobs believing that there

10:54 are deep state people within the Justice within the national

10:57 security and the justice system so I think that Patel has

11:00 been very willing to take those requests those orders that come

11:05 directly from the president and use the resources of the FBI

11:09 took to direct them towards those kinds of personal projects

11:13 of the president and that's really really important here because you

11:17 only have so many people you only have so much time

11:20 and you have to decide as the FBI director are

11:22 you pulling people away from following a terrorist are you pulling

11:27 people away from monitoring people who are abusing children are you

11:31 pulling people away from other crimes that are really really significant

11:35 and kept massive harm and I spoke to so many

11:38 officials who said to me this is what I worry about

11:41 at night I cannot sleep at night because I'm worried

11:43 that I may have pulled something away from somewhere and I've had

11:47 to re reorganize something and people may be harmed

11:50 as a result and so I think that was the really sobering

11:53 thing that stuck with me throughout this reporting that I would

11:56 want every American watching to really think about because we are

11:59 at a moment of unprecedented threats that is not an overstatement

12:03 we have unprecedented threats and we only have we have

12:06 to make sure that our resources are used accordingly Sarah Fitzpatrick

12:10 this is a really incredible story everybody should read it just

12:13 to understand who's running our government right now thank you so

12:16 much for hustling your way over here and helping really give

12:19 us more more meat on the bones of the piece thank

12:21 you again thanks for having me okay now I want to turn