Kash Patel has had a long week.
The FBI director and frequent social media poster faced scrutiny for how he handled the Charlie Kirk assassination investigation, including from members of his own party. Conservative activist Chris Rufo posted on X: “We would be wise to take a moment and ask whether Kash Patel has what it takes to get this done.”
Before he was President Donald Trump’s pick for FBI director, Patel was a lawyer and national security aide in Trump’s first term. Not only that, but he was a MAGA golden child, reported conspiracy theorist, and big-time critic of the FBI, wanting the headquarters shut down on day one, and reopened “the next day as a museum of the deep state.”
Patel had several stumbles early on in the Kirk investigation, posting on X that the FBI had someone in custody, only for officials in Utah to announce, around the same time, that they were still looking for the suspect. He was then called to Capitol Hill to testify in front of the Senate and the House, where he spent two days being grilled by lawmakers about the Epstein files, among other things.
To make sense of Patel’s recent blunders — and why Trump is backing him anyway — Today, Explained’s Sean Rameswaram talked to Axios White House reporter Marc Caputo.
Below is an excerpt of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. Listen to Today, Explained wherever you get podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
We’ve come to you today to ask you how happy the Republicans are with the job Kash Patel is doing. Clearly, Democrats on Capitol Hill, not very happy. How about Republicans?
The most prominent voice online criticizing Kash Patel’s performance was Chris Rufo. Rufo had, like a lot of people, just really disliked the performative nature of Patel online. And there are a few other conservatives in the administration who shared the belief. They just think that Patel is a little too much on Twitter or on X or on social media and sort of not more of your traditional hang-back, don’t-say-too-much FBI director.
What do they want to see Kash Patel doing as director of the FBI?
Just catching more bad guys. The big thing that is animating the right broadly is the idea that there are a number of leftist groups and organizations who are funneling money to violent, disruptive protests and illegal activity. And those need to be investigated, busted up, and the perpetrators of these alleged crimes brought to justice.
There are those who believe that the FBI has too many deep staters and more firings need to happen. What just happened prior to the murder of Charlie Kirk, there was a lawsuit filed by three former FBI agents who alleged that their firing was illegal and unlawful [that] portrayed Kash Patel as sort of bumbling in his job and not knowing what he’s doing.
That’s the sort of downside of the mass firings. The upside of the mass firings is that is what the conservative MAGA base wants. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, had sort of leapt to the fore with that. She got in office and dismissed a lot of people. Kash Patel hasn’t done as many firings, and in the MAGA mind, that has been a mistake.
A lot of people were worried that Trump was going to remake the FBI in his image, and that of course would be an image of not only a president, but a convicted felon. Has Kash Patel yet accomplished that or is that still to come or is it unclear?
Oh no, I think a lot of these agencies, bureaus, whatever you want to call them, they have career service employees who are harder to fire, harder to dismiss. They have their own culture, history, and institutions, and perhaps none as storied and as solid as the FBI. The ability to really change that is going to be difficult.
I’m not saying it’s not happening, but I know that people in Patel’s orbit have bemoaned how difficult it is to change things. One of them told me it’s like an asylum over here. So the “deep state” — I’m putting that in air quotes — is still resisting the Trump attempt to take over.
So it sounds like Kash Patel has lots of static with various people in this administration, with various people in the base. Does he have allies?
Among the people who wanted Kash Patel to become FBI director was Charlie Kirk. He advocated for him. Kirk had a very close relationship with Donald Trump, was very involved in the transition. Really, the closest person to Patel is Rick Grinnell, who was an ambassador and then the acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, who is now a special envoy, including to Venezuela.
He and Kash Patel have a very close and good relationship. That was probably the closest thing to his upper-level sponsor. I understand from one source that Trump [last week] went golfing with Kash Patel and a Newsmax personality. So there was sort of a bonding moment there on the links with the president, and from what I’m told, all went well.
And of course, it’s only that person at the top who matters in this administration. How’s Trump feeling about Kash Patel, in light of recent events in Utah, the hearings on Capitol Hill this week?
Donald Trump likes a winner, and in Trump’s mind, they got the guy [who killed Charlie Kirk]. Kash Patel has made a good argument as to him owning a share of the responsibility or being able to claim credit for catching the suspect by releasing his photo early. And one of the things that you’ll look at and notice in conservative or right-wing press is a very clear and very smart campaign by Kash Patel and the various people at the FBI and his orbit to make sure that he’s getting credit for that. And who reads conservative media, conservative publications, and pays attention to conservative influencers? Donald Trump!
What is Kash Patel doing that Donald Trump likes? It certainly can’t just be that he raised his voice a bunch of times at Adam Schiff and Cory Booker this week on Capitol Hill.
Donald Trump likes his people engaged and active in the fight. When [New Jersey Democratic Sen.] Cory Booker comes out there and says, “Oh, you’re not going to be here much longer. You’re gonna get fired.” When Donald Trump hears something like that, “Oh, Cory Booker thinks he should go. Well, I guess I’m going to keep him.”
And then secondly, when Patel and Booker went at it, and there was a sort of shouting match and going back and forth, and he held his own. … Donald Trump likes that stuff. He wants people engaged in the fighting; he wants them to mix it up. He wants them to go after Democrats, counterpunch, and hit hard. And Kash Patel does that.
