Kash Patel Gets Grilled on His Drinking Habits in Senate Hearing
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Sam Stein and Will Sommer give their takes on the explosive Senate hearing where Senator Chris Van Hollen pressed FBI Director Kash Patel over his reported heavy drinking, leak hunts, and polygraph tests inside the FBI. What started as a bizarre exchange about an alcohol “AUDIT test” quickly spiraled into accusations, evasions, and some very awkward denials. The two unpack Patel’s combative performance, the administration’s growing paranoia over leaks, and why Donald Trump may see Patel as too useful to lose, no matter how chaotic things get.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone. It's me, Sam Stein again with Will Summer, and we're sadly a little late to this, |
| 0:04.8 | but it was worth doing anyway. We were watching the hearing, avert hearing involving |
| 0:09.3 | ATF and FBI personnel in the Senate. And FBI director of Cash Patel got into it with |
| 0:15.8 | Senator Chris Van Hollen about a host of things. But the most explosive stuff was around Cash Patel's alleged drinking, although I guess it's not alleged because we did see him smash beers with like the hockey players. Right? Like we're like, guh, guh, guck, guck, guck, guck. Yeah. He is handing out bourbon bottles all over the place. So like semi-a-ledger drinking, I guess. |
| 0:38.0 | Anyways, let's play the clip and then we'll get into like the back and forth since then. |
| 0:41.5 | Are you willing to take the test that it's called the audit test that members of our active |
| 0:48.6 | duty, military and others take to determine whether they have a drinking problem? |
| 0:53.5 | I'll take any test you're willing to take. |
| 0:55.1 | I will take it, Dr. Patellois. |
| 0:57.1 | I'll take it. |
| 0:57.8 | You ready to take it? |
| 0:58.8 | Let's go. |
| 0:59.4 | Yes or no? |
| 1:00.3 | Let's go. |
| 1:01.0 | Side by side. |
| 1:02.1 | I'll take it. |
| 1:03.0 | Side by side. |
| 1:04.1 | I love the reveal of Cash because he looks pretty disheveled, to be honest. |
| 1:08.2 | He's kind of hunched over. |
| 1:09.2 | The top button. Yeah, top buttons open, ties a little askew. And he said, I'll think it he does. You're willing to take. |
| 1:29.5 | It is sort of the hoarse voice. Yeah, it does feel a little dishevelled. Had you ever heard of the audit test before? I had not. I mean, I've heard of similar tests about, you know, like, you know, how often, you know, does this, you know, does drinking affect your life? |
| 1:47.1 | And, and, you know, in this case, it says, you know, you kind of add up the numbers, you know, how many times has someone been hurt by your drinking or what have you? Yeah, it requires a level of honesty in the answer. So I'm not sure how effective. initially I was like is that like a like a fieldriety test? They're going to make him like say the alphabet backwards while touching his nose or something, |
... |
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