The FBI director Cash Patel is under fire. After videos of him chugging a beer and celebrating

with the men's U.S. hockey team in Italy yesterday were obtained by multiple news outlets.

The FBI had previously argued Patel's trip to Italy was for official travel, but critics are now questioning the optics of his visit amid broader questions about his leadership at the Bureau.

Patel pushed back on his critics saying in a post on X that he was, quote,

extremely humbled when the team invited him to celebrate its gold medal win.

For more on this, I'm joined now by Asha Rangappa.

She's a former FBI agent, now a lecture at Yale University. Asha, it's good to see you.

So as you know, the U.S. does have an official presence at the Olympics. We've seen Vice President

Vance and his family at ceremonies and events. But what did you make of this locker room video

of the FBI director in particular? Well, Amna, there's a leftover mantra from the Hoover days in the bureau,

which goes, never embarrass the bureau. And that was the guiding principle for us when we were out

in public, whenever we were interfacing with anyone. And I think that applies here. You know, the director was ostensibly out there for

official business. I think, you know, officials go to a big event like the Olympics. I think the

issue here is the decorum of, you know, partying it up with the team, if you will. I think it can lend itself to a perception of, you know, partying it up with the team, if you will, I think it can lend itself to a perception

that maybe, you know, this is not someone who's taking his role seriously or, you know,

not taking his job seriously. I just want to underscore something you're saying, because we've heard

from the FBI them making this point that he was there for official meetings. And we did see the U.S. ambassador to Italy today post some pictures of himself with Cash Patel saying, you know, thanking him for meeting with embassy team and with their Italian counterpart. So is this a situation where both can be true? He was there for official

meetings and also went to events and then ended up in the locker room celebrating in this way?

Yes, I think both things can be true. I'm not familiar with the specifics of the director's schedule,

but the FBI does have a global presence. And there are legal attaches in the U.S. embassies around the world.

And there may be reasons for the director to go to those embassies and to meet with other

intelligence officials in other countries as well. So that may be very well a part of his official

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