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The Briefing with Jen Psaki

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

The Briefing with Jen Psaki

MS NOW, Jen Psaki

News, Ms Now, Versant, Politics, Versant Media

4.4974 Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2026

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah Fitzpatrick, staff writer for The Atlantic, talks with Jen Psaki about her new reporting about a bizarre freak-out by FBI director Kash Patel when he thought being unable to log into his work computer meant he'd been fired by Donald Trump, and episodes of excessive drinking that alarmed his FBI colleagues.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I don't know. I feel like things always happen on a Friday. Big stories break on a Friday. And as I just mentioned with Chris, but in case you haven't seen it, there is some breaking news, this absolutely bonkers story that just posted tonight concerning, well, the clown car of people who make up Trump's cabinet. And I mean, this time, it's really focused on FBI director Cash Patel.

0:21.3

And it's an explosive new story in the Atlantic that just posted. It cites dozens of FBI sources,

0:26.5

which is a big deal. It's not, it's a lot of sources in this story, detailing new allegations about

0:32.1

Patel, including some sources who say Patel is frequently drunk on the job, regularly absent from work, and paranoid about

0:40.1

getting fired. And there's quite an anecdote about that we're going to talk about. And I'm just

0:44.2

going to read you a few of the key passages, because I think that will tell you everything you need to

0:48.0

know about this story. Here's one. Several officials told the Atlantic that Patel's drinking has been

0:52.9

a recurring source of concern

0:54.7

across the government. Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later

0:59.4

in the day. As a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others

1:05.6

familiar with Patel's schedule told the Atlantic, as a sidebar, not normal. I've normal ever into administrations. Again, back to the

1:13.8

quote. On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking

1:19.3

Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated. This was Chris was just referencing. And that's according to

1:24.9

information supplied to Justice Department and White House

1:27.5

officials. A request for breaching equipment, normally used by SWAT and hostage rescue teams to

1:34.5

quickly gain entry into buildings, was made last year because Patel had been unreachable

1:39.2

behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request. Multiple officials also tell

1:45.9

the Atlantic that Patel is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. Well, that's understandable.

1:52.3

And one incident earlier this month, Patel struggled to log into an internal computer system.

1:57.5

He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically

2:02.2

calling AIDS and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to

2:06.9

nine people familiar with his outreach, nine people. Now, the access problem turned out to,

...

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