FBI Director Kash Patel tried to turn a tense congressional showdown over his alleged drinking problem into a defiant back-and-forth Tuesday, but the exchange quickly spiraled into something far more embarrassing after questions about a $7,000 Washington bar tab and his behavior behind the scenes took center stage.
Patel is now set to take an alcohol dependency test alongside a Maryland Democrat following the fiery hearing.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, questioned Patel about whether he had drunk too much and used government funds for personal travel, including the Winter Olympics in Milan in February, USA Today reported.
“Director Patel, these reports about your conduct, including reports of your being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home, are extremely alarming,” Van Hollen said.
The Democrat referenced a story in The Atlantic, which Patel has said is false, to raise questions about Patel’s drinking.
The FBI director has since launched a defamation suit over the story in The Atlantic.
“When your private actions make it impossible for you to perform your public duties, we have a big problem. You cannot perform those public duties if you’re incapacitated,” Van Hollen said.
The questions set the FBI director off, who went on the attack. At one point during the tense exchange, Patel accused the two-term senator of drinking margaritas.
It was during a visit to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was deported there in violation of a judge’s order and imprisoned.
“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted, gang-banging rapist was you,” Patel erupted on C-SPAN. “The only person that ran up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington, D.C., at the Lobby Bar was you.”
Van Hollen fired back about the bar tab accusation, “You got me, I catered a holiday reception for my staff with campaign — not taxpayer — dollars!”
He later said that while he gave Patel the chance to respond to the allegations, “in the process, you made these provably false statements that I know are sort of like urban legend in right-wing media about margaritas in El Salvador, which is provably false.”
Van Hollen also repeatedly told Patel that lying to Congress was a crime. The director insisted he had not perjured himself.
The Hill reports Van Hollen maintained the margaritas were an obvious stunt by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
When he returned from El Salvador in April, Van Hollen noted Abrego Garcia’s glass appeared to have less in it to give the impression that he’d been drinking out of it, according to The Hill.
“Let me just be very clear: Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us,” he said at the time.
The Atlantic published another report detailing that Patel had given out personalized bourbon bottles.
People online had a lot to say about the exchange.
“All the Trump cabinet members do is lie, the Maryland guy has never been convicted of any crimes,” @rayl45879 said on X.
“Trump picks the finest people. MAGA should be proud,” @nickoftime26 added.
“You’d think he would’ve learned something from Bondi’s abysmal performance. Nope,” added @Weams1972.
“He’s embarrassing your country by behaving like an angry teenager, childish and immature. He’s too emotional to do this job,” @drevej1 wrote on X.
The Hill reports the test Van Hollen and Patel are set to take is one called for by House Judiciary Democrats, who pushed the director to take the 10-question survey.
Van Hollen agreed to Patel’s terms, who said he would only take it if the senator would also submit to it.
“Let’s go,” Patel said. “Side by side.”
Van Hollen posted his results on Threads and X Wednesday morning.
“Yesterday, FBI Director Kash Patel told me he’d take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test if I did. Well, here’s mine,” Van Hollen wrote. “Given all the lies he told yesterday, I imagine he’ll fudge the numbers here, but let’s see yours, Director Patel.”
There’s no word on when Patel will take his test.
However, the document is self-assessed and subjective, and “is only as accurate and reliable as the person filling it out,” one critic points out.
And according to MS Now’s Jen Psaki, Patel has never been shy in the past about his desire and love for alcohol. Paski played a compilation of clips showing Patel bragging about drinking or encouraging others to do so on air Tuesday.
