Washington Week with The Atlantic is produced every Friday and is a great way to cap off the political week.
Of course there was plenty of discussion of Trump's feud with the pope and Trump's dubious war with Iran. But there was also talk about Kash Patel's hopelessly bad running (even by Trump administration standards) of the FBI. This coincides with a just published article at The Atlantic.
A few excerpts.
The FBI Director Is MIA
Patel’s spotty attendance at the office and the eagerness with which he’s embraced the perks and travel that come with the job have also been sources of concern at the White House. Some in the West Wing have followed the headlines about Patel’s use of the FBI jet for personal matters—as well as the whispers about his love of partying—and said that they fear that Trump would react badly were he to focus on those storylines. [ ... ] Patel’s drinking is no secret. While on official travel to Italy in February, he was filmed chugging beer with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team following their gold-medal victory. The incident prompted the president—who does not drink and whose brother died following a long struggle with alcoholism—to call the FBI director to convey his unhappiness, according to two officials familiar with the call. But officials told me that Patel’s alcohol use goes far beyond the occasional beer. FBI officials and others in the administration have privately questioned whether alcohol played a role in the instances in which he shared inaccurate information about active law-enforcement investigations, including following the murder of Charlie Kirk. [ ... ] Officials have grown accustomed to such behavior, and they have learned to roll their eyes at it. But they said that the absurdity masks real concerns about what Patel’s leadership has meant for an institution that the country relies on for national security and the safety of its citizens. “Part of me is glad he’s wasting his time on bullshit, because it’s less dangerous for rule of law, for the American public,” one official told me, “but it also means we don’t have a real functioning FBI director.”
A reminder that in 2016, Trump proclaimed, "I'm going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people.". Yet his administration spirals ever downwards into a black hole of incompetence, stupidity and malfeasance.
