Former FBI director trashes Kash Patel's trip to the Olympics hockey final: 'Horrible message to the FBI rank and file'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Monday 23 February 2026 22:35 EST


A former top FBI official has sharply condemned Director Kash Patel for partying with members of the victorious U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team in Italy. Andrew McCabe, who served as acting director of the FBI during the first Trump administration, told CNN that Patel’s presence there, where he was filmed chugging beer with the players in a post-game celebration, sent a “horrible, horrible message” to the bureau’s rank and file.

“I mean, the video is ridiculous, and it was completely inappropriate for him to be engaging, to go at all,” McCabe said in an interview with Jake Tapper. “Let’s be honest. The excuse that he had to go for security meetings the day before the games are over is patently ridiculous.”

The FBI has said Patel was in Italy for a series of security and diplomatic meetings, but McCabe said he doubted this rationale, noting security planning meetings typically take place months before major events such as the Olympics.

The former FBI official added that Patel’s antics were a particularly bad image as the FBI deals with a string of high-profile threats and investigations, including the unsolved suspected kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie and the potential blowback if the U.S. resumes hostilities with Iran.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/kash-patel-olympics-hockey-fbi-b2926187.html

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REFERENCES

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143619038
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143620763

[UpInArms]

1. This entire maladminstration is more than

“Inappropriate” and “horrible”

[get the red out]

2. This is cringe

The video of Patel releasing his inner fraternity boy in the team locker room is a 10 out of 10 on the cringe scale.

[tanyev]

3. The intended message was "Look how cool your director is!!!!"

Kash doesn’t care about anyone that thought otherwise.

[3catwoman3]

4. I said in another thread about this that it looked like Patel...

…was trying to outdo Kegsbreath in the drunken frat boy competition. How juvenile and unseemly.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Another theory:

He knows this gig isn’t permanent and he’s just play acting the role of FBI director, which is why he is grifting in plain sight. Time for him in the high chair is running out. Maybe he knows Trump’s scandals are going to sink them sooner than the next election?

[popsdenver]

6. Watch out

if Patel and Noem ever "hook up"..........lordy lordy..........Now that would be synergy in motion, much like an un-controlled nuclear chain reaction........

[BComplex]

7. I have to confess: Andrew McCabe was one of my favorite FBI

(interim) Directors. He just made sense whenever he spoke.

[thought crime]

8. Attack on institutions

In this regime, no institution is to have power. The leaders have been selected as contestants on the Apprentice, and must show they are as unserious as D.Trump himself. The institutions they pretend to lead are mere relics of the Deep State; hollowed out, defanged, and made to run silly errands for the boss. Their job is to look stupid.

[maxsolomon]

9. Patel's task is to destroy the FBI and make content that MFer finds amusing.

He's doing a great job, McCabe.