CURIOSITYKash Patel Asked Reporters to Take a Survey Instead of Answering3 min read

The Questions He Wouldn’t Touch

At a Department of Justice press conference, a reporter asked Kash Patel something direct: can you say definitively that you have not been intoxicated or absent during your tenure as FBI director? One-sentence answer territory. The kind of thing you deny and move on from.

Patel did not deny and move on.

Instead, he delivered what would become a masterclass in not answering questions while speaking at length. The reporters kept asking. He kept talking. The two things never quite met.

The Fake News Mafia Defense

His first move was rhetorical deflection. He said — unequivocally — that he never listens to the “fake news mafia.” Then came the offense: he’s been on the job twice as many days as every director before him. First one in, last one out. Half as many days off as his predecessors.

None of those claims addressed whether he’d been drunk at work. But they were delivered with considerable conviction, which seemed to be the point.