Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said FBI Director Kash Patel flew “off the handle” during his appearance Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where he was questioned about several reports alleging erratic behavior during his tenure at the agency.
During a hearing before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, the Maryland Democrat got into a particularly heated back-and-forth with Patel when Van Hollen pressed him about a recent article from The Atlantic that cited multiple sources regarding alleged “episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”
“If true, they represent a gross dereliction of your duty,” Van Hollen told Patel.
“As I told him today, I don’t give a damn about his personal life until it interferes with his ability to protect the American people,” he told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday evening.
Van Hollen called Patel’s reaction to The Atlantic report “very revealing.”
“I asked him a series of questions about this credible reporting about how his excessive drinking is making it impossible for him to do his job, reports that his security detail had to forcefully enter his house to wake him up, and it was really an opportunity for him to respond,” the senator said. “Instead, what he did was decide to lash out at me. He uttered a bunch of provable lies.”
Patel has denied the allegations and filed a $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic and its reporter.
During his questioning, Patel denied drinking excessively and committed to taking the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, but vowed only to do so if he did it “side by side” with the senator.
Van Hollen shared a photo Wednesday on X of what he said were his AUDIT results. “Yesterday, [Patel] told me he’d take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test if I did. Well, here’s mine,” he wrote. “Given all the lies he told yesterday, I imagine he’ll fudge the numbers here, but let’s see yours, Director Patel.”
Questioned by the senator during the hearing as to whether he knew lying to Congress was a crime, Patel responded, “I do not lie to Congress.” Speaking of their exchange, the senator told MS NOW he did not believe the FBI director had been truthful, which he said “calls into question all of [Patel’s] conduct.”
“This is the guy who’s in charge of the FBI, which has awesome responsibilities, and yet here he is flying off the handle,” Van Hollen said.
You can watch Van Hollen’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
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