Kash Patel Has Officially LOST IT!

Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, who is up on Capitol Hill because lawmakers are unhappy.They want to grill him about a story that came out in The Atlantic.We talked about it, about his episodes of excessive drinking, reportedly said that his Secret Service detail can't even find him sometimes because he's passed out in his bedroom and won't answer the door because he's hungover.It was a weird spectacle because you had all of these Democrats hammering him on the drinking.You had Chris Van Hollen challenging him to take some kind of a sobriety test.And then you had them challenging him on what's happening in the FBI that has been reported in multiple outlets in terms of who's been fired and who's had to resign and the character of polygraphs going on at the FBI, the character of recrimination and retribution against journalists.

And Kash Patel just denies all of it.It was the weirdest hearing.I don't know what you made of it.

Well, I made of it what I make of everything about the folks who work for Trump who have to then go before Congress.They go there not to be held accountable for what they're doing or not doing, what their departments are doing, how they're running things.They go there to perform.They go there, as my mama used to say, to show their ass.That's what they do.They go there to perform for Donald Trump.

That was a performance for Donald Trump.We saw it with Pam Bondi.We see it down with Cash.We've seen it with others.And to the extent that there's anything that gets answered, It's all gobbledygook.It makes no sense.

It doesn't align with the facts.Look, we know the storylines about Kash Patel from when he was a podcaster, just like we know the storylines about Pete Hexeth and his alcoholism before he became secretary.

Kash Patel is on video boasting about his drinking.

Boasting about his drinking.So the fact that you now have agents, staff and employees in the department who are concerned about the head of this organization behaving in a manner that is not only possibly putting the organization in disrepute, but making it far less effective than it already is or already has been made by the cuts and the implosion within the FBI.

Which I think, by the way, is the real story.

It's the real story, Katty.

This episode is brought to you by Whoop.

Whoop is one of my favorite all -time products.It's clear we're living through pretty stressful times right now.It's easy to underestimate how much that can affect our sleep and ability to stay focused day to day.

Yeah, avoiding burnout can feel like a full -time job in and of itself.

Whoop helps with the bit people miss that shows what actually is going on beneath the surface, Catty.It's a screenless wearable device that monitors your sleep, recovery, lifestyle, and stress.

Yeah, and this matters to me.It even looks very elegant.

Did you hear that, guys?Whoop is so stylish that even Katty Kay will wear the Whoop.

It's the little gold clasp.I like that.

I'm telling you, I had no idea how much my old routine was impacting my health.But since using Whoop and making those small adjustments, I've already started to feel the difference.Better sleep, clearer thinking, even more energy.

Head to join .wi .because they don't feel that they are doing the job that they were brought on to do.They have a real problem now where they are having to promote people who are too junior.They're having to cut training times.They're having to relax the conditions for people to become agents.

They've launched a whole social media campaign to try and hire people back again because so many people have either been let go or have decided to let themselves go, all because Donald Trump had it in for the FBI because the FBI was involved in investigations into him at Mar -a -Lago and the documents that he took.The FBI was involved in investigating the January the 6th insurrection.And the FBI and the Justice Department were involved also in investigating Russia's ties to Donald Trump.

And all of that caddy was laid out.And we saw the culpability of one person at the center of each of those investigations.And that was Donald Trump.And so the FBI just doesn't, unlike now under Donald Trump.randomly go out and start investigating people.It just doesn't do it.

It just doesn't go, OK, what do we do?Why don't we just go and investigate a former president?OK, why don't we do that?Let's put resources that we need for other things into that.That's not how this works.

Well, you mean the FBI under Barack Obama was not doing that about George W. Bush and under George W. Bush was not doing that about Bill Clinton and Bill Clinton was not doing that about George H .W.Bush?

No.It just doesn't work that way, unfortunately, but here we are.So these storylines that are being laid out in front of the American people are real storylines connected to real actions.by individuals inside this administration.Kash Patel, Pete Hexeth, etc.And the president himself.

And so, I'm sorry, don't hate the game, right?And don't hate the players.It's how you are playing in the game.And if you're the bad actor, you're going to create the kind of attention that the FBI, the Department of Justice, and other institutions are going to look at what you're doing.So now that you control those things, and this is where the weaponization issue or storylines have been turned on their heads.Donald Trump, as always, from the very first time I met him and worked with him, he's always struck me as the guy that will flip the script.

He will always project an action that you're doing because it's an action either that he's doing or wants to do.Right.And you're not doing it.

Projectional confession.

Exactly.And so, look, you know, that Cash Patel has got a problem.Now, here's the deal.I said this from the very beginning of the storylines about Cash Patel being on the hook to be fired.Cash Patel is not going anywhere.But why?

Because Cash Patel is doing the thing Donald Trump wants done.And what is that?He's investigating the people Donald Trump once investigated.Why did Pam Bodiney get in trouble?Because she didn't do the perp walk after the investigations.Remember, our FBI is an investigatory body.

It can investigate the ham sandwich on the lawn, right?Why is that ham sandwich there?Who put that ham sandwich there?What is the ham sandwich doing to disrupt the neighborhood?The Department of Justice is the agency that will come in and handcuff the owner.or handcuff the perpetrator of putting the ham sandwich on the lawn, right?

So those two piecesin Donald Trump's view, all right, Cash, I want you to go out and investigate James Comey, all right?Pam, I want you to go out and give me the perp walk.I want him in handcuffs.Doesn't matter whether or not there's evidence and facts.That's the problem.

Those lawyers then have to go before judges and say, Your Honor, here are the facts.that have brought James Comey or John Brennan, the former CIA director, to you in handcuffs.And the judge looks at that and goes, what the hell are you doing?the hell out of it.No, there's nothing.There's no there, there, boom, right?

They don't want that because guess what?On the back end, those lawyers then have to pay for that with their law license.Right now, Cady, there are a number of lawyers who are standing before their local bars up on charges of bringing false legal action against individuals.And so people are looking at that, and that's why they're, to your earlier point, are resigning.

Yeah.

Because they don't want that.So when you turn the system on its head and you turn what's left of the system in on itself, this is what it looks like in America with Donald Trump as president.Here is the bottom line, though, Cady.It's going to be hard for us to rebuild from this.These institutions have been, I think, irreparably broken.they're not going to be the same.

The Institutes of Peace, the USAID, all of these organs that once served a great purpose and did good things, including those institutions like the FBI, they're going to have a future generation of lawmakers are going to have to rethink how to rebuild them.What we had once is gone.That talent, that institutional knowledge is not being passed on to a bunch ofidiots who are left to do Donald Trump's bidding.And the people that they are hiring, if you look at the ICE agents who are being hired because they're yippee -ki -yay, they want to go after black and brown people and put them in handcuffs and beat them up and treat them.Do we know what's going on, actually going on in the detention centers?

No, because they won't even let members of Congress inside to look at them.

even though the members of Congress are paying for those detention centers.Yeah, I agree.I think it's going to be a real challenge.And for people who don't think this impacts ordinary Americans, another extraordinary thing came out of the Kash Patel hearing.Just before the war with Iran started, a dozen counterterrorism agents who were experts in guess which country were fired from the FBI.They were Iran experts.

They may have been useful during this time of tension with Iran.

Most of the time, cyber attacks are not Hollywood style.They're disguised as a fake link, a phishing email, or a public network that looks normal.And NordVPN protects you from all of that.

I didn't have my NordVPN switched on recently, and I was the subject of a hacking attack.I got an email that I thought was legitimate.I opened it.And now I'm very careful about having my NordVPN switched on.switched on.Using NordVPN helps protect my privacy and sensitive data, especially as we're often working on the move or using public Wi -Fi.

With Threat Protection Pro, malicious websites, ads and trackers, and phishing attempts are all blocked before they even register.

Welcome back to the Rest is Politics US.This podcast is sponsored by Trump Mobile.You can buy the T1 phone if you put down $100 deposit and are quite happy with the idea that you may never get the phone.It may never be made.and that you have been suckered into handing over money to the Trump organization.Okay, I have to fill everybody in.

This is the only big story that is going around Washington this week after a young man on TikTok, who was very unhappy, posted a video saying that he had put down a hundred dollar deposit last summer for not one, not two, not three, but four Trump phones, which were announced by the Trump family, by the Trump sons.They said they were gonna be proudly made in America in June of 2025.And delivery, Michael, don't worry, not very long.If you'd put down $100 in June of 2025, you would get your phone in September of 2025.I mean, that's fine, right?And it was gonna be made in America and it was gonna be, guess what color it was gonna be?

Red, white, and blue?

Nearly, nearly.You're not thinking Trumpy enough.You're not Trumpy enough.

No, I'm not.

No, it really was.It was going to be gold.

Gold.Yes, gold, of course.

And guess what?All of these people, I don't know why, but it wasn't nobody who put money down.Some 600 ,000 people paid a deposit, which netted a nice, cool $59 million to the Trump organization.But they didn't read the small print because in the small print, it said a preorderdoesn't guarantee that this device will get produced or made available for purchase.I don't know about that.

Talk to me about this.

That is such a summation of everything Trump touches.It's a scam.These guys are nothing but con artists.His sons, him, the things he has done.It's not folks not saying anything out of school the the history on this is legion legion from stakes to universities to this to sneakers gold lame sneakers all of it is a scam it is a way to put up cheap crap in front of you dangle it make it gold because well There it is, right?Everybody loves gold.

And then the bait and the switch.Oh, well, just because you gave me $100 doesn't mean I'm going to give you anything for it.How stupid.And the thing about it is, you know, you get people caught up in this whole thing where they want to be a part of what it is you're doing.This is an extension of you to them and they feel connected to you.And oh, my God, I got a Trump phone.

No, you ain't getting crap.You're not getting crap.

It's like you bought the Trump meme coin on the evening of the inauguration and the Trump family made a whole load of money out of it.

Sixty million bucks.

Sixty million bucks.The people who bought the meme coin, they made nothing out of it.Oh, and by the way, the other good news about this phone, Donald Trump Jr. went on television and said that it was going to be built in America because it is time, folks, to bring manufacturing back to America.That is the patriotic thing to do.Thatwas quickly scrubbed from the website and now it says the phone is going to be designed with American values in mind.

That phone is being made in China.You can't build a phone in America.Come on.You can't build a phone in America.

Oh, you don't wish that phone would cost if we built it?A lot more than a hundred dollars.

Yes, a lot more than a hundred dollars is a metaphor for the whole manufacturing campaign.Manufacturing jobs have declined.There has been a net loss in manufacturing jobs in the United States of America since the president was inaugurated.

What are we doing?

Including the people who might be going to rebuild the Trump front.OK, I had to get that off my chest because it's just it's too good and I feel too bad for the people that put the money down.

Oh, I don't.

But I also think, why did you do it?

I don't feel crap for that.You'd spend $400 on a phone.Anything Donald, you better read the fine print.Ask the lawyers.I don't feel anything for you.Sorry.

He would have done very well as a kind of 1950s salesman.He likes doing a sale.

He is Harold Hill.He is a corrupt.He makes Harold Hill look like St. Francis.right?He is a corrupted Harold Hill.He's a P .

T.Barnum, knows a sucker is born every minute.He preys on the suckers out there.He lathers them up in the red, white, and blue, and he lathers them up in their angst about America becoming less white.He gets them all fired up about, you know, communism and Muslims and this and any other ism out there, and then he takes their cash.There we are.

We're going to do a series on that.We're going to do a deep dive on how much money the family has made.

Oh, please do.

It runs into the billions.

One billion just last year.

I think it's even more.I think it's even more.We will be talking in our bonus episode, guys, which I've recorded with Eugene Daniels, about the explosive feud that Pete Hegseth had with Senator Mark Kelly, the accusations of leaking classified information, threats against Kelly's military pension.Trust me, you don't want to miss this one.Do sign up at therestispoliticsus .com to become a founding member and listen right now.

Michael Steele, thank you very much again for joining us.It's always a pleasure to have you on the program.

Thanks for having me on.