Kash Patel walked into trap set by Dems in Capitol Hill hearing: MS NOW reporter

FBI Director Kash Patel didn't win any new fans inside the bureau after his testimony on Capitol Hill, according to MS NOW's Ken Dilanian.

The FBI director faced tough questions from Democratic lawmakers during a Justice Department budget hearing about his alleged drinking and his investigations of President Donald Trump's political enemies, and Dilanian told "Ana Cabrera Reports" that Patel enjoys little support from the bureau's rank-and-file employees.

"Well, look, I'm sure there are currently serving FBI agents who are big fans of Kash Patel, but I just haven't met any of them," Dilanian said. "The people I talked to are largely disgusted with the way he conducts himself, and really, that's in keeping with the way a lot of Trump senior cabinet officials handle these congressional hearings. He came armed with opposition research."

"We didn't play this part, but he tried to accuse [Sen.] Chris Van Hollen of running up a large bar tab and of sharing a drink with Kilmar Ábrego García when he went down to see him in El Salvador," he added. "Van Hollen later said he didn't actually sip from that drink."

Democratic grilling served a long-term strategic purpose, Dilanian said.

"But I think what happened there was quite important, actually, and it was the first thing that Democrats did," Dilanian said. "They wanted to get Kash Patel under oath, denying one of the allegations in the Atlantic magazine story, which was that he has on occasion been so heavily drunk the night before that his security detail had trouble waking him up in the morning, and that's a very specific allegation that members of the security detail would know whether it's true or not."

"If Democrats regain power in the fall, they're going to be able to bring those some of those people up to the Hill, whether behind closed doors or not, and get them under oath and see what they have to say about this and get to the bottom of this, and if Kash Patel didn't tell the truth there, he's going to have a big problem," Dilanian. "But, you know, look, the way this is being greeted inside the FBI is, is just a lot of head shaking about the way that Kash Patel conducts himself."

- YouTube youtu.be