FBI Director Kash Patel’s chummy appearance alongside his girlfriend on Katie Miller’s podcast to talk about their “love story” has sparked both outrage and mockery amid the FBI’s continued manhunt of the Brown shooting suspect, prompting Miller to scramble into damage control mode.
Patel, who has faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks over his use of a private jet and FBI resources to visit his country-singing paramour Alexis Wilkins, sat down recently on the MAGA-friendly podcast hosted by Miller – the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
In a preview of the conversation that Miller shared on social media Monday evening, Wilkins was asked about claims that she was a Mossad agent and whether she was even Jewish. At the same time, Miller wanted to know how often Patel had traveled to see his girlfriend since Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“The love story,” Miller captioned her tweet sharing the preview clip, noting that the full episode drops on Tuesday evening. “Is she from Israel? How do they make long distance work? When is the engagement?”
Meanwhile, the timing of Patel’s cozy sitdown with his girlfriend and Miller – who has conducted similar softball interviews with Trump officials and their significant others – immediately resulted in backlash, largely due to the fact that the suspect in the Brown University shooting is still on the loose and the FBI is still conducting a manhunt.
Making matters worse, Patel has faced criticism for prematurely boasting about the bureau’s work in tracking down a “person of interest” in the shooting – only for that person to be released from custody hours later.
“It was actually picked up by the FBI and they followed through with it and they ended up coming and locating this individual of interest,” Providence police said after law enforcement officials released the person.
After President Donald Trump was forced to walk back his earlier social media post claiming the suspect was in custody, the White House insisted that the president still backed Patel. “The President has full faith and confidence in his entire law enforcement team, including FBI Director Kash Patel, to bring the perpetrator of this atrocious crime to justice,” a White House spokesperson said.
As for Patel’s fluffy chat with a Trump adviser’s spouse for her “MAGA mom” podcast, the promo clip provided the perfect opportunity for critics to tear into the FBI chief for devoting his time to making right-wing infotainment while the Brown suspect is still at large.
The backlash grew so intense that Miller jumped onto X the following morning to clarify that Patel and Wilkins had sat down with her before Sunday, which only seemed to fuel more ridicule of the FBI director. (For the record, the Brown shooting occurred on Saturday afternoon.)
“Girl your job is to do PR for the admin, why would you drop this right now??” Amanda Moore, a journalist focusing on far-right extremism, tweeted at Miller.
“The optics of a podcast with your GF coming out while the FBI is failing at a manhunt are just awful,” Barstool podcaster Jack Mac observed. “I'm sure the podcast was recorded weeks ago, but this is a big thumbs down.”
While others snarked that it was cool that Patel had “time to get up a chummy fedcast made by people in his own administration while a school shooter is still at large,” calling it the “content creator administration,” The Bulwark publisher Sarah Longwell quipped that Patel is “laser-focused on the important work of the FBI.”
“Imagine if Biden’s handpicked FBI director did a puff piece about him and his ‘girlfriend’ with a mass shooter still on the loose,” Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett wondered. At the same time, ProPublica reporter William Turton said it was “incredible that Kash Patel is appearing in a softball interview alongside his girlfriend while the FBI has been unable to apprehend the Brown university shooter.”
Ultimately, Miller’s attempt to spin the friendly podcast interview by pointing out that it was taped last week fell on deaf ears, especially as Patel has come under fire over the past few months over his “rudderless” leadership of the FBI. Much of that criticism also came from the right.
“We are not a serious country,” MAHA influencer Holden Culotta reacted, while others took issue with the “terrible optics” of releasing the preview clip while a mass shooter is still on the loose.
“I know its stupid but I just can't get over the Kash interview w/ his girlfriend while the Brown manhunt is happening,” conservative podcast host Saagar Enjeti noted. “It truly is one of the craziest most narcissistic and ridiculous things I've ever seen in Washington.”
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