On Friday, April 17, 2026, Jen Psaki opened her MSNBC show The Briefing by promoting a new Atlantic piece attacking FBI Director Kash Patel.
The article, titled “The FBI Director Is MIA”, with the subheadline “Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences,” by Sarah Fitzpatrick, accuses Patel of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.
Patel immediately denied the claims, calling the story “fake news,” “absurd,” and a “hit piece.” He also threatened to sue The Atlantic for defamation, stating things like: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook.”
The piece relies entirely on anonymous sources. Every damaging claim comes from unnamed “current and former officials,” “people familiar with his schedule,” and other shielded insiders — many presumably from the very bureaucracy Kash Patel was sent to reform.
Patel should sue The Briefing with Jen Psaki too for amplifying and repeating these defamatory allegations without doing any independent reporting of its own.
It should surprise no one that Jen Psaki is pushing this narrative.
Psaki is not neutral and she is not a journalist. She is a longtime Democratic political operative who served as White House Press Secretary under Joe Biden and held senior communications roles under Barack Obama, including White House Communications Director and State Department spokesperson. Much of her career has been spent working on Democratic campaigns and administrations, including John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
That’s exactly how fake news works today. It hands a prime-time TV show to a partisan operative — a puppet — who doesn’t investigate claims, verify facts, or question the motives behind the leaks. Then it calls that “journalism.” All they do is repeat accusations from friendly outlets, amplify anonymous smears, and present it to the public as serious reporting.
Psaki said:
“Okay, so I, I don’t know. I feel like things always happen on a Friday. Big stories break on a Friday. And as I just mentioned with Chris, but in case you haven’t seen it, there is some breaking news, this absolutely bonkers story that just posted tonight concerning… well, the clown car of people who make up Trump’s cabinet. And I mean this time it’s really focused on FBI Director Kash Patel. And it’s an explosive new story in the Atlantic that just posted. It cites a dozens of FBI sources, which is a big deal. It’s a lot of sources in this story detailing new allegations about Patel, including some sources who say Patel is frequently drunk on the job, regularly absent from work and paranoid about getting fired. And there’s quite an anecdote about that we’re gonna talk about.
And I’m just gonna read you a few of the key passages because I think that will tell you everything you need to know about this story. Here’s one several officials told the Atlantic that tells drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol fueled nights. Six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel schedule told the Atlantic as a sidebar, not normal… ever into administrations. Again, back to the quote, on multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated.”
While the media pushes these anonymous smears about drinking and absences, Kash Patel is actually delivering historic results at the FBI.
Take a look at the FBI’s own arrest records and see the difference for yourself:
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases
Under Director Kash Patel, the FBI has achieved:
– Record captures from the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list — with seven arrested in roughly one year, a pace far exceeding previous administrations.
– 112% increase in violent crime arrests year-over-year.
– Over 6,200 missing children located (up 22–30% from the prior year), along with 1,700+ child predators arrested.
– Significant rises in fentanyl seizures, major gang disruptions (including over 1,800 criminal gangs dismantled), and 35% more espionage arrests involving adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran.
Americans have never seen the FBI perform at this level — because it hasn’t. The old leadership was too busy playing politics instead of protecting the public.
But instead of reporting these undeniable successes, Jen Psaki and the liberal media would rather smear Kash Patel with anonymous gossip and hope their viewers never see the real numbers.
Kash Patel is doing exactly what President Trump sent him there to do: drain the swamp, restore integrity, and refocus the Bureau on catching real criminals instead of shielding the Deep State.
Why do the liberal media and their Deep State allies try to discredit Kash Patel and bury the FBI’s historic success in arresting criminals at levels we’ve never seen?
Are they trying to get ahead of the story so that when Kash starts locking up politicians and Deep State insiders, they can simply dismiss it all by saying “he’s just a drunk”?
What are they really afraid of?
Share the clip. Check the real numbers. The results don’t lie — but the legacy media sure does.
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