FBI Director Kash Patel has defended his trip to Italy for the Winter Olympics after footage of him celebrating with the USA Men’s hockey team went viral on social media platforms. He wrote that he was “extremely humbled” to be with the hockey team after their win. Meanwhile, his footage saw massive backlash on platforms like X and Instagram.
Kash Patel defends himself after recent backlash
Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, garnered a lot of negative attention. This was after he was seen celebrating with the USA hockey team at the Winter Olympics in Italy. The footage showed him drinking a beer and cheering with the players in a locker room on Sunday.
After backlash started pouring in on different social media platforms, Kash Patel addressed the issue from his end.
“Yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys- Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on Earth,” Patel wrote from his social media platform.
Shortly before this clip went viral, Patel had posted on X that the FBI was “dedicating all necessary resources” towards finding out how an armed man entered President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida (via BBC). The man was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
Patel’s trip to the Olympics came during a turbulent time in the country. A shelter-in-place warning on Sunday for US citizens in parts of Mexico was issued after local authorities killed a drug cartel leader. The FBI is also involved in the search for Nancy Guthrie. She is the mother of NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie, who has been missing for three weeks.s
Patel took a government plane last Thursday from Joint Base Andrews near Washington DC to a US Air Force base in Italy, per records. The FBI has denied that Patel was on a personal trip. They added that the FBI was involved in Olympic security. They say, hence, Patel was involved, too.
Patel has been previously criticized for his use of FBI jets.
