Sen. Chris Van Hollen pressed Kash Patel on Tuesday during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill, using a barrage of questions about a recent Atlantic report that cited multiple sources on alleged episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences. Van Hollen said that if the allegations were true, they would amount to a gross dereliction of Patel's duty.
The exchange quickly turned personal. Van Hollen said Patel's response to the report was revealing, and that he had asked about claims that excessive drinking was making it impossible for Patel to do his job, including reports that his security detail had to forcefully enter his house to wake him up. “As I told him today, I don’t give a damn about his personal life until it interferes with his ability to protect the American people,” Van Hollen said. “I asked him a series of questions about this credible reporting about how his excessive drinking is making it impossible for him to do his job, reports that his security detail had to forcefully enter his house to wake him up, and it was really an opportunity for him to respond,” he added. “Instead, what he did was decide to lash out at me. He uttered a bunch of provable lies.”
Patel denied drinking excessively during the hearing and said he would take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test if he did it side by side with Van Hollen. Later that evening, Van Hollen told MS NOW that Patel had flown off the handle. On Wednesday, he posted a photo on X of what he said were his AUDIT results, writing that Patel had told him he would take the test if Van Hollen did and adding that he imagined Patel would fudge the numbers.
The fight matters because it put questions about Patel's conduct in front of lawmakers at the same time he is facing a broad challenge to his credibility. The Atlantic has reported allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences involving Patel, who has denied the claims and filed a $250 million defamation suit against the magazine and its reporter. Patel answered the hearing with a flat denial of his own, saying, “I do not lie to Congress.”
The unresolved issue is no longer whether the report exists. It is whether the allegations, and Patel's combative response to them, will keep shadowing his ability to lead the FBI as lawmakers continue to scrutinize him.
