FBI Director Kash Patel has been mocked online after cameras captured him scribbling embarrassing pep-talk notes to himself.
The notes were made during a heated congressional hearing over political violence and Jeffrey Epstein’s case files.
The notes, written in blue pen in Patel’s own handwriting on personalized stationery labeled ‘Director Patel’, read like affirmations.
‘Good fight with Swalwell. Hold the line. Brush off their attacks. Rise above next line of partisan attacks.’
The mockery went viral as critics zeroed in not just on the cringe factor, but on the vanity of having a personalized notepad with his own letterhead.
The handwritten notes surfaced during a House Judiciary Committee hearing where Patel clashed repeatedly with Democrats, most notably California Rep. Eric Swalwell, over the handling of the Epstein files.
Swalwell, grilling Patel over the Justice Department’s reluctance to unseal certain grand jury documents tied to the late financier’s case, asked whether any files mentioned President Donald Trump, who once socialized with Epstein.
Patel balked at the question.
‘Your fixation on this matter and baseless accusations that I’m hiding child pedophiles is disgusting,’ Patel snapped.
The exchange quickly spiraled into a shouting match as Swalwell mockingly began enunciating his syllables.
‘Why don’t you try spelling it out if you’re going to mock me. Use the alphabet… No? A B C, D E F.’
The Democrat fired back again, calling Patel’s evasiveness a ‘consciousness of guilt’ and accusing him of playing a ‘cute shell game.’
While the FBI and local law enforcement scrambled to identify and track down the suspect, Patel dined at Rao’s, a notoriously exclusive restaurant in New York, the same night the investigation was unfolding.
He later posted conflicting updates on social media, including a message claiming the suspect was in custody, followed just 90 minutes later by another saying the same individual had been released.
It’s not the mistake and correction that’s troublesome. Nor the affirmations or personalized note tablet.
Trying to take credit for the arrest when the shooter turned himself in, and no notes about questions he couldn’t/wouldn’t answer, in order to remember what the committee was asking so he could get an appropriate and timely response to them is troublesome, imo.
. . . After Robinson’s arrest, Patel tried to take credit claiming on X the FBI demanded security footage be released over the objections of local police, and that the suspect’s father turned him in as a result.
But the Utah Department of Public Safety contradicted him, saying it had already attempted to identify the suspect using facial recognition before jointly deciding to release the video.
Patel also reportedly blasted agents in Salt Lake City on a profanity-laced conference call, accusing them of failing to move fast enough and warning that the pressure from Trump and the public was immense.
It starts with the notes (and the cute customized writing pad he had made with his name all important spelled out) but is mostly about how having a bizarrely inexperienced leader of a critical federal agency is, um, bad.
Of all the things we could be mocking Patel about, I’m really disappointed that this is what we have landed on.
Overcoming struggles with mental health and celebrating yourself should not be stigmatized. I thought we were the team that celebrates the pursuit of happiness, inclusion and self actualization. This to me seems to be a bad look.
Yeah this is so silly and kind of embarrassing. So he takes notes. So he preps live for debate. Nothing to be ashamed of.
The problem is not practicing self affirmations. It is affirming and celebrating yourself for evading criticism and accountability and doing so in a way that suggests you’re just barely managing to hold it together under even a basic level of scrutiny while holding one of the highest law enforcement positions in the federal goverment. I do not wish to belittle people struggling with mental health issues, but someone this fragile should not he in his role even if be weren’t a fascist stooge.
Lol I was just texting somebody about this
I think Charlie Kirk should be all the evidence you need to know that there is one set of rules for them and one set for everyone else.
This isn’t mocking him bc of mental health. This is mocking the fragile ego of such a vain and callous individual who is supposed to be representing the branch of law enforcement that was supposed to uphold federal law. Yet he doesn’t believe the majority of Americans are even entitled to the same constitutional or civil rights and liberties, let alone social expectations, unless they fall in line with this administration.
I feel just fine laughing about this the same way I would feel if I saw somebody slip on a banana peel while goose stepping.
If he was doing it to work on himself then sure. But he’s a piece of shit that will never change. So, fuck him.
Pug Patel would almost be endearing if he wasn’t such a complete failure of a person.
‘Good fight with Swalwell. Hold the line. Brush off their attacks. Rise above next line of partisan attacks.’
bruh. Yeah, real good fight you goober
Does this mean that he actually thought the attacks were “partisan”, as opposed to, say, “legitimate criticism”? Or, is it a note designed to remind himself to be consistent with his lies?
If it’s the first, then he is even dumber than I previously thought he was. I saw several clips from his testimony, and he certainly seemed extremely dumb.
The second is more devious. It’s very difficult to lie well, and a tactic like this would make the lie harder to detect.
I can’t think of a third possibility. Either he thought the note was the truth or he thought it was a lie… Maybe he wrote the notes intending for them to be seen? That’s difficult to fathom.
Imagine being so insecure you write yourself affirmations. Someone get this kid a coloring book.
There’s nothing wrong with affirmations if you’re struggling mentally with life.
This just shows that he is really struggling in this job and is more evidence that he’s completely unqualified.
Also, he’s psychologically (and probably intellectually) incapable of evaluating criticism as anything other than an attack on him personally, which is both pathetic and very dangerous. Literally no reasoning with these people.
Affirmations are the basest level of “self-help”, if they even qualify for that, and amount to nothing more than wishful thinking without action. In that regard, they’re right up Patel’s alley.
‘Why don’t you try spelling it out if you’re going to mock me. Use the alphabet… No? A B C, D E F.’
Y
R
U
E-N-A-B-L-I-N-G
P-E-D-O-S?
