Editorial: Kash Patel fails first big crisis

FBI Director Kash Patel, a former podcaster and MAGA darling, failed miserably in his first big crisis – overseeing the investigation into the killing of anti-trans right-winger Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem last week. Patel, who has little law enforcement experience except as a former federal prosecutor and public defender, was nevertheless confirmed by the U.S. Senate to the powerful post earlier this year. Now that the country has seen him in action, and many were not impressed, we wouldn’t be surprised if President Donald Trump shuffles him off to an ambassadorship somewhere. (Trump doesn’t fire people, he just moves them to lesser posts.)

Shortly after the September 10 incident, Patel took to X and announced that the suspect in Kirk’s killing had been apprehended. “The subject in the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” Patel wrote. That turned out to be wrong. And Patel later had to post, “The subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement.” The shooter remained at large for 33 hours. Tyler Robinson, 22, surrendered to law enforcement after he was persuaded to do so by relatives, according to reports.

Former senior FBI officials have criticized Patel’s grandstanding, with one telling NBC News, “He should not have posted anything about the case until there was certainty,” one said, according to the outlet. “People need to trust what the director says. He needs to be measured and always right. It wasn’t a good look.”

Patel has also made questionable personnel moves, including firing a number of top officials, three of whom filed a lawsuit against him, coincidentally on the day Kirk was shot.

Trust in the FBI and other authorities is also compromised by the anti-trans rhetoric that has defined the Kirk case from the beginning. First was an apparently erroneous Wall Street Journal report that the bullets had anti-trans messages engraved on them espousing "transgender and anti-fascist ideology." There were engravings, but as of now, it’s been reported that they weren’t trans-related. Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox went on the Sunday news programs last weekend and stated that Robinson’s romantic partner, whom authorities have identified as his roommate, was transitioning from male to female, the New York Times reported. That person reportedly did not have knowledge of the shooting.

We don’t know much more than that, and it’s important to remember that initial information in these types of cases often turns out to be incorrect. 

What is painfully apparent, however, is the toxic level of animus directed at the trans community for no reason. It’s as though MAGA adherents are painting every trans person as a crazed shooter when that is absolutely not the case. Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other administration officials want to clamp down on free speech by taking away First Amendment rights of those who criticize Kirk. This is a dangerous development that should not stand.

Companies are firing or sanctioning employees who’ve expressed critical messages about Kirk, yet another example of the tremendous power MAGA wields as it tramples on people’s rights. Unsurprisingly, there was no such effort to stifle the ugly MAGA-led comments after Paul Pelosi, husband of Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), was brutally attacked with a hammer in his home nearly three years ago. As he was in a hospital with a skull fracture and other injuries, MAGA responded with glee on social media. Americans should react with horror to Kirk’s killing – and all such attacks – even if people disagreed with him.

And let’s be clear, we did not agree with Kirk, who co-founded the conservative Turning Point USA organization. He was a transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist. One only has to watch the many videos of him to know where he was coming from. In fact, just before he was shot, Kirk responded to a question about how many mass shooters were transgender. “Too many,” he said. In fact, less than 1% of mass shooters are transgender, according to the Violence Prevention Project. The vast majority, 98%, are male.

Kirk had a First Amendment right to say what he wanted, but that doesn’t mean we have to agree with it. Kirk was trashing trans people with California Governor Gavin Newsom on the first episode of the “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast earlier this year, goading the governor that trans girls and women shouldn’t play on female sports teams. And there was Newsom, agreeing with him. “Well, it’s an issue of fairness,” Newsom said.

Mass shootings will continue to happen in the U.S. as long as guns are widely available. We like the idea we saw floated on social media of congressional Democrats introducing a “Charlie Kirk Gun Safety Act” to see if Republicans will vote against it. What needs to stop is the endless verbal attacks on trans people, which are being encouraged by so many conservatives. The Republican Party used to pride itself on individual liberty. Now, it wants to shut down anyone who disagrees with Trumpian beliefs, many of which have no basis in reality.