Why Kash Patel’s Critics Miss the Point: Washington Should Learn From Kash Patel, Not Lecture Him
Public Affairs Staff National Coverage on September 14, 2025
Often, in Washington, loyalty is cheap. Allies stand firm only until the political winds shift, and when they do, careers are salvaged by silence or betrayal. Yet amid the Russiagate frenzy — when Donald Trump was vilified, abandoned, and left to the wolves — one man chose a different path. Kash Patel stood his ground. He risked his career, his reputation, and even his future in public life to defend both the truth as he saw it and the president he served.
Patel is not, as his critics suggest, a spin doctor or partisan publicist. He is, first and foremost, an investigator. His record stretches across the Department of Justice, the National Security Council, and the House Intelligence Committee. It was Patel’s painstaking work that helped expose flaws in the FBI’s surveillance applications under FISA during Russiagate — work later validated by the Justice Department’s own inspector general. When others played to the gallery of cable news, Patel built his case in documents, footnotes, and evidence.
Yes, Patel has made mistakes. His invocation of “Valhalla” when speaking about Charlie Kirk was a communication stumble, not an investigative one — a choice of words that carried unintended cultural weight but no bearing on his integrity as an investigator or as the head of the FBI. It was a PR mistake, not an investigative one, and it deserves to be recognized as such.
Likewise, his premature statement that the Kirk suspect was in custody before he actually was has been weaponized by critics as if it reveals investigative incompetence. But in reality, it highlights something different: the risk every leader faces when relying on subordinates. Who among us has not been given bad information? To condemn Patel for trusting his team to provide accurate, timely updates is to punish him for delegating — the very act every executive must practice.
The truth is, these errors are not the measure of his career. They are the imperfections of a man working under relentless scrutiny, in real time, without the luxury of hindsight. The more important measure is how he has carried himself when the stakes were highest. During Russiagate, Patel could have played it safe. He could have stayed silent, like so many others who now posture as critics. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and defended a president abandoned by nearly everyone else.
And this is what his critics cannot forgive: not his words, not his slips, but his loyalty. In a city where loyalty is fleeting and self-preservation reigns supreme, Patel’s willingness to put his career on the line for what he believed was right sets him apart. His detractors, imperfect themselves, attack his credibility because deep down, they resent what they lack — conviction.
Kash Patel is, like all of us, imperfect — but unlike most, he has shown himself to be an ingenious investigator and a leader of substance, a defender of Trump when it mattered most, and a man whose loyalty carries a cost. His critics may nitpick and score cheap points over his words but they cannot undo his service to the President and to our country.
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