House Republican Defends Embattled Kash Patel: ‘I’ve Seen Plenty of Guys Drink and Have Fun’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) defended embattled FBI Director Kash Patel with a sweeping generalization: “I’ve seen plenty of guys drink and have fun.”

On Monday, Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic over its recent report, which cites “more than two dozen” anonymous “witnesses” and alleges “excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences” by the FBI Director.

His lawyers accused the publication and its staff writer, Sarah Fitzpatrick, of publishing an “obviously fabricated” article “designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.”

In one instance from the report, Patel was captured chugging a beer in the U.S. men’s hockey team locker room after its Olympic gold medal win — a behavior about which President Donald Trump reportedly shared his dismay with Patel.

MeidasTouch reporter Pablo Manríquez stopped McCormick on Capitol Hill to ask him if Patel’s drinking is a “national security concern.”

McCormick claimed not to “know anything” about Patel’s drinking and praised him instead.

“I don’t know anything about his drinking,” he said. “I’ve not heard any rumors or heard any concerns. I think he’s executing his job brilliantly up to this point, so I don’t see why that would be a controversial thing.”

Manríquez persisted, mentioning The Atlantic piece and, specifically, Patel’s drinking at the Olympics, but McCormick asserted that what people do in “their spare time” is “their business.”

“So, I’ll tell you as a [inaudible] Marine, I’ve seen plenty of guys drink and have fun,” he said. “When they are on their spare time, that’s their business. I bet you there are a lot of Americans out there who take offense to that: Does that mean I can’t go party with my friends and then go do my job during the week time? I don’t think that’s really fair. As long as it doesn’t affect his job in a negative way, I’m cool.”

McCormick proceeded to reminisce about his past.

“I’ll tell you, when I was with my rugby buddies back in the day, on occasion I’d like to go out and have fun with those guys and let my hair down and be one of the guys,” he said. “I think there’s nothing wrong with that.”

CORRECTION: This article originally misidentified Rep. Rich McCormick as Sen. Dave McCormick. We regret the error. 

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