![\"Analysis\"](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\")
Kash Patel is performing for an audience of onepublished at 15:07 BST<\/p>\nKash Patel is performing for an audience of onepublished at 15:07 BST<\/p>\n
15:07 BST<\/p>\n
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Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington DC<\/p>\n
Over the past two days, we’ve seen Kash Patel become the focus of mounting criticism for his handling of the Charlie Kirk assassination – to which he’s mounted a robust defence on American airwaves, and again today.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, he took the unusual step of appearing on Fox News twice, defending his handling of the case and detailing “shocking” evidence that he says the FBI has uncovered as a result of what he’s described as an aggressive posture. <\/p>\n
While Patel is addressing any criticism on national airwaves, he is also performing for President Trump at a time when some US news outlets – including Fox – have reported growing exasperation with Patel from within the administration. <\/p>\n
These apparent tensions did not begin with the Kirk case, and also included reports of a spat with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. <\/p>\n
Many in the White House and broader “Trump world” are keenly aware that Patel – who lacked the qualifications and experience of previous FBI directors – was a controversial pick for the job. <\/p>\n
So far – at least publicly – Trump has stood by Patel. The two reportedly played golf together at Trump’s estate in New Jersey over the weekend, and Trump said Patel was doing a “great job”. <\/p>\n
Many in the White House, however, will be carefully watching Patel’s appearance on Capitol Hill to gauge whether criticism from Democrats needs to be addressed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kash Patel is performing for an audience of onepublished at 15:07 BST 15:07 BST Bernd Debusmann JrReporting from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-148259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}