An FBI insider, whose identity was protected by The New York Times, has revealed Director Kash Patel’s first reaction after Charlie Kirk was shot dead — and it was about social media strategy. Calling the conference call that took place immediately after the shooting “surreal,” the insider said Kash Patel said, “I’m gonna tweet this,” as his then-deputy Dan Bongino started discussing social media strategy.“And then it turns surreal. He and [then-Deputy Director Dan] Bongino start talking about their Twitter strategy. And Kash is like: I’m gonna tweet this. Salt Lake, you tweet that. Dan, you come in with this. Then I’ll come back with this. They’re literally scripting out their social media, not talking about how we’re going to respond or resources or the situation. He’s screaming that he wants to put stuff out, but it’s not even vetted yet. It’s not even accurate,” the FBI insider said.
Kash can’t understand and doesn’t want to understand
The insider said the initial information almost always turns out to be wrong. “When I was an agent, I did hundreds of these cases. The initial information that comes in is always wrong. There’s too much coming in, and it takes time to vet. And it was obvious that Kash can’t understand that and doesn’t want to understand that,” the person said. “Everyone on the call is just like: This guy is completely out of control. On another call, he said: When a crisis happens, the only thing you need to do is call me. The most important thing in any crisis is controlling the narrative. I was like: No, no, no. We actually have to do some work here. We’re going to have to investigate to solve this,” the person added.Kash Patel came under fire for posting wrong information that the suspect was in custody, but the person who was detained was later released. Patel addressed the bungling and said that the FBI was just being honest about what was happening: they detained a person on suspicion and then released him.
FBI calls it a fake narrative
In a statement to the NYT, the FBI said, “This story is a regurgitation of fake narratives, conjecture, and speculation from anonymous sources who are disconnected from reality. They can whine and peddle falsehoods all they want — but it won’t change the fact that the F.B.I. under this administration worked with partners at every level and delivered a historic 2025.”
