FBI Director Kash Patel and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) verbally duked it out during a Tuesday Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Democrats looked to get under Patel’s skin by bringing up a scurrilous report published by The Atlantic that accused him of being a drunken paranoid, a hit piece that has resulted in a $250 million lawsuit being filed against the Jeffrey Goldberg-helmed outlet.
When Van Hollen got his turn at grilling the FBI boss, he went straight for the throat by bringing up the allegations about Patel’s “excessive drinking and unexplained absences” from the anonymously sourced story, one that has provided the Democrats with loads of material for their talking points.
In a heated exchange during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel denied allegations of frequent drinking when asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about a recent report by The Atlantic magazine which included allegations that Patel often drinks to excess. “It’s a… pic.twitter.com/SSzWhxFOPA
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 12, 2026
Heated invective flew when Patel grew weary of the senator’s leaning on The Atlantic’s reporting on his alleged boozing as if it were fact and called into question Van Hollen’s chummy relationship with “gangbanging rapist” MS-13 thug Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the Democrat is accused of swilling margaritas with during a trip to El Salvador, where the “Maryland man” was deported to last year.
“Reports of your being so drunk and hungover that your staff had to force entry into your home are extremely alarming,” Van Hollen said. “If true, they represent a gross dereliction of your duty.”
Patel fired back, denying the allegations: “It’s a total farce. I don’t even know where you get it from.”
“I will not be tarnished by baseless allegations and fraudulent statements from the media,” he said.
But Van Hollen persisted, badgering the FBI chief with the allegations from The Atlantic.
“The only individual drinking on the taxpayer’s dime is you,” Patel responded to the panel’s top Democrat.
“Unlike your baseless reports, the only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted gangbanging rapist was you,” he told Van Hollen, referring to his wife abusing, human trafficking, and illegal alien friend.
“The only person that ran up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington, DC, at the Lobby Bar was you,” he added. “So the only person in this room that has been drinking on the taxpayers’ dime during the day was you.”
Abrego Garcia became the Democrats’ poster boy after he was deported to his native El Salvador, where he was briefly held at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) megaprison with the Maryland senator among those making the biggest stink.
Van Hollen felt so strongly about his foreign constituent that he personally flew to the Latin American country to lobby for his release, and a picture of him enjoying the popular tropical drink with Abrego Garcia was widely mocked.
The senator continues to deny that he was swilling margaritas with the “gangbanging rapist” and claims that the glasses were props.
Glasses were placed in front of us but we did not drink them. I know that may be a confusing concept for Director Patel. https://t.co/ZTYfTb4CZJ
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) May 13, 2026
Van Hollen also defended his use of the outlet’s sketchy reporting to attack the FBI director.
“24 sources told The Atlantic that Kash Patel’s heavy drinking impeded his ability to do his job. He denied it,” he wrote in a Tuesday post to X, sharing a clip of the exchange. “He also told provable lies during this hearing. And at the end, he refused to acknowledge that it is a crime to lie to Congress. It is.”
“Let me just be very clear: Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us,” Van Hollen previously told reporters.
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