We begin with FBI Director Kash Patel’s response to a reporter on April 21, 2026, asking if the allegations that he has been AWOL from his role at the Bureau, and repeatedly intoxicated, are true.
This week’s theme is King Tide from Tiger Gang.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel pose with a Formula 1 driver at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 22, 2025. Photo credit: Tia Dufour/Wikimedia Commons.
In the News:
* The latest Cabinet member to fall is Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who has been plagued by abuse of power allegations that include misappropriation of funds, having an affair with her bodyguard, and a husband who reportedly wandered the building pestering women for sex. Chavez-DeRemer was not fired on Truth Social, but resigned. Notably, of all the incompetent souls with disorderly personal lives in the Cabinet, Trump has dispensed with women.
* In a narrow decision on Wednesday, a Federal appeals court ruled in favor of a Texas law mandating that the Ten Commandments be clearly visible in every publicly funded classroom. The law has several twists, presumably to undermine a certain First Amendment challenge in the Supreme Court. Schools are not required to purchase these posters, but they must accept donations of them (and there just happens to be a non-profit set up to do that.) Here’s a copy of the official Texas version being sold on Etsy; here is the King James version: there are some significant differences between the two.
* We have had a number of resignations from the House of Representatives in the past ten days: Democrat Eric Swalwell (CA-14) departed in the wake of multiple sexual assault allegations; Republican Tony Gonzales (TX-23) also resigned amid an ethics probe into sexual relationships with two staffers, one of whom took her own life. Just yesterday, Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20), accused of misappropriating $5 million in campaign funds, resigned 20 minutes ahead of an expulsion vote she was expected to lose. The one we didn’t get? Republican Cory Mills (FL-07), accused of both financial crimes and of criminal harassment of women: among others moving for his expulsion are GOP colleagues Nancy Mace (SC-01) and Lauren Boebert (CO-04).
* Responding to President Donald Trump’s demand that Republican governors redistrict to protect the slim GOP Congressional majority ahead of the 2026 midterms, on Tuesday, Virginia voters approved a redistricting initiative that could potentially create 4 additional Democratic seats. This brings the number of states that have redistricted to 7; three other states have approved plans, Florida is working on one, and four additional states may be subject to court rulings that reverse redistricting. Virginians were not overwhelmingly happy about this, and Democrats threw a lot of money and ad buys into the effort. Nationally, redistricting has more or less been fought to a draw; at the same time, injected instability into all House races. At present, the initiative has been blocked from taking effect by a circuit court judge because it runs counter to a state Constitutional amendment passed in 2019 that established a bipartisan commission process.
Your hosts:
Claire Potter is a historian of politics and media, a writer, a podcaster, and the sole author and editor of the Political Junkie Substack. Her most recent book is Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Our Democracy (Basic Books, 2020), and she is currently writing a biography of feminist journalist Susan Brownmiller.
Neil J. Young is a historian of religion and politics, a journalist, and a former co-host of the Past Present podcast. His most recent book is Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
Photo credit: Mehaniq/Shutterstock
News focus:
* Here is a short biography of Kashyap “Kash” Pramod Vinod Patel, Director of the Federal Bureau of investigation.
* Late last week, The Atlantic published a blockbuster story, based on anonymous internal sources, that FBI Director Kash Patel is plagued by managerial and ethical incompetence, compounded by a serious drinking problem. Patel has filed a defamation suit against the magazine for $250 million. The Atlantic stands by its reporting; experts say that there is a high likelihood that the suit will fail.
* Here is a short history of the origins of the FBI, how it has responded to—and shaped—the history of the United States.
* Patel was an unusual, and many would say unqualified, choice as Director. Despite that, his appointment passed the Senate on a 51-49 vote on February 20, 2025, with two Republicans—Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski—voting no. Patel replaced Christopher Wray, who had an extensive history in federal law enforcement, two years before Wray’s ten-year term was up.
* A former defense attorney and Trump staffer in the Department of Defense, Patel was working as a podcaster prior to his appointment. His show, Kash’s Corner, existed mostly to defend Donald Trump from the myriad charges filed after he left office in January, 2020 and to promote conspiracy theories featuring the Biden family.
* As FBI Director, Patel first came under fire for his apparent mishandling of the Charlie Kirk assassination in September, 2025. Numerous sources within the Bureau also report that Patel has severely damaged what was once the top law enforcement agency in the world.
* A recent profile of Patel emphasizes how he has put the Bureau at the service of Trump’s retribution campaign.
* Patel is a huge hockey fan, and a weekend player. In late February, he took a taxpayer-funded jet to Italy to attend the Olympic men’s hockey final and was filmed partying with the team after they won the gold medal. This was during a period when the search for Savannah Guthrie’s kidnapped mother, Nancy, was intensifying.
* Patel lives and is registered to vote in Las Vegas, in a house owned by a GOP megadonor Michael J. Muldoon, who made a fortune from timeshares and has been investigated for shady practices.
* Patel has also been criticized for putting government assets at the service of his girlfriend, a minor country music singer and Christian influencer named Alexis Wilkins, and has used an FBI jet to visit her on the weekends. Wilkins has also inserted herself in the MAGA wars, asserting (without evidence) that podcaster Candace Owens and retired General Michael Flynn are Russian assets. In the last 24 hours, the New York Times has reported that the FBI launched an investigation of Elizabeth Williamson, the Times reporter who broke that story, for allegedly stalking Wilkins.
* This week, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee launched an investigation of Patel as a potential security risk. Here’s the letter sent to Patel on Tuesday.
* You can read the FBI Ethics guide here; one pertinent passage is in section 2.3: “The FBI expects its employees to behave in such a way that their activities both on and off duty will not discredit either themselves or the Bureau.”
What we want to go viral:
* Neil recommends that you read Patrick Radden Keefe’s new book about the influx of foreign money into London and how it tore apart one family, London Falling:
A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth (Doubleday, 2026), a real-life murder mystery, it is as good—or maybe better!—than Keefe’s previous books, and features a teenager who created a fantasy life as the son of a Russian oligarch. Coincidentally, Claire is reading it too and thinks it is boss.
* Claire wants you to read, or better yet, listen to, Lena Dunham’s Famesick: A Memoir (Random House, 2026): it’s about trauma, turning trauma into art, being famous at an impossibly young age, becoming ill, addiction (and recovery) and learning to navigate a world in which being rich and brilliant doesn’t provide any clear path to being happy.
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