The opposite shoe has dropped on the continuing wrap-up smear of FBI Director Kash Patel. The unique merchandise printed in The Atlantic drew its preliminary spherical of Elitist Media protection. Now, an extra spherical as a consequence of Congressional hearings on the article, setting Patel as much as be grilled concerning the allegations.
With anchor Tom Llamas being the primary to reach to China to cowl the Trump-Xi summit, there was associated protection that bumped the hearings off the Nightly Information. ABC and CBS, anchored by fill-ins as David Muir and Tony Dokoupil make their option to Beijing, have been all too desperate to wallow within the mud.
ABC’s Jay O’Brien actually labored “pounding beers” into his protection of the listening to:
DRINKING GAME: Half II of the wrap-up smear of Kash Patel ran immediately. Here is ABC’s Jay O’Brien, actually working “pounding beers” into his report on immediately’s listening to pic.twitter.com/Q7dDFcs2fH
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) Might 13, 2026
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
5/12/26
6:41 PM
JAY O’BRIEN (shouted at Kash Patel): Do you continue to have the arrogance of the president?
Tonight, the fireworks on Capitol Hill. FBI Director Kash Patel grilled by Democrats about experiences he has a consuming downside.
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Episodes of extreme consuming, unexplained absences, and habits that involved present and former FBI and DoJ officers. (VIDEO SWIPE) Is it your testimony that these allegations are categorically false?
KASH PATEL: Unequivocally, categorically false.
(VIDEO SWIPE)
VAN HOLLEN: And so there have been no events when your safety element had problem waking or finding you. Is that proper?
PATEL: Nope. It is a whole farce. I do not even know the place you get these items however it does not make it credible since you say so.
VAN HOLLEN: I am not saying it, Director Patel, it has been written and documented.
PATEL: You’re actually saying it.
VAN HOLLEN: No, I’m saying that these are experiences, Director Patel.
O’BRIEN: Patel drawing scrutiny after he was seen celebrating and pounding beers on the Olympics with the USA males’s hockey staff. The director insists he was in Milan on separate official enterprise. He is now suing The Atlantic journal after it reported on alleged bouts of extreme consuming.
The CBS Night Information wasn’t a lot better than ABC, dutifully pushing out the smear:
CBS runs Half II of the wrap-up smear in opposition to Kash Patel. Here is Chris Van Hollen saying “it is written…”, a key component of the wrap-up smear (initially printed in The Atlantic) pic.twitter.com/gKLAaiqToA
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) Might 13, 2026
CBS EVENING NEWS
5/12/26
6:41 PM
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: You can’t carry out these public duties if you’re incapacitated.
CAITLIN HUEY-BURNS: Democrats grilled FBI Director Kash Patel about claims made in a current “Atlantic” journal article, together with allegations of extreme consuming and unexplained absences.
VAN HOLLEN: And so there have been no events when your safety element had problem waking or finding you, is that proper?
KASH PATEL: Nope. It is a whole farce. I do not even know the place you get these items however it does not make it credible since you say so.
VAN HOLLEN: I am not saying it, Director Patel, it has been written and documented.
PATEL: You’re actually saying it.
HUEY-BURNS: Patel denies the claims. His private habits has been closely scrutinized since he was seen consuming with the lads’s Olympic hockey staff in Italy, and after a report that he offers out personalised bourbon bottles engraved along with his title and title.
As we famous when the networks initially jumped all around the unproven allegations printed in The Atlantic:
The Atlantic has a historical past of working Trump-deranged fiction that received’t play wherever else. Probably the most infamous instance of this style is the despicable Suckers and Losers Hoax.
Patel’s defamation lawsuit in opposition to The Atlantic will endure as a narrative lengthy after this operation fades from the headlines. In the meantime, the Elitist Media proceed to remind us why belief in media is at an all-time low.
The fiction stays unproven, however it nonetheless has political use, as is demonstrated right here by ABC and CBS.
