FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday questioned why Sen. Chris Van Hollen would have “margaritas with a felon” and run up a $7,000 bar tab in Washington, DC — before daring the Maryland Democrat to take a test alongside him for alcohol dependency.
“The only person that was slinging margaritas in El Salvador on the taxpayer dollar with a convicted, gang-banging rapist, was you,” Patel erupted in a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing.
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“The only person that ran up $7,000 bar tab in Washington, DC, at the Lobby Bar was you,” he thundered. “So the only person in this room who has been drinking on the taxpayer dime was you.”
Van Hollen insisted that the FBI boss faced “serious allegations” based on reporting from The Atlantic magazine about “alleged episodes of excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences” from the job.
“Are you willing to take the test … it’s called the audit test that members of our active duty military and others take to determine whether they have a drinking problem?” the Democratic senator pressed.
“I’ll take any tests you’re willing to take,” Patel fired back.
“I will take it. Director Patel, I’ll take it,” Van Hollen agreed. “You’re ready to take it?”
“Let’s go side by side,” said the FBI director, who has sued The Atlantic for $250 million over the article and dismissed it in Tuesday’s hearing as “unequivocally, categorically false.”
