MSNBC anchor Jonathan Lemire on Monday walked back an outlandish claim made by a contributor to the left-leaning network that FBI Director Kash Patel has spent more time at nightclubs than he has at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC.
The “Morning Joe” co-host said he wanted to circle back to a segment from Friday with Frank Figliuzzi, NBC News and MSNBC’s senior national security analyst, who alleged that the bureau was dissolving into chaos under Patel.
“Well, reportedly he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover Building,” Figliuzzi had claimed.
“So this is both a blessing and a curse, because if he’s really trying to run things without his experience, without any experience level, things could be bad. If he’s not plugged in, things could be bad. But he’s allowing agents to run things, so we don’t know where this is going.”
Lemire on Monday corrected Figliuzzi and took back the wild nightclub story, saying, “This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim.”
During Friday’s segment, Figliuzzi also claimed that Patel’s daily FBI briefings were dropped down to “maybe twice weekly,” after Lemire asked about rumors that the director has “been less visible.”
Figliuzzi, who is also an MSNBC columnist, alleged that “the one word that keeps coming back at me from inside is that the building is chaos.”
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