Congress DEMANDS Impeachment After Kash Patel’s Pearl Harbor Scandal

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Another day, another troubling headline about FBI Director Cash Patel's use of taxpayer money. Government emails obtained by the Associated Press show Patel was allowed to snorkel at the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Hawaii last summer, one of the nation's most hallowed sites. As one Marine veteran chain trained to check on the site put it, "It's like having a bachelor party at a church." At the time, the FBI had insisted Patel was there on official business. What they didn't say was that Patel returned to Hawaii later for two more days, and that's when he went on that private snorkeling excursion. It is the latest in a pattern of Patel blending professional responsibilities with leisure activities on the taxpayers's dime. Joining me now is Michael Fineberg, MS Now National Security and Intelligence Analyst and former FBI assistant special agent in charge. Michael, first, have you ever heard about anything like this before?

[00:00:59]>> I have not. Actually, quite the contrary, it's drilled into special agents who make up most of the executive ranks in the FBI from their first day at the academy that they should not leverage their position with the US government to accrete to themselves private benefits like this. There's a legendary story told to new recruits about something as simple as a veteran agent trying to get more meat on a deli sandwich and how inappropriate that was.

[00:01:35]That is the example used to show you what using your position to gain an outline benefit looks like. What Cash Fatel is alleged to have done is orders of magnitude worse than that. He not only was obtaining an outing for himself, not available to the general public, but he was doing it at a place that contains the remains, the corpses of American patriots who died serving their country.

[00:02:08]It's really difficult for me to think of a more inappropriate place he could have chosen in the entirety of the United States and its surrounding waterways to essentially get a private VIP snorkeling tour.

[00:02:26]That Marine veteran I quoted before, who is actually trained to dive down to the USS Arizona annually to check on the condition of the wreck, also told the AP that it's inappropriate for Patel and other figures to snorkel or dive there, saying just what you said. It's hallowed ground. It needs to be treated with the somnity it deserves. At the same time though, I think I should point out that the head of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor survivors wrote, "I have not heard of anyone who would object to these visits as they are very rare and there aren't any survivors of the Arizona left alive. Their children might have some objections, but I haven't heard any." I I wonder though given what you said about how you're trained when your new recruit, how you think the men and the women of the FBI see it where their leader has done this.

[00:03:20]>> The men and women of the FBI are exhausted by Patel's antics in general to the point where they may be numb to them because they happen so fast and furious these days that they bleed into one another. But this isn't about whether an individual victim of the Pearl Harbor attacks survi um you know kin or issue would feel offensive at this. This is just about having a general respect for American history and the notion of sacrifice and the notion of patriotism. The site where he chose to go on a snorkeling frolic is functionally a mausoleum for armed service members who had no choice or say in where their bodies remain. They made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. One would hope that the respect due to that sacrifice would have caused Patel to at least pause before doing this.

[00:04:30]But I think we all know by now that such reflective pauses and self-awareness are just not a part of his constitutional makeup.

[00:04:39]>> Patel had, as you know, already sparked controversy by taking the FBI's private plane to see his girlfriend perform the national anthem at a Pennsylvania wrestling event. Um, he was seen chugging beers, celebrating with the US men's hockey team uh on a trip that was supposed to be official business. Beyond the questions about whether Patel is focused on the job, what's your sense?

[00:05:01]Do you think he can survive these questions about having a great time on the taxpayers's dime?

[00:05:08]>> At the risk of sounding glib, I really hope not. Um, largely because I think the men and women of the FBI deserve a better leader. I think the American public deserves a better FBI director.

[00:05:21]And it's really not about one or two incidents. Um, it's about how he approaches his appointment to director in the first place. When I was in the FBI, the good leaders were the ones who realized that their positions were not due to them as a matter of course. They were not an opportunity for them to leverage power or enrich themselves. In fact, leadership was not something that acrewed a benefit to you personally at all. It was a responsibility. It was a duty. It was a burden. Your job was to be a protective shield to stop outside forces, externalities, extraneous details from stopping your team from doing their mission.

[00:06:18]The problem is Patel's antics, his hijinks, his inability to stay out of negative press stories is the very thing that is now hindering the organization.

[00:06:30]If he had any dignity and respect for the country as a whole, he would realize that the reputation he has earned is harming the bureau and for the good of the workforce, he would step away. FBI director Cash Patel is facing a fresh wave of scrutiny over a new excursion while on official FBI business when he was in Hawaii last summer. The Associated Press is now reporting that Patel took part in what the government or what government officials described as a VIP snorkel around a Pearl Harbor memorial in an outling coordinated by the military. It was revealed in government emails obtained by the Associated Press and occurred in one of this country's most sacred memorial sites. The AP reports this, with few exceptions, snorkeling and diving are off limits around the USS Arizona. The battleship, now a military cemetery reachable only by boat, has stood as one of the nation's most hollowed sites since Japan bombed and sank it in 1941.

[00:07:28]Marine archaeologists and crews from the National Park Service make occasional dives at the memorial to survey the conditions of the wreck. Other dives have been concluded or conducted, I should say, to enter the remains of Arizona survivors who wanted to rest eternally with their former shipmates.

[00:07:43]Now, the snorkeling session happened one day after Patel stopped in Washington to open the FBI's first standalone office in New Zealand. Patel's tenure leading the nation's top law enforcement agency has been littered with headlines about his use of taxpayer resources for travel. Like back in February when Patel generated controversy for appearing to chug beer with the US men's Olympic hockey team in Milan. Joining the conversation now, senior political analyst and contributing host on Pod Save America and host of the podcast, Runaway Country, Alex Wagner is here and Miles and General Hurtling are still with us. General, let me start with you on this one. Talk to me about the significance of this site. Who who manages this site? Who operates this site? I know you have personal experience with it. And and how could something like this have happened?

[00:08:29]>> Well, I was at one time in my career a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which has 26 cemeteries around the world outside the United States. There is a cemetery in Hawaii in Honolulu called the Honolulu American Cemetery. It is called the Punch Bowl uh in slang. It's in the in a volcano. The Arizona is different though. That's run by the park service. And anyone that's been there knows that the sunken Arizona is is still visible from the the top of the water and there is a platform on over the top of it where visitors can go lay wreath see the and every once in a while Amen there's literal oil droplets that come up because it's still coming from the ship but there are sailors interned in that ship. uh to have someone doing a snorkel trip uh around the Arizona would sort of be like running or having a 5K race through a cemetery. It's just ridiculous and it's sacrilege. Uh these these places provide homage to those who gave their lives.

[00:09:34]And to me, this particular event that Mr. Patel went through just shows how much he's lost contact with reality and thinks that his position allows him to do these kind of things.

[00:09:45]>> Yeah. deeply offensive and disrespectful. Um, Alex, let me share some more of the Associated Press reporting. The former FBI directors uh have visited Pearl Harbor. They've done so on official business. Um, none going back to at least 1993 has gone snorkeling at the memorial according to those familiar with their activities.

[00:10:03]And a former government uh diver who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. The divers said it was unusual for a director or anyone not connected to the memorial to be granted such access because the swims come with physical risks and present security, safety, and logistical challenges. His tenure, of course, Alex, has been different and has been defined by stories like this, but this one even feels different than chugging beers with the US Olympic hockey team. Yeah, there's something about very important person snorkeling around a mass grave that does not ring normal even and it also I mean independent of the sacrilege and the profound mismanagement of public resources and the taking advantage of his position the corruption that's inherent in an activity like this you have to wonder like when is Cash Patel working he's snorkeling he's drawing up batches of bourbon to give to his cronies. He's chugging beer overseas. I mean, this person is the head of the FBI at a time when the resources and the serious people in the building have been kicked out. There are very real threats to the homeland. Who who has their hand on the captain's wheel? I mean, we already knew that the DOJ was be clowning itself with these bogus investigations and weaponized attacks against Trump's enemies, but this is another level of unseriousness that I think actually might resonate with Donald Trump. I mean, the idea, first of all, just the image of Cash Patel and a flippers and a snorkel mask is like dis disconcerting enough to be fired, but to be doing so at Pearl Harbor is another level of comedic inappropriateness and utter utter disqualification.

[00:11:54]>> Yeah. Miles, I mean, you you've worked for the government. You've traveled with senior officials. You've been on trips where I'm sure people uh take a minute to pay respects wherever they may be in situations like this, but this this is different. I mean, how were your trips different than what Cash Patel is doing here?

[00:12:12]>> Well, I I've taken cabinet secretaries to that spot to Pearl Harbor. I've organized that trip. I've let it it never even occurred to me to say, "Bring your swimsuit. Let's pop on a snorkel and let's go swim through a cemetery."

[00:12:27]like the general said, never occurred to me. Was also never offered up to me. And this is pure speculation, but I've got to sus suspect that this was something that Cash Patel himself suggested doing.

[00:12:39]Otherwise, I don't know how it would have come up. But you hear all of this and anyone who's been in government in any administration hears all of this and says, "What the hell is going on here?

[00:12:50]The snorkeling, the chugging, the beers, the taking government jets to see his girlfriend performing." Cash Patel is acting like this is rich kids spring break. That's not what this is. We are paying you to protect our interests.

[00:13:03]Doesn't seem like he's on the job very much. But when he is on the job, it seems like he's just focused on the president's retribution and going after his enemies and persecuting people and apparently sending agents to go investigate reporters who tell these stories to go polygraph the FBI employees who are talking to those reporters to try to sound the alarm.

[00:13:24]This guy's got his priorities inside out. But it's not just him. This comes from the top. And I think that's what we have to focus here. Donald Trump is giving Cash Patel permission to do this and we need to make sure that that is clear.

[00:13:37]>> What stands out most about this story is not just the disrespect. It is how casually it apparently happened.

[00:13:43]According to the reporting, FBI Director Cash Patel participated in what officials described as a VIP snorkeling excursion around the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor while traveling on official FBI business. The more you sit with that image, the more staggering it becomes that anyone inside this administration considered it remotely appropriate. This is one of the most sacred military memorial sites in the United States. The USS Arizona is not a tourist attraction. It is a war grave.

[00:14:15]More than 1,100 American sailors and marines died there during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and many of their remains are still intombed inside that ship today. The site exists to honor sacrifice, loss, and one of the darkest chapters in American history. It is treated with extreme reverence for a reason. And yet, under this administration, the head of the FBI ended up snorkeling around it as though he were on a luxury resort excursion.

[00:14:42]I'm Mark Wilson and this is Ad Confidential. If you are not yet subscribed to the channel, take a second and do that now and hit the notification bell so you never miss a video. Stories like this matter more politically than some people realize because they reinforce a broader perception that parts of the Trump administration operate with an extraordinary sense of entitlement. There is a growing feeling among many Americans that certain officials no longer see themselves as public servants but as celebrities, influencers, or members of some exclusive club where normal standards of conduct simply do not apply. According to the reporting, snorkeling and diving near the Arizona are heavily restricted, permitted only for specific purposes like preservation work or the ceremonial interament of surviving veterans remains. That context is critical because it highlights just how unusual this access was. Former FBI directors have visited Pearl Harbor before, but according to the record, none had ever been granted this kind of access. Going back decades, regular Americans instinctively understand why this crosses a line. Imagine visiting Arlington National Cemetery and seeing government officials treating it like a networking event or a recreational outing. Most people immediately recognize that certain places demand dignity and restraint. That is exactly why so many veterans and military families are reacting so strongly. What also stands out is how this incident fits into a larger pattern surrounding Cash Patel's public conduct. Previous controversies include Patel appearing overseas, chugging beer with athletes while on official travel, and facing scrutiny over taxpayer funded trips.

[00:16:27]Individually, some of those moments may sound trivial, but stacked together, a clear picture emerges. Someone who consistently appears more focused on optics, personal image, and spectacle than on the immense responsibility attached to leading the FBI. The FBI director is not supposed to function like a social media personality. The person in that role oversees counterterrorism operations, organized crime investigations, cyber threats, espionage cases, and national security risks. It is one of the most serious positions in the entire federal government. Americans expect discipline, professionalism, and sound judgment from whoever holds it because the stakes are extraordinarily high. There is also a deeper issue here involving the culture surrounding Trump era politics more broadly. Increasingly, loyalty and performance are being rewarded over competence and seriousness. The people rising within Trump's orbit often appear selected because they entertain him, defend him aggressively on television, or project a certain combative persona online. But governing a country is not the same thing as generating viral moments on social media. And the danger is that eventually the line between spectacle and governance disappears entirely. The most striking observation from the original reporting was the comparison of the snorkeling trip to running a race through a cemetery. That analogy sounds harsh at first, but it resonates for a reason. For military families, especially places like Pearl Harbor are not abstract historical landmarks. They represent sacrifice, grief, patriotism, and memory. Treating such a site casually sends the message that symbolism, tradition, and respect no longer matter to the people in power.

[00:18:14]At a time when trust in institutions is already collapsing, stories like this only deepen public cynicism. Americans want to believe that the people entrusted with enormous authority understand the seriousness of their positions. But when headlines keep revolving around VIP snorkeling trips, beer chugging photo ops, and increasingly bizarre controversies, people start wondering whether the adults are actually in charge. If this video hit home for you, drop a blue heart in the comments and let me know you were here. And if you have not already, subscribe to Ad Confidential. I will see you in the next one.