Bulwark Takes - Is the FBI Director Even Doing His Job?

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Tim Miller gives his take on Kash Patel using Katie Miller’s podcast to push back on criticism about spending time with his girlfriend, and why the interview felt more like reputation management than leadership at a critical moment for the FBI.

Hey Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show. Only at BetMGM. Access to the Price is right fortune pick is only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, everybody, Timur from the bulwark here. The Timu Oprah has dropped her latest interview with Cash Patel, the director of the FBI, and his girlfriend, country music sensation, Alexis Wilkins. They sat down on the white couch with Katie Miller herself. She has, as mentioned, a couple of podcasts over today, a knack for bringing in Trump cabinet officials right at the moment that they are under scrutiny for a little bit of a soft touch.

Stephen Miller knows something about that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I had to do that to you. I'm taping this late at night. And I just had to watch Katie Miller interview, Cash Patel and Alexis. So just let me have that one. I want to run through some of the clips. I got to tell you, the main takeaways here that I've got are, this is extremely awkward.

And it's a very awkward and cringe situation, just like the Bureau Director for, you know, federal law enforcement. Top cop sitting down in the soft focus with his much younger girlfriend, just kind of talking about their long-distance relationship. Like, why? I, you know, it's just, it's just not something that you'd see generally from FBI heads. And the fact that cash is like whipped enough to have to do this is pretty rough. It's a pretty rough look. He doesn't, I wouldn't say he comes off alpha. It comes up very awkward.

It doesn't seem like a guy who's fully locked in on his job of going after bad guys. And you watch the interview, he's locked in on protecting his reputation. He's locked in on keeping his girlfriend happy. He is locked in at pushing back on his critics. He's locked in on, you know, talking about these kind of like political scandals and and what the Biden and people said about him. But like when it comes to the job of counterintelligence going after bad guys of protecting the country, it seems like he's got a little bit of a wandering eye. So let's start here. We'll start with before we even get.

to the clip, we have this little kind of, you know, high school news division card that you put in right at the front. It's like we did this interview. Oopsy-dupsy. Like the FBI director should be doing really real work right now. And so we've got to put this card in at the front that says the interview is taped before the horrific shooting of Brown University. So now, you know, cash was just ignoring his responsibilities with all the other crimes out there. But, you know, they are obviously aware, and they could have sat on this. I don't, is the Katie Miller recording schedule that important? I don't, I don't know that she's got to be responsive to our advertisers. Nobody's watching this podcast, as we've discussed,

maybe just to protect her husband's colleague. She could have just held up, but she didn't do that instead we put in the little card. This happened before the shooting up round. I don't think that the card does anything to alleviate the questions, such as why did Cash Betton announced they had caught the shooter at Brown when they had it, when they got the wrong guy. Why is Cash Patel so focused on doing a little media tour with his girlfriend when there are real bad guys that he is charged with going out there and investigating? why now at the time of this taping do we still not have an arrest in the Brown campus shooting?

An MIT professor got shot today. It's not too far from Brown. I don't, I'm not saying I know anything. That could be a coincidence. Probably is a coincidence, I guess. But we don't know. You would think that federal law enforcement would be on high alert. wouldn't be totally focused on this.

And instead, you know, the PR team over there is dealing with the director's interview with on his colleague's wife's podcast. So there you go. But interview was taped before. They want to make sure they let you know that. We get in pretty early to questions that have been raised by my colleague Will Summer drew attention to this based on some reporting he had done and some sourcing from some disgruntled former FBI agents.

The Cash Retail is taking the government plane. He's required to take, but he was making an order in it one of trips to see his girlfriend. He went to go see or sing in a wrestling match, et cetera. Will did a lot of reporting on this. FBI spokesperson came out, called us fake news. The administration calls us fake news from time to time. It's what they do. Cash has asked about that reporting and the amount of time he's spending flying to visit his girlfriend on taxpayer-funded jet.

Let's listen to his answer. It's ironic that they're saying, oh, you're going on vacation or you're going to see your girlfriend perform. And if I was actually abusing it, I would go see every one of her shows. I think I get to like 15%. Just to clarify, how often has he traveled to see you since January 20th? Gosh. I think like Nashville. I've been in Nashville.

Yeah, I've been to her house a couple times with her family for the holidays and birthdays. days. I've seen her perform this year, I think, three times. Yeah. He's only been to 15% of her shows. Only been to 15% of her show. That was, would have been my excuse. My mother called and asked me, well, I wasn't going to class as much in college. She said she keeps hearing him on widespread panic tour. I'm like, mom, I've only been 15% of the panic shows. Okay. Only been to 15% of the shows on tour. And then when a follow-up question was given about like, okay, but then how many times you got to Nashville? Let's just play that part one more time. Yeah. I've been her house a couple times with her family.

for the holidays and, you know, birthdays. I've seen her perform this year, I think, three times. Oh, gosh. Hmm, let me think about this. What? Three, couple, maybe, some, holidays, birthday, had holidays and birthdays, performances. Hmm. Don't know.

Don't have a number. It's quite a lot. It's only been one year, you know? I mean, if you asked me how many times I've been. someplace in this year, I would know, or at least be able to say in the same ballpark. And I've been to New York a lot this year, for example. You said, how many, Tim, how many times you've been to L.A. this year? Once, I want to do the Jubilee taping.

You know, how many times have you been to Miami this year? I haven't been to Miami this year. How many times have been to New York this year? I'd say, huh, well, I'd have to think about that, quite a few. I don't know, probably six, maybe seven, maybe five. I don't know, but it's been quite a bit. That is the answer you give when you've been somewhere a lot. And so Cash seems like he's been going to visit his girlfriend a lot, I guess, is the takeaway there.

So an attempt to clean up, Kay did her best to help him clean that up. And what he came away with was he's been to Nashville enough times that he can't quite say how many. And that he's been to about 15% of his girlfriend's concerts. Again, totally fine. And that's a normal percentage to have gone to. It's maybe even a little low. If you have a job, it's like an accountant or, you know, whatever, like a mid-level PR executive. But when you're running the FBI, when you're the nation's top cop, it's a notable amount.

It's a lot of, it's a lot of deedless country music to be seeing. I want to put one more on his travel here. And I think it's ironic that members of Congress, who, by the way, travel exclusively on government-funded programs and go see their family and friends wherever they live, when they're... whenever they want, not to mention the junkets they take overseas are the ones criticizing us and me specifically for daring to go see my girlfriend, my family, my elder parents in South Florida, or when I get to, on the rare occasion, go home to my house in Las Vegas. You know, it's home. And, you know, it's been home for five years for me. So I enjoy doing that. And

it's hilarious when they hold up, you know, photos of me in Las Vegas. And they say, what are you doing in Vegas? And I was like, so I can't go home now? And they just don't even do their basic research. But it's the ultimate hypocrisy. They do it more than I do. And they see this as a point of clickbait. He's not just going to Nashville. They're just going to rural Pennsylvania to see her sing in front of a wrestling audience. They're also spent a lot of time in Vegas, sounds like, where cash lives. Initially, he lived at a rich guy's house. And which I find kind of strange rich old man gave him his house you know again I don't exactly what does that person have any business are they do they have any crimes that they

might want to cover up I don't know there's other weird stuff happening I don't know just generally like the FBI directory wouldn't want them like living in another rich person's house maybe as his own place now but the beginning you know I can't speak to I'm not I'm not following exactly where Cash is living minute by minute. But for a while, he was living in someone else's house in Vegas. Anyway, he's upset. There's just mentioned in the clip. It's like, oh, I can't go

home now. You know, but later he like talks about how he likes to save his favorite restaurant is in Vegas. They go out to a restaurant together there. So it's like, all right, well, you're going to Nashville. You're going to see 15% of her concerts. And you're going to Vegas.

It's a lot of girlfriend time. It's a lot of personal travel for the FBI director, I will say. I mean, you know, maybe she could come to D.C. and stay in your apartment a little bit more. That would be something to think about. Just one thing I should mention. Maybe we shouldn't look into this too much.

Everybody who's watched this feed knows. I firmly believe that Tyler Robinson killed Charlie Kirk, all the evidence points to him, and that he'll be convicted by a jury of his peers. If I'm wrong, people can come back and find this clip. But given all the conspiracies out there, I did think it was kind of strange that Stephen Miller's wife would make this caveat. Do you find that the people often who are submitting these death threats are the ones who are actually actioning it? Or is it more of a Charlie Kirk type situation, if we all is believe that Tyler Robinson was the person who shot and killed Charlie?

that it is someone who is not going to post online. Has political violence and the death threats picked up since Charlie's murder? Or is it about the same for where it's been, say, since January 20th? I think there's January 20th. It's maybe picked up a little bit. I just think it's gotten a lot more attention.

If we all believe that Tower Robinson was the person who shot and killed Charlie, if? What if? Maybe a little slip of the tongue there, but I just, I think when you're with the FBI director, when you know that there are a lot of conspiracies out there about that, you should probably be a little bit more precise in how you talk about it. So just one other thing that caught my eye.

We're getting towards the fun part of the show, which is where it gets really awk. So stick around for that. It starts here when Katie asked Cash how he got the job. Great question. We're all wondering that. And here's his answer. How did that all come together? Did you know you always wanted to be the FBI director?

No. I think Katie Miller had a lot to do with it. But I was sitting in our friend's house in Florida. We were all doing all the transition work. And so actually, I think as I remember it, I was one of the last agency heads he appointed. And I was sitting in the living room and I got the call and you can imagine my reaction. Maybe that's a joke there. I don't understand.

Some kind of like inside joke. but like cash saying that Katie Miller helped get in the job and then big laughs. Like is that right? Is that right? Is like the wife of the political advisor, an immigration advisor to the president? Did she have input in the choice for FBI director? Crazier things have happened. I know a weekend talk show co-host runs the military now. So I don't know why Katie Miller would have a lot to do with him getting

the job. I don't know why he has the job. He seemed to take that question more like literally, which was, thank you for your help, I guess. Katie Miller may have had some role. Maybe something worth following up on. And then like he's talked about how he called his mom and how he's excited. So again, these answers aren't demonstrating a ton of focus on, you know, I got the job because I've been dedicated and a long career of commitment to supporting federal law enforcement and to ensuring that people in the country are safe. You know, there's the kind of things you'd expect like a Chris Ray to say in that moment,

not like thanking a random political advisor's wife for their help and then talking about calling their mom. it's just it's not a guy that's demonstrating a lot of confidence now we can get on to the more fun stuff because this is what it's all about right and you're running the FBI haven't haven't talked a ton about the work like the people that you're arresting and the you know plots that you're uncover covering and the work that you're doing in the counterintelligence base going after spies and we had a big takeout in the board this week about how the FBI is doing a horrific job going after chinese spies that didn't come up in this interview because there doesn't seem to be a lot of focus and interest between Katie Miller and Cash Patel and his country singer girlfriend on like protecting the country from foreign spies.

It seems to be a lot of interest in protecting their personal brands as influencers. And to that end, let's hear a little bit more about our influencer director. This one is maybe a point of personal privilege, but they're asked, he's asked his favorite musician, and let's just hear the answer here. So I know, Cass, you're a big country music fan. What's your favorite? Who's your favorite artist? George Strait. Really?

Even outside of country? Because I was half joking. 100% all day long. He's so serious. He just got like the Kennedy Center honors, didn't you? Yeah. Did you meet him? I did not meet him there, but Alexis for my birthday surprised me by.

taking me to the George Strait concert, and I'd never been before in my life. So that was pretty awesome. It's cute that she got him to take this to George Strait. But like, George Strait is his favorite musician. And even Katie seemed like that sounded strange. It's like, okay, well, he's now dating a country music star. So is he just trying to come up with the only country musician he knows. I mean, George Strait is great.

He's a traditional Texas country singer, long resume. but it's like that's your favorite musician but you'd never seen him in concert you're a grown man he's a grown man he's my age like he's one thing like i had never seen oasis in concert but that's because they've they've been on you know hiatus for 20 years like doors straight doors and such i don't know again it just seems fake it doesn't it doesn't seem real he seems fake it all it all like or it seems like a person that maybe he doesn't like music and he's making it up because his now girlfriend is a musician. Maybe that's, maybe that's it.

I don't know. That one jumped out of me. Let's hear a little bit more about them. Let's hear about their secret talents. This is for both of you. Separate answers. What's your secret talent? Ooh, you go first.

I don't have one. You've got to have a secret talent. We all have one. What's yours? I think I can like see over the horizon and see like what's bad or good in the future. I think I can compartmentalize. It's just not natural.

They're not natural. They're awkward. It's awkward. They're uncomfortable. His secret talent is compartmentalization. I mean, I guess that would make sense that that would be what he would bring up as he's sitting here talking about his favorite place to Uber Eats from and his favorite musician and, you know, his dating origin story, his little meat cute, you know, while. He's supposed to be running the nation's law enforcement bureau. He's definitely compartmentalizing.

He's compartmentalizing, you know, the very serious job that we've tasked him with. He's putting that in a little box for a while. Well, he does Timo Oprah. So I think, I don't know. And I think we kind of get a sense for why that might have been the thing that popped to mind in that moment for his secret talent after he said he didn't have. one. That might have been really the honest answer. He doesn't really seem to have that much talent. Two other little strange moments that I want to end with one. She asked, who's the queen of country music? Let's watch this again. Who's the queen of country music? She is.

Very sweet. I need a polymarket now on when the two of you are getting engaged. Like, I will be there front and center. Neither of them can name anybody, and then she weirdly cuts to a polymarket ad. Maybe she does have advertisers since she has to fulfill content for. But like, it doesn't seem like catch

a child likes music, I think. He probably couldn't name a female country singer, I guess. Maybe Alexis can't either. I don't know. It's, it doesn't seem authentic.

I watch a lot of interviews with people who like, actually like music and like these are, these are questions they could generally answer. Lastly, they have a dream dinner party and, And then, well, that also just gets weird. If you could host a dinner party with three people, dead or alive, who's at the table, and what are you eating?

Okay. I would pick Ronald Reagan, my papa, I know not a celebrity, but my grandfather met like the most in the world to me. And he knows everything about history, and he's the reason that I, like, got into loving and appreciating history at veterans. who was a veteran, all that stuff. I could talk about my papa forever, so I will move on. Third one is hard because that was kind of as far as I got in my head. Okay. I mean, Ronald Reagan and Papaw and Cash can't follow the rules either.

And the awkward laughter and Katie's just trying so hard. And you can see why the ratings are what the ratings are on this show. I appreciate you guys are watching my show because I don't not get out of the park every episode. You know, you got some hits and misses. But, um,

you know, it ain't the Katie Miller podcast. Guess we'll leave it at that. Subscribe to the feed. Subscribe to the feed. Comment below and tell me what your dream dinner date would be. Three dinner guests. I'm guessing you could come up with something.

Let us. know to prove to me you made it to the end of this podcast episode let us know in the comment section and we'll be talking to you all again soon