On The Weeknight, Angelo Carusone discusses right-wing media’s relationship with Kash Patel and how he’s been “a useful tool”
Published
Citation
From the April 20, 2026, edition of MS NOW's The Weeknight
JACKIE ALEMANY (CO-HOST): Sarah Fitzpatrick writing, "current and former officials told me that they have long worried about what would happen in the event of a domestic terrorist attack while Patel's in office," and they said that their apprehension has increased significantly in the weeks since Trump launched his military campaign against Iran. "That's what keeps me up at night," one official said. That being said, Angelo, Kash Patel has somehow made himself still indispensable to this president, at least for right now. That could very well change. But in conservative media world, the legend of Kash Patel, how does that read?
ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): Look, I think there's -- going into this, you know, even before this, he was having some trouble because there's a lot of animosity directed toward him at the way that the Epstein situation was handled. They feel like he participated in a cover up. There's a frustration that he wasn't honest and forthright about the extent of the Epstein files that were available. When there were opportunities to disclose this information, he didn't. That's how they feel, and they feel betrayed, fundamentally. And so they were willing to carry water for Patel for quite a while. That totally threw it off the rails. And he's never quite gotten back his place within the larger right-wing ecosystem as he had going into this. There were a lot of high hopes that he was not going to come in there and just be a weapon for Donald Trump and the DOJ, but that what he was going to do was get them access to a whole bunch of this information that he said wasn't available. And not only did he not do it, but then he went out there and did that sort of video with Bongino about saying that Epstein absolutely -- he saw all the evidence and he absolutely didn't kill himself -- that he absolutely killed himself.
There was no really suspicious stuff there, like there was moments where he really cut against their narrative. And for them, he's never gotten back their footing. In the current moment though, what they do see him as a useful tool. He's still carrying out parts of what Trump needs and wants at the DOJ. They still have some hope that he's willing to break norms and sort of push for accountability in places where they think is necessary around election work. And, you know, they're willing to ignore, not weaponize, but ignore a lot of the reporting that has come up to this point, like the stories about how he's used resources for his girlfriend and some of the use of the jet and the hypocrisy there. So, he is still wobbly in the larger right-wing ecosystem. And that then puts into focus how his relationship with Trump is right now, which is that if he doesn't have them backing him, then that's an important indicator for Trump. So, he's sort of out there a little bit by himself, and he really is now speaking to an audience of one.