John Oliver has savaged “deeply weird” FBI Director Kash Patel and his girlfriend as part of a brutal MAGA takedown in the latest episode of Last Week Tonight.
Patel, 46, was lambasted in a scathing monologue that, among other things, tackled his use of private jets to travel with his girlfriend, aspiring country singer Alexis Wilkins, 27.
The FBI Director made headlines when he used the FBI jet to see Wilkins perform at a pro-wrestling event in Pennsylvania in October, during the government shutdown. It was soon revealed that he had been using the jet to see his girlfriend on numerous occasions.
Oliver showed a clip of Patel and Wilson appearing on The Katie Miller Podcast, hosted by the MAGA wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
In the interview, which aired in December, Patel lashed out at criticism of his use of the FBI jet to watch his girlfriend perform at various events.
Claiming it was “ironic” people were saying that he was using the FBI jet to go “on vacation” or “to see your girlfriend perform,” Patel justified the private travel on the public dime. “If I was actually abusing it, I would go see every one of her shows. I think I get to, like, 15 percent,” he said.
Oliver said of Patel’s maths, “Oh, so that’s okay then. We all know it’s not abuse if you don’t do it as much as you technically could, you deeply weird man.”
The New York Times previously reported that it is not uncommon for the FBI director to use the private jet for personal reasons, as long as the director reimburses the government for the price of a commercial ticket for the trip.
The FBI has stated that Patel is following federal law in reimbursing his personal travel expenses.
Oliver on Sunday refused to air any footage of Wilkins’ song “Country Back” (noting it was about “how she wants her country back”) but pointed out one of the top comments on the track’s YouTube page. “Damn, Patel borrow the jet and went to listen to this?”
“I’d agree with that, except, again, he didn’t borrow the jet,” Oliver said. “We all paid for it. Thousands of dollars to take off, just a thought.”
Oliver was taking a jab at Patel’s 2024 comments about his FBI predecessor Christoper Wray’s use of the bureau’s private jet.
“Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G-5 jet to go to vacation,” Patel said on Glenn Beck’s podcast. “Maybe we ground that plane — $15,000 every time it takes off. Just a thought."
Wilkins met Patel in 2023 at an event at a friend’s house in Nashville, where the singer is based for her career. However, she has released no new music in three years.
Last month, Wilkins scored the job of singing The Star Spangled Banner ahead of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s anti-abortion speech to Christian broadcasters at the NRB’s “Freedom 250” event.
The “Country Back” video has had 125,000 views on YouTube, while Wilkins has a modest 5848 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Oliver also took aim at Patel’s cringeworthy appearance in the locker room after the U.S. men’s hockey victory in the Winter Olympics in Italy, while the government said he was overseas on work duties.
“Yeah, that is the director of the FBI,” Oliver said, showing the divisive footage of Patel celebrating with a beer with the hockey players. “Looking like a little kid who won a prize for collecting the most canned goods and got to go into the locker room.”
The host ended his monologue by speculating how long Patel will retain his FBI job, repeating speculation that Trump was “displeased” with the optics of his Olympics antics.
“As stupid as that locker room footage is, and it’s very, very stupid it might actually be the perfect encapsulation of his tenure at the FBI,” Oliver said
“Because think about it: he’s in somewhere that he doesn’t belong, wearing something that makes him look ridiculous, and objectively having way too good of a time, and when all of this is said and done, and he’s eventually gone, someone else is gonna have to clean up his f---ing mess.”
