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It took 46 years, but the United States‘s men’s team finally captured Olympic hockey gold again with a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over archrival Canada.
In fitting style, America’s grit was on full display for the world to see. A bloodied Jack Hughes scored the game-winner not long after getting a tooth knocked out, sending the U.S. team into a frenzied celebration on the ice.
“Unreal game by our team,” Hughes declared afterward. “Just a ballsy, gutsy win. That’s American hockey right there. That’s a great Canadian team, but we’re the USA. We’re so proud to be Americans. Tonight was all for the country.”
The victory, along with Hughes’s passion and patriotism, should be the story. But another narrative quickly took shape on the Left because FBI Director Kash Patel attended the game and took part in the locker room celebration, which included singing along with the team and chugging a beer.
“Why are you even there?” Don Lemon asked on social media. “On taxpayer dollars, on the plane. This administration is so tacky. You people have no class, it’s just gross. You’re trashy, it’s disgusting.“
“FBI told us @FBIDirectorKash was only going to Olympics for meetings — not for the hockey games,” MS Now’s Carol Leonning wrote Sunday. “But he attended the games and ended up chugging beer with players. Taxpayers paid a lot for this fan boy’s dream.”
But three days prior, FBI spokesman Ben Williamson had written Leonning and co-author Ken Dalinian outlining various meetings Patel had lined up.
“Hey Carol — this is not correct,” Williamson wrote in a Thursday email that he shared on X. “On background, while we do not comment on travel for security purposes, we have multiple partner and counterpart meetings including the Ambassador, MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) signings, LEGAT (legal attache) meetings, security briefings and more.
“Any personal portion would be reimbursed. It is NOT accurate to say he’s flying out on government funds for a personal trip. I’d also note this (like all trips) was planned months in advance.”
Patel also defended his crime of attending his country’s gold medal hockey game while in Milan.
“For the very concerned media — yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys,” Patel wrote on X. “Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth.”
But things became unintentionally hilarious when Leonning claimed a “source” sent her video of Patel partying with the U.S. team in a locker room where multiple cameras, including an NBC crew, were filming. Not exactly a “gotcha” moment in need of an unnamed source.
“Multiple sources have sent me and @KDilanianMSNOW this video *appearing to show* @FBIDirectorKash Patel guzzling from a beer and partying in locker room w US men’s hockey team,” she wrote. “His office insisted this was strictly a business trip. We at @MSNOWNews will share what we learn.”
Why exactly is this even a story? Then-first lady Jill Biden attended the Summer Olympics in 2024 in Paris, and it wasn’t an issue, nor should it have been. If the trouble is that Patel, whom Leonning mocked as a “fan boy,” used taxpayer dollars to attend the game, that became a non-problem, per Williamson’s email days earlier, which stated Patel was paying for any expenses.
This isn’t the first time Leonning and Dilanian have targeted Patel with a bogus narrative, either. Here’s their co-story in December 2025 about the FBI director’s transportation.
“Director Kash Patel now rides around in an armored BMW X5 at times,” they wrote. “He ordered taxpayers pay $1M++ for a small fleet of them, sources said, claiming they helped him be more covert than SUVs the FBI normally uses.”
Enter Williamson again, who explained why Patel chose an armored BMW X5 over the SUVs used by his predecessor, Christopher Wray.
“Some of the most laughably dishonest framing I have ever seen,” Williamson wrote in response. “The actual story: the FBI needed to update their vehicle fleet with four vehicles (which is common for security agencies) — and instead of paying for the traditional SUV’s the FBI always buys, Patel chose a vehicle that is about $250k CHEAPER. Saving around $1 million. But that wouldn’t have made for an exciting headline.”
Whoops. Apparently, accuracy isn’t the goal of a network that exists solely to attack the Trump administration.
The Patel Olympic “controversy” provides a stark reminder of why former RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel lasted less than 48 hours at MSNBC, when it was called such. McDaniel was signed in 2024 to provide the network with a lone pro-Trump voice. But network hosts publicly rebelled, demanding McDaniel be fired because she once cast doubt on the result of the 2020 presidential election. A CNN poll in 2023 showed that 69% of Republicans felt Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s victory was not legitimate, so this wasn’t exactly a foreign thought in GOP circles. Neither was it in Democratic circles after the 2016 election, when 70% of Democrats believed Russia had hacked U.S. voting machines and switched votes from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to Republican Donald Trump.
“The fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News, to me, that is inexplicable,” said Rachel Maddow, who gets paid $25 million annually to host one show per week. “And I hope they will reverse their decision.”
Then-Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd also objected to McDaniel’s hiring, accusing her of “gaslighting” reporters during her time as RNC chairwoman.
Todd, of course, had zero issue with the network hiring Jen Psaki, who, as White House press secretary, claimed Republicans wanted to defund the police. And also claimed the U.S. southern border was safe and secure. And blamed sky-high inflation under Biden on “the Putin price hike.” Others, including Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, publicly threatened to never have McDaniel, a paid contributor, on their show.
MSNBC predictably caved in under two days.
Back to the unhinged reactions over Patel having the audacity to celebrate one of the biggest wins in U.S. Olympic history with the team.
“Who else gets to chug beer on the job like this as an appointed official, seriously?” asked CNN’s Amanda Carpenter on ABC’s The View on Monday.
Fellow CNNer Ana Navarro also implied Patel might have a drinking problem, while Sunny Hostin complained that Patel shouldn’t have been there at all because “Nancy Guthrie is still missing.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
The U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team delivered gold. Hughes, missing tooth and all, delivered the golden goal in overtime, 46 years to the day after America stunned the Soviet Union.
“Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” exclaimed the great Al Michaels on Feb. 22, 1980.
“Jack Hughes wins it! The golden goal for the United States!” exclaimed the great Kenny Albert on Feb. 22, 2026.
THE SUPREME COURT GOT IT RIGHT
That should be the story.
But because the Left always needs something to be enraged about when it comes to Trump, this great moment is being dragged off the ice and into the mud.
