Celebs Who Have Publicly Slammed FBI Director Kash Patel

President Donald Trump's FBI Director, Kash Patel, has received incredible pushback since his confirmation in February 2025. The ex-podcast host won Congress approval by the slim margin of only two votes. The FBI head officially came face-to-face with his growing disproval as an oversight hearing conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee began in September of 2025. The director endured harsh criticism of his position from members of Congress during the hearings. 

Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett opened her time to address the director by saying, "You are the least qualified FBI Director in the history of the FBI," adding, "What I want to go through is to talk about is why you are a failure and why, honestly, we just need to tell you bye-bye," (via CNN). The assertion addresses Patel's background, which includes work in attempting to overturn the 2020 election, as well as his lack of experience within the bureau he now heads. With members of Congress taking the opportunity to voice their distrust and dislike of the FBI director, celebrities have taken to their own platforms to echo the sentiment. 

An episode of "The View" from September 2025 had co-host Whoopi Goldberg holding back laughter as she reported on Kash Patel's hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Following a compilation from Patel's hearing, each host was quick to bash the cabinet member for his behavior and responses to the committee's questions. "I don't know that he has credibility, anyway, because he's just not qualified for this position," said Sunny Hostin. The previous trial attorney for the Department of Justice  added that she viewed his behavior at the committee as "despicable," given her experience with previous FBI officials.

Sara Haines quickly jumped into the conversation, saying, "But the bottom line is, he's in way over his head." Haines continued her attack on the FBI Director, stating that Patel is "the most unqualified to run the FBI in the history of it," while highlighting his low number of confirmation votes from Congress compared to previous FBI heads. Their onslaught of critiques didn't end there. Alyssa Farah Griffin bashed Patel's inconsistencies on the conversation surrounding the Epstein files and questioned his inability to present evidence in the case. Then Joy Behar attributed Patel's unfitness to the larger system of, as she put it, "incompetent people running the government."

"The Late Show" host, Stephen Colbert, stepped out onto stage for a September 2025 episode with an opening monologue packed full of scathing remarks about FBI Director Kash Patel. He opened his digs at the government official with a direct and clear admonishment, "Folks are mad at Patel on both sides of the aisle simply because he sucks at his job." The blunt comment didn't end Colbert's stacking condemnations of Patel. Following his disapproval of Patel's performance at his job, the late night host highlighted one of Patel's slip-ups on national television, the director's premature announcement that the FBI had caught Charlie Kirk's killer, while they, in fact, had not.

Colbert poked fun at the FBI Director's seeming lack of concern and involvement in the Kirk assassination, noting that Patel's erroneous post on X was shared on the social media site while he was at a restaurant in New York rather than in the office where the investigation was being conducted. The late night host has been a longtime critic of Patel's, having previously referred to the cabinet member as one of Donald Trump's "unusual choices" in a December 2024 episode. Colbert further defined Patel as a "Trump loyalist with very little management or law enforcement experience".

Horror author Stephen King shared a post on X on September 11, 2025, that targeted FBI Director Kash Patel. King, who has previously delivered harsh messages to Patel's nominator, Donald Trump, alluded to the director's long-standing connection with the president in his tweet, bashing Trump's choice to elect political allies to government positions rather than qualified candidates. 

His remarks followed an ongoing storm of public outcry that called out Patel's lack of experience for his role. Adding to his claim that Patel lacked "practical experience," the "Misery" writer stated that Patel shares a "political affiliation" with the president. The assertion is largely supported by Patel's own experience, working as a deputy assistant to the president for his National Security Council and supporting Trump's insistence on illegal interference in the 2020 election. 

Kash Patel is what happens when heads of state appoint law enforcement officers based on their political affiliations rather than their practical experience.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) September 11, 2025

This September 2025 post was not the author's first attack on Patel. King shared a post on his X page in June 2025 which read, "Frank Bruni: Bongino and Patel are a matched set, two peas in a Trump-adoring pod, and it's impossible to say which is odder." 

Kash Patel has been unable to stay out of late night hosts' jokes with Jimmy Kimmel also taking a swing at the Donald Trump cabinet member. The monologue that led to Kimmel's late night show suspension, was focused on Charlie Kirk's death and Trump's response. However, in the same "Jimmy Kimmel Live" monologue from September 2025, Kimmel also touched on the new FBI Director's hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Kimmel described Patel's behavior at Congress Hall as "dodgy, sketchy, sniffy, combative, and just unpleasant overall." The host, like his late night competitor Stephen Colbert, blasted Patel's mistakes across national television, highlighting Patel's lies and unreliability revolving around the Epstein files.

This show-suspending monologue was not the first time that Kimmel attacked Patel on his show. Back in a January 2025 episode, the host referred to the director as "kooky Kash Patel", before hammering home the same point that Congress members, as well as celebrities, have been voicing since Patel's nomination. Kimmel ended his January critique by labeling Patel as "quite possibly the least qualified candidate for any cabinet position ever."