FBI Director Kash Patel insisted he had no regrets about falsely claiming a suspect had been taken into custody shortly after Charlier Kirk's fatal shooting.
President Donald Trump's choice to lead the law enforcement agency announced Wednesday on social media that a "subject" was in custody, although he had to walk that back less than two hours later. "Fox & Friends" host Brian Kilmeade on Monday asked Patel to explain the misstep.
"You posted that we got him and that ended up not being true," Kilmeade said. "You took some incoming because of that. What led to you posting that? Why did you feel so certain about it, and what do you have to say about the criticism?"
Patel argued that he was simply doing his job when he jumped out ahead of the investigation.
"As I stated, I was being transparent with working with the public on our findings as I had them," Patel said. "I stated in that message that we had a subject and that we were going to interview him, and we did, and he was released."
Alleged gunman Tyler Robinson was arrested late Thursday after his father recognized him from images circulated by law enforcement and persuaded him to turn himself in, but Patel defended his role in the investigation.
"The job of the FBI is not just to manhunt the actual suspect who did the killing, or suspects, but it’s also to eliminate targets and eliminate subjects who are not involved in the process, and that's what we were doing," Patel said. "Could I have worded it a little better in the heat of the moment? Sure. Do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not.
"I was telling the world what the FBI was doing as we were doing [it], and I'm continuing to do that, and I challenge anyone out there to find a director that has been more transparent and more willing to work the media on high-profile cases, or any case, the FBI is handling than we have been."