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The latest dust-up over FBI Director Kash Patel’s “vanity” started with a hard-hitting New York Post column by Miranda Devine that went after his image and public persona — and it’s now being picked apart on shows like Megyn Kelly’s, where Mark Halperin weighed in on what the coverage really means for the Trump administration. Conservatives should not reflexively kneel to media haircuts on optics; this story is as much about who controls the narrative as it is about any selfie or publicity stunt.
Forget the gotcha headlines for a moment and look at what Patel has actually done since taking command: he’s been unusually visible, traveling to sporting events, meeting law enforcement and appearing at public functions in a way previous directors typically did not. The New York Times even noted his “jet‑setting” and appetite for the limelight — a break with the anonymity of past FBI chiefs that drives the media into apoplectic fits because it ruins their monopoly on respectability.
Yes, the optics have caused controversy: reports surfaced about the FBI’s aircraft being used for travel that some find eyebrow‑raising, including flights tied to visits where Patel met his partner and made public appearances. The Washington press corps pounces on these details because they’re easy to weaponize — but focusing on who sat in what suite misses the bigger issue: Patel is reorienting the Bureau away from the partisan cover‑ups and toward accountability.
When Patel posted a picture of an arrested Wisconsin judge with the blunt caption “No one is above the law,” critics accused him of violating internal DOJ norms and playing to the cameras. That CNN story about the post missed the point conservatives should be making: an FBI director who refuses to let judges and elites hide behind bureaucratic soft pedaling is doing the job the public elected officials to do — enforcing the law without fear or favor. If the elite media and their allies don’t like that, they’ll scream about policies and decorum every time a bold step is taken.
Miranda Devine’s brutal column reveals something more revealing than Patel’s taste in sunglasses — it exposes the panic inside both the anti‑Trump media and elements of the conservative commentariat who equate respectability with weakness. If the administration’s enemies are reduced to attacking manners and makeup, that’s proof the real reforms — purging corruption, delivering documents, returning the Bureau to its mission — are striking home. Patriotically minded Americans should applaud results over applause lines.
At the end of the day, leadership isn’t about perfect optics; it’s about results and courage. Kash Patel’s willingness to be visible and to hold powerful people accountable makes him a target of the same institutions that sheltered the politicized FBI for years, and that alone should make conservatives stand a little taller rather than join the chorus calling for his silence. The fight to rebuild American law enforcement won’t be won by playing nice with a hostile press; it will be won by men and women who act.
