Kash Patel’s Mile-High Meltdown

Summary

Bulwark Takes

Episode: Kash Patel’s Mile-High Meltdown
Date: November 3, 2025
Hosts: Tim Miller, Sam Stein, Will Sommer

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Episode Overview

This episode dissects the scandal surrounding FBI Director Kash Patel’s use of the agency plane for a personal trip to watch his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, sing at a wrestling match. The Bulwark crew—Tim Miller, Sam Stein, and Will Sommer—dive into the incident’s implications for FBI morale, government priorities, allegations of favoritism, grudge-driven leadership, and the peculiar world of right-wing media, ultimately questioning the state of leadership and professionalism at the FBI.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Jet Set Scandal: Timeline and Fallout

• Background:

  • Kash Patel, now FBI director, flew on the agency’s private jet to State College, PA, to watch his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins sing the national anthem at a “Real American Freestyle Wrestling” match.
  • The flight itinerary (D.C. → State College, PA → Nashville, TN, where Alexis lives) was unearthed by Patel’s long-time critic Kyle Serafin, a former FBI agent.
  • Public outcry and press coverage followed, leading to the firing of Stephen Palmer—a 27-year FBI veteran overseeing the aviation unit.
  • Patel also pushed to have the agency jet’s flight tracking removed from public websites like FlightAware.

• Firing Fallout:

  • Palmer is the third head of the Critical Incident Response Group to be fired or removed during Patel’s brief tenure.
  • Hosts highlight a pattern of disarray and loss of experienced personnel.
  • “You would think the law and order administration would want to have good people around. It seems like now we're cycling through folks.” — Sam Stein (03:40)

• Motive for Removal:

  • Suggested that Palmer was fired not for authorizing the flight, but for failing to prevent public exposure or shield Patel.

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2. Hypocrisy and Double Standards

• Patel had previously criticized the former director, Chris Wray, for allegedly misusing the FBI plane.
• Now repeats the same behavior (personal trips with agency resources), but reacts even more harshly when scrutinized.
• “On one hand you might say, well, maybe Cash shouldn't be taking 36 hour jaunts around the country just for personal reasons… In the past, before he was FBI director, Kash Patel was very critical of Chris Ray and saying, you know, this guy's just going off on these jaunts, he's misusing the plane. And now I think it's clear Cash sees that this is bad and that's why he has, he has had this reaction.” — Tim Miller (04:26)

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3. Government Shutdown Optics & Excess

• The trip occurred during a government shutdown, making the optics especially poor.
• The jet made three legs — described as “excessive and problematic” for a government leader.
• “Good for Cash for seeing his girl… But he’s doing it in the midst of a government shutdown… For a college wrestling professional event? That, that seemed a little excessive.” — Will Sommer (05:18, 06:21)

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4. The Comedic Side—‘Real American Freestyle’ Wrestling

• Much laughter about the low-profile wrestling event.
• “If you're desperate to see your girlfriend sing the national anthem for one minute and 48 seconds at the real American freestyle wrestling match… you could have somebody drive you.” — Sam Stein (07:21)
• Jokes about how the FBI director could have simply driven (3.5 hours) or sent his girlfriend an Uber, saving taxpayer money.

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5. Alexis Wilkins: Influencer, Singer, “Alleged Mossad Agent”

• Wilkins is noted as an emerging right-wing personality and country singer, with past appearances on Fox Nation and Turning Point USA events.
• Strange subplot raised: right-wing conspiracy types (namely Serafin) have alleged Wilkins is a Mossad agent. Wilkins is suing for defamation.
• “Kyle Seraph has also brought up that Alexis Wilkins might be a Mossad agent… She is really hot and that's confusing.” — Sam Stein (09:13)
• The group pokes fun at the absurdity of this “allegation,” but notes it as part of the toxic stew of far-right infighting and gossip.

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6. The Grudge Match: Patel vs. Serafin

• Patel is said to be obsessed with his critic, Kyle Serafin, going as far as encouraging others to sue and seeking legal retaliation.
• “Cash has been driven mad by this guy… basically, he really wants to get back at Kyle Serafin for constantly needling him.” — Tim Miller (10:01)
• Observations that such feuding distracts from actual FBI leadership duties.

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7. Distraction Tactics: “Michigan Terror Plot”

• In the wake of the jet story, Patel announced a high-profile “Michigan terror plot” bust.
• Law enforcement insiders suggest that the case wasn’t ready, implying the announcement was rushed for PR.
• “Kyle Seraphin said you go in nuts. The indictments to take your, take the heat off of you for your Jet story.” — Will Sommer (11:12)

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8. The Girlfriend’s Media Platform & Security Concerns

• Wilkins appears on One America News discussing terror threats, adding to the surrealism.
• “Are we getting our news from the FBI director’s girlfriend about terror threats?” — Tim Miller (11:51)
• Comparisons made with previous FBI directors’ spouses, highlighting the unprecedented situation.

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9. The Conservative Influencer Circuit

• Wilkins’ growing presence at right-wing events (Turning Point USA, Fox Nation).
• The show connects the trip, her career trajectory, Patel’s influence, and right-wing media amplification as “a nice little circle of grift.”
• “You get the taxpayer funded plane, you get to sing at this wrestling match, you air it on Fox Nation. You sleep with the FBI director, you get, you get little tidbits, you get to say on one American news. And Alexis is working it, I will say.” — Sam Stein (13:23)
• Discussion of MAGA “creep” even at moderate Christian colleges like Belmont University, Wilkins’ alma mater.

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10. Absurdity, Secrecy, and Accountability

• Patel’s reaction to the PR blowback was to have the government request that the FBI plane’s flights no longer be publicly tracked.
• “If he's mad about the disclosure of his travel, he should turn and look at his girlfriend who posted it on Instagram.” — Will Sommer (16:03)
• Jokes about him “not being able to fire the girlfriend” as he cycles through FBI aviation heads (16:20).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On government priorities:
  “It just doesn't feel like our eyes on the ball, you know.” — Sam Stein (10:16)

• On the cross-pollination of MAGA media:
  “It's kind of a nice little circular feedback loop of grift there.” — Sam Stein (13:23)

• On petty leadership:
  “We have an FBI director who like is just entrenched in the pettiest bullshit possible.” — Will Sommer (10:01)

• On the oddity of media disclosures by officials’ partners:
  “I don't remember Chris Wray's wife, you know, going on like Wayne's World style media programs to like talk about the threats that they're hearing about in the bedroom.” — Sam Stein (11:59)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Patel’s flight to wrestling event & Palmer’s firing: 02:45–04:26
• Hypocrisy and government shutdown context: 04:26–06:21
• Conspiracy rumors & Wilkins overview: 09:13–11:12
• Distraction via Michigan terror plot: 10:52–11:51
• Media appearances and culture of grift: 13:23–14:56
• Flight secrecy, Instagram, and jokes about firing the girlfriend: 16:03–16:27

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Conclusion

This lively episode uses the Kash Patel travel scandal as a microcosm for today’s chaotic, performative political climate—where personal vendettas, optics, and right-wing influencer culture blend with official business, often to the detriment of governance and public trust. The hosts’ tone is irreverent, skeptical, and punctuated with inside jokes about the absurdity of current events, all while underscoring serious concerns about FBI leadership and priorities.

Transcript

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[Sam Stein]

Tim Miller and I'm here with my favorite trio. It is Sam Stein, managing editor of the Bulwark, and Will Sommer, author of the False Flag Newsletter. Will did a guest slot in our Morning Shots newsletter which you all have to sign up for the bullocks.com a couple days ago. Now where he talked about this interesting story where our FBI director Cash Patel took the FBI plane to see his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins sing the national anthem at a wrestling match. The wrestling match was in State College, Pennsylvania. So it's not WWE or the real wrestler W or wwf. This was raf, real American Freestyle. So a little more on that in a minute. But she was, she had, she had the great honor of singing the national anthem to that, to that wrestling match. And the FBI director had to go watch it in person. So he flew there on this FBI jet. Will wrote about this from Morning Shots a couple days later. Butterfly flaps his wings and a 27 year veteran of The FBI has been fired. So it's pretty, it's a pretty bleak situation all around. But Will, why don't you kind of expand on my little summary there?

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, sure. So the background here is that Cash Patel has this arch nemesis named Kyle Serafin, a former FBI agent who's always kind of needling Cash and using his inside knowledge of the FBI to say Cash screwed up again. And in this case, he pulled up the flight records. Well, first, Alexis Wilkins posted a picture of her and Cash at the wrestling match. Kyle Seraphin pulls up the flight records and shows. Okay, so the plane takes off from the D.C. area, goes to State College, Pennsylvania, then goes to Nashville where Alexis Wilkins lives. So basically the FBI plane is being used to, you know, basically make a weekend of it for Cash and his girlfriend. And from there, you know, we wrote about it, a couple other, other outlets picked it up. And then it seems like Cash got pretty mad about it because planes details are pulled from FlightAware.com the government requested that they not track it anymore. And then ultimately Bloomberg reports that this 27 year veteran of the FBI, Stephen Palmer, whose purview included the planes, he, he's been fired over this.

[Sam Stein]

So the Stephen Palmer here, I guess the idea is he was head of the Critical Incident Response Group, which includes the FBI pilots. This is the third person that is the head of this group to be fired or removed in Patel's short term. I just think that like as silly as the wrestling part of the story is, like, it's pretty crazy. Like the amount of folks that are just getting pushed out of the bureau right now, like you would think the law and order administration would like, want to have good people around. It seems like now we're, we're cycling through folks.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I mean this is a, you know, it's a critical role. I mean this is the guy who handles big deal incidents. And yet they're, they're kind of kicking him to the curb.

[Will Sommer]

But why are they kicking him to the curb? He didn't do anything.

[Tim Miller]

I mean, I guess theoretically, Cash, his argument is that, you know, why did you allow this plain information to be publicly available? I mean, we really don't know. Besides the Bloomberg reporting that Cash was furious about it and so. But again, it's not his fault that Cash took the plane. The thing I would say is Cash is legally required to fly in the plane. Both the Attorney General and the FBI director are required when they travel by plane to take a government plane because of the communications and the security issues. On one hand you might say, well, maybe then Cash shouldn't be taking sort of 36 hour jaunts around the country just for personal reasons. But you know, in the past, before he was FBI director, Cash Patel was very critical of Chris Ray and saying, you know, this guy's just going off on these jaunts, he's misusing the plane. And now I think it's clear that Cash sees that this is bad and that's why he has, he has had this reaction.

[Will Sommer]

I'm going to take a little bit of a different take on this. Good for Cash for seeing his girl. Like, that's totally cool. I'm happy that he's doing it. I want the guy to feel in love. I wanted he should be able to have a nice romantic weekend. And if he needs to, you know, jet set he's got, he's obligated to take this plane. Good for him. Happy for Cash. I think there's some problems here. One is that he's doing it in the midst of a government shutdown, which maybe not optically is the best thing. And you know, for, for a college wrestling professional.

[Sam Stein]

Real American Freestyle. At his former college campus, they're starting a new professional league with Eric Bischoff. You might remember him from wcw. I do not.

[Will Sommer]

I do not. Fine. Okay, look, here's how I would have done it. I would have gone to the event. I don't think I would have gone to Nashville. I feel like that was excessive. I feel like.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. Did I say that actually? Because that, that's true. The. Well, playing West. Yeah. To State College. Yeah. And then to drop her off and then to Nashville.

[Will Sommer]

That, that seemed a little excessive.

[Tim Miller]

And spend the night as well. I should say so. So it's, you know, it's not like it was a quick Johnson.

[Will Sommer]

Maybe I'm backtracking a little bit here. Hold on, hold on. So I'm glad that he is in love and that he feels the need to see his girl. And, and good for him. It is probably problematic to do three leg trips when you're the FBI director and spending a weekend during a government shutdown doing that. Especially after you criticized your predecessor for using the jet the same way. And I think you're making it worse by firing this guy because he had the 27 year old veteran did nothing wrong and he didn't deserve this. And I feel like Cash, you've kind of, you should own that. You stepped in.

[Sam Stein]

Well, he supervises the FBI's aviation unit, so maybe he should have been a little bit more demure in protecting the FBI's aviation units from the public.

[Will Sommer]

That's what you're saying. So Cash is mad at him because he didn't say, cash, you shouldn't do this.

[Sam Stein]

No, May, Cash is mad at him for not like, I don't know, helping him keep it secret.

[Will Sommer]

Oh, that for sure is what happened.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, I mean, Cash is scheduled. I guess I gotta do a dissent with you, Sam. Okay, for starters, State College is a three and a half hour drive from Washington. So during government. Yeah, during government shutdown, if you're desperate to see your girlfriend sing the national anthem for one minute and 48 seconds at the real American freestyle wrestling match, then like, you could have somebody drive you. I don't think this would have been a story. Like you could have been in the back seat at an.

[Will Sommer]

Yeah, but what's the security detail on that trip? That costs money too. We probably would not.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, not like plane level money. Then again, on the other thing, Alexis is a singer of some note, I guess. I'm pulling it up here. You can see it in the background. Her YouTube page has. She's getting 84,000 views. And the latest video, rather most popular, 101,000 views. Old fashioned Christmas. So he should have some other opportunities to hear her sing, I would think. I don't know that this minor league wrestling national anthem moment was like critical that we would need government staffing to take him.

[Will Sommer]

Nothing's critical. Nothing's critical but love.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah. And he could have sent her an Uber.

[Will Sommer]

That's what he's doing.

[Sam Stein]

He's going to send her an Uber after she sang the national anthem. And she could have flew to dc. An Uber? Yeah, they could have done an Uber from State from State College to D.C. yeah. You could do that. Absolutely.

[Tim Miller]

That would have.

[Sam Stein]

That would have been like, I don't know, probably 500 bucks. That would have saved us a lot of money.

[Will Sommer]

And then going to Nash. $500? No way.

[Sam Stein]

800. And going to Nashville after that was. Feels like a mistake. Also, I should just mention another interesting subplot of this and I want to be very careful and how I say this. Kyle Seraph has also brought up that Alexis Wilkins might be a Mossad agent.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah.

[Sam Stein]

I'm bringing it up by saying that he has made that accusation and she has sued him over it. And I'm just saying that because she is really hot and that's confusing.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, she's 19 years younger than Cash. You know, the other thing I would note here is I do think some of this may be Related to Kyle Seraphin. I wrote about him in False Flag. Cash has been driven mad by this guy. There are former FBI agents who have, are now suing and they've said in court documents Cash was urging me to fight to file a lawsuit against Kyle Seraphin and that he would set me up with lawyers. Basically he's really, he really wants to get back at Kyle Seraphin for constantly needling him. And I'm sure the fact that the Seraphin really picked up on this and ran with it and publicized it has, has made Cash even matter.

[Will Sommer]

I will. This is the real problem, right, is that we have an FBI director who like is just entrenched in the pettiest bullshit possible. Like he's the FBI director. You don't need to fire people because of this jet shit. And you don't need to worry about Kyle Seraphin. Like, do your job, just do it.

[Sam Stein]

I mean, maybe he gave a challenge coin out to the person that identified a fall man for this. And like, maybe. I think that might be something that's happened internally. Yeah, I just, I'm just a little bit concerned about the state. It just feels like our priorities are a bit off. We're dropping people left and right. China experts leaving, critical response team members leaving. We're reassigning FBI agents to do like, you know, perimeter support for her deportations. It just, it doesn't feel like our eyes on the ball, you know.

[Tim Miller]

The other thing I would note here is last week in the wake of the jets story coming out, that was when Cash Patel came out and made this announcement about this Michigan terror plot. Then reportedly people, oh yeah, law enforcement were saying this story was undercooked. We weren't ready for indictments. Cash kind of tried to grab some limelight before this was ready. And now look at the time. I didn't think it was related.

[Will Sommer]

Kyle Seraphin said that. Kyle Seraphin said you go in nuts. The indictments to take your, take the heat off of you for your Jet story.

[Tim Miller]

Well, he said that, but also Kyle.

[Will Sommer]

Seriffin's on a heater right now. That guy is like living it and he just wants to be in Cash's head. They're watching this guy.

[Tim Miller]

So it makes you wonder, I mean, maybe Cash was looking for kind of a different storyline. And the other thing is that Alexis Wilkinson is, she was recently on One America News talking about how there might be terrorism sleeper cells and stuff.

[Sam Stein]

There are sleeper cells here that are planning these, these, these horrible attacks, these ISIS style attacks. Like we saw Thwarted in Michigan this morning.

[Tim Miller]

So it's. So are we getting our news from the FBI director's girlfriend about terror threats? It's a very strange situation.

[Sam Stein]

That is concerning. I mean, just generally speaking, kind of looking back, like I don't remember Chris Wray's wife, you know, going on like Wayne's World style media programs to like talk about the threats that they're hearing about in the bedroom. Like that does it does feel to be a little bit inappropriate. Like that's kind of non traditional, I think. I don't know. Sam, you've been reporting in D.C. longer than me. Do you know, do you remember any spouses going on, on far right or far left for that matter? Media outlets to, to discuss some sensitive information about our national security?

[Will Sommer]

No, I was trying to think Hillary. Did Hillary do this in the 90s? I don't think so. I appreciate the transparency from the administration. We'll leave it at that.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, one other thing I guess I should just mention I was doing a little research. The real American freestyle. Do you know who's airing that program?

[Tim Miller]

Fox Nation, the streaming platform for Fox Nation.

[Sam Stein]

Fox Nation, exclusive partnership with Fox Nation. So it has a nice little circle here where we have the country music singer that wants to be a right wing influencer that is also dating the FBI director who is really, you know, like not who's really punching up, let's say in that relationship. And it's kind of a nice little circular feedback loop of grift there. You know, you get the taxpayer funded plane, you get to sing at this wrestling match, you air it on Fox Nation. You sleep with the FBI director, you get, you get little tidbits, you get to say on one American news. And Alexis is working it, I will say.

[Tim Miller]

And she's linked up with Turning Point usa. I mean she gave the opening speech before the JD Vance thing last week. So she's really embedded in that whole world.

[Sam Stein]

I guess we'll have to. Can you. Are you monitoring her closely enough, Will?

[Tim Miller]

I mean, I'm not a reasonable amount, no.

[Will Sommer]

There is something crazy about it though, right? Like Turning Points. You know, they have this whole Tucker thing going on and Nick Fuente stuff and they're warning about all these Israel influences. And yet you have this alleged Mossad agent doing the opening. There's a lot of like cross currents going on at TPSA right now, Sam.

[Sam Stein]

Alleged.

[Will Sommer]

Alleged.

[Sam Stein]

Are we saying that? Are we saying alleged? I'm just saying it's out there. I don't know if I even went.

[Will Sommer]

As far as that is why it's alleged. Yes, Correct. It's out there. It is alleged.

[Sam Stein]

Okay. Anything else? Will, any other little, Little side stories here? You know, side characters?

[Tim Miller]

You know, one thing I would say about Alexis Wilkins speech at the Turning Point event was it was all about how, like, professors hated her so much in college because she was conservative. And I looked it up and she went to, like, a Christian school. There was one point where they were like, we just want for extra credit or something. Can you go to a lecture about liberalism and Christianity? And she was like, absolutely not. And that was sort of her. Her origins as a, I guess, troublesome college student. And so, you know, it's a classic conservative, influencer background. She got the country singing, you know, I think she'll go far.

[Sam Stein]

Yeah, she went to Belmont. Shout Out. Belmont, Nashville. Belmont's kind of an interesting story. It's not like Liberty, you know, I think that Belmont is one of these classic stories over the last decade of like, a kind of pretty straight edge Christian university that has, like, had MAGA creep, you know, year by year, increasingly MAGA creep. So maybe it's possible that she had a couple lib teachers. Belmont. I'm on Alexis side of this one. You never know. And I do think it's a little strange for you to, like. Like, I don't really even remember most of my teachers from college. Like, the idea that, like, one of them was mean to me and that radical.

[Tim Miller]

She had multiple, multiple feuds ongoing.

[Sam Stein]

Professors and, like, that is central to my identity as an adult. I think that's part of strange. But, you know, we're not. We're not. Some of us are built different. Okay, Sam.

[Will Sommer]

She's not that far removed. She's not that far removed. Removed from college. So maybe it's easier for her to.

[Sam Stein]

That's a good point, that stuff. Young woman.

[Tim Miller]

Okay, next.

[Sam Stein]

It's always nice.

[Will Sommer]

We'll never know because they stopped the tracker. It's annoying.

[Sam Stein]

They've stopped the tracker. That feels illegal. We're paying for the plane. Should we know where it's going?

[Will Sommer]

Well, there is one way. There is one way could find out. And this is how it all started is she posted a photo of cash. Like, that's 101. Like, if he. If he's mad about the disclosure of his travel, he should turn and look at his girlfriend who posted it on Instagram. He's there looking happy.

[Sam Stein]

I don't think he can fire the girlfriend. He's on his third leader of the special response unit. And I'M not sure that there are three Alexis.

[Will Sommer]

Why not fuse it? Let her become the let her take the job, right?

[Sam Stein]

That's Sam Stein and Will Summer when.

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[Numerica Credit Union Narrator]

Dan has big life goals.

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I'd love to own a home one day.

[Numerica Credit Union Narrator]

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[Sam Stein]

They are?

[Will Sommer]

Yeah.

[Numerica Credit Union Narrator]

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