Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe is perplexed by current FBI Director Kash Patel’s decision to head to Utah himself to search for Charlie Kirk’s assassin.

“That one’s really hard to figure out. There are many good reasons why you wouldn’t go if you’re the director. You would not go out to the scene of an ongoing crisis, post–crisis investigation … you know, typically, directors don’t do that,” McCabe told CNN’s Abby Phillips.

McCabe continued, saying: “The presence of the director imposes a huge burden on the field office. There’s all kinds of arrangements that have to be made. There’s all kinds of security concerns that arise. Transportation becomes very complicated. And that’s the last thing you wanna do to the field office while they’re in the middle of investigating a critical incident,” he said.

“So, again, strange to go out there under those circumstances. Why he went and then did not say anything at the press conference, I really, I really don’t know. I’m a bit at a loss to understand, like, what was the purpose of going out there,” McCabe concluded.

Patel’s visit comes after a series of blunders. First, he announced that “the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody,” a few hours after Kirk’s murder, as if the case was closed.

Then, just hours later, he said the “subject” was free to go.

McCabe wasn’t the only one concerned with Patel’s handling of the situation.

“What’s clear is that the information flow to [Patel] has not been accurate, or he is not interpreting it correctly, because it was just remarkable to have him say that—essentially imply that the shooter had been caught and then two hours later announcing that that person was not, in fact, the shooter and had been released. That just doesn’t happen in these situations,” NBC intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian said Wednesday on MSNBC.

He also noted that Patel had fired the decorated and experienced head of the FBI’s Salt Lake City Office just two weeks before Kirk’s assassination.

On Friday morning, President Donald Trump announced on Fox & Friends that they have Kirk’s shooter in custody (again).

“With a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody,” the president said. This has not yet been confirmed by Patel and the FBI.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried Republican condemnation of the left in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination as the FBI still struggles to detain the shooter, much less parse their politics and motive.

“[The president] in his speech, he was very critical of left-wing violence,” a reporter asked Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday. “What do you think of that message, and do you agree with them that left-wing violence is a problem?”

“There is no understanding as we know publicly, of who this individual is, what their motivations were, where they came from. Whether it is a member of Congress, whether it is the president of the United States—to assume and assert, cast blame, when the FBI has failed to even apprehend the assailant, is absolutely an irresponsible action,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

AOC: Whether it is a member of congress, whether it is the President to assume and assert and cast blame when the FBI has failed to even apprehend the assailant, is absolutely an irresponsible action. pic.twitter.com/s0EBq1YKQ7

Conservative officials, talking heads, and influencers have all been calling for war against the left over the past 24 hours, as if they were given marching orders.

“The left is the party of murder,” Elon Musk wrote. “THIS IS WAR,” posted right-wing social media account Libs of Tiktok. “They’ve declared war,” political commentator Gunther Eagleman weighed in. “They are at war with us,” Fox host Jesse Watters contributed. “Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us. And what are we going to do about it?”

President Donald Trump himself put out a four-minute-long video announcement Wednesday, stating that “radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives. Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died.”

All of these comments conveniently ignore the troubling trend of right-wing violence—from the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the attack on Representative Nancy Pelosi’s husband, the assassination of state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband—and the fact that no one has any idea right now what the political leanings of Kirk’s assassin were.

Senator Elizabeth Warren also chimed in on the discourse surrounding political violence.

Elizabeth Warren on people who say Dems needs to tone down their rhetoric: "Oh, please. Why don't you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he's posted and every ugly word." pic.twitter.com/v2KA3i13ie

“Oh please,” she said when asked if the left needs to tone down its rhetoric. “Right, why don’t you start with the president of the United States? And every ugly meme he has posted, and every ugly word.”

MAGA conservatives are leveraging Charlie Kirk’s death to advance their transphobic policies.

A bulletin circulated among law enforcement officials Thursday described the weapons used by Kirk’s killer, stating there were symbols on rifle ammunition that expressed “transgender and anti-fascist ideology,” according to

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