On Monday, ABC’s Good Morning America was surprisingly the only major broadcast network morning newscast to pitch a fit over FBI Director Kash Patel’s attendance at Sunday’s gold medal game in men’s ice hockey at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and subsequent postgame locker room appearance with the victorious United States over the losers to the north in Canada.
Chief Justice correspondent Pierre Thomas decried this as “causing controversy” and cited the Nancy Guthrie kidnapping and possible military against Iran was reasons he shouldn’t have gone.
WATCH: ABC’s Pierre Thomas goes on ‘Good Morning America’ to blast @FBIDirectorKash Patel for going to Milan for the gold medal game and celebrating with @USAHockey afterward, arguing “critics cit[e]...the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother” and Iran as examples why he… pic.twitter.com/NxwguEMNS7
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 23, 2026
Thomas had tacked this onto the end of his report on the latest wannabe assassin of President Trump, who was shot dead when he climbed onto Mar-a-Lago with a rifle and can of gasoline. Thankfully, the President was not at the so-called Winter White House this past week.
“Overnight, FBI Director Kash Patel’s trip to Milan during the winter games causing controversy after he was seen celebrating with Team USA after the American men won their gold medal hockey game. The FBI director, a long time hockey fan, is seen chugging what appears to be beer and yelling, banging his fist in the locker room,” Thomas complained.
Following a snippet of President Trump’s call from Patel’s phone to the victorious locker room, Thomas huffed “[o]ne video shared on social media Patel is seen apparently talking to President Trump about the victory.”
The longtime ABC correspondent said “Patel traveled to Italy using the agency jet funded by the American public,” which was an example of travel “[c]ongressional Democrats have criticized” as Patel using the government jet for “personal outings, including a golf trip to Scotland, and a luxury hunting trip.”
He at least allowed three sentences for Patel’s team explaining the game was part of a broader trip to observe security measures (which, left unsaid, made sense given the next Olympics are the 2028 summer games in Los Angeles):
FBI officials have said these are coordinated with official business and any personal expenses are reimbursed. Patel proudly says that he was invited to the locker room by the U.S. hockey team to celebrate. FBI officials saying that he was in Milan discussing security measures while on a previously scheduled trip planned months in advance. His spokesman says on social media that any personal expenses on the trip would be reimbursed.
It was here in his conclusion that Thomas offered some bizarre linking of unrelated current events as reasons why Patel has faced supposed blowback: “Critics citing the elevated threat environment, the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, and ongoing tensions with Iran, calling the entire trip a boondoggle at taxpayers expense.”
As has become the case for the leftist Good Morning America, they added their own personal opinions instead of thanking the reporter and moving on.
Here, Robin Roberts huffed: “Mmhmm! Many feel that way.”
If this had been an official with, say, a Harris administration if she had won in December 2024, it’s an almost guarantee Roberts and Thomas wouldn’t have been irked.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from February 23, click “expand.”
ABC’s Good Morning America
February 23, 2026
7:12 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: FBI Director in Locker Room with U.S. Hockey Team]
PIERRE THOMAS: Overnight, FBI Director Kash Patel’s trip to Milan during the winter games causing controversy after he was seen celebrating with Team USA after the American men won their gold medal hockey game. The FBI director, a long time hockey fan, is seen chugging what appears to be beer and yelling, banging his fist in the locker room.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: You were all unbelievable.
THOMAS: One video shared on social media Patel is seen apparently talking to President Trump about the victory. Patel traveled to Italy using the agency jet funded by the American public. Congressional Democrats have criticized Patel’s use of the jet in connection with personal outings, including a golf trip to Scotland, and a luxury hunting trip. FBI officials have said these are coordinated with official business and any personal expenses are reimbursed. Patel proudly says that he was invited to the locker room by the U.S. hockey team to celebrate. FBI officials saying that he was in Milan discussing security measures while on a previously scheduled trip planned months in advance. His spokesman says on social media that any personal expenses on the trip would be reimbursed. Critics citing the elevated threat environment, the kidnapping of Savannah Guthrie’s mother, and ongoing tensions with Iran, calling the entire trip a boondoggle at taxpayers expense.
ROBIN ROBERTS: Mmhmm! Many feel that way.
