Rachel Abrams

We've known for a very long time, of course, that President Trump cares a lot about how something looks on television.

And what you're describing is that that concern from the president is trickling down to Patel and Bongino, that basically these two top leaders of the FBI are essentially prioritizing the politics, the optics, and maybe even the marketing of the FBI over the job itself.

Obviously, though, the FBI does care about its image, right?

Like, that is very clear from its long history of flashy press conferences, whenever it does drug busts or raids or other things that they want to boast about.

Spiritually, what you've described is not new.

And as you're describing, there is a cost to prioritizing that.

But I also wonder whether there are virtues to this kind of emphasis on the optics here.

What did Patel or the FBI have to say in response to these anecdotes?

And to state the obvious, there are plenty of named sources in your story.

Emily, the desire to project a certain type of image, though, that seems like, from your reporting, that was really driven by the fact that Bongino and Patel had an audience of exactly one person, right?

The president.

And as your reporting showed, that's what was ultimately driving this leadership style that we're talking about.

Rachel, how does the change in leadership style actually trickle down to the rank and file FBI employees?

And where did Jill understand that order to be coming from?

I want to make sure that we're not sounding naive here and acknowledge that the FBI has a long history of doing things that violate citizens' constitutional rights.

For instance, conducting surveillance on people.

This is not a new concept.

So how did what Jill was asked to do fit into that or differ from that?

So we're seeing in some very tangible ways, there are agents that are not only being taken away from their typical work, but they are also being driven to leave.

So effectively, what Patel and Bongino are telegraphing is we need heads to roll and it doesn't necessarily matter whose heads.