WASHINGTON, DC- Try as they might, the liberal media is not going to get away with gaslighting the American people, at least if FBI Director Kash Patel has his way.
Fox News Digital reported that Patel pushed back on a regurgitated report from far-left “news” outlet MS-NOW (formerly MSNBC) that the agency was fudging statistics on the agency’s most wanted criminals. Unnamed FBI officials told the outlet that the FBI was putting fugitives on the Most Wanted list when their capture was impending.
Patel slammed the report and said it was an attack on rank-and-file FBI agents. He noted that the recently completed “Operation Summer Heat 2.0” was a rousing success and said it was proof that the FBI had moved on from being a politically motivated agency under the Biden administration and has evolved into a “revamped, field-centric agency” Fox News reported.
Patel emphasized that the MS NOW report was an attempt to “denigrate the work of the bureau” and said that career staff manages the Most Wanted lists independently of political influence.
Last month, Patel said the agency apprehended all 10 criminals listed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list so far in President Trump’s second term.
“Look, it’s really simple,” Patel told Fox News Digital. “The FBI’s Most Wanted list, and any other campaign we’re putting on, has been going on for at least 75 years. The career staff at the bureau manage that list. They look and say, ‘Who’s the target of opportunity? Who can we get? Who’s the worst perpetrator who’s been on the run?’ and then they announce it. I literally don’t have anything to do with it.
“I just think that those critics out there are super unpleased with the fact that the Trump administration and this FBI delivered on what used to be an apolitical mission of keeping law enforcement at the top and protecting our American citizens,” he continued.
Patel said the FBI’s recent wave of high-profile arrests, which included record-high fentanyl seizures and weapon seizures as part of Operation Summer Heat 2.0 was the result of a “sweeping restructuring” of the agency whereby nearly 2,000 FBI personnel were assigned to various field offices nationwide while gutting Washington D.C.’s bureaucracy.
He noted that the FBI has evolved from short-term crime “surges” into a more permanent, field-centric enforcement model designed to drive down violent crime year-round.
The 2026 operation was the second iteration of the original Operation Summer Heat that was launched in 2025. That surge targeted violent crime, street gangs, and drug trafficking networks. This year, between June and August, the FBI coordinated with local law enforcement authorities to target suspected criminals in various metropolitan areas.
“You have to talk to the American people. You have to show up in the field, and you have to drive resources and permanently place people and technology in the field,” Patel said. “That was the sort of overarching approach to striking at the heart of violent crime.”
The operation resulted in over 8,900 arrests, a 3% increase over the 2025 initiative.
The surge resulted in 5,013 weapons being seized, a 120% increase over 2025—more than 1,400 children were identified or located, a 34% increase, and law enforcement authorities conducted 687 fentanyl seizures, up 63%, the FBI said.
“So, from last year to this year, we wanted to run that playbook for Summer Heat 2.0, and the only thing we did a little differently was we added even more bodies to the field,” the director said. “So, the enterprise-wide lift, shift, focus, and pivot was: we’re not going on defense anymore. In order to catch violent criminals and defend the homeland, you have to go on offense.”
Another difference between the 2025 and 2026 operations was this year's increased emphasis on inter-agency collaboration and other measures, Patel continued. He said that led to significant safety returns across urban areas targeted.
“Just to show you that it’s working in every single city and major metropolis across the country, last year for the first time, America saw 1.1 million fewer violent aggravated assaults, rapes, robberies and homicides,” Patel said. “That’s 1.1 million fewer victims across the country because of what the federal government, the Bureau, and our partners were able to bring to bear across the country.”
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