FBI Director Kash Patel faced backlash Monday after old remarks criticizing his predecessor’s use of an FBI jet resurfaced amid reports he used an agency jet to attend his girlfriend’s music show over the weekend.

On Friday, Patel reportedly used the FBI’s Gulfstream luxury jet to fly from Palm Beach, Florida to Nashville, Tennessee, where his girlfriend – 26-year-old Alexis Wilkins, a country music singer – was performing that night. Patel would go on to fire a 27-year veteran at the FBI the next day after blaming him for leaking his use of the FBI jet to the press, according to reports.

While Patel has aggressively defended himself amid the scandal, Ron Filipkowski – editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch – shared a 2023 video Sunday night of Patel condemning his predecessor for using an FBI jet, comments that were promptly ridiculed by a swarm of critics.

“Chris Wray doesn’t need a government-funded G5 jet to go to vacation, maybe we ground that plane; $15,000 every time it takes off,” Patel is heard saying in the clip. “Just a thought!”

The irony of Patel’s past comments coupled with his recent actions was not lost on critics.

“Is this you?” wrote X user “Rad,” who frequently posts content critical of the Trump administration and has amassed more than 3,100 followers.

“Always be grifting” wrote Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist and professor at Dartmouth, in a social media post on X Monday.

Patel lashed out at critics Sunday, wrongly claiming that the criticism was aimed at his girlfriend. The “disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis are beyond pathetic," he said.

Made on X, his remarks were later slapped with a

community note

– a crowd-sourced context-adding tool – clarifying that critics have largely attacked Patel, and not his girlfriend. The community note also included a reference to Patel’s past contradictory remarks on using agency resources for private endeavors.