Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said FBI Director Kash Patel flew “off the handle” during his appearance Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where he was questioned about several reports alleging erratic behavior during his tenure at the agency.

During a hearing before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, the Maryland Democrat got into a particularly heated back-and-forth with Patel when Van Hollen pressed him about a recent article from The Atlantic that cited multiple sources regarding alleged “episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”

“If true, they represent a gross dereliction of your duty,” Van Hollen told Patel.

“As I told him today, I don’t give a damn about his personal life until it interferes with his ability to protect the American people,” he told MS NOW’s Chris Hayes on Tuesday evening.

Van Hollen called Patel’s reaction to The Atlantic report “very revealing.”

“I asked him a series of questions about this credible reporting about how his excessive drinking is making it impossible for him to do his job, reports that his security detail had to forcefully enter his house to wake him up, and it was really an opportunity for him to respond,” the senator said. “Instead, what he did was decide to lash out at me. He uttered a bunch of provable lies.”

Patel has denied the allegations and filed a $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic and its reporter.

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Allison Detzel

Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”