Conservative commentator, popular podcaster, ex-secret service agent Dan Bongino has always had a lot to say about the bureau.
The popular right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino has built a career on delivering sometimes inflammatory critiques of the media, Democrats, and the federal government.
Now, the 50-year-old former New York police officer and U.S. Secret Service agent is set to return to the government he has frequently criticized, as President Donald Trump’s pick for deputy FBI director. Bongino announced Monday that he will soon leave his daily show to assume the new role.
Bongino, who will serve under FBI Director Kash Patel, lacks prior experience at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. However, he has been outspoken about how he believes it should be reformed.
A review of Bongino’s podcast commentary over the past year highlights his loyalty to Patel and his desire for significant changes within the bureau. His stated priorities include purging the FBI of individuals he considers politically biased and shifting investigative focus away from domestic extremism.
Here’s a closer look at Bongino’s views on the FBI, in his own words:
Kash Patel is the only possible FBI leader
Even before Trump nominated Patel for FBI director, Bongino was one of his most vocal supporters, asserting on his podcast that Patel was the only candidate capable of "going in there and cleaning that mess up."
“Kash knows where the bodies are buried,” Bongino told his listeners last November. “And he’s got shovels, man. He’s ready to rock and roll. That’s why they’re so terrified.”
Like Patel, Bongino believes the FBI must expose political weaponization within the agency and relocate agents from Washington, D.C., to focus on criminal investigations across the country.
In January, Bongino urged his millions of listeners—whom he calls his “Bongino Army”—to pressure their senators to confirm Patel.
“We don’t get this guy in at the FBI, you’re never going to get any answers at all,” the podcaster said.
Criticism of FBI employees
Bongino has not held back in his criticism of past FBI leadership. He has described Patel’s predecessor, Christopher Wray, as “incompetent,” “awful,” and “potentially corrupt.” Andrew McCabe, the former acting FBI director involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, is, in his words, an “absolute buffoon.” Meanwhile, former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann, who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, is an “absolute tool bag.”
The podcaster frequently criticizes former FBI officials, often in blunt and crude terms, arguing that they compromised the agency’s integrity to unfairly target conservatives.
Bongino has also directed harsh criticism at current FBI personnel. Earlier this month, after Trump’s border czar Tom Homan accused the FBI of leaking information about planned immigration raids, Bongino called the alleged leakers “stupid” and predicted they would be caught and imprisoned.
Reflecting on his time as a Secret Service agent under President Barack Obama, Bongino recalled his frustration listening to speeches advocating big government. “Do you know how hard it was for me in my last line of work, how hard it was for me to listen to these stupid Obama speeches about big government?” he said. “But I always took my job as serious as a freaking stroke. Because I swore to do a job, not to be a politician.”
He’s ready for sweeping changes
Bongino has expressed urgency in pushing for FBI reforms, emphasizing that the Republican control of government may be short-lived. In December, he stated that changes must happen quickly, ideally within the next two years.
Among his proposed reforms, Bongino has called for the firing of agents involved in investigations into Trump. “If you swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States as an FBI agent and engaged in a tyrannical investigation against Donald Trump with partisan intent and not the Constitution in mind, you do not deserve your job,” he declared on his podcast earlier this month.
The Justice Department has already requested a list from the FBI of the thousands of agents who participated in investigations into the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot—a move some within the bureau fear could lead to mass firings.
Bongino has also criticized the FBI for focusing too much on domestic intelligence-gathering while neglecting serious criminals and international threats. He has suggested that federal law enforcement has wasted resources investigating January 6 rioters and anti-abortion activists.
“These are threats to the United States?” he questioned in a December podcast. “Grandma is in the gulag for a trespassing charge on January 6th.”
Additionally, he has condemned the Department of Justice and former Attorney General Merrick Garland for directing the FBI to address harassment and threats against school boards and educators.
“We are going to make the FBI great again,” Bongino asserted on his podcast earlier this month. “Because if we don’t have an FBI breaking up counterterror plots trying to kill us, and they’re worried about Moms for Liberty and pro-lifers, then we’ve got a problem, folks.”
Motivated by a personal connection
Bongino frequently laments how he doesn’t feel he can trust the FBI and says the agency has lost its credibility.
“Whatever the FBI says these days, I tend to believe the opposite,” he said in January after Wray said in an interview that the agency wasn’t tracking any specific or credible threats to Trump’s inauguration.
But the new deputy director’s interest in reforming the FBI may hold more personal significance than some realize. In March, Bongino said an FBI representative used to visit his high school when he was a teenager.
“All I wanted to be, was an FBI agent. That is it, man. I, like, adored these guys, man,” he said. “What happened to this agency?”
American President Donald Trump has announced the appointment of podcaster and former law enforcement officer Daniel Bongino as the deputy director of the FBI.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Kash Patel as FBI director in a 51-49 vote on Thursday, placing a Trump loyalist at the helm of the agency despite concerns from Democrats over his qualifications and past remarks.
President Trump pledges to fire FBI agents whom he alleged are corrupt, and were part of the January 6th investigation.
The FBI has released video footage showing Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect in the deadly New Year's Day attack in New Orleans, recorded with Meta glasses during visits to the French Quarter months before the incident.
A truck attack in New Orleans' French Quarter left 15 dead and 35 injured during New Year's celebrations. Authorities are investigating possible accomplices and explosive devices.
Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has ruled out a swift reform of the country’s debt brake and expressed caution over the possibility of securing parliamentary approval for a large-scale military spending boost.
Electric vehicles increasingly prominent as world shifts to clean energy, sustainability, while Türkiye follows changing trends in auto industry.
In a stunning reversal, House Speaker Mike Johnson and team have taken a 180-turn, and voted in favor of advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to punt a critical vote tonight to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to multiple lawmakers and aides familiar with the plans.
Conservative commentator, popular podcaster, ex-secret service agent Dan Bongino has always had a lot to say about the bureau.
A recent discovery has revealed that ancient artifacts from the Treasure of Villena were crafted using metal from meteorites, offering new insights into early metalworking techniques in the Iberian Peninsula.
Polish startup Clone Robotics has unveiled Protoclone, the world’s first anatomically accurate humanoid robot, featuring artificial muscles, bones, and joints that enable lifelike movements.
Berlin, February 21, 2025 – German citizens will head to the polls on Sunday, February 23, for a snap general election after the coalition government collapsed late last year.
U.S. President Donald Trump has wasted no time in his second term, making sweeping changes across domestic and foreign policy in just four weeks. His administration has aggressively reshaped federal agencies, redefined trade policy, frozen foreign aid, and taken bold steps in global diplomacy.
Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has ruled out a swift reform of the country’s debt brake and expressed caution over the possibility of securing parliamentary approval for a large-scale military spending boost.
In a stunning reversal, House Speaker Mike Johnson and team have taken a 180-turn, and voted in favor of advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to punt a critical vote tonight to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to multiple lawmakers and aides familiar with the plans.
A sweeping blackout has hit Chile, stranding commuters, paralyzing countless businesses and leaving most of the South American nation without electricity.
Crowds gathered outside the U.S. District Court after a federal judge blocked President Trump’s attempt to suspend the nation’s refugee admissions system.
Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has ruled out a swift reform of the country’s debt brake and expressed caution over the possibility of securing parliamentary approval for a large-scale military spending boost.
Electric vehicles increasingly prominent as world shifts to clean energy, sustainability, while Türkiye follows changing trends in auto industry.
In a stunning reversal, House Speaker Mike Johnson and team have taken a 180-turn, and voted in favor of advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to punt a critical vote tonight to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, according to multiple lawmakers and aides familiar with the plans.
Conservative commentator, popular podcaster, ex-secret service agent Dan Bongino has always had a lot to say about the bureau.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment