FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, former right-wing pundit and conspiracy theorist, wants the world to know that he doesn’t like his job that much, and everyone needs to stop criticizing him about his work so far.
During an interview on “Fox & Friends” Thursday, Bongino—who used to work at Fox News, like most Trump officials—all but cried as he lamented the current state of his life.
Bongino has been in his position for a grand total of 74 days, but hearing him air his woes on Fox, it might as well have been a lifetime. No wonder he’s reportedly made diva-style demands for a larger-than-usual security detail. It’s tough out there for Bongino.
As the interview began, Bongino told co-host Brian Kilmeade that he took the FBI job because he had told his radio and podcast audiences that they must be involved in the Trump administration—so he had to walk the walk.
“It was a lot, it’s been tough on the family. People ask me all the time, ‘Do you like it?’ I say, ‘No, I don’t.’ But the president didn’t ask me to do this to like it. Nobody likes going into an organization like that and having to change things and make big bold changes,” he said.
But, according to Bongino, his fans are sad that he’s had to step away from his podcast and radio show, with one woman at an FBI facility telling him that she misses watching him.
“Yeah, I miss me too. Part of you dies a little bit when you see all this stuff from behind the scenes,” he said.
Bongino’s complaints ratcheted up as he brought up former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who has criticized President Donald Trump’s criminality and now contributes to CNN, where he’s condemned Bongino’s actions in office.
“It’s difficult for me to not be able to respond like I used to, but there’ll be a day, there’ll be a day. I’ll be back one day, and I’m going to be sure to answer all that stuff—but that’s not my job now,” he said, visibly angry.
Bongino was also upset that he’s received criticism from the right for not openly pursuing many of the movement’s conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden and other Democrats.
“If you think that we’re allowing partisanship to infiltrate the FBI and just let all that bad stuff happen, you’re really just making—I don’t know why you’re doing it—maybe you’re trying to break up, divorce us from the people and breed mistrust, but that is not what happening,” Bongino said.
He then lapsed back into self-pity, telling the hosts, “I gave up everything for this. My wife is struggling. If you think we’re there for tea and crumpets, [FBI Director] Kash [Patel] is there all day. I stare at these four walls all day in D.C. by myself, divorced from my wife—not divorced, but I mean ‘separated’ divorced—and it’s hard. You know, we love each other and it’s hard to be apart.
Kilmeade then reassured Bongino that he’s doing “great work.”
Most recently, that “great work” has involved reopening investigations that have been right-wing obsessions for years, including the leak of the Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Jan. 6 pipe bombs that Bongino previously claimed were an inside job, and a 2023 incident where cocaine was found at the White House.
Alongside Patel, who has pushed similar conspiracies, including pro-Trump fan fiction, the FBI is operating as an arm of the right’s conspiracy fringe under Bongino.
Pre-FBI life was certainly easier for Bongino. As a Fox News pundit and right-wing radio host and podcaster, Bongino could simply spew nonsense and never follow it up with anything substantive. But at the FBI, he has to face criticism from both the right and left—and the pressure appears to be getting to him.
In his old job, he could yell about leftist writers, calling them “cowards” and alleging that they’re merely “disgusting, basement-dwelling” people who sit “with hot cocoa all day.” But at the FBI, Bongino can’t do much of that.
Life is so hard now, and poor Bongino wants everyone to attend his pity party.
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