Far-right conservative podcaster Dan Bongino, the new deputy director of the FBI, doesn’t have any experience with the bureau. A former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent, he’s spent the past years being host of a podcast that was banned from YouTube. This followed several unsuccessful political campaigns for the House and Senate.
Bongino: Because the circus act is the point and the power grab is the goal. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/23/u… [image or embed]
— Tim O’Brien (@timobrien.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 5:47 AM
More from HuffPost:
As a media personality, Bongino has used his massive platform to amplify some of the core lies of Trump’s political project. One 2020 analysis determined he was a “superspreader” of misinformation about the presidential election that year.
In 2022, Bongino was banned from YouTube for violating the company’s pandemic misinformation policy. Google, YouTube’s parent company, also pulled ad services from Bongino’s website.
A Google spokesperson cited “misleading and harmful content around the COVID-19 pandemic and demonstrably false claims about our elections.”
Bongino’s appointment was a surprise to some in the FBI. In January, Patel had agreed that his deputy “should continue to be an on-board, active Special Agent as has been the case for 117 years for many compelling reasons, including operational expertise and experience, as well as the trust of our Special Agent population,” a Sunday FBI Agents Association newsletter stated.
He’s also a “significant shareholder” of the right-wing video platform Rumble.
My thoughts on the Dan Bongino hire in Wired. [image or embed]
— Matthew Gertz (@mattgertz.bsky.social) February 24, 2025 at 1:54 PM
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