Meet Dan Bongino, podcaster turned Trump’s deputy FBI director: the right-winger was a Secret Service agent for Bush and Obama, ran 3 times for Congress and lost, and hosted a show for the NRA
The podcaster also claimed Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was rigged, called the FBI ‘corrupt’, and was permanently banned from YouTube for spreading misinformation during the pandemic
Popular right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino has built a career on unleashing sometimes inflammatory rants against the media, Democrats and the federal government.
Bongino, who will work under FBI Director Kash Patel, has no experience at the premier federal law-enforcement agency. Nonetheless, he has strong opinions about how it should be run.
A sampling of Bongino’s podcast commentary from the past year reveals he’s a Patel loyalist and wants to see sweeping changes, from clearing the bureau of anyone he views as inappropriately political to redirecting investigations away from domestic extremism.
Here’s a closer look at the new FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino.
He is of Italian descent
Bongino was born and raised in Queens, New York. In a 2018 YouTube video with Premiere Collectibles, he revealed that he’s half-Italian.
He went on to tell viewers that despite his heritage he’d never visited Italy, but said he would like to.
He has an MBA
In the same YouTube video, Bongino said completing his Master of Business Administration degree at Pennsylvania State University was his greatest accomplishment outside his family.