Daniel John Bongino (born December 4, 1974) is an American conservative[1] political commentator, radio show host, and author. He serves as a host of The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble. He served as host of the Unfiltered with Dan Bongino on Fox News until April 2023.
Also in 2011, The Baltimore Sun reported that Bongino was the lead investigator of a car rental fraud scheme. His work contributed to two people being indicted on federal wire fraud charges.[8]
A year later, he published a memoir, Life Inside the Bubble (2013), about his career as a Secret Service agent and political campaign. The book addresses his experiences protecting presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, investigating federal crimes, and mounting a campaign for US Senate.
Bongino was criticized by former colleagues at the Secret Service for using his Secret Service background as part of his run for political office and for his claim of having secret information based on conversations he overheard in the Obama White House.[10][11][2] A former colleague criticized him for trying to use his proximity to President Barack Obama in his political career: "He's trying to draw attention to himself and he's hijacking the Secret Service brand. That's all he's got going for him." Bongino said he had access to "high-level discussions" in the White House.
Unnamed former colleagues say Bongino "tends to exaggerate his importance on the presidential detail and exaggerate his proximity" and that "We don't sit in on meetings at the White House. We don't sit in on high-level meetings."[10] In response to the criticism from an anonymous former colleague, Bongino said, "There's nothing confidential in the book" and "It's not a tell-all. It's my tale of the Secret Service."[9] He rejected birtherism, the claim that President Obama was born outside the United States.[12]
In January 2016, he published a second book, The Fight: A Secret Service Agent's Inside Account of Security Failings and the Political Machine.[13]
In 2019, Bongino published Exonerated: The Failed Takedown of President Donald Trump by the Swamp. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list with a dagger (the NYT Bestseller list version of an asterisk) indicating the book benefitted from bulk sales.[14] In August 2020, he denied that his book benefited from bulk sales, maintaining the only event at which books were bought in bulk took place over a month after his book appeared on the list.[15]
Media
Bongino in 2016
Bongino has been a radio host and commentator on local and national radio programs. He has been a guest host for both the Sean Hannity and Mark Levin radio shows, and sometimes fills in on WMAL-FMtalk radio in Washington, D.C. and WBAL in Baltimore. He was a paid contributor to NRATV until December 2018.[16][17][18]
Bongino is a proponent of Spygate, a conspiracy theory alleging illegal spying on Donald Trump's 2016 campaign was perpetrated by Barack Obama's administration. He wrote a book on the subject titled Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump (2019).[20]
In December 2019, Bongino launched the website Bongino Report as an alternative to the conservative Drudge Report website.[21] Prior to the site's launch, he criticized Drudge Report founder Matt Drudge for having "abandoned" Trump supporters.[22]
Politico reported in October 2020 that Bongino's posts on Facebook were routinely among the most shared on the platform.[23]
In November 2020, The New York Times listed Dan Bongino as one of its top five election "misinformation superspreaders".[24]
In the wake of the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, Bongino's Twitter account was temporarily shut down on January 7, 2021, for violating Twitter's Civic Integrity policy.[25]
Bongino, a former host of NRATV (National Rifle Association Television) among his other pursuits, was a vociferous defender on his podcast of the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol. He depicted the riot as a natural result of political violence normalized by leftists, particularly by Black Lives Matter protestors following the murder of George Floyd. In the episode "About Yesterday" on January 7, 2021, Bongino declared that liberal media hypocritically celebrated the violence committed in the summer and fall of 2020 by protesters for racial justice. He also assailed Twitter as a liberal organization dedicated to destroying conservative values, then called for his listeners to rise against media totalitarianism through social media.[26]
In March 2021, Cumulus Media signed Bongino to replace The Rush Limbaugh Show on its talk radio stations. Cumulus already carried Bongino's existing one-hour podcast.[27] In May of that year, Fox News announced it had signed Bongino to host a new weekend program, Unfiltered With Dan Bongino, starting on June 5.[28] Between July and August 2021, Bongino hosted Canceled in the USA, a five-part series on cancel culture for Fox Nation, featuring interviews with people who have been "canceled" due to their opinions or beliefs.[29] Bongino's show draws an estimated 8.5 million listeners, according to October 2021 estimates from Talkers Magazine, a talk radio trade magazine; among the numerous shows competing to succeed Limbaugh, it ranked second, behind Premiere Networks' designated successor to Limbaugh, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.[30]
In January 2022, Bongino was permanently banned from YouTube for using his main account in an attempt to circumvent a temporary suspension imposed on his secondary account after he had posted a video questioning the efficacy of masks against COVID-19 during the pandemic.[31][32] Bongino had already quit YouTube and had moved his podcast to Rumble before YouTube implemented their ban, making it a moot point.[citation needed]
On December 11, 2022, Bongino announced plans to end his Cumulus radio show at the end of his contract 18 months in the future.[33] Cumulus began phasing his show out of its stations' lineups beginning in June 2023.[34] In December 2023, Bongino reversed course, securing a multi-year contract extension with Westwood One.[35]
On April 20, 2023, Bongino announced that he had parted ways with Fox News, citing failed contract negotiations.[36]
Conflict over COVID-19 vaccine mandates
On October 19, 2021, Bongino said that he opposed corporate vaccine mandates, although he said he was vaccinated. He called on his employer, Cumulus Media, to end their vaccine mandate, which had been announced in September. Unvaccinated employees at Cumulus had already been let go on October 11 and replaced.
"You can have me or the mandate. But you can't have both of us," Bongino said on his show.[37] After taking nearly two weeks off, he returned to announce he was negotiating his ultimatum with Cumulus,[38] and starting a fund for former employees of Cumulus fired because of the vaccination mandate.[39]
Brian Rosenwald, a talk radio historian, believed Bongino's request was never much of an ultimatum, seeing little reason for Cumulus or its host to sever ties. Rosenwald commented:[40]
I think it was a cynical ploy, to some extent. There was an incentive for him to stay with them because of that platform, and they've invested a lot of money in launching this show and building it up.
In a December 2021 interview with The New Yorker, Bongino stated that he had been vaccinated for COVID-19, at the advice of his doctor due to his lymphoma.[41]
In 2018, Bongino said, "My entire life right now is about owning the libs. That's it."[42][2][43] He is a supporter of president-elect Donald Trump.[19][1]
According to Mother Jones, Bongino is a member of Groundswell, a group of conservative activists working to advance conservative causes.[44]
Bongino has called the investigation of possible Trump-Russia collusion a "total scam",[45] and is a proponent of the Spygate conspiracy theory.[46] In May 2018, he was quoted by Trump in a tweet, as saying that former CIA Director John Brennan "has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community. He is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American's faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the top of the FBI."[47] Bongino was also quoted as alleging that Brennan was "worried about staying out of jail".[47]
Bongino reportedly told the House Judiciary Committee during hearings on police brutality that efforts to reduce the funding of police departments were an "abomination" that should be dropped "before someone gets hurt".[50][51]
After Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump refused to concede, Bongino backed his false claims of election fraud,[1][52] and claimed that Democrats had rigged the election.[53]
Bongino has been a strong critic of face mask mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic,[3] stating that face masks are "largely ineffective" and deriding them as "face diapers" on occasion.[1][41]
Bongino ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Maryland in 2012.[54] Former gubernatorial candidate Brian Murphy was his campaign chairman.[7] Bongino won the Republican primary on April 3, 2012, with 33.8 percent of the vote, defeating nine other candidates. He lost the general election in a landslide, taking only 26.6% of the vote against incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin in a three way election battle.[55]
Bongino ran for the U.S. House of Representatives seat from Maryland's 6th Congressional District in the 2014 election against incumbent Democrat John Delaney. Bongino narrowly lost to Delaney by 1.5 percentage points. Bongino carried four of the district's five counties, but had a 20,500-vote deficit in the district's share of Montgomery County in the outer suburbs of Washington.[56][57]
In an August 2016 interview with a Politico reporter, Bongino went on a profanity-laced rant against the reporter, who asked about a story in the Naples Daily News that Bongino said was dishonest.[61] The recorded phone call was published by Politico.[62] He placed third in the August 2016 primary, losing the nomination to Rooney.[63]
Personal life
Bongino is married to Paula Andrea, née Martinez, who was born in Colombia. They have two daughters. In 2012, he and his wife operated three home-based businesses, selling martial arts apparel, designing Web sites, and consulting on security and risk management.[64] While running for office in 2016, Bongino resisted talking about his business interests and said he and his wife had shut them down.[65]
Bongino announced in June 2020 that he had purchased an "ownership stake" of unspecified value in Parler, an alternative social media platform.[67][68][69]
Cancer diagnosis
On September 23, 2020, Bongino announced that a seven-centimeter tumor had been found in his throat. He added that he was unsure if the tumor was cancerous or benign, but would fly to New York on September 25 for further screening.[70] On October 2, he said that he had received a "bad phone call" from doctors, and announced that he would be undergoing surgery on October 7.[71]
Following his surgery, he tweeted that the "entire tumor" was removed from his neck, but that he likely had lymphoma. He said he would receive treatment in the future.[72] On October 16, he confirmed that he received an official diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma, adding that he would be continuing treatment in consultation with his doctors.[73] In an interview in July 2021, Bongino announced that he had "beaten" cancer.[74]
Electoral history
2016 Florida's 19th Congressional District Republican Primary[75]
Bongino, Dan (October 6, 2020). Follow the Money: The Shocking Deep State Connections of the Anti-Trump Cabal. New York: Post Hill Press. ISBN9781642936599.
Bongino, Dan (September 12, 2023). The Gift of Failure (And I'll rethink the title if this book fails!). New York: Post Hill Press (Liberatio Protocol). ISBN9798888450635.
^Bergengruen, Vera (April 19, 2019). "The Mueller Probe Made Them Famous. They Plan to Keep Cashing In". Time. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 16, 2019. Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent and frequent Fox News commentator, parlayed his bombastic defense of Trump into a book: "Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump."
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