FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was raked over the coals on Saturday morning for changing his tune on the Washington, DC, pipe bomber after spending years spreading conspiracy theories that have now fallen flat after an arrest.
As a podcaster, the now-senior FBI official claimed the attempted attack was an “inside job,” telling his fans, “It is a Democrat insider or an anti-Trump lunatic who was trying to stop on Jan. 6, four years ago, the Republicans from objecting to the election. So they figured if they planted a bomb there that they could rush into the Capitol and go, ‘Stop the objections! Kamala Harris was almost killed by you!’”
After the arrest of alleged bomber Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old Virginia man who reportedly told investigators he thought Trump was the victim of election theft, Boingino confessed to Fox News personality Sean Hannity, “Listen, I was paid in the past, Sean, for my opinions, that’s clear, and one day, I’ll be back in that space. But that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director, and we base investigations on facts.”
That brought about a wave of ridicule from the hosts of MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” as an exasperated co-host Jonathan Capehart asked the New York Times’ Glenn Thrush, “Make it make sense.”
“Basically, what he said is that everything that he said prior to becoming deputy director of the FBI was for money and popularity and to improve his standing in the MAGA community, to which he will presumably soon return,” Thrush replied.
“You know, some of our reporting and some misreporting has shown that Bongino, who has gotten into fights with everybody in the administration,” he elaborated. “He he tore into Susie Wiles, the [White House] chief of staff, and Susie Wiles’ friend, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, a few a few months back. And that has earned him scorn, so he is very likely to be gone by mid-January.”
He added that the “bottom line” is that, “...it could shift Trump. Trump makes the decisions and everything whether or not people come or go.”