Trump's Nominee for Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino Has a History of Questionable Comments

Donald Trump has been unafraid of making controversial appointments ever since he assumed the presidency for the second time. He's had a particular fondness for various news personalities, and now, he's appointed Dan Bongino, a former host of NRATV, to be the Deputy FBI Director.

Following the news that Bongino had been granted such a high-level appointment, many naturally wanted to learn more about his past, and the allegations of racism that have dogged him throughout his public life. Here's what we know.

Dan Bongino has a long history of making controversial and at times racist statements in public. He is a Fox News contributor who used to work for NRATV, and in that capacity, he has often defended police and attacked Black Lives Matter.

In 2020, Media Matters published an in-depth report that examined many of his public comments, explaining in part why so many people have suggested that he has racist attitudes.

After Philando Castile was killed by a police officer in 2016, Bongino tweeted, “You’re either with the cops or you’re with Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton.”

He also told Fox host Sean Hannity that he wouldn't have injected the question of race into George Floyd's killing, which you may remember led to nationwide protests over the mistreatment of Black people at the hands of police officers.

"If Black lives really mattered to [the Black Lives Matter movement]," Bongino once said, then “they would be the first ones coming out to speak against this abomination of a policy [to] defund the police.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bongino also had some issues with Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the national anthem, calling it “self-serving, ignorant, immature, [and] anti-American.”

None of these statements are explicitly racist, but many of them toe the line, often offering the least sympathetic viewpoint about how Black people have historically been treated by America more generally and specifically by police.

It would be a mistake to suggest that those who support the police cannot also support Black Americans, but in the situations where it's become a binary choice, Bongino has always sided with the police.

Although he has proven that he is staunchly pro-law enforcement, Bongino is in most other ways an odd selection for the role of Deputy Director of the FBI. Although he is undoubtedly loyal to Trump, the deputy director is usually a career FBI agent who is familiar with the inner workings of the agency. Neither Bongino nor Kash Patel, under whom he will be serving, have any experience inside the FBI.

Of course, that lack of experience isn't likely disqualifying for Trump, who values personal loyalty above all else. Bongino has been a pro-Trump advocate since Trump first entered politics. Now, he's got a powerful position inside of government, one which will allow him to exercise his various pro-law enforcement stances.